Let Sleeping Bears Lie

I have now arrived at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Another national treasure, another Junior Ranger badge.

I stayed in the campground at the park – it has got to be one of the nicest national campgrounds I've ever stayed in. Lots of space between the sites and really great neighbors. Everyday, it was Happy Hour, sitting around the campfire. If it is 5:00, you had better have your wine Sippie Cup filled and ready to go. I was actually not the only one sitting there with a wine Sippie Cup – great minds think alike, I guess. All I gotta says is life is good.

There were several good trails that meandered around the campground – one led to the beach and the other was a delightful little jaunt through a mixed hardwood forest. The main draw here though are the Dunes, which were about ten miles up the road. The first day, Miko and I wandered down an unmarked secret trail that the Ranger Lady had told us about. It led to a sandy outcropping(well, it was really a serious, no nonsense cliff) overlooking Lake Michigan. I later learned that it was 450 feet above the beach, that is like a 30 story building. Weather-wise, even though it is fall, it was a hardcore summer day – temps were in the nineties. Miko and I sat on our ledge for quite a while (me way far back from the edge, Miko right on the edge – silly dog) enjoying the nice breeze coming in over the lake.

Someplace, way down there, is a bald eagle flying by

When we got back to the RV, I jumped in the car and headed for Cherry Republic in the little town of Glen Arbor. This part of Michigan is a major cherry producer and Cherry Republic is about all things cherry. The best part is that they have tons of samples – you could almost make a meal out of the sampling. I bought cherry white wine that was actually very dry and sampled cherry salsa, cherry BBQ sauce, cherry honey and of course many different types of cherry chocolate. It was a very satisfying day.

What a difference a day makes. I woke up to a gray, overcast and very brisk day. I think the temperature had dropped 25 degrees. Miko and I walked down to the lake from the campground and then I loaded up my new foldable bike in my Cooper, said goodbye to Miko and headed out to bike the Heritage Trail - a 22 mile bike trail. I again have to thank the Ranger Lady. She showed me a spot at the Dune Climb, where I could access the trail about halfway along it's length. As she was telling me about it, she was pointing at the map. She said – this section flat, this next section flat, here at the end is ice cream. She was an excellent Ranger Lady.

The Dune Climb - no, I did not climb

This is my maiden voyage on my bike – I haven't really ridden for a few years so I'm rather wobbly. I seem to have an issue where if I turn my head to look at something, it seems to cause the bike to veer in that direction and I had some rather close calls with the ditch. Also, I distinctly remember the bike sales guy saying to me – don't worry, you will get used to the seat after a while. Methinks he lied to me a bit.

Rode by this porcupine - my foot just missed his head.  He was as surprised as I was.  By the time I could stop the bike and get the camera out, he was up the tree

It was a lot of fun riding bike again. I tooled down the path, ending up in a little historical town called Glen Haven. Most of the buildings were closed, some because the summer season has ended and others because they were having an infestation of bald faced wasps who are known to be extremely aggressive. I continued down the path and somehow I find myself at Cherry Republic again. I guess it is time for lunch.

Miko and I also did the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive, a 7.4 mile drive that wanders through dunes and maple oak forests. There were about 12 stops along the way, each with their respective narrative sign telling us what we were seeing.

That strip of land in the distance is called Alligator Hill, because it looks like an alligator (try squinting)

A sign said something along the line of - While it might be fun to run down the hill, it will take you three hours to climb back up or many dollars in rescue fees.

The Legend of Sleepy Bear Dunes: 

Long ago a great famine had spread over the land. Longingly, a mother bear and two famished cubs walked the shore on the Wisconsin side, gazing wistfully across the great lake at Michigan, which in those days was the land of plenty (as it is today). Finally hunger overcame their timidness and the bears launched out, trying to swim to Michigan. As they got closer and closer to the Michigan shore, the mother's words of encouragement urged on the weary cubs. When only twelve miles from the land of plenty, the mother's heart was rent as she saw a babe sink and drown. With the remaining cub she struggled to gain the beach. Two miles of slow dragging and the second of her beloved cubs also perished.
The mother reached the beach, alone, and crept to a resting place where she lay down facing the restless waters that covered her lost ones. As she gazed, two beautiful islands slowly rose to mark the graves of the cubs. The Great Spirit Manitou created two islands (North and South Manitou Islands) to mark the spot where the cubs disappeared and then created a solitary dune to represent the faithful mother bear.

