Marty's Travels

It was raining hard, then the wind picked up.  When I got up this morning the air was cool, the trees had dropped leaves all over the place and the smell of the air removed all doubts: Fall has arrived.

Leisure Valley, where I’m parked in amongst the corn, beans, swamps, and woods, has been a most quiet place until the influx of trailers, pop-outs, and tents showed up for the last weekend of summer.  Kids on bikes, dogs, campfires, the place is full to capacity.

My neighbors drove in tonight and unloaded a gas-fired turkey fryer and a case of beer.  That’s a combination that makes me nervous.

Oh, there are plenty of hot and humid days in front of me, but heading south is the right idea.  The plan is to pick up the colors of Fall in places like the Appalachians, Kentucky and Tennessee.  The Virginias would be nice.

For us westerners, the place to see Fall colors is the Appalachians.  But for those that live there, it’s Maine that’s the attraction.  The grass is always greener, the corn higher, the colors brighter just down the road….

The other day I was chatting to Joe about how often I had been detoured by road work and lost my way, sometimes going tens of miles out of my way when I knew I didn’t need to.  He suggested I get a GPS, which has been on my list for a long time, but I hadn’t seen the need for it.  Navigation in the west isn’t very difficult because the roads are straight, the topo maps are cheap and good, and since it’s a 3-D landscape there is always a landmark.  Plus, visibility is good.

This morning I wanted to drive a county road through a tiny town I wanted to see, and end up at the lakeshore.  All was fine until I got near my destination, and there was the dreaded detour.  After winding around a few times following the detour, I realized I was never going to find my county road back without burning up a lot of gas getting lost.

So I bought a GPS at a Walmart I stumbled across, hooked it up, put in the tiny town I wanted to back through, and she told me which way to go.  Got over the freeway successfully, encountered the detour, she took me on a better route, and Voila! I was on the county road heading the right direction.

Joe knocks around a lot on the backroads in the SE quadrant of the country and wouldn’t be without his unit: this westerner thanks him for his experience and wisdom.  This will save me a lot of gas in the months to come…

After putting up with millions of mosquitoes in my house in Wisconsin, hundreds of thousands of house flies a tad up the road in Michigan, never quite getting off the splatted dragonflies on my truck and rig I picked up in Minnesota, I’m enjoying the invasion of fruit flies on my computer monitor, drinking my wine, and landing on my eyebrows.

I’m loading up with great food off the fields nearby.  Blueberries are so cheap and plentiful I eat them by the handful, though I still feel a twinge of guilt at such excess.  Tomatoes are excellent when I get them from a roadside stand.  When I bought corn today ($2 a bag) I was warned there might be worms.  Geez, I haven’t had corn with worms since the 50’s.  The sweet 14-year-old explained to me how to deal with corn with worms and I laughed.  I’m suspicious if corn doesn’t have worms, and have wondered how that’s possible.

It’s possible because of the poisons that some farmers put on their product, and I end up eating.  Worms in corn you break off and throw away, tomatoes with fruit flies you put some salt on and enjoy with a napkin to collect the juice.

Fruit flies are good…

Sometimes research turns up a rude discovery and yesterday I discovered I didn’t have possession of a crucial record, and couldn’t find it at the library in Kalamazoo.  Panic set in, but after a few days of crawling through records I was tired (and frustrated with road construction detours and delays) so picked today to drive down to Elkhart to see what friends I could find.

I saw Donna first, then Joe and Marcia got my attention at a seminar at the rally.  Joe and Marcia and I had a near-miss at the UP, but we finally intersected; Marcia pointed out where Paul and Connie were parked, and I hadn’t seen them in maybe two years.  I missed Bob and Molly who are staying down the road, but they’re the vice-grand Poobahs of the rally nearby next week, so I’ll see them then.  And others that will show up.

An hour’s drive through the farmlands, woods, and swamps of Michiana gave me time to think through my research problem and visiting with folk was a welcome break.  Tomorrow I go back to Kalamazoo and try to find the records I need.

I had heard that the Michigan economy was bad, but I had not expected the gut-wrenching sight of Muskegon.  Spending time in Arizona I became accustomed to closed-down malls and shops, but it’s a lot worse here.  The cute towns I’ve been visiting had an obvious drop in tourism traffic, but Muskegon doesn’t have much in facilities for tourists.  It was quite shocking to see the empty buildings and quiet streets.

I’m near Kalamazoo, at a pleasant RV park which I’ve got until next week.  It’s a tad out of the way from any action but it’s dead-center for some genealogy research I want to do.

