August 6, 2015. This Is Nuts, Part II.

August 6, 2015.  This Is Nuts, Part II.  Hurrah!  We found the lake and the dunes.  They were where the ranger said they would be.  We stopped by this morning on our way from Michigan to Iowa.  Along the way, we passed through Indiana and Illinois.  We are at the Amana Colonies again tonight.  We began this trip here, and now we finish it here.  We will be home tomorrow night. 

We arrived in this area about 1:00 PM.  We had two goals; eat at Maid Rite diner and at Ronneburg Restaurant. First, Maid Rite was recommended by our friends, Carolyn and Dave Thomas.  They attended Iowa State and their love affair with each other and Maid Rite goes back many decades.  The Thomas' follow this blog and Dave asked if we stopped at Maid Rite when we passed through here two weeks ago.  I told him we'd try it on our way home.  We did.  Maid Rite is famous for its loose beef burgers.  The meat is seasoned and mixed with white onions.  It makes a tasty sandwich. 

We also wanted to sample the German food at the Ronneburg.  So, we biked from the campground to the restaurant - more about that later.  The food was plentiful and good.  I had brats and sauerkraut.  Annie had the chicken schnitzel.  The meal was served family style with refills on the side orders.  We then cruised around the colony, which took about ten minutes. 

Now, back to the bike ride into town.  Annie was hesitant to do that because it meant we had to ride nearly a mile along side the highway.  I urged her to confront her concerns and just pedal confidently along the shoulder of the road.  That worked for about two minutes.  It worked until the first car swooped up behind us and passed us at about 60 miles per hour.  It passed about four feet from our bikes and the wind from the car nearly unseated Annie from her bike.  She braked her bike, put both feet on the pavement and shrieked, "This is nuts!"

She was right.  We had started our ride during the dinner hour, thinking others would be eating and there wouldn't be a lot of traffic.  What we (and, by "we", I mean "I") overlooked is that it was rush hour in Amana.  People were rushing home for dinner and two mature bikers were a nuisance.  They didn't slow down, they didn't swerve, they just zoomed past us like a freight train past a bum.  It took Annie several minutes at the restaurant to stop shaking. 

So, this two-week trip is at an end.  We discovered that we don't like camping in July.  There are too many people in the campgrounds and it is simply too congested.  We will stick to the shoulder seasons of spring and fall.  The weather is more agreeable and the campgrounds are far less crowded. 

We'll be back at it in October.  Feel free to drop by then.  Until then, so long.

August 5, 2015. Warren Dunes State Park.

August 5, 2015.  Warren Dunes State Park.  Warren Dunes is on Lake Michigan, I believe.  There are large sand dunes here, I believe.  We haven't seen either.  It is not that we haven't tried.  We have.  We just can't find the water.  If we find the water, I expect to also find the dunes.  So far, all we've done is gotten lost. 

And, yes, they gave us a map when we checked in.  It is just that neither of us can read it.  After wandering around on our bikes for 45 minutes, we returned to the ranger station.  "Can you tell me where the lake is?" I asked the portly, balding ranger.  He looked at me like I was from some strange star, far, far away. 

"What did you say?" he queried.

I swallowed hard, screwed up my courage, and asked again, "Where is the Lake?"

"Do you need a map?" He knew I had a map, he gave it to me two hours earlier.  He was just stretching out my embarrassment. 

"No, I just need directions to the Lake," I stammered. 

He took a deep breath, sighed, and pointed in the direction from which I had come.  "Go one mile that direction.  At the stop sign, turn right and go another mile.  Unless you are dumber than you look - which is hard to believe - there, you will find Lake Michigan."

"Thanks," I said in a quiet voice.

I reported the conversation to Annie.  She said she was through biking for today.  So, we came back to Harvey without seeing Lake Michigan or the dunes.  She says we can drive by tomorrow on the way out.  I just hope I can remember the directions.

August 4, 2015. This Place is Nuts!