The lump off in the distance is Mama Bear. She looked much more like a sleeping bear before erosion and time kicked in.

Just Give Me That Old Time Rock and Roll Music

As I'm looking around all my various lists of sights to see, I notice that coming up is the little town of Acme. The true definition of the word acme is: the point at which something is best, perfect, or most successful. I've just always thought it some company whose manufactured products lack in anything close to quality control based on Wil E. Coyote's experience in the Roadrunner cartoon series. Anyways, I digress.

Located in Acme is the Music House Museum. I think Forbes listed it as one of the top ten museums in the nation. The museum is on a century farm. The last generation did not care too much for farming but were very much into automated music machines. They sold most of the acreage, refurbished the “new” barn (it was built in 1905) and moved their collection into the barn and the granary. They feature automated music machines from about the 1850s to the 1950s - player pianos to juke boxes.  The really cool thing is that during the tour, the docent plays many of the instruments so you could hear what music was like back in the olden days. This museum was one of the high spots of my trip so far.

If you wish to see and hear more of the museum, go to this link   Music House Museum  which will give you a twenty minute tour of the museum. The video does not do this place justice. Hearing the music, up close and personal is worth a trip to Acme.

The following picture is not only of our docent, but of a player piano.  When player pianos first came out, there was no subtlety - it was all one volume.  They then figured out how to have a piano player come in, play a song and record it on paper rolls.  Engineers would then mark the paper and add in volume differences etc.  The particular paper roll that was in this piano player was created by George Gershwin as he played Rhapsody in Blue.  He then came back and recorded again, accompanying himself.  They then merged the two pieces of paper so as this piano played this roll, it was as if Gershwin was playing Rhapsody in Blue with four hands.  It was sort of spooky but way cool.

This was the first machine where they tried to combine a violin and a piano at the same time. 

This came from an 1800 seat theater in Detroit.  When they played this organ at the museum, they also showed a Laurel and Hardy movie. It was Little Charlie's (age 4, on the tour) first intro to Laurel and Hardy.  It is good to give our youth culture

This is the showpiece of the whole museum.  It is 20 feet tall and 34 feet wide.  It comes from Brussels and is one of only fourteen left in the world.  They played the "Can-Can" and "Rock Around The Clock" on it. 

Al Capone's record player from the Berien estate.  He liked nice things

A pretty jukebox - one of many in the museum

Who knew Rockola was actually a person?

Stoned In Petoskey

Today I have to cross the Mackinaw Bridge. An engineering marvel – it is five miles long and connects the Upper and Lower Peninsula of Michigan. The bridge deck is 200 feet over the water. It was built about 60 years ago and is the world's 19^th longest main span and the longest suspension bridge in the Western Hemisphere. We are talking serious bridge here. I am scared. When I try to research the crossing I run into articles talking about people who died on the bridge. One woman was in a small car and got blown off of the bridge. This is not giving me any comfort at all. They even have people who, at no charge, will drive your vehicle across the bridge for you if you don't think you can make it on your own.

After paying my $14 toll, I take off over the bridge. Maximum speed limit for cars is 45 and for loaded trucks is 20mph. Ok, this is good – we are going slow. Each way on the bridge is two lanes and they are working on the outside lane, so we are down to one lane – luckily it is not the lane on the edge looking down that 200 feet. It didn't really matter though because there was dense, dense fog. You couldn't see anything. On one hand, I feel sort of cheated that I climbed up all that way and couldn't see anything. On the other hand, it was super for the height phobic that I am. Before I knew it, I was back on dry land, none the worse for wear.

I needed some gas and stopped at a station that was fairly close to the Michigan Welcome Center. As I entered the gas station, I went over some of the cords that ding inside the station saying that there was a customer. A guy came out and pumped my gas. Amazing!!! Then two guys got step stools out and cleaned my windshield. What a blast from the past. It was really nice. What wasn't so nice was that gas was $2.89 and it cost me about $140. Ouch, but I still had nice memories of being waited on at a gas station.

