caracolina

We crawled out of bed and had breakfast at the American Pancake House just south of the Indiana stateline, then swung through South Bend and Elkhart to get started on our scenic drive through the Amish countryside. First stop was the history Bonneyville Mill near Goshen, followed by some of the obvious “sights” such as the Amish bakery, cheese factory, and quilt shop. While I love watching the horse-drawn buggies clip-clop down the roads and find the fashions and hairstyles intriguing, what fascinates me the most about the Amish is their resolve to stay as self-reliant as possible. Sure, they make compromises these days, using generators for electricity for example, but on the whole, their lives are very simple. However, watching the crowds of visitors surging through the aisles of the “craft market”, looking at many things that were obviously imported from China I felt let down. I wonder who is raking in the big bucks from the folks chowing down in the huge restaurant, or buying trinkets in the gift shops. Does that money go back into the community? And how would I feel if tourists came to take photos of me as soon as I step out of the house?

We finally escaped the main roads and found some very quiet farm roads to explore. High points were saying hello to a bunch of heavy farm horses and getting invited into an Amish home for a glass of apple cider. After dinner at one of those all-you-can-eat restaurants we headed south to be closer to tomorrow’s destination – our canoe ride in Turkey Run State Park and the Covered Bridges Festival in Rockville. We made it to Crawfordsville where we were lucky enough to score the last hotel room in town. It was late, we were beat, and everything in the area was booked because of the festival, so an $88 room at Super 8 all of a sudden seemed like a good idea.

After breakfast at Frankfort’s Crescent Bakery we headed north for a short drive to the Point Betsy Lighthouse, then returned briefly to Frankfort where I filled up a bottle of water from the local mineral springs and hunted down a few locally made “Frankfort” stickers.

Finally on the way south we stopped for some apples at a roadside stand and met Greg M. who almost sold us on an acre of land right around the corner. We even toured it! It was very pretty, affordable, and tempting, but we just can’t decide on where else other to put roots down quite yet. Plus there was really nothing on the land yet which is a little daunting considering all the work that goes into homesteading from scratch. And again, something that did strike us was how friendly everybody was here in the countryside. Very refreshing considering how impersonal life in Phoenix can be and definitely something to consider in the search for our future farm.

We had lunch in Onekama at the Fish Tale Cafe (home of a humongous burger which I think was called Whale Tail Burger) and did some more sightseeing in the pretty town of Manistee. After strolling down the riverwalk we realized that time was catching up with us fast and we headed for the highway towards St. Joseph, where we watched the sunset by the lake. Just as we were going to return to the car I noticed someone had left a cell phone at the beach. It took quite some time to first call someone who actually knew the owner of the phone and then some more time for him to locate her. Eventually we found a police officer and handed to phone over to him just as the owner called to arrange a meet-up but we were now able to get on our way.

Our original plan had been to stay in St. Joseph or Benton Harbor for the night but we couldn’t find any decent motel (the part of Benton Harbor that we saw was downright scary – lots of boarded-up store fronts) so we decided to keep driving towards Indiana to shorten tomorrow’s drive. However we did make two stops before leaving town: First to do our laundry, then to pick up a fast food dinner at BK. We kept driving south until we found a motel in Niles just before the Indiana stateline.

We got up early to catch the sunrise on the east side of the Soo Locks, then watched two ships pass through the Soo Locks. After breakfast at the Lockview Restaurant, where we’d had our dinner the night before (you get a discount if you’re staying at the Long Ships Motel and the food is decent) we headed south. We started out on the freeway but since the weather was so nice, decided to try smaller roads so that John could take photos. The landscape became more and more agricultural as we approached St. Ignace but we did find some forest roads with amazing fall colors here and there.

In St. Ignace, just before approaching the Mackinac Bridge, we stopped for pastries and decided to take a look at the Father Marquette memorial. The memorial was mostly closed, but there was a short nature walk with nice views of the bridge. Construction slowed down traffic on the bridge which was nice because it allowed us to take in the view from above. We were amazed by the blue sky and waters of the lake, although the height was a tad unnerving for us two vertigo-sufferers. Back on terra firma we stayed on the eastern side of the peninsula (the “sunrise side”) until Rogers City, then picked up a fast food lunch before heading west to the “sunset side”. We emerged from the woods near Petoskey, almost in shock because of the amount of traffic. Staying out in the middle of nowhere has that effect on people! Driving through Traverse City we decided we were going to try to find a quiet place to view the sunset at the lake and headed towards the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. To our surprise, there really aren’t that many lake overviews at those dunes! We almost gave up on looking but found “our spot” just at sunset, not a minute too soon. It was a beautiful moment and we couldn’t believe our luck.

Our luck even continued when later on we passed a very nice place to eat, the Manitou Restaurant. We found lodging in Frankfort, at the R & R Motel, which is the first motel we’ve been to where the rooms are not locked and the room furnishings include books. I managed to read the foreword and first chapter of Ken Follet’s “The Pillars of the Earth” which I have been meaning to get from the library.

