Marvelous Michigan: Around Traverse City

Bago liked the campground's Kamp K9.

We loved the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Seashore and Cherry Republic in Glen Arbor.

All of us loved meeting our friend Jim's brother and his wife and watching Bago have his first off leash romp in a lake, the gorgeous Glen Lake.

Gotta come back here...

Marvelous Michigan: Grand Rapids

Very spotty Internet, so quick notes:
Sunday we left Lansing too quickly. Forgot to drive by the State Capitol. Drats! Missed one. We need to count how many we've seen...

But we got to Grand Rapids and enjoyed our 9th presidential museum--Gerry Ford's. It had an Oval Office reproduction, which we always enjoy.

We got all nostalgic for moderate, principled politicians who do things that they believe in despite what it costs them at the voting booth. And for the bicentennial. Fun remembering that. And I had no idea how much I admired Betty Ford's political views. (always did admire her personal fortitude) And we got a kick out of the special exhibit on Ford friend Bob Hope, sponsored by the World Golf Village (where my folks live).

After a few errands and a kinda scary dog park visit, we headed north.

From Navions to Niagara

We arrived at our rally location, Baylor Beach Resort, a day early, as advised by our host, and boy were we glad. Snagged a nice shady site (it was quite hot) with plenty of grassy area for Bago to play in, even though the neighbor dogs were often not too happy about that.

Rigs just kept pulling in Saturday and Sunday until we filled the nice little park. (This photo taken by madmacs from the View/Navion group.)

In the early morning mist:

One of the best parts of the rally was the appearance each evening (except Sunday, of course) of a local Amish family, selling pies, cinnamon rolls, cookies, loaves of bread, and little tchotchkes the young daughters had made. Note that we were careful to not capture their faces on camera. Being photographed is considered a sin of vanity; some sects consider it a sin because it creates a graven image and therefore violates a commandment. 

We scored a jar of elderberry jam (haven't tried it yet) and a $6 strawberry rhubarb pie that was remarkable for the flavor of the filling--not too sweet, not too tart. Very nice consistency. As a budding pie maker myself, I was very impressed. Now, the crust was definitely more Germanic, shall we say. Nothing flaky about this. Sturdy and a bit underdone, probably because she had to make so many. I can't imagine how many hours she baked.... We ended up scooping out the filling and mixing it in our breakfast vanilla yogurt. Oooh boy was that ever a tasty way to start the day.

I'm going to cheat a bit and paste in the Rally agenda.....

Sunday, May 20
5:00 pm	Meet  and greet appetizer event, bring an appetizer and wine with a funny name
7:00 pm	Alaska slideshow by Tom and Judy Salmon
8:15 pm	Campfire
Monday, May 21
8:00 – 9:00 am	Breakfast – scrambled eggs, sausage, pancakes prepared by Skinnie Winnie volunteers
9:00 – 10:00 am	Visit 2013 View Profile 24V
10:30 am – 12:00 pm	Dialogue with Winnebago Designer, Mike Urbatsch
12:00 – 1:00 pm	Lunch – on your own
1:00 – 3:00 pm	Open House & Garage Sale – check out others’ mods & enhancements, shop
5:00 – 8:00 pm	Musical entertainment – University of Akron Steel Drum Band trio
6:00 pm	Pot Luck Dinner – bring a main dish, salad, or side dish – dessert will be provided
8:15 pm	Campfire
Tuesday, May 22
8:00 – 9:00 am	Breakfast – biscuits and gravy, prepared by Skinnie Winnie volunteers
9:00 am – noon	Various tech topics and demonstrations
10:30 am – noon	Book Discussion – “Still Alice” by Lisa Genova
12:30 – 5:00 pm	Group visit to Pro Football Hall of Fame – caravan leaves at 12:30
12:30 – 5:00 pm	OR  Sightseeing in Ohio’s Amish Country – on your own
6:00 pm	Dinner catered by Old Carolina Barbeque - BYOB
7:30 pm	Travel slideshow by Bob and Mavis Duthie
8:30 pm	Campfire
Wed., May 23
8:00 – 9:00 am	Continental breakfast – Amish breakfast pastries and orange juice
9:30 am	Pet parade

Since Sunday was an "on your own" kind of day, Lisa and I took the opportunity to visit a relatively new (1999) national park, Cuyahoga Valley NP, which encompasses a large swath of the old Ohio-Eerie Canal (try getting that old folk song out of your head!) and sits just south of Cleveland. It's one of the most visited national parks because of its almost-urban setting. Someone with a good marketing spin noted on one of the signs that Lake Eerie and its surrounding lakes were the impetus behind Earth Day and the National Clean Water Act. Now, if that isn't spinning a silk purse out of a sow's ear....