I'm heading for Magus City Park in Petoskey, Michigan. It is a nice little park, right on the shores of Lake Michigan. At one end of the park, you have a hospital overlooking the campground. There is a constant roar from the huge HVAC system. At the other end, there is the city Waste Management System. Reading reviews on the campground, people say that if the wind blows wrong, it gets rather fragrant at the end of the park. Noise vs. Smell? I decide to let the young man who checks me in decide how I'm going to end up. I only tell him that I want the bestest site, with the best view and he certainly delivered on that. I'm at the very end of the campground – there is nobody closer to the waste management area than me. But, man o man – the view. Turns out there was no smell to worry about. The problem was that they were doing major construction on the plant and during the day there was a constant roar of construction equipment. The nights were golden though and most of the time (except for nap time), I was away from the RV so it wasn't too bad.

Petoskey is known for the Petoskey Stone which is a the Michigan state stone. They are little coral fossils etched into the stones and quite easy to find, if you want to look that is. I went down to the shore and did a quick scan for about five minutes, didn't find any Petoskey stones and called it a day. Evidently rocks are not my thing.

Petoskey is one of the little villages scattered around this area. This and a few other nearby villages became a summer place for many wealthy families. It has a downtown that is filled with a lot of interesting galleries and not-so-interesting fudge shops. Fudge is everywhere here.

I drove up to Charlevoix, the next town over and did a tour in a little open air car of Earl Young's Mushroom Houses. Earl Young was a local boy, who grew up and went to architecture school but dropped out after only one year. This is evidenced by the fact that none of his houses have closets and most of them have low ceilings. Young was only 5'4” which might explain it. He believed that houses should be organic and hence he never did any sort of grading, prefering his houses to be as one with the site. He also never made blueprints, preferring the stones to speak to him and tell him where they should be placed. He was very definitely a rock man – he collected boulders all his life to use in his buildings. He even purchased land, planning to build a subdivision of his houses. The subdivision was called Boulder City. Alas, the depression came and he was not able to finish his dream.

Probably the most photographed of all of his houses - notice the thatch roof

I spent four nights in Petoskey – mostly just hanging around watching sunsets and hanging with the neighbors – many of whom were wearing their 'Make America Great' hats.

One day a storm suddenly came up - my intrepid wave catcher Miko did not even want to get into the surf

And now for a total change of mood:

Packer fans are everywhere

Lakers? Salties? Who Cares - I Just Want A Rumble

There are two Sault Ste. Maries – one in Ontario Canada and one in Michigan. They are right across from each other separated by the International Bridge. The one in Canada has about 75,000 people, the one in Michigan only has 15,000. The big draw here are the Soo Locks. I have splurged and gotten a camping spot about 5 minutes away from the Locks called the Soo Locks Campground, funny enough. It is basically an asphalt parking lock with the campers all squeezed in next to each other. There is no room to even put out an awning but make no nevermind – it is amazing – we are right on the river and we can see the big – no make that giant – ships coming through the Locks going from Lake Huron to Lake Superior and vice versa.

These ships are really something. I toured one of these big ships that was docked in Toledo last year but seeing these ships in the wild, where they are free roaming is something totally different. You hear a deep rumbling as they come toward you on the river that resonates at the cellular level. It is rather thrilling and anytime I felt one coming I had to get my binoculars out and run to the shoreline to watch them go by.  I now have an app on my phone where I can look up any ship in the world and see where it is, where it is going and all the little details about that ship.  For the last few days, I've been following some of the ships I watched pass by.  

View out my front window - you can't even take a picture of the whole ship because they are so large

I've come here to make believe I'm one of those big Lakers (ships that work the Great Lakes) or Salties (the ocean going variety). I am going to ride thru the locks on my very own ship. Well, maybe the Nokomis is actually a smaller boat that hauls tourists thru the locks – but who cares.

Before we get to the pictures – perhaps I should confess – for a short amount of time, I was an illegal alien. The boat goes up through the American locks and then crosses into Canadian waters and comes down through their lock. I did not have a passport, I did not have a visa. Immigration on either side did not even notice. Whew!!!!

Entering the Lock

Water is rising

Almost to the top

Just waiting for the gates to open, we have been raised 21 feet

One of my tires on the Cooper started flashing a low air message so I stopped at U.P. Tire. They took off the tire monitors on the stems and checked the air. The tire monitors are external ones that signal back to the RV when I'm towing the car what my tire status is. Otherwise, if the car were to have a tire problem, I would never know it. They determined that there were no leaks and made sure all of the tires were properly inflated. All tires that is except one. One of the monitors was cemented onto the stem and would not come off. They tried different solvents to try to loosen it up and nothing worked. Finally they had to saw it off. These guys were tire specialists and they really struggled trying to get it off. I figured that I could get another monitor, but what if I was on the road, in the middle of nowhere and I needed to do some maintenance or put air in that tire. Your local gas station guy wouldn't have a clue on how to get it off. They spent about 45 minutes working on it and did not charge me a cent. U.P. Tires rocks!!!!

