Michigan, You're a Beauty!
Traveling west from the Thousand Islands, the general plan was to follow the southerly shores of Lakes Ontario and Erie and across northern Ohio and then jut northward thru western Michigan along Lake Michigan. We have always wanted to visit this part of MI as it has some beautiful beaches and pretty countryside. But first we had to get thru the heavy and very busy urban corridor of Buffalo-Cleveland-Toledo-Fort Wayne, IN.
When doing large scale planning for the trip back a few months ago, I figured this would probably be the least interesting part of the trip and most likely the toughest driving segment with heavy traffic, crazy Interstate highway truckers and other aggressive drivers. These corridors almost always have traffic slow downs from accidents, construction and just plain too many damn people all trying to get to the same place at the same time.
So given all of this, we decided to just bite the bullet and bang it out, in as little time as possible. Instead of our usual and preferred way of travel, we nixed the back country two laners and chose the Interstate Highways from Thousand Islands, NY all the way to Toledo, OH and nailed it in 2 long days of driving.
It really wasn't all that bad and we pretty much cruised right along, although we both start getting fidegety after about a 4 hour day on the road.
Our first night's rest came at Lake Erie SP, NY near Fredonia, NY about 40 miles or so east of Erie, PA, right on the shoreline of Lake Erie. We tool on into the Park and inquire about a site for the nite and the Ranger gives us a camp map showing us 7 sites that were available for the nite. She suggested that we drive thru to inspect them, as they had received about 2 inches of rain in an hour last night and "some" of the sites may be a bit "soggy". OK, no problem, thanks for the heads up.
We drive thru, and I am not kidding you, every available site, except for one, was completely under water, like big pools of runoff 6 - 8" deep! The campground was a total mud pit, with deep tire tracks from folks getting their RV's stuck trying to get out. As we pulled in, folks were packing up left and right and heading home. But fortunately for us, the portion of the one and only "dry" site where we parked our RV, was high and dry and on a heavy gravel bed so it was fine. Couldn't really sit outside because the rest of the site was "soggy". Never have seen anything like it.
The next day we get an early start with the thought of maybe spending an overnight in Cleveland, OH to see the Rock and Roll HOF and maybe take in an Indians (or, what are they called now, something else I think??) baseball home game. No real options for camping in greater Cleveland so we make a reservation at a hotel...seemed OK on the website, desk clerk was amicable on the phone, had a large parking lot for the LD and for security reasons we were allowed to take our bicycles into the room with us. Great, let's get to Cleveland and let the good times roll.
Well, not so fast dear readers, this is Cleveland we're talking about here. Oh man, what a disaster!
We get to the Highlander Hotel and it is a full fledged, bonafide crack house! The neighborhood looked like something out of the movie 'Fort Apache the Bronx' and the townsfolks were looking, how should I say this, a bit fatigued and in want of something very badly. We paused in the parking lot for a brief moment to figure out our next move, but the dilemma concerning our next move was quickly decided for us when a severely f'ed up woman sidled over towards the LD with a not so pleasant air about her...next move decided, get the hell outta here, now!
We cruise by some other hotels, check the web, make some calls and all were booked for the weekend - really, in Cleveland? OK, I guess? - and let's face it, any respectable hotel ain't gonna let their guests traipse thru the lobby and up the elevators wheeling 2 bikes into their room. The Highlander will, but most won't. Basically, our concept of a nice hotel stay in Cleveland came crashing down around us so what to do now? Let's just find an RV park somewhere west of here towards Toledo and say adios to Cleveland.
Deb locates the only available RV park towards Toledo and books us up. She then google maps it and I inquire how long till we get there, ah looks like about 90 minutes...say again, 90 Minutes?? Well, we booked one IN Toledo NOT towards Toledo, so we banged out another hour and half to cap off a long (for us) 8 hour driving day and some memorable moments. Just as well, we're now thru the only tough urban crawl on this trip that we wanted to quickly dispatch with, done and done. The Rock 'n Roll HOF and those loser Indians be damned!
Now this all goes down on a Friday and we have a reservation at an RV park in South Haven, MI for the following Monday and Tuesday. We get on the road next day and head to South Haven hoping against long odds that a spot is open for the weekend at Van Buren SP in South Haven. This is summer in western MI and a last minute SP campsite on the shores of Lake Michigan is as rare as hens teeth. What the hell, let's ask, shant we?
