I clearly don’t understand these Michiganders. They have a deep french influence …but it only impacts the spelling because they still talk all midwestern-like. Gratiot is “Gra-shit”, Hamtramck doesn’t have enough vowels to be pronounced “Ham-tram-ick”, maybe it can borrow some from Grosse Pointe.
By far my favorite is this whole Mackinac/w thing. Great place for some R’n’R, but linguistically confounding. It’s either a hard c, or not! Nobody calls the car company “Cadillaw”!! [pulls hair out of head]
Also, I’m pretty sure this Traver guy musta been pretty cool for them to name a whole city after him.
From that-island-which-shall-not-be-spoken, we drove toward Petoskey (cough* “pet-ah-skee” *cough)
We drove through downtown Petoskey while we tried to figure out where we were going to stay for the evening. Turns out they had a music festival going, so every campground was full for miles. So we drove miles! There was a state park campground on Lake Charlevoix that had some room.
This campground was probably our least favorite. The bathrooms were good, and there were some hiking trails, and a beautiful beach nearby, but holy sardines, Batman! Our truck was probably only 15′ from our neighbors on all three sides, and backyard bro was a snorer. Ugh. It’s peak camping season, what are you gonna do?
Drive into Petoskey and go to a brewery, that’s what! Petoskey Brew Co is highly recommended! All sorts of good beers on tap, and good food too. Makes Camp Wannastacktentsontopofeachother all that much more tolerable.
The next day was the Great Poison Ivy Experience, about which the less is said, the better. Yay, fun!
Cleaner than the day we were born, we drove back to Petoskey to meet one of Jessica’s old teachers Leslie for breakfast. After good coffee, better company, tasty breakfast, and a promise to meet her later (she became #stop55), we drove to Traverse City and the Mission Peninsula. A couple of fantastic wineries left our wallets lighter but our wine fridge (ha!) full. And let me tell you about my favorite grocery store of all time: Lucky’s.
Lucky’s is a less expensive version of Whole Foods with a license to serve beer and wine. Yum. When you walk in, you can go to the bar and order a microbrew for you and a nice rosè for your wife (for a grand total of $5), grab one of their shopping cart cupholders, and “sip and stroll”. Heaven. Carrie A. Nation is rolling over in her grave. Colorado needs to update it’s antiquated liquor laws!
We arrived in Glen Arbor fully loaded. …With foodstuffs, not drunk! Who do you think we are, huh??
We spent two nights at the Sleeping Bear Dunes Campground, and they were spectacular! We set out to bike from our campground around the dune loop. Most people drive it, and for good reason: it’s more than a little hilly. We were chatting with a park ranger before we got there and when we told him our biking plans he asked “Have you been there? It’s pretty steep.” To which Jess flatly replied “We’re from Colorado.” Bahahahah!
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There’s a sign at the top of the hill that reads something like “Before you walk down, be certain you are able to hike back up the dune. It can take more than 2 hours and is very difficult. Minimum cost of emergency evacuation is $10,000”
After a few 10% grades and high-fives, we celebrated by biking into town for some Cherry Republic!
Glen Arbor is an amazing place. Super bike friendly, spectacular food, and beautiful views. Again, we were sad to leave, but we had to get to Grand Rapids to see some friends. Surprise surprise, we took the long way.
We spent a couple days with one of Jess’ childhood friends and her husband in Grand Rapids. We got to tour their partially-constructed new house, we had some excellent sushi and beer, and the woofens got some quality time together:
If Jess wasn’t excited before, she is now, because we headed to her homeland: Deeeetroit!
We spent one night in Motor City, then flew to Omaha for a wedding. Hahaha! So much for some time with the family. One of Jess’ best high school friends tied the knot and we couldn’t not go, right? Also had the pleasure of catching up with some of the crew from back in the day. Too much fun!
We made it back to Detroit just in time for my fantasy football draft. Priorities, right?
Jess’ mom had hip surgery the next week and we were grateful to be able to help around the house while she was in recovery. Not that there’s any keeping that woman down! She was walking less than 4 hours after a full hip replacement. It’s pretty obvious where my wife gets all her grit!
We caught up with some more old friends, and helped them with their home renovation, focusing on our personal favorite step: demolition.
As a thanks for all our help, they took us on a grand bike tour of Detroit!
I’ve never been sure how to feel about Detroit. Too many neighborhoods need love, ranging from ‘unkempt’ to ‘please demolish yesterday’. I’ve never felt unsafe, but I’ve heard stories. This particular visit has finally settled my mind: Detroit really is on the upswing. There’s so many people working harder than I’ve ever seen to get the city back on it’s feet. Maybe the world you experience is simply a reflection of the attitude you put forth, or your expectations, but just walking down the street I swear felt the positivity from every direction.
Just look at the Belle Isle fountain in the pic above. It was built in the city’s heyday, and fell into disrepair and had to be shut off for a few decades. Belle Isle became known for late night partying, violence, and drugs; it was a place you didn’t go. In the last few years, the island has been cleaned up and the fountain restored. We biked around the island a few times and not once did we see anything but a pretty park!
There’s lots of work to be done. But Detroit has just the people for the job.
Enough of the heavy stuff, let’s eat!
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Once the squirrel-finder 6000 gets booted up, she’s occupied for the whole day -
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We reminisced over many old photos, including this Halloween gem!
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Got to see the latest addition to the family! -
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The most important part of tub shopping is the dry run. -
We made a quick day trip out to Holland, MI to check in with Jess’ goddaughter. Hard to pay attention to school in such a beautiful locale!
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If I told you this was California, not Lake Michigan, you’d believe me -
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picture-in-picture?
It’s always hard to say goodbye to friends and family. It’s even harder when you feel like you’ve had enough time with them to strengthen your relationship even more than you thought possible.
As much as it sucks, we have more things to see, so we had to hit the road… again. Look out, Ohio, here we come.
First stop on the next leg of our journey: … ummmm, good question. So we defaulted to the tried and true “Jess drives while Tony looks at the map/internet” method. 10 minutes later: “There’s an island in Lake Erie, looks like there’s a campground”. 2 hours later:
Kelley’s Island was a cool place. We stayed two nights so we had a full day to explore. The island is small enough to be very bike friendly:
There is a large boulder on the south side of the island with Native American inscriptions from at least 300 years ago. The carvings had been so eroded by time that they were nearly indistinguishable, but still moving.
Goodness glaciers! They came from the north with so much weight that the rocks they had scooped up along the way carved into the limestone bedrock. Many of the other glacial groove outcrops were mined, but this one has been preserved. It’s pretty crazy to see in person; it looks like someone used a backhoe… but one that is strong enough to carve through rock like butter.
One brewery, one winery, and there you go! You’ve seen all of Kelley’s Island.
Next stop: uhhhh, we don’t know. Again. Seems to be a theme here, eh?
"Purposefully Unrushed" 