Tahquamenon Falls

In the last couple of weeks, I have visited the biggest waterfalls in Wisconsin and Minnesota. How could I not visit the biggest waterfalls that Michigan has to offer. This would be Tahquamenon Falls – way up in the most north eastern part of the U.P. I had studied up on where to stay – I wanted to stay at the Rivermouth Campground in Tahquamenon Falls State Park. I did not take into account that it is the weekend – all the working people like to go camping leaving no room for those of us who do not plan ahead. Rivermouth was full – no room at the inn – so I went to the 'other' campground in the park which had room for us. I have to say – the camping gods were looking out for me – I got a beautiful site, within walking distance of some great trails. Quiet neighbors, there were people who shared their campfire with me. It is funny how things work out for the best.

Sunday was a cold and rainy day, not really conducive to hiking or waterfalls. There was a museum up the road which looked interesting, so I headed out. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum was fascinating. There have been more than 6000 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes so they had plenty of subject matter. The place was set up like a small village with different buildings hosting different aspects of shipwrecks – museum, coast guard rescue, lighthouse keeper quarters, movie theater(film about recovering the bell from the Edmund Fitzgerald) and the ever present gift shop. There was also a boardwalk where you could walk out on the point overlooking where many ships had gone down.

A Civil War era lighthouse

I have read several blogs from other RV travelers where the writer is all gaga over lighthouses. I don't see the pull but in the museum they had several Frelsun lenses. These lenses are the lights that go up in the top of the lighthouse. These lenses are absolute works of art. I think I'm beginning to understand the charm. There are seven orders of lenses, with the largest being a First Order.

A Second Order Frelsun lens - it is nine feet across

A Fourth Order Lens

A little story about a shipwreck: There were two ships passing each other, going opposite ways. Turns out that both of these ships were ships from the same company. They got excited at seeing their fellow employees and they both decided to sail closer to wave at each other. All of a sudden, one of the ships veered a little too far and ended up ramming the other ship and sending it to the bottom of the lake. I guess it doesn't pay to be too friendly.

Tahquamenon State Park has two sets of falls – the Lower Falls and then of course, the Upper Falls. We were camped about a mile away from the Lower Falls so we ended up hiking down to them several times while we were here. It was nicely set up so that you could get close enough to the falls to actually feel the their spray.

Lower Falls

The Upper Falls were a little more intimidating. The Upper Falls is one of the largest waterfalls east of the Mississippi River, with a height of 50 feet, length of 200 feet ad the maximum recorded flow of 52,228 gallons per second. Think about that flow factor for a second.

I guess the lake effect is strong up here

Moving into Yooper Land

Another long drive today of about three hours. I love it when Google Maps tells me as I cross a state line - “Welcome to Michigan” - it makes me feel so welcome in whatever state I've landed in.

I'm heading of a campground called Little Bay de Noc. This is notable because a) it is my first National Forest campsite that I've stayed in and b) because of my advanced age I get to camp at half price - $9.50 a night for those who care. No electric or water hookups and very very quiet. There are three loops here and based on my research, I am looking for a campsite with a bay view. Alas, all the good ones are taken and I end up with one that you have to sort of squint to see the bay. Actually, the bay view ones were the only ones populated. The other campsites were totally empty, all alone in the dark deep woods. It was sort of spooky walking thru those campsites – sort of like a ghost town. The trails were nice – there was a history trail – evidently in the early 1900's – this was quite the resort destination for city folk. All the buildings are gone now, but there were a lot of old-timey pictures of people lounging in the woods.

Why am I here? Two words: Factory Tour!!!! I'm a sucker for factory tours – especially if they have conveyor belts and lots of fancy glittery machinery. This factory tour had none of that but it sort of turned my head around anyway. I went to the Hoegh Pet Casket Company in Gladstone, Michigan sort of as a joke. The idea of pet caskets is rather funny in itself and I expected to scoff at the whole enterprise. I was in for a surprise.

