Grand Rapids, Mi - Milford, Mi.

We have been in Michigan since May 29th, who knew there would be so much to see and do here.  We still have another week here before we head off to Canada.  I think summer is here to stay, the last time I said that we put away our little electric heaters only to take them out a few days later.

Thursday, June 18, Moving day, off to Grand Rapids.  If you ever need an RV park in Honor Michigan, do not stay at Sunnywoods RV Park, at least they don't have the nerve to call is a resort.  The spaces weren't level, lots of soft sand, a community of mosquitos, dumpster overflowing even though we were the only ones there except for 2 full-time.  Ok now you know how I really feel, we are so glad to be heading out.  We left about 10, having to "fuel" up, we squeezed into a station, it was  just a little stressful pulling out, hit the guide line for the power pole or the gas pumps.  We got out unscathed and headed down the road for the 130 mile trip to Cedar Springs just 15 miles north of Grand Rapids.  Even with all the researching of RV parks we do, it still can be  "crapshoot" between what they say and what they actually are.  Always a challenge.  Lakeside RV is like a breath of fresh air, clean level sights, an actual lake, activities, very dog friendly and no mosquitos.  After getting set up I drove east to Greenville to exchange a pair of shoes I bought in Menominee, a small local retail shoe outlet in Michigan.  Success!  Picked up a few groceries and headed back to camp.  Time to relax. Ahhhhh!

Friday, June 19 We left Luci in the coach for the day, we were off to Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, our 36th president, and the only library/museum in two different locations.  Grand Rapids was developed on the banks of the Grand River where there was once a set of rapids which were removed to make it easier to float logs down the river for the booming furniture manufacturing industry.  The downtown area was suffering from "construction" season along with most of the roads in the state, we kept trying to get into the parking lot of the museum with no luck even after calling for advice  We ended up parking in a garage across the river and walked on the pedestrian bridge over to the museum.  The Grand River has lovely riverfront walkways, however, they were flooded from recent heavy rains.  The Museum displays both his personal and public life from his birth to death.  After serving in the Navy during WWII he attended Yale Law.  Upon graduation he went back to his hometown of Grand Rapids to open a small firm.  He got interested in politics, elected to Congress serving 25 years before being picked by Nixon to replace Agnew after he resigned in scandal, then the President after Nixon had his own troubles.  He is the first and only person to be Vice President and President without being elected . He failed his bid for re-election, some speculate it was because he pardoned Nixon.  A short walk from the Museum you will be able to view Jerry and Betty's tombs. We enjoy visiting Presidential Libraries, this was our 6th, our favorite being Regan's in Simi Valley, Ca.  The Grand Rapids downtown is a mix of old and new architecture, we found lunch at (surprise) Grand Rapids Brewery.  After a trip to Costco to stock up on "stuff" and have the tires rotated we headed back to Cedar Springs.  Luci, as usual, was very happy to see us.

Saturday, June 20 Luci went off to doggie day care so we could go to Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, we'd heard how magnificent the statues were, but pleasantly surprised to learn the Japanese Gardens had opened up just the week before.  Now this is a must if you're ever in the area!  The Park is 158 acres of gardens, 200 sculptures (one by Rodin), natural meadows and woodlands and wetlands.  a 5 story conservatory and 8 acres devoted to the Japanese Gardens.  The Michigan Farm Garden was complete with farmhouse and barn, all the animals were scuptures.  Inside the farmhouse a Chef demonstrated how to make biscuits then were treated to samples.  After several hours walking through the gardens we went to the Rose Show being held that weekend.  I was in "scentsory" heaven, you must take time to stop and smell the roses.  We picked up Luci and headed  home. all of us were very tired.

Sunday, June 21 Happy Fathers Day and first day of summer!  The camp had a special Father's Day breakfast, biscuits and gravy (yuk) one of Gary's fav's.  They weren't so good but were free so who's complaining.  It was moving day, I don't know where my head was when I planned the itinerary, so poor Gary on his special day he had to pack up and drive to Camp Dearborn 150 miles away.  The drive was going pretty good, not too much traffic and good weather, then, we took the exit Miss Sally directed us to, well due to construction (orange cone) season, the overpass we needed to take was closed.  The good part, we drove through the town of Brighton, very nice, the bad part, finding an alternate route.  We finally pulled into Camp Dearborn a little after 3.  Camp Dearborn is a Dearborn's (35 miles away) city park.  Wow what a great place, it has over 600 acres, 6 lakes, several fishing ponds, a half mile swimming beach, pool, 27 hole golf course, mini golf, 200 RV sites, and cabins and tents for rent.  Gary's request for F.D. dinner was meatloaf bbq'd on the Traeger.