But the park was pretty--very lush--and people sure were using it. The old canal towpaths have been turned into quite extensive bike trails, and the bikers were out in force on this warm weekend day. We looked around at some of the historic buildings and then walked out to the waterfalls on extensive wooden decks with lots and lots of stairs that usually scare Bago. I believe this desensitization exercise cured him of his fear of open wooden steps.

We took the opportunity on the way back down to the campground to stop at Belgrade Gardens, a 4-star (out of 5) Roadfood-reviewed and local favorite since 1933. Oh my. We split a meal and still couldn't finish it. What delicious chicken. But it was the "spicy tomato-rice hot sauce that is positively addictive" that stole the show. The region's thick stew of Eastern European / Slavic / Balkan ethnic groups was all over this menu, from paprikash to dumplings. When we arrived at 2PM to see if we could place a take-out order (it is a large sit down place), there were 6 huge hotel pans wrapped in foil getting hauled out the door for a high school graduation party. Popular place.

We also stopped at a local country winery on our way back. Fastest tasting ever, as they only offered 3 dry wines. The rest, in typical northern/Midwest fashion, were all sweet. Each tiny taste was 25 cents, and accompanied by absolutely no chit chat. We did buy an unusual red and hightailed it out in under 5 minutes. The did have a notice posted about needing new help. Seriously.

We had a ball at the first night's potluck--the BYO wine-with-the-funny-name. (Photo from View/Navion group.) We brought some very tasty pizzas (cheddar-pear-bacon and a pesto) from that great gourmet grocery store we visited in Columbus.

Monday morning saw us all up-and-at-'em for the volunteer-made breakfast and the tour of the 2013 model motorhome, driven to Ohio from Winnebago in Iowa just for our group. It was really great to see so many improvements that are clearly based on user feedback. Nice-looking vehicle, although we're not ready to trade in. One puts so much time and care into modifying one's own vehicle to get it just right....

Which is what we did Monday afternoon! Toured other coaches and took copious notes and made lengthy shopping lists of things we need. We have since even made several of the mods, including our favorite--turning the rear emergency window into a functioning, screened-in window. Well, "we" means Lisa ;-) Quite a handy one, that girl. Plus, I can't even go into a sewing store without having flashbacks to junior high home ec nightmares....

We all (including Bago) loved staying off the road all day Monday. We got the coach thoroughly cleaned and cleaned out--we took everything out of our outside storage bins. Found several things for the "garage sale" (giveaways), but only managed to rehome two items. For that night's potluck, we brought the Weiland's housemade beer bratwursts, grilled, and served with the Amish sauerkraut I picked up at Heini's and doctored up with Weiland bacon.

On the rainy (and cooler!) Tuesday morning we split up. Lisa went to the Tech Talks and I went to the book group for the riveting novel Still Alice. I had not wanted to read this book, nor attend the discussion (it's about a 50-year-old woman with early-onset Alzheimer's), but I'm glad I did both.

We were both happy, however, to go out sightseeing Tuesday afternoon, when most of the crowd took off for the National Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton. Lisa and I took off for some history. We very much enjoyed our tour of the First Ladies museum, which was only started on the initiative of a local U.S. Representative's wife in the mid-1990s. It has since become administered by the National Parks Service, and Roslyn Carter, Hillary Clinton, and Laura Bush have all visited for various milestones in its short history. Ohio is the birthplace of 8 U.S. presidents and 7 First Ladies, and the founder felt like it was the perfect place for a national spotlight on these influential women, since none had ever existed up until then.

Part of the First Ladies' museum was housed in President McKinley's home, and since Canton was his home town, he and his long-suffering wife are also buried here.

I read an article that placed him squarely in the middle of U.S. presidents for effectiveness, but I guess since he was assassinated, the over-the-top memorial was justified. 108 steps up to this enormous crypt. When you walk in the door, it is on the same scale as Napoleon's tomb in Paris. Really too much.

Tuesday evening was our "send off" dinner--a very wonderful catered BBQ affair that yielded us plenty of leftovers for another day. Every evening after dinner, we brought Bago over to the pavilion to play and hang out with us. He was so great with all of the people, especially the fellas, who rough-housed with him. He does love playing with the guys.

