Bits and Pieces

Its been a while since I posted so I've had to look back through my notebook to recall the past 8 or 9 days. How do they go by so fast?

After Sleeping Bear we drove to a little town called Pentwater where we were early enough to grab a good parking spot at Charles Mear SP which is very near the town. It has a nice beach and a huge campground simply PACKED with people, it being Labor Day Weekend. We didn't spend much time at the park but unloaded the bikes and cruised the town. We found some Ensign class sailors waiting for wind at the local yacht club and chatted with them about the town, its history, and sailing, of course. It is more fun to learn about a place from some locals than visiting a museum or visitor center we've decided. We tried to get a little ride on a boat but they didn't seem to want our valuable opinions about all things sailing. In town we saw some fishermen cleaning and filleting some big King salmon at the boat ramp. Turns out that they are just like our salmon except they don't grow to adulthood in the ocean, they grow up in the Great Lakes and spawn in the rivers that flow into the lakes. I had no idea that there were Great Lake Salmon! The next discovery was an estate auction going on in a nearby neighborhood. It was a good thing we are traveling in a little RV and we were on bikes. There were a few nice things that I don't need but they wouldn't get to the auction block until much later in the day. whew! Later that day we drove further down the coast to Silver Lake SP which was also busy. Another fantastic beach, this one with a pretty lighthouse and sand dunes.

We spent that night with some Boondocking folks who had a very interesting RV history. They spent 12 years work/camping. This entails traveling to a place that you would like to spend some time and working there for 8-10 weeks at whatever kind of job you could find. Several years of this time they worked for a company doing hearing testing around the country. OSHA requires businesses with loud workplaces to test the hearing of their employees every so often. The business hires this company to send a crew to test their employees. They also worked in national parks at hotels, restaurants, maintenance, retail, campground hosting.... 

They were very nice folks and very encouraging to us newbies. They sent us to Fankenmuth, Michigan for our Bavarian Experience, think Leavenworth X10. Most of it was just tourist stuff but a restaurant named Zenghers was highly recommended to us and we soon tested their reputation for ourselves. We were fed to the gills with their all-you-can-eat chicken dinner, which is what we also now recommend if you should visit the area. We started with chicken noodle soup, two kinds of bread, pate' and toast, cheese, coleslaw, cranberry relish and cottage cheese. Then the main course arrived, consisting of nicely baked, crispy chicken, dressing, mashed potatoes, green beans, gravy and buttered noodles. If a bowl went empty it could be refilled in a heartbeat and we had more of the cranberry relish, potatoes and green beans. Fortunately dessert was just ice cream because I don't think I could have handled anything more. We rolled out of there like butterball turkeys and waddled around the tourist shops until we could hoist ourselves onto our bikes again. The other "must see" experience in Frankenmuth is the Bronner's Christmas Wonderland with acres of Christmas stuff, elves, Santas and carols playing on the speakers. You can have this experience 361 days a year! We lasted only about 15 minutes which was how much time it took to walk around about a quarter of the store. It was extremely over the top!

Then we hit the road for Ann Arbor and my cousin Lynnae's home. Lynnae is 9 years younger than me and we have never spent much time together so it was a nice chance to rectify that situation. It was a busy five days, she and her two wonderful kids, Calvin (age 8) and Vivian (age 5) were just starting the new school year (and I'M NOT!!!), adjusting to a different routine and juggling a lot of activities. Lynnae teaches theatre at a college on the other side of town and then some. I tried to help, without being too much in the way, with some cooking, cleaning, getting Lynnae out for a break or two, giving lots of advice(who can resist with a younger cousin?) and hanging out with the kids some. Thayer worked on the rig, managing some repairs and maintenance, and played some checkers with the kids (hello? who's making up the rules??) I went on a couple of bike rides, one day to a little town called Dexter where they have a darn good bakery that makes a fine apple critter. I know, just what I needed after that chicken dinner, right? The days flew by and we really enjoyed spending time with her and the kids. But, not to overstay our welcome, it was soon time to move on.

And as the sun set that evening we tucked ourselves away in a little town called Marblehead, OH.