I was greeted very warmly by Tom who was my tour guide. I was the only one on the tour – can't imagine why there was not more demand, but that's ok, their loss. This is a small company which has been in the pet casket business for over fifty years. There must be a demand for the product. Caskets start off with a sheet of plastic. They put it into a heater which does not melt it, but makes it soft. They then put the sheets over a mold and wham, bam – a vacuum force sucks it into the mold. It is like magic. The whole process took about two minutes. I won't go into anymore detail, but there were several more steps to the process. Local women sew the fabric that lines the caskets and drop the fabric off in batches. There is so much demand that sometimes FedEx has to send two trucks daily just to keep up with the shipments. The tour ended in the showroom where you could see the finished products. They also ran a cremation service and they had urns for sale also.

You have your choice of cream, pink, blue and the ever popular camo

The showroom

The Finished Product

Miko and I hiked the Haymeadow Creek Falls Trail to see the waterfall. It was a loop trail but a bridge was out so we had to backtrack. Falls were pleasant but underwhelming.

The last item on my to-do list was to go to the Peninsula Lighthouse which had been decommissioned in 1936. We had to drive down a single lane tiny curvy dirt road to get there. There was nobody there when we got there. The wind had picked up, the waves were crashing on the shores – one of those wild and crazy times. Loved it, but it was starting to get dark and I didn't want to have to drive that tiny dirt road in the dark.

Sort of a lonely little lighthouse, out in the middle of nowhere

What's A Viking Fan Doing In Packer Country? Keeping A Low Profile, Of Course

Wisconsin – land of Packer Fans, suicidal bugs and more roundabouts than you could ever imagine. I guess we can explain the bugs – it is early fall and these bugs are probably thinking I would rather go out in a blaze of glory on her windshield than slowly freeze to death in the coming winter. I suppose I can maybe even understand the Packer Fans (I'm just a little bit south of Green Bay) but Roundabouts? Why in the world would you put three roundabouts in the middle of a tiny little road going thru corn fields? This is not an isolated situation – they are all over the place. Why? Why? Why?

Ok, enough of that. I drove a couple of hours and ended up in the town of Wausau. They have a lovely urban county park there called Marathon County Park. It is nestled in a pine/oak grove and has a walking path around and through the trees. It is also across the street from a grocery store and a Shopko where I could pick up all the things that I forgot to pack for my fall trip.

After resting up overnight after that strenuous drive, I drove another couple of hours to High Cliff State Park. It is in the Appleton, Neenah area on the northeast shore of Lake Winnabago. Lake Winnebago is the largest lake in Wisconsin. It is bigger than Mille Lacs lake for all you Minnesotans following along. The campground is lovely – all of the sites are good sized and in the trees. The campground is on the cliffs overlooking the lake – can't see the lake, but that is what they tell me.

I decided to do an evening hike on the Lime Kiln trail leaving from the campground. There were several signs which said that this was a primitive trail – only people in good shape should attempt it. Well, that is definitely not me, but I'm going anyways. It was a fun trail – going from the top of the cliffs, down to the lake, along the lake which was flat and easy and then back up the cliff. Sweated a bit, got lost a bit but I had a nice glow of accomplishment.

On the way down

I also did the Butterfly Trail which was a paved trail around a butterfly shaped pond. Pleasant, but I realized that I enjoy much more the wilderness trails. Tripping over roots and rocks adds a certain challenge and I find that there is much more of a sense of peace that you don't get walking on pavement. Must be that direct physical connection to Mother Earth or something.

I love this memorial  RIP Jean

I visited an exquisite museum in Neenah. It is the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass. This museum has the world's largest, most representative collection of glass paperweights in the world. Holy cow – I spent hours here looking at the different paperweights. There were also a few other exhibits of different types of contemporary glass sculptures which were enjoyable. I think I liked this glass museum better than the Corning Museum of Glass that I saw in New York last year. Outstanding exhibits and yes, I did buy a couple of paperweights. It's art, right?

The following are all made of glass:

This was called Scorpio

Up in Appleton, there is the Trout Museum of Art. They had an interesting origami exhibit – in fact the bottom two floors were Origami by Robert Lang. For part of the exhibit, a photographer took a picture of a flower and then Lang recreated the image using just one uncut sheet of paper. All of his work is done with just one uncut sheet of paper. That is the amazing thing.

More of a traditional sort of Origami

I also walked a few more trails in High Cliff – Red Bird and Indian Mound – it just feels good to be out walking again.