Monday, June 22 We dropped Luci off at doggie day care while we went to see Gerald Ford's Library located at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, about 35 miles away.  The library opened up in 1981, the collection contains presidential archives, documents, transcripts, photos and video footage about domestic and foreign policies during Ford's administration.  Visitors are only allowed on the first floor, most of the items were a duplicate of what we'd seen in Grand Rapids.  The best part, it was free.  We stopped at the University of Michigan football stadium, one of the biggest college stadiums in the US, seating 109,000.  The north campus houses the medical school and 6 hospitals that serve more than a million patients annually.  Adjacent to the campus is Nichols Arboretum, with nature trails through the 123 acres along side the Huron River.  I wanted to go because the peonies were in bloom, well, unfortunately only a handful were still blooming, it was just past their prime.  Dang!  Time to pick up Luci and head home, thunderstorms and tornado warnings were forecast.  We almost made it back to camp in time, almost being the key word.  It started raining, then lightning, then the rain came down so hard the wipers fast wouldn't keep the windshield clear.  Camp Dearborn is on General Motors Road, to get back we had to pass General Motors Proving Ground.  The traffic was very heavy because it was quitting time making it extra stressful.  I was curious about the Proving Grounds, what exactly did they do there so I checked out Wikipedia.  There are 4,000 acres, 4,800 employees and 107 buildings.  The VDTA, Vehicle Dynamics Test area includes 67 acres of blacktop, an oval track 3.8 miles, a circle track  4.5 miles, 2 straightaway courses and a short course with tight curves with a speed limit of 120 miles.  I would loved to take a tour of the facility but there just wasn't time.  Anyway, the storm hit with a vengeance about 11:00, the tornado warning expired at 3:00.  I didn't get to sleep until after 3 when the thunder and lightning stopped.

Tues, June 23, Happy birthday Laurie (Gary's sis!)  Luci went off to doggie day care again.  Gary had been to Ford Museum about 25 years ago but didn't have time for Greenfield Village.  The village covers more than 90 acres including seven historic districts with buildings of historic significance.  Ford's childhood home, Edison's library, the Wright Brother's cycle shop, the courthouse where Lincoln held court and several others.  Nearly over 100 buildings were moved from their original location and arranged in village settings.  You could get rides in Model T's, horse drawn carriages, an Omnibus and a steam driven railroad.  Between the museum and the village you could spend at least 2 days.  It was a perfect day, not too hot but not cold either with a nice breeze.  We picked up Luci, and again the 3 of us were beat.

Wednesday, June 24 We took the day off to clean the coach and do the laundry.  We will be staying at Jeff and Suzanne's house near St. Clair, Mi. for about a week.  We took Luci for a long walk then took her back to the coach so the adults could play mini golf.  The course was in bad condition, at least that was my excuse.  I played poorly and Gary whomped me. 

Thursday, June 25, It was time to move again, grass was growing between our toes.  The drive was only 75 miles, we arrived before 11:00.  Suzanne and I tried an experiment, I bbq'd baby back ribs on the Traeger and she did hers in the oven, finishing the last 30 minutes on the gas grill.  They were both good but in different ways.  Suzanne has (had) 6 hens, her lab killed one of them the day before we got there and the second one in the afternoon.  She keeps her 2 goats in the same field as the chickens, after dinner we went to feed them.  Well Luci was a bad girl, she got in the gate,
started chasing one of the goats which leaped over the gate.  It was funny but scary too.  We finally corralled the goat and Luci and all was well.  What a snot!

Friday, A pretty quiet day, Gary got a  hair cut and I went to the dermatologist.  Suzanne made Lemon Caper Pasta for dinner.  Yum.

Enjoy the pictures, I had to wade through 100's.