August 4, 2015.  This Place is Nuts!  Ludington State Park is on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.  It is the most popular state park in Michigan.  There are over 350 campsites here and each is filled with families, cars are parked every which way, people crawl over the earth like ants on a sand mound.  It is nuts.

Why would a sane person leave the serenity of a small, quiet piece of land in Clay County, Missouri, for the insanity of this place?  Well, it is pretty.  It is sandwiched between one of the Great Lakes and Hamlin Lake.  The two bodies of still water are connected by the Sable River.  The Sable is a lazy river filled with tubers.  The sand beach on Lake Michigan is also a draw.  Clearly, it is a popular respite for city dwellers in the area. 

And, if you time it right, you can find some solitude here.  We postponed our bike ride until the dinner hour.  Most of our fellow campers were cooking or eating.  We had the bike trials pretty much to ourselves.  See what a little forethought can produce. 

We will move further south in the morning.  We are scheduled to stay in Warren Dunes State Park in southwest Michigan tomorrow night.  From there, we will launch west.  We should be home this weekend.  It will be nice to sit on the deck and count the deer sauntering past the lake at sunset.  

See you soon.

August 3, 2015. St. Ignace to Petoskey, the Legs Inn and For-Real Camping.

August 3, 2015.  St. Ignace to Petoskey, the Legs Inn and For-Real Camping.  It was a quick 45-mile drive from St. Ignace, over the Big Mac suspension bridge to Petoskey State Park on the Little Traverse Bay of Lake Michigan.  We noticed a large number of Mini Cooper vehicles in St. Ignace.  We bumped into a couple in the campground this afternoon standing next to their Mini.  I asked why there were so many Minis in St. Ignace.  I was told that Mini owners were trying to set a Guinness record for the most Mini Coopers on a suspension bridge.  Talk about obscure records.  Evidently, the United States had the record of about 800 until two years ago when our British cousins set a new record of over 1400.  Our Mini owners made a valiant effort yesterday but fell about 100 short of the record.  They plan to try again in two years.  We are easily amused in the United States. 

Anna and Fred told us about Legs Inn, near Petoskey.  It is a Polish restaurant and inn in Cross Village on the lake.   The historic marker pictured above tells the story of the inn better than I can.  Anna told us specifically to look at the garden behind the inn.  That was good advice.  The views are wonderful and the garden is well-tended overlooking Lake Michigan.  The only downside was that we arrived at 10:45 AM and the restaurant didn't open until noon.  So, we traveled another 15 miles to Petoskey and found a Polish Kitchen.  Two kielbasas with sauerkraut later, we were on the road to the state park.

Tonight we acted like real campers and cooked dogs and s'mores over a campfire.  We had just enough wood to make a fire sufficient for the task.  It was burning down when we wrapped up dinner. 

As I was in Harvey retrieving something for dinner, I heard a male voice outside Harvey talking to Annie.  I went outside just as she was telling him that one of the reasons we traded up to T-Harvey was that her tall travel partner kept banging his head in the Roadtrek.  About that time, I stepped out of Harvey to see the person she was talking to.  He was in swimming shorts only with a towel draped around his neck.  He was slightly round and not so tall.  His eyes turned upward to meet mine and his countenance dropped. 

I think he was more interested in Annie than Harvey.  Who can blame him?  She is a keeper.  But now, he had to feign a real interest in Harvey.  I offered him a tour and he reluctantly entered, just far enough to see inside.  He was really not all that interested in the RV.  But, otherwise, he had excellent taste. 

We are scheduled to stop at Ludington State Park tomorrow night.  It is about 170 miles or so from here to there.  We plan one more stop on Lake Michigan before heading home in earnest.  We will probably stop overnight at least one night in route, likely in Iowa, perhaps the Amana Colonies, again.  This is fun.  You should try it sometime before you die. 

August 2, 2015. A Rainy Day in Straits State Park.