I enjoyed my stay at Manistee, but I’m trying to get to Kalamzoo tomorrow.  To that end, I’m stopping overnight here in Muskegon at a Passport America place.

This place isn’t remarkable, quite ordinary, but it will probably be my last glimpse of Lake Michigan for a while.  I’ve spent nearly a month going around the lake.  Now, if one wants to go from Milwaukee to Kalamazoo as quickly as possible, it would only take a day, but it’s a lot more fun visiting the pretty little towns all along the lakeshore.  Nearly all are picturesque, tidy, friendly places that welcome tourists and provide ample facilities for the traveler.

I’ll stay near Kalamazoo at a town called Decatur for some genealogy research tasks.  If the place is acceptable, I’ll probably stay put until after the holiday as finding a parking spot this weekend will be tough.  As a bonus some of my traveling friends are attending two rallies just south of there, so I’ll take a day-trip to do some visiting.

The houseflies at the fairgrounds were threatening to take over completely so I headed a few miles south to a casino.  First thing I did was open my screen door so the flies could get out.

This is one of the very nice casinos that provide a full-fledged RV park operated as an extension to their hotel, and this one is especially nice. I’ll stay until Sunday as summer weekends around here get busy.

As a bonus, the Michigan Model T Jamboree is being held here for the weekend.  It looks like about 100 cars will be around the campground and parking lots, which should be a nice show.

The weather forecast is quite favorable, though I have yet to see any forecast that’s right since I’ve been circling the lake.

From Traverse City I went to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Seashore, then did a loop on Michigan 22.  Nice drive, there were several cutesy tourist towns along the way, but really, how much fudge can you eat?

Sleeping Bear needs an explanation.  The Great Lakes are remnants of a glacial action about 12,000 years ago.  The loose dirt remaining when the glacier melted on the Wisconsin side blew over to the Michigan side forming sand dunes.  Very similar to the sandhills on the eastside of the Missouri near Platte City.  Plants grow in the sand and anchor them down, but they are subject to destruction at any time if winds and water get heavy enough.

So these dunes are unusual in Michigan, but not elsewhere in the country.  Play on the dunes here involves walking, while elsewhere play requires jet-fuel powered rocket machines like in Imperial Dunes.  They are interesting in that when the dunes decide to move (which they will) the destruction of towns and life will be quite significant.  That’s interesting , but I doubt it needs to be of National status.

I’m moving on tomorrow, to a casino with a nice RV lot about an hour away.  Here at the fairgrounds the house flies are driving me crazy.

Now, this is an interesting place.  If you live in the lakes region and want to go to the beach and swim and golf, this is the place.  Many miles of sandy beaches, and many resort-style hotels along the beach give the town a sea-side feel.  Towns around here are tidy and pretty.

I’m about 7 miles out of town at the 4H fairgrounds, a quiet place with enthusiastic hosts.  $20 for electric only, but that’s a good deal around here.  Close to all possible services, including the biggest Meijer store I’ve seen.  How big can a big-box store get?  When will they use a transit system to get from one department to another?

The airport is named Cherry Capital.  I had to check and this area is certainly the leading producer for tart cherries.  Everything around here is cherry something, but that bugs a guy from Yakima a bit.  Washington is the leading producer of sweet cherries.

Blueberries are cheap and plentiful right now, a terribly addicting food especially at the prices right now.  Corn is good, but prices vary a lot.  Local tomatoes are pretty good.  The best deals I’ve seen are melons which I think come from the Imperial Valley.  Very good, but I’m looking forward to the Utah melons in about a month.

Sausages are outstanding here, but I’ve noticed more BBQ places.  I dropped below the 45th parallel today, so BBQ is now in play.

Tomorrow I take a drive up the peninsula.  Folk around here have many peninsulas (I think I’m in the Upper Lower Peninsula right now, but it might be the Central Lower Peninsula) and every one is a tonque-twister.

I’m lost around here, so I’ll go out to learn about this place.

I’ll always enjoy knocking around Mackinac Island, it’s a very pretty place, and it’s policy of no motorized vehicles makes it a unique town.  As upscale the homes and hotels are, shopping is very lower tier and food specialties are burgers and pizza.  Good food is available, but it’s pricey.

I took a ferry that detoured to go under the Mackinac Bridge, a very elegant structure five miles long.  The ferries go about as fast as you can go on water so the detour was only a few minutes, but this was lost on one passenger who took it on himself to inform the captain he was going the wrong way.  The human emotions of hubris and ignorance combine to make a fool.

Everyone in the region goes completely all-out to make a tourist happy and comfortable.  This is one of my favorite places.