TTFN

Gary and Pam

The Grand River, riverfront sidewalks flooded

Downtown Grand Rapids

The Ford Museum

Gerald Ford statue

Replica of his Oval Office

Jerry and Betty's tombs

One of the 200 statues at Frederik Meijer park

25 foot horse

Japanese Gardens

One of the many waterfalls in the gardens

Goat statues in Michigan  Farm Garden

The Chef

Roses in show

Another of my favorites

Unknown (to us) cactus in conservatory

Statue of man resting

Bronze (yes bronze) statue

University of Michigan football stadium

Ford's Library in Ann Arbor

Timeline of Ford's life

Ford's office in Library

Timeline of Betty Ford's life

Harvey Firestones home

Black Hooded Heron waiting for lunch in stream at Greenfield /Village

Wright's cycle shop

One of the Model T's you can  ride in

Thomas Edison's laboratory

County Courthouse Lincoln  practiced here

Henry Ford's favorite  steam engine

The cabin & Honor, Mi.

We've had a great time at the cabin with Jeff and Suzanne, she had to leave on Thursday and Jeff on Friday.  We have Suzanne "hooked" on geo cacheing, Wednesday afternoon J & S left in their quad to pick up firewood, we got a call, they were out in the woods with a dead battery, it seems after picking up the wood they went to pick up some caches along the way.  We jumped in the Jeep with the battery charger to rescue them, all we had to do was follow  the coordinates of the cache they were at to find them.  We charged them up and off we all went in different directions picking up more caches.  If it were up to me we'd still be out in those woods, I get so turned around especially in forested areas.

Friday was a rainy, rainy day.  I stayed in the coach to finish my quilt project I started way back in Mississippi and Gary went to the Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw Museum in Mackinaw City.  It was built in the 40's during World War II as the only ice breaker on the Great Lakes and was vital in keeping  shipping lanes of the lakes open during the winter so that materials needed for the war effort could keep flowing.  She was 290 feet long with a beam of 74 feet, with three propellers, 2 aft and one forward.  The one forward was used to help break the ice.  Replaced in 2006 by a new modern USGC Mackinaw she was decommissioned and became a museum.  On the way back to the coach he picked up some Pasties to stick in the freezer,  Yum, yum yum.  When we get back to J & S's house in St. Clair we'll fix dinner.  The rain finally stopped mid-afternoon, turning out to be a nice evening so we donned our favorite fragrance, Deep Woods Off to take a nice walk.  The mosquitos were quite vicious, even with the Off they wouldn't leave us alone, shortening our walk.

Saturday  we didn't do much, just enjoyed  the woods where it was so peaceful, no trains, no planes and very few cars.  The birds were pretty noisy though, one night we even heard a Whiporwhill.  Sunday we washed the mud off the coach and Jeep from the trip down from the UP.

Monday morning we left for the Traverse City area. we are staying at a RV park halfway between town and Sleeping Bear Dunes.  A short drive of 145 miles through countryside and forest.

Tuesday was Stacy's 48th birthday, happy birthday kid!   I packed a picnic lunch for our day at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.  Many, many years ago we picked up a watercolor of a lighthouse at Sleeping Bear Dunes at  an art fair in Central Washington.  That one little purchase started a frenzied collecting "spree".  We were surprised to find that there is NO lighthouse at the Dunes.  Oh well, we are so over it.  11,800 years ago after the ice age the glaciers melted forming Lake Michigan, the waves from the lake gradually wore back the headlands creating sandbars, leaving behind an ideal setting for building sand dunes.  The 32,500 acre park is named  after a Chippewa legend of the sleeping bear.  According to legend  an enormous forest fire on the western shore of Lake Michigan drove a mother bear and her 2 cubs into the lake for shelter and were determined to reach the opposite shore.  After many miles of swimming the 2 cubs lagged behind.  When the mama bear reached the shore she waited for her cubs.  Impressed by the mama bear's determination and faith the Great Spirit created  two islands, the north and south Manitou Islands, to commemorate the cubs.  The winds buried the sleeping mama bear under the sand of the dunes here she waits to this day for her cubs.  The "bear" was a small tree covered knoll at the edge of the bluff that resembles a sleeping bear.  We first drove to Glen Haven, an historic village on the shore of Sleeping Bear Bay.  The only way to reach the village in the 1800's was by boat.  the town provided essential services for passing vessels.  The blacksmith shop, an Inn, the cannery and general store have been restored.  We stopped at the blacksmith shop where a woman volunteer was making hooks.  It was her 70th birthday, she was having so much fun pounding the hooks into shape.  I have never seen a woman blacksmith before.  What was the cherry and apple cannery is now a boat museum housing a collection of historic Great Lakes boats and equipment.  We walked around the town a bit then drove to the Maritime Museum, the former U.S. Life-Saving Service.  Before the advent of the Coast Guard, the men would walk the beaches with lanterns every four hours in all kinds of weather to alert the ships.  If a ship was in trouble the men would row out to rescue the sailors.  There are over 100 miles of hiking/biking trails in the park, we chose what I thought was going to be an easy hike.  What was I thinking?  Dunes mean loose sand and hills.  Even though I couldn't make it all the way to the point we did enjoy some lovely scenery and Luci loved rolling in the loose sand.  We took a scenic drive through the forest to amazing overlooks.  All three of us were tired "puppies" by the time we got back to the coach.  Don't miss the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore if you're ever in northern Michigan. 