Pull up to the registration kiosk, Ranger says let's see what we've got...score! yep, we're in thru Monday! She said we picked up a cancellation that had just been phoned in. The campground was full but we had a great time here, swimming in the 72 degree Lake Michigan water, knock out sunsets and huge sand dunes everywhere, a fabulous time.
In retrospect, our objective was to get from the Thousand Islands to the shores of Lake Michigan in as little time as possible and we most definitely pulled that off, so we're stoked to have gotten here no worse for wear.
A story, just for you steadfast readers, from our time at Van Buren SP. Late Sunday afternoon around 4 PM or so I take off on my bike to cruise the park and head over to the beach just to stretch my legs. I pedal out of the camping area and get on to the beach access road and hear a siren and soon an EMT ambulance speeds past me towards the beach parking lot. Hmmm, maybe we have a story here for you guys, let's go check it out.
As I'm thinking this thru, next came two unmarked cars at high speed with lights and sirens going, all right, now we're talking! Homicide detectives responding? Dunno, but the I Team Investigative Bureau is now officially on the case.
I get to the beach parking lot and the meat wagon is down towards the beach about a hundred yards or so from the parking lot and sitting with the emergency lights on next to a bathroom/shower/changing room building. The unmarked cars are up in the parking lot and the police officers from these vehicles must have been down near the beach. All was quiet so I parked my bike and sat on a picnic table next to the parking lot with a viewing angle towards the shower building.
As I'm sitting there, a Fire Truck arrives hauling a flat bed with a quad ATV and stretcher trailer on it. Truck is manned by one firefighter, JD was his name. He gets out and starts the haul off procedure for the quad and stretcher when a local South Haven PD officer pulls in and starts to "help" him.
Now, you know JD has this shit down, he's probably done this countless times and has trained long hours on how to quickly and safely get that rig off of the flat bed and poised for rescue. But the well meaning cop kept getting in the way, removing things way ahead of procedure, requiring JD to back track and say, no Bob, I have to do this and this before we do what you just did. It was beautiful!
JD flies off in the quad with stretcher attached and all is quiet again...until, another responder pulls in right in front of me. Now this cat was a trip. He had a full length, brand new couch in the bed of his Silverado p/u truck and gets out rocking sandals, plaid boardshorts and a black Lynrd Skynrd muscle shirt! And this couch in his truck bed was huge. He had the tailgate down and the massive couch stuck out another 3 feet or so past the end with a red warning flag and fresh price tag still tacked on to it.
As he walks past me towards the scene, he's putting on blue sterile gloves and has a police band walkie talkie under one arm and a stethoscope under the other. Crissakes, is this guy a physician or the county coroner? I'm guessing he's the local on call MD because a coroner is not going to show up with a stethoscope, the time for stethoscoping has long passed for these guys! One thing for sure, he was most definitely at the local furniture store and just loaded a new, huge ass couch into his rig when he got the call!
God bless him, when the call comes, you've gotta be there, well done my man! I'm guessing all he wanted to do this evening was to get his new couch set up in his man cave, pop a cold brew and catch a Detroit Tigers ball game, but no...duty called and he was there, hats off to you my good man.
Just as quickly as it started, I see the ambulance leave very slowly with emergency lights nor siren on. He's either got no one in there or it's a slow cruise to the morgue. JD returns in the ATV and I ask 'everyone okay?'...yes, JD says, just taking him to the ER for evaluation and he'll be OK. Good news, seems some young buck was messing around on the sand dunes doing back flips off the top and landed badly. Bystanders thought he might have had spinal damage so called in the pros, smart move. Very happy that the young man ended up not having a bad day at the beach today.
Next morning rode the bike out along the Van Buren trail, 5 miles north into South Haven town. South Haven is a fine shoreline village with tree lined streets in quiet and beautiful residential neighborhoods. Cycled down thru the Marina area and on into South Beach, alongside Lake Michigan, where at 9 o'clock on a Sunday morning the beach was mobbed with people and not a parking spot to be had. Hey, these Michiganders (more on this moniker to follow) put up with long winters, so when the summer light shines they are all in for sure!