Wednesday morning saw all of us ready to hit the road again. Lisa and I had decided to make Wednesday be errand day, so we refueled and headed back up to Canton to go to the RV store, Walmart, Jo-Ann Fabrics, pet store, a very nice dog park (gotta keep Bago on the list of to-dos), and the Mercedes dealer recommended by our rally hosts to fix our sporadically failing electronic keys. My goodness if this didn't take all darn day AND yield no real solution to the key problem. They still work mostly, but not all the time. Think I'm going to have to dig around the View/Navion list for how to clean the contact points in the door. Dirt may account for sporadic failures.... But goodness, we've spent enough money on having others tell us there's nothing wrong with it. The silver lining was how much joy Bago brought to the folks in the dealership. They insisted we bring him in, the ladies found all kinds of dog biscuits for him, made sure the water bowl was always full. Then the sales guys made sure to come by (we were there 2 hours) and scratch his ears. He definitely needs to be a therapy dog....

So after all the errands were done, it was 4PMish, hot, and we had only gone 50 miles. We headed out, in a generally eastward direction. We passed through one park we thought might work (cue the Deliverance music) and kept driving. We were so glad we did. Found just the most beautiful state park, very sparsely occupied, with a brand-new showerhouse with laundry facilities. Good spot. Bago was happy, too. Lisa took this great photo of him, which is now the wallpaper on my phone AND the cover of Bago's baby book (available on Blurb here).

On his longline with his beloved Jolly Ball....

Then it was off to our farthest point east: Niagara Falls. We made it through Buffalo and up to Four-Mile Creek State Park Thursday night to take a campsite right along Lake Ontario. We checked in pretty early (3ish) with the intention of going back out for some beef on weck and a visit to the falls, but we decided to enjoy the park and stay put.

Friday morning we headed downtown Niagara Falls, NY. Oy. The things you hear about how tacky it is don't really do it justice. Just horrible. And nowhere except highway-robbery $$, dusty, in-the-sun parking lots. We were supposed to be able to park free with our state park camping receipt, but this is New York, so fuhgeddaboudit.

Nevermind. We headed over to the Canadian side, and were glad we did. It was really well kept and more "natural" on that side. We had to park the RV about a mile and half away from the falls.  There was no one to take our $10 (probably because we were the only RV there), so it was free. The walk did us all good, even though it was quite warm. We really wore ole Bago out, with all the people wanting to pet him, the hot weather, and the roar of these beautiful falls. Here is Horsehoe Falls (aka the Canadian falls).

We didn't do any of the attractions--Maid of the Mist, Cave of the Winds, etc.--as it all was pretty darn touristy and not dog friendly. Just didn't appeal to us, so we enjoyed the view and the mist from up top and watched the boats below.

As we were departing the falls, AT&T reminded us that we don't have an international plan. We had totally forgotten. So, into airplane mode went the phones and we had to rely on the paper atlas to navigate through Canada. We had planned to stay overnight in Canada, but I didn't feel right not having a phone for that long (given my parents' precarious situation), so we kept driving. And driving. It was Friday night of Memorial Day weekend--the biggest camping weekend of the year.

Luckily--and after at least a dozen calls--Lisa scored us a site at a "port in the storm" kind of a place that we normally wouldn't stay in, but that turned out just fine. We stayed 2 nights so that we could regroup on Saturday and plan our westward trip. I spent at least 6 hours online and we now have reservations for the upcoming weekends, and our visits with ND and WA friends all lined up. Whew. There is still room for spontaneity and changing plans, but it's nice to have the "bones" of the return trip pinned down. Once that was done, I could finally take the time to update the blog.

Midwestern Memories

This visit through our old stomping grounds was quite different than the last one, where we made sure to recall as many family and college memories as possible. We skipped visiting Mattoon and Greencastle in favor of spending as much time as possible with family, specifically:

My big brother and his lovely wife in Pana, IL

Pat loves her flamingos, so I had to bring her these glasses from our favorite gift shop in Pacific Grove, Tessuti Zoo.

Gary enjoyed giving Bago his favorite toy--hose water.

I don't even know how to describe the other game....

In their beautiful backyard, with our very own camping spot and 30amp hookup, courtesy of great-nephew, the talented 16-year-old electrician!

With the Casey Branch of the Family

Niece, her husband, their kids, and my great-great niece. We had a nice afternoon in Casey, hanging out in the park while we wore out Bago. Then we drove over to Terre Haute and had a nice dinner at the TGIF restaurant at Honey Creek Square. I still think of this mall as the place where I bought my cool striped sheets for my freshman year dorm room....