Wednesday, We've been in remote areas for close to a month, we needed to take care of some errands.  I went to AAA, picked up maps and tour books for the rest of our trip.  Gary needed a new pair of shoes, we found a pair that should work, heading back to the coach we missed a turn so we took a lovely drive through the country side.  Across the highway from the park is a HUGE store showcasing all things outdoor.  I have never seen such beautiful patio furniture, made me wish we could make a little purchase.  Thank goodness, no room, the prices were out of our budget.

That's it for this week, enjoy the pic's.

TTFN

Gary and Pam

Jeff finishing  his rock garden

Baby ducks under bow of Coast Guard Museum

Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw Museum

The best place to buy Pasties in Mackinac

Snapping turtle Gary spotted on bridge near campground

Barns we saw on way to Sleeping Bear Dunes, large, medium & smll

Beach at Glen Haven



Rescue boat at Maritime Museum US Lifesaving Service

Rails used for pushing boat to lake

Gary & Luci picnicking at Glen Haven

Trail to top of dunes

Wildflowers on dune, looked like bouquets

The Hill Climb

Covered bridge on Pierce Stocking Scenic drive

The barns & Sleeping Bear Bay

Lake Michigan Overlook

So many vistas

Marquette, Saulte Ste. & The cabin

This week has flown by, we've had up and down weather but I think winter is winding down.  Wait did I say that last week too?

Tuesday, June 2, It's a nice day, we celebrate the little things.  Mondays hard work must have wiped us out, we slept until 9:00.  We ran some errands, including a trip to Ishpening to the RV sales and service for a latch for a drawer, ended up buying a new yard mat, the old one came with the coach and had seen better days.  We were going to spend the afternoon geo cacheing with Luci at Presque Isle State Park right on the lakeshore.  Well they don't allow dogs so plan B.  We found another trail, ending up with 7 finds.  Luci had fun playing in the river along the way.  We found a cache atop some sand dunes, where of course the little snot rolled and rolled.  We were halfway down the dune when Gary realized neither one of us had the leash.  He climbed back to the top, not there!  Backtracking, he found it at the previous cache.  On the way back to the car we made sure Luci went swimming to wash off all the sand.  We sat by the campfire while I BBQ'd a whole chicken.

Wednesday, June 3, Our task for the day was to get the printer out of basement so we could print our tax forms and mail them.  Lots of hiking/biking trails near our park, we took Luci for a long walk, picking up 4 geo caches along the way.  We left for Munising around 5 for our sunset cruise of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, extends for 42 miles up the coast with 15 miles of colorful sandstone cliffs that rise up to 200 feet above lake level.  The naturally sculpted  shallow caves, arches and formations that resemble castle turrets, human profiles or you can use your imagination and visualize all sorts of things.  A trail runs along the top of the cliff to Miners Castle or you can kayak along the cliffs.  The colors are created by large amounts of minerals in the rock from 500 million to 1.1 billion years, the streaks come from groundwater leaching out of the rock.  The iron is red, manganese is black-white, limonite is yellow brown and copper is blue green.  Several waterfalls cascade over the cliff, one named Bridal Veil because it looks like a brides veil, same as the Columbia River gorge.  The cruise was about 2 1/2 hours, 18 miles,  taking us all the way to the formation called Chapel Rock.  The sunset cruise is supposed to be the best time for viewing the cliffs colors, it was mostly cloudy so it wasn't as spectacular as promised. 