South Haven, MI is a really nice town with very beautiful homes and placid residential streets and surroundings. The tourist trade is definitely alive and well in this burg, but gotta hand it to them, it's very well done and not too overbearing like Bar Harbor and other summer tourist traps we've been in. People are cool, you see mainstream businesses like dry cleaners, hardware stores, barber shops, grocery stores and local small town banks down on Main Street, you know...the businesses local folks need during the slow off tourist season, those bloody winter months. Serve your community for the long run.
As to these local businesses, I was in dire need of a haircut, last mop taming was Memorial Day weekend in Ebensburg, PA. So I head on into Combs Barber Shop on the main downtown drag thru South Haven. Didn't catch the barbers name but let's just call him Floyd the Barber. He actually looked a lot like Floyd the Barber from the Andy Griffith TV series.
Debbie and I have had discussions since entering Michigan concerning...what do you call a person from Michigan?...are they Michiganers, Michigoans, Michiganians or Michiganders?
So my barber Floyd has worked this here barber shop since 1971 and if anyone can solve this, he's the go to guy I figure...so I ask him to answer our question. According to Floyd, it's Michigander all day, and if anyone diputes that with you, they ain't from here. There you have it, next time you run into someone from Michigan you'll know how to properly address them, thanks Floyd!
Spent a lovely day riding the Kal Haven Bike Trail with Debbie and taking in the sights. A very well done bike trail, it extends from South Haven some 40 miles east to Kalamazoo, MI (locals call it K-Zoo) on an old abandoned railway line. We cruised a few miles of it just to get the gist and had the time of our lives!
Our time was up in South Haven, and what a great coupla days we had, but t'was time to move on north following the shoreline of Lake Michigan. Man, have I already told you how beautiful this place is? It is the cats meow fo' sho'!
During our sketchy pre trip planning, one spot on the Michigan shoreline called out to us, Muskegon SP. Back then this place was already booked solid thru the summer so what are the chances we could score a last minute cancellation and cruise on in? Chances were stellar loyal followers! And what a perfect hang for the night. All of the hype concerning this park was right on the money.
Checked in, went for a wonderful swim in 72 degree Lake Michigan and generally relaxed from there. While swimming I go aggressive friendly on a local guy out in the water and simply say to him 'nice day, 'eh?'. I go on to say, 'This is my first time here, how 'bout you?'. Well, been here every summer for the past 30 years and we love it, best park on the entire Lake Michigan seashore. I think I'm talking to the right guy here.
Say, we're headed north from here, any suggestions on what we shouldn't miss? Oh man, did he go off! Gave me some great tips on nice places to visit and we will check these out, and of course, share those impressions with you loyal followers!
From here we are heading north to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (the UP, people that live there are referred to as Youpers) and looking for continued great times in the wonderful State of Michigan.
As I write this from Muskegon SP in MI, a heavy thunderstorm with 70 mph winds and 2" of rainfall is forecasted to blow thru here in about 30 minutes, so I need to go and batten down the hatches.
The forecasted t-storm and high winds never materialized, which was a good thing cause I was looking around our campsite wondering if one of these huge ass trees or their limbs would fall on to our LD during the storm. Nope...slept like a babe in the woods thru the night.
Next morning, off northwards and currently at a Michigan State Forest campground named Garey Lake, about 15 miles west of Traverse City, MI. The MI State Forest campgrounds are all first come, first served, i.e., no reservations allowed. We really like this set up, no utility connections are available but with our solar set up we can usually go for about 7 days without hookups, water supply being the limiting factor. But the 50 gallon water tank was full and waste tanks were empty, so let's do some Michigan dry camping for a few days.
We process our registration thru the iron ranger at the entry kiosk for one night and score a most spectacular lakeside site with no other campsites near us. Shit Deb, we should just stay here, this being a Thursday, stay here thru the upcoming crowded weekend and then tool on up to the UP on Sunday. Done and done, went back up to the iron ranger and put our slip in for another 2 nites.
Man, this place is beautiful! Went for a nice evening swim and nobody, and I mean nobody, around to bother you!
Had a zoom call with our family to celebrate Charlie's birthday. Man, we really miss our family, especially at times like this, but it is great to be able to connect and share these special moments with the ones we love. Not exactly the same as being there, but still nice to connect and feel the vibe. See you soon in Tahoe Charlie, Happy Birthday son!
On to the UP, next post in a few, thanks for following along!
Peace out, Debbie and Howard
Love you guys
ReplyDeleteCan't believe how u score
Any pasties in the freezer