Then we stayed overnight at a county park in Terre Haute: Hawthorn Park. Really lovely spot, except it was totally not maintained for RVs (roads, low-hanging trees) and its low monthly rent ($300) attracted entire families to live there in makeshift structures. The park host kept apologizing as we registered, and we couldn't figure out why. But then it was clear. Closest thing to a Hooverville I've ever seen. It was clear that the economy in Indiana has not recovered--we kept seeing such sights throughout the state.... We counted our blessings.

Indy with the Crawley Clan
After Bago busted through two screen doors (once in Colorado, once at my brother's house), we opted not to put the RV in storage and stay at Lisa's parents' house. Instead, we decided to stay at a "resort" about 30 minutes east of Indy and just drive in each day with the dog. This turned out to be a good plan, insofar as we managed to keep the pup from breaking anything. (Whew! It was touch and go sometimes.) We were also lucky that the cleaning ladies were coming the day we left--lots of noseprints and drool to get cleaned up.

It was great seeing Lisa's folks (and having the most delicious home cooked meal--grilled ahi tuna!) and being off the road a little bit. We were, however, happy to move out of the "resort." For some reason--with lots of empty spaces--they put us right by this lovely vehicle and I-70. Very noisy. But we did find  an empty meadow (this place is HUGE) to throw balls for Bago.

Stopping by to See Sorority Sisters
The next day had us tooling up the back roads of Indiana, singing along to Lyle Lovett's great song, "Indiana." We split a White Castle double slider, just to compare it to the Maid Rite (my sis-in-law swears that you love one OR the other, not both), and we found that to be true. I'm stickin' with Maid Rites. White Castle--ick.

We did a commando stop in Muncie to put a blooming plant on the porch of our sorority sister, Linda, who posts such very clever things about her battle with neighborhood groundhogs and foreclosures in her "Occupy Elm Street" initiative. We left a Winnie-the-Pooh handwriting note that said something like: "Dear Linda, Please try not to be too mad at groudhog. He can't help hisself.... --Skiouros" (the squirrel was our sorority mascot). Here's the view of our RV with her lovely irises in the foreground, just to prove it was us (but she figured it out rather quickly!)

Then it was up the road to Huntington, Indiana, to see another sorority sister and do a little catching up and computer diagnostics (!). Sorry I could only diagnose it, Shari. Hope it's fixed now!

Even though we were having a DePauw day, we skipped this DePauw alum's museum....

Wandering the Buckeye State
We changed our plans from going up north to Elkhart to going straight to Ohio in order to arrive at our rally a day early. The rally host strongly suggested an early arrival to get a shady spot, so we heeded her warning.

We stayed at an Ohio state park on Thursday night. Hmmm--guess I was a little harsh in my review.

But we did hit a particularly good Roadfood--OMG. The most delicious (if non traditional) pork tenderloin sandwich. I concur (at last) with a Roadfood review.

We tooled through lots of pretty Ohio towns with their very pretty courthouse squares. Here's West Liberty, Ohio, a very charming town with lots of sights to see (Piatt Castles, for example), if only one were passing through on a weekend in June or not during hay season. Lisa had a bison burger that was equally delicious. A tabletop card told us that the bison farm was just down the road and open Fridays-Sundays. And it was Friday--whoo hoo! After a white-knuckle U-turn on a narrow 2-lane road with traffic, we found the poorly signed ranch. Raced up to the front door--rats! It's haying season and no one was in the shop. The concept of "calling ahead" did not even occur to me!

 

The Oldest Concrete Street in America. There is truly a historical placque for everything....

One of the many pretty courthouses we saw.

 This was one of the few decrepit buildings we saw. Such a faded beauty. We think it was the old post office.

 Look closely through this window. What a shame....

At this stage of the game, Bago has become a travelin' pro. He sleeps soundly when we're underway, then the SECOND the seatbelts come off, he's ready to go! He may even learn to drive the rig....

After a restful evening at Grand Lake St. Marys (but another kinda cranky review), we headed south before going north so that we could stock up for the rally potlucks at a good grocer story (wow, was this place awesome: Weiland's Gourmet Market) and see a few sights in Columbus (can't miss a state capitol). Well, turned out that this Saturday morning was the Relay for Life (cancer race) and we weren't able to go see James Thurber's house or the topiary gardens. Did see the statehouse, but that was where all the roads were closed, so we merged right back onto the highway and headed to this destination. Just had to see it in person, even though it was pretty out of our way:

 

We are not customers of Longaberger's, but we are fans of architecture. And the MBA/marketing in me says this is very good branding: a 7-story HQ in the shape of your flagship product ;-)

On our way up to the rally campground, we passed through some of the most gorgeous rolling farmland I've ever seen anywhere. So green, such pretty homes, and all the irises and rhododendrons blooming away. We stopped at an Amish cheese factory and many of the more-than-50 varieties on sale. Picked up some smoked raw milk cheddar and some Swiss-rye. Yum.