Thursday, June 4, Dang it, it wasn't supposed to rain but it did!  There go the clean coach, we are moving to Saulte Ste. Marie area, about 150 miles east.  We had to stop at a tire shop before leaving town, a back inside tire isn't holding air pressure.  Turns out the tire had been patched!  Brand new coach, supposedly brand new tires????????????????????????  We finally hit the road by noon, arriving at Bay City Casino RV park on Waiska Bay which is off of Whitefish Bay Lake Superior.  Since we are not gamblers we didn't leave any money behind.

Friday, June 5, We woke up to heavy fog but it did turn out to be a beautiful day in the low 70's with a light breeze.  I talked to Steve and Marty, friends from Bayview RV Resort in Rockport, Tx, they live in Michigan in summer, arranging a get-together.  They live near Bad Axe, Mi, on Michigan's thumb not too far from Suzanne and Jeff's home near St. Clair, Mi.  We'll get together after we make our way to S & J's house.  We left Luci in the coach while we spent the day in Saulte Ste. Marie, mainly to see the Soo Locks, the lake freighters route to Lake Huron and eventually the Atlantic from Lake Superior.  At the visitor center we watched a short movie on the history of the area and the locks.  Saulte Ste. Marie, Mi. has a population of 14,000 while Saulte Ste. Marie Canada's population is over 75,000.  The locks, located on St. Mary's River, consist of 2 canals and 4 locks. initially built in 1853  has grown and changed over the years to accommodate the large "Lakers", the largest now being 1,000 feet long and 105 feet wide and smaller vessels passage on St. Mary's River between Lake Superior and Lakes Huron and Michigan, a 21 foot drop in elevation.  We spent Easter Sunday at Jeff's mom's house right on the St. Clair River where the "Lakers" travel through to Lake Erie.  We saw ice chunks flowing downriver that day but no ships.  More than 11,000 vessels carrying up to 90 million tons of cargo pass through the locks every year.  The lock system is closed every year for two months during winter for inspection and maintenance.  One 1,000 foot freighter cargo is equal to 6-100 car trains or 2,308 large trucks.  The city is nice to tourists, we forgot to feed our parking meter, we got a ticket but the fee was $0.00.  We got back to the coach about 5.

Saturday, June 6, A beautiful day just like they'd forecast, they didn't change their mind this time.  We packed a picnic lunch for our day at Tahquamenon Falls about an hour NW of the park. Just up the road from the casino, which is on Indian land, we noticed a model lighthouse beside a pond that had a model freighter.  Both were well done, then we noticed an ancient Indian Burial ground across the road, the graves all had what looked like elongated birdhouses on top of the graves, never have seen anything like that before.  A few miles from there we stopped at Point Iroquois lighthouse on Whitefish Bay.  We climbed the 72 steps (we counted) to the top of the tower giving us a panoramic view of Lake Superior, we watched as a freighter powered by on the way to Soo Locks.  The drive to the falls seemed endless, heavy forest on both sides of the road with an occasional glimpse of the lake.  The lower Tahquamenon Falls consists of several waterfalls cascading into a large pool, you can paddle up to the falls edge.  If you go to the falls, especially in June (from what we were told) you need to take bug repellent.  A 3/4 mile boardwalk/path take you the falls viewing area was thick with "skeeters"  Gary was about to snap his first picture when he discovered his camera battery was dead, bummer, had to use cell phone.  We could take the 8 mile rt to the Upper Falls, we opted out, too many bugs. (sure) This is the only state park we've ever been to that has concessions, you can buy snacks, t-shirts, and for $10.00 a can of bug repellent.  We drove  to the Upper Falls, this one had a mini-mall including a brew pub.  Made Gary a happy camper.   We walked the paved path to the Upper Falls, at the top you could take 96 stairs down to the viewing platform.  Luci and I sat that trip out.  We have noticed all the rivers and creeks have a "rusty" brown color, not the beautiful clear water we are used to, we theorized it was from all the iron ore and copper in the area.  Wrong, the color comes from tannins, organic matter from decayed plant material.  Now you know.  Gary refreshed himself with a "cold" one after the walk.  It took about an hour and a half to get back to the coach, we had shrimp salad for dinner and did some preparation for our move to Jeff and Suzanne's cabin near Cheboygan.

Sunday, June 7, The day started with light drizzle turning to heavy rain, nice day for a drive. It was a relatively short drive, 120 miles but really WET.  We got to the cabin about 3:30.  A beautiful place on a small lake, Luci is loving it here, no leash and gets to play with Keiley their black lab. We drove into Onaway for dinner.

Monday, June 8, Jeff and Suzanne took us up to Ocqueoc Falls, (don't ask me how to pronounce it) a pretty state park not too far from the cabin.  We found a geo cache up one of the trails, now we have Suzanne hooked on geo cacheing.  Jeff wanted us to see the world famous quarry, HUGE, Suzanne found another cache, geo cacheing is like potato chips you can't do just one. We did a little more sightseeing, stopped to pick up steaks at a real meat market and came back to the cabin.  Jeff started a campfire beside the lake and cooked the steaks on a grill right on top of the fire.  Yum Yum Yum! As our friend Steve said, mosquito's are Michigan's state bird.  Jeff encircled our campfire area with mosquito repelling coils so we didn't have to spend the evening swatting bugs.

Tuesday, June 9, We left our dogs behind while we went to  Mackinac Island, you have to take a ferry over and no vehicles are allowed.  We took a 2- horse drawn carriage tour through the touristy downtown area up the hill past the Grand Hotel and the governor's summer residence to the top of the hill where the carriages and horses are kept.  We walked around the area visiting the historic carriage museum.  Suzanne found another geo cache.  We then boarded a 3- horse carriage for a ride through the forest, cemetery and down along the bluff to Arch Rock.  Our tour guide, Mitch, was a hoot.  He talked how occasionally horses get "spooked" and run.  Made me just a little nervous.  We got off the carriage at 100 year old Fort Mackinac. Pronounced Mackinaw, the French decided to spell it with a "C".    The summer residences along the cliffs are more like mansions, very few people live on the island year around, provisions have to come over atop the ice.  No thanks!  No visit to the island is complete without a stop at The Grand Hotel, the movie Somewhere in Time was filmed here.  A true chick flick but since seeing the movie I've wanted to visit.  To see the inside of The Grand you have to pay $10.00, Suzanne, Jeff and I were cheapskates, Gary really wanted to see inside.  The Grand Hotel has their own carriages to transport their guests wherever they want to go.  One thing you will notice about the island is the quiet.  No traffic sounds, no sirens, just the clip clop of horses.  After the ferry ride back into Macinaw City we picked up some pasties for dinner.  When we were in the UP we'd see restaurants that offered "pasties" we thought that was the way Yoopers say pastry.  It's really like a chicken or beef pie in a crust baked then topped with gravy.  Sinful!  Yum, yum yum!

That's it for this week, enjoy the pictures, I had 100's to choose from.

TTFN

Gary and Pam

Castle

Bridal Veil Falls

Mineral deposit on rocks

Lovers Leap

Hikers taking break

Cliffs

Cove Captain drove into

Chapel Rock



Ferry to island

Mackinac Bridge

View coming into ferry landing

Suzanne's Moose hat

Suzanne, Gary, Jeff, Luci and Kiley at beach Lake Huron

Jeff at Ocquec Falls

Gary and I in front of meat market

Jeff cooking steaks over campfire with Luci's help

Enjoying the campfire by the lake

Main street Mackinac Island

Summer residence for Governor

Front of Grand Hotel

Grand Hotel private carriage

Arch Rock

Little Stone church 1887

Topiary at Grand Hotel

Sign at Grand Hotel

Front Porch Grand Hotel

Suzanne, Jeff, Gary & I @ Grand Hotel Carriage House




 

Bikes for rent

 

Captain and First Mate Grand Island cruise ship

Water rising in lock

Gates opening

1,000 Freighter in locks

Same freighter leaving locks one hour later

Museum ship

Life boat from Edmond Fitzgerald wreckage

Indian burial groumd



Point Iroquois light house

Mackinac Bridge in rain storm going into Lower Peninsula