After breakfast at Jeffrey’s we left Marquette. Our first major destination was Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore near Munising. In Summer, tourists can take all kinds of boat rides to see the beautiful rocks, but today, with low clouds, fog, and drizzly rain that didn’t sound too enticing or worthwhile. We stopped to look at Scott Falls and Munising Falls on the way, but for some reason passed on Miners Falls, which is on the way to Miners Castle, a distinct lakeshore rock formation. As we were walking on the boardwalk perched high upon the cliffs to the Castle rock, we paid homage to the folks that built this and so many other trail in our National Parks and Monuments, and so many natural areas, enabling us “mere mortals” to visit and enjoy nature so easily.

Unfortunately, our drive through the Pictured Rocks area was cut short by road construction that closed down our intended route. Instead of detouring and adding lots of miles to our day to visit Grand Marais east of Pictured Rocks we decided to abandon that plan and aimed more or less straight for Tahquamenon Falls State Park. At the State Park we checked out both Upper and Lower Falls, but found the Upper Falls more accessible with better trails and viewpoints than the Lower Falls. Of course being bigger also helps. On the way east out of the park we sumbled upon the Village Fabrics & Crafts Store in the tiny town of Paradise. While I browsed the wares and bought another small needlepoint kit John chatted with the owner. Her dinner recommendation, a restaurant further down the road, sadly, turned out to be closed today. At this point it was dark and we simply headed for Sault Ste. Marie to have dinner on Portage Road right across from the famous locks and a few doors down from the very reasonable room Long Ships Motel. Before calling it a night, we went for a walk along the locks and took a look into the visitor center.

We took a short drive at sunrise to find a nice view of the Copper Harber Lighthouse which is only accessible by boat on a tour, which sounds interesting and would be something to come back for. After breakfast at the Tamarack Inn (where I enjoyed the Hangover Hash) we stopped at one of two gas stations in town to fill up and ended up chatting with the proprietor, Jake Anderson, for over an hour. Jake is trying to sell the gas station so that he can concentrate on his other venture, a dive shop. While diving wouldn’t have been the first thing coming to my mind when thinking of the Great Lakes, the clear lake waters and the possibility to find gemstone quality agate sure are convincing arguments.

Our road south took us through the most amazing fall foliage we had seen. It was hard not to stop every few trees for more leaf photos. A few hours and not a lot of miles later we passed Donna, who, near her lakeside house, was looking for something in the ditch by the road. John and I looked at each other: Should we go back and ask what she was doing? We turned around and not only learned that she was picking cranberries for cooking but also found out that the ditch was a great place for picking blueberries! We collected a bag full of berries which we would treasure and enjoy for the next days.

Shortly thereafter we passed through the town of Gay which is named after a person but has since then learned to make best use of the town name by hosting the annual “Gay Parade” on 4th of July. Similarly, the town’s only pub, the Gay Bar, sports a line of t-shirts and souvenirs. We stopped at the Gay Bar for a lunch of hot dogs – I also had a beer, trying to blend in with the locals. 

Something I hadn’t known about the UP is that this used to be and still is to an extent, mining country. There are a number ofhistoric mining facilities that the interested traveler can explore. We looked into taking a tour of the Quincy Mine in Houghton but the timing just wasn’t right and rushing through wouldn’t have done it justice so we decided to put this on our list of things to come back to. We did take a peak at some of the abandoned buildings as well as easily accessible exhibits such as the cars that were used to haul people, ore, and water in and out of the mine.

Outside of Hancock we ran into a “yarn store” sign that seemed to point into the forest but really led us to a shop that is set up through the entirety of a lady’s house. We chatted with the two women running it while I fondled the wares, marveled at the looms and spinning wheels for sale and eventually decided on two skeins of mohair to bring back as gifts.

When we drove through Michigamme on Highway 41 we saw the Mount Shasta Lodge with a big sign that it once served as the filming location for the movie “Anatomy of a Murder.” That and the promise of walleye drew us inside. We enjoyed our dinner and I made a note to get this film from Netflix upon our return. We had dessert at the Jasper Ridge Brewery in Ishpeming where John feasted on an apple dumpling a la mode and I had a pint of October Fest. We found a very reasonable place for the night in Marquette right on Lake Superior, the Birchmont Motel.

We had breakfast in Hurley, which is adjacent to Ironwood but lies in Wisconsin. Hurley is home to a number of bars, mostly situated on one long street. We avoided the pub serving breakfast (although in retrospect that would have probably been an interesting experience) and instead ate at the Bonshell Cafe,in the company of a bunch of hunters. One of which decided to “fight fire with fire” and started the day with a Bud, while a few others opted for pie a la mode. Although we clearly stood out because of our lack of camo attire everyone was very friendly.

After breakfast we picked up two lattes at the Hurley Coffee