And now we're into day 3 of our rally. Separate post to come. Suffice it to say...Bago is having a BLAST with all of these dog-people to play with!

From Mile High City to Miles of Flat

Doing another catch-up post (again). Would've kept up, except we've been having boatloads of technical troubles with the new mifi device. Sigh. We have had technical troubles with the home computer that our house sitter is using and with our on the road connectivity, and I had to return my new Lytro camera to the manufacturer. Definitely first-world problems.... But such are our 21st century lives. It seems that the increased conveniences come with proportionally larger inconveniences ;-)

So, we left off traveling through (shudder) Colorado Springs on our way to the progressive island of Boulder County. Ah. Love it there. So much open space for the public to enjoy, and enjoy we did. Found an enormous dog park for Bago, and of course our friends' house looks out over an equally large open space, home to a prairie dog town that provides endless hours of viewing pleasure. We managed to squeeze into a nice hair salon recommended by our friends to get ourselves trimmed up before heading into the Midwestern wilds--that was a nice treat. Then we spent a wonderful day and a half getting caught up with our friends and watching Bago thoroughly enjoy a grassy back yard:

Neglected to get a group shot, but here are a few snaps of the beautiful 2-hour hike we took near El Dorado S.P. and our fun dinner in downtown Louisville:

5-man band. Note the 4 iPads being used as "sheet music" below....

...while the bass player held out with his hand-written notebook!

From Boulder, we headed downhill to the long drive across Nebraska. We stopped for our first Roadfood.com recommended lunch in Ogallala, NE: the promisingly named Homemade Heaven Sandwich Shoppe. The folks who wrote this review really need to get out more. They claimed this was a 5-star "legendary" restaurant. It was certainly OK, but oy. Not worthy of any kind of praise. Perhaps the fact that the place was up for sale, but honestly, the burger was serviceable (and way overpriced at $6.95), and the pie was only OK. Nothing special. Starting to doubt the utility of Roadfood.com now that we've hit a string of real disappointments (especially the BBQ recommendations).

We carried on, fortified, though, through the all-of-a-sudden very hot weather (90s) to Fort Kearney State Park. Very pretty campground, and we lucked out getting there on a Thursday, as the weekend was fully booked. That evening a cold front moved in, and we all breathed a sigh of relief. Refreshed, we hit the road again the next day, stopping at a fabulous interstate rest stop with a fenced, off-leash dog area! Why don't we see more of these? Great idea. Then we made it to Lincoln, Nebraska and its huge off-leash dog park (and a Culver's next door for lunch! Yes, we got Culverized.)

Onward we travelled (after wearing out the dog) through St. Joe, bypassing the awesome-sounding (to Lisa) Glore Psychiatric Museum, some place we would've definitely have visited if we weren't trying to get to my brother's house on Saturday. For the "next time" list.

We did make it to Cameron, MO, and our favorite Missouri state park by 5PM, just in time to snag the last paved electric site--way back in the corner with plenty of grass for Bago. Ahh. Folks there couldn't really grasp that we were just overnighting. Everybody else was seriously set up for the weekend with their flags and lights and wooden name plates out, but we didn't even put out chairs because of the mosquitoes! One lady asked Lisa to walk her through the travel map we have on the back of the RV, and she commented that she'd never been anywhere "but here."  We are indeed lucky.

Two long days of driving segued into a third, as we lengthened our day with a detour through Quincy, IL, so I could visit Calvary Cemetery (18th and Locust) and put some flowers on my grandmother's grave for Mother's Day. (I had promised my mom, who has Alzheimer's and still thinks her mother is living) that I would "visit" grandma this month. I have kept my word, even though she won't remember. I won't have to fudge the truth too much.  We even squeezed in a quick visit to the 1929 Maid Rite, thanks to Lisa's suggestion.

Then we made it to my brother's backyard paradise (beautiful landscaping) and a fun dinner with the best Midwest pork tenderloin sandwich from the local bowling alley. Perfect! And Bago is being such a good boy now. He really held it together through those last 3 days of long driving (300+ miles). He's finally learned to go comatose (sleep) when we're underway, but wake up rarin' to go every time we hit a rest stop/dog park. Good boy.

Off for a few days of family time. I must remember to take pictures!