 

August 2, 2015.  A Rainy Day in Straits State Park.  It has rained most of the day.  We wisely stayed in the campground rather than risk getting caught in the storms while cycling around Mackinac Island.  I studied the owners manual for the audio system in Harvey, we refilled the water tank and did some light shopping at a nearby grocery store.  The only purchase worth mentioning was a box of butter pecan ice cream.  I love butter pecan.  Well, I love ice cream, but butter pecan is my favorite.

It has been a quiet day but for the storms.  We have stayed dry while some of our neighbors have not fared as well.  Many of the campers here are in tents.  Our next door neighbors have watched their screened cooking tent and contents get soaked.  There was actually a small stream of water coursing through the tent.

After the first thunderstorm abated, they hung a rope and strung their sleeping bags and other clothing to dry.  The items were still hanging on the rope when the second round of rain passed through. They are not happy campers.  Forgive me; I have waited a long time to legitimately use that phrase in the blog.

I have no new pictures because we haven't been anywhere other than the grocery store. So, the pictures above were taken yesterday on the island.  The picture of the Boy Scouts descending the steps has a back story.  In the Gerald Ford Presidential Library, there is a photo of him, as an Eagle Scout, standing atop Arch Rock on Mackinac Island.  The steps depicted in the picture provide access to the rock.  The Scouts were evidently recreating the photo of the late President.  The last few photos focus on Mission Point, one of them is the interior kiva lobby.  These pictures didn't make the cut yesterday, but I have lowered my standards due to inactivity today.

We will move south tomorrow.  Our likely stopping place will be somewhere near Petoskey, MI.  We will cling to the east coast of Lake Michigan as we proceed south.  The plan is to be home later this week.  See you then.

August 1, 2015. Mackinac Island and Sixteen Miles.

August 1, 2015.  Mackinac Island and Sixteen Miles.  A beautiful day on Mackinac Island, it was.  The temperature was in the low 70s and the sky looked as it appears in the pictures, above. 

We outsmarted 99.9% of the tourists by taking the 7:30 AM ferry to the island.  That is the ferry taken by most of the workers on the island and way too early for most tourists.  The streets were empty when we arrived and the eight-mile road around the island was ours and ours almost alone.  Our first lap around the island was serene, quiet and lovely. 

After the first trip around the island, we had breakfast at Seabiscuit, named for one of the greatest racing horses ever.  We have eaten there several times before, but always lunch.  Breakfast was delicious with eggs, hash browns, wheat toast and bacon marinated in molasses. 

No trip to Mackinac is complete without a stop at one of the dozen or more fudge shops.  We visited Murray's because that was our introduction to Mackinac fudge, twenty years ago.  We stopped at the Mission Point lawn, selected a couple of Aderiondeck chairs and sampled our purchase. 

By 12:30 the island was teaming with people.  The streets were lined with bicycles parked by people who were shopping or eating.  We began a second lap around the island, this time in reverse.  The reverse route turned out to be a pretty good idea.  Most of the traffic was coming from the opposite direction.  Still, the trip was far from relaxing.  Bikers came at us in waves.  Groups of five, ten and twenty bikers washed over the center line.  People would stop in the traffic lanes, ignoring the effect on other bikers.  It was chaos. 

July is not the time to visit Mackinac.  If you do, plan to arrive early and depart by early afternoon.  We had a wonderful time when the island was ours.  It was not fun when hoards of other bikers were traveling the same roads we tried to use. 

Many of the pictures will look familiar to you.  There is the fort, the Grand Hotel, Mission Point and Main Street.  If you have followed the blog, you've seen them before.  However, I am struck by the beauty of the island each time I visit.  I hope some of that comes through in the pictures above. 

We are uncertain whether we'll return tomorrow.  At present, the weather forecast calls for rain.  We'll check it again and decide later.  You will know when you read tomorrow's blog entry.  I know you can hardly wait to find out, but that's the best I can do.