A Tale Of Two Cities (Sorry Charlie)

This is about two "resort" cities in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Dells is a resort city that almost happened by accident. In 1946 a Milwaukee native named Mel Flath bought some amphibious trucks (called "Ducks") at an auction in California while looking for war surplus trucks. He bought them on a whim. Well, he put them to use on the Wisconsin River giving tours of the dells. It became very popular and many tourists came from all over to take the tours. Because the tourists were coming, other entrepreneurs started opening up things like tee shirt shops, gift shops, miniature golf and on and on. If you've ever been to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, you've seen similar results.

Lake Geneva, Wisconsin was a beautiful location that was liked by Chicago millionaires for its hunting and fishing. They built lavish summer homes on the shores of Geneva Lake. It was a classy place and the early owners like chewing gum magnate William Wrigley, Jr. bought up lakefront property that was adjacent to his in order to keep it from being subdivided and turned into something less opulent than his vision. Well it worked and today it is still a classy place with beautiful views.

While these two summer resort cities are pretty close to one another geographically, they couldn't be much further apart in terms of what they've become. One is a commercial center that keeps getting bigger and bigger and the other is a beautiful town on a beautiful lake that is now as beautiful as it was when I first saw it as a child more than fifty years ago.

Michigan's Upper Peninsula

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's Yooperman (and woman)!

The locals call themselves Yoopers because they're from the U.P. (get it?).

After leaving Indian River on Friday, 8/15, we spent the last few days in the upper peninsula of Michigan. First we spent a night at a casino in St. Ignace, which is just across the bridge. Then three days and nights in the Tahquamenon (rhymes with phenomenon) Falls State Park. We've got lots of pictures these days because of Ev's new hobby.

Soo Locks

We made a one day side trip to the Soo Locks. This is where Lake Superior meets up with Lake Huron. It turns out that Superior is about twenty one feet higher than Huron so they built these locks to raise and lower the ships going in either direction. Fascinating to watch how that works.

Pictured Rocks

Then the last few days in the Munising, Michigan area. On the shores of Lake Superior. The local attractions here are the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore:

The Pictured Rocks are colored by the minerals and stuff that flows through the cracks. The following is from Wikipedia:

Streaks on the face of the cliffs come from the groundwater leaching out of the rock. With it come iron (red), manganese (black-white), limonite (yellow-brown), copper (pink-green) and other minerals. As the water evaporates, these minerals leave streaks of color.

We took a three hour boat tour (like Gilligan) of the Pictured Rocks. That's the best way to see them. That was probably the highlight of this trip so far.

And a number of waterfalls:

< < < Tahquamenon Falls (Click this link) > > >

Pasties 

A local favorite on the U.P. is something called a pastie (pronounced passtee). There are signs everywhere we go touting "the best pasties in town".  It looks like a turnover, but it contains potatoes, veggies and optionally meat of some kind. We had to try them because we're only here once.

Well apparently they are an acquired taste. Kind of like a pot pie would be if you took out all of the moisture. I guess only the Yoopers can out bland the Amish.

By the way, if you Google pasties, you may get something else entirely:

P-P-Picture P-P-Perfect P-P-Petoskey

Just another sunny day in Petoskey...

Horny Monk

I was finally able to get the trailer unhooked in its broken condition. That made life easier because I could drive places again - sans trailer. I called the hitch manufacturer and they sent out a replacement for the broken part. It arrived two days later via FedEx. In the meantime, I lined up someone to do the repair properly, but when I went to pickup the part at the dealer (2 1/2 hours away), he showed me that there was a more specific part available that didn't require hours of labor to install. Then the only problem was that I had to go back to the trailer and get three measurements in order to get the proper part for my setup. So five hours round trip on Wednesday, then another five hours round trip on Thursday after getting the measurements. The good news is that it worked out and I was able to fix it myself.

On our way back from the dealer yesterday, we stopped in at a family resort that we had gone to with the kids several years in a row when they were young. They later told me that those were the best vacations they had ever had. It was nice to see that the place was still going strong some twenty or so years later. These pics won't mean much to anyone else, but I think the kids will remember the place fondly.

So today, we left Petosega and moved to a "camping resort" in Indian River. Apparently a "camping resort" is a campground with a pool. We went out to dinner in a funky little restaurant in Alanson, Michigan that was originally the train depot some hundred or so years ago. I had a local draft beer tonight that was called a Horny Monk. I mean, doesn't that go without saying?

Camp Petosega (Pet-o-se-ga)

Arrived today in the nicest government operated campground either of us has ever seen - and this is a county park. There's a website where people post reviews of campgrounds (http://www.rvparkreviews.com) and this one was described as a "hidden gem". Boy was that right on the money!

That was the good news. The bad news is that our hitch broke yesterday afternoon while in Petoskey - about twenty miles away. We called for road service and we were lucky enough to get a guy that was able to get us going again (with a sledge hammer no less) and we got to the park last night before dark. But this is a weekend - retired folks don't usually trouble themselves with what day of the week it is - and we have to try to find a way to get it repaired properly tomorrow. Right now we're unable to unhitch the trailer from the truck, but we're afraid to tow it any further in its present condition. The nearest dealer for this particular fancy hitch is about an hour and a half away. Tomorrow we'll try our luck with the nearest RV repair shop and see where that leads.

Arrived in Holland...

...but the weather isn't the best. I'm wearing shoes for crying out loud! What kind of beach weather is that?

Well on Wednesday it warmed up a little and we came out of hibernation. Ev got a new camera and is learning how to use it. This was at sunset today at Holland Beach.

And here's a picture of our new summer home in Holland. It has been under construction for two years now, but as you know, Ev demands perfection, so they'll just have to get it right before she'll move in.

...

Okay let's get this sucker going!

Finally got out on the road this morning. There are just too many things that have to be taken care of when adults run away from home. You probably heard, the house sale went really fast! Not enough time to even put up a FOR SALE sign. When the sign went up, it said SALE PENDING.

Both Ev and I had great parties with the folks at work. We had to get rid of about 95% of everything we owned and follow the realtor's advice on how to stage the home for showing. Well the advice must have been good and we must have followed it very well because it worked and it was quick. Neither of us wanted to work a few extra months just because we didn't set the price right, so we made it appealing. Full credit for the effort goes to Ev who organized everything that needed doing and did the lion's share of the work. Every once in a while, she would assign me a simple task that even I could do and I would struggle to get that done.

Well today we finally got out of Dodge and headed for Holland Michigan - our favorite (lake) beach. We only went about half way and should check in to the park campground tomorrow.

Here's the first lame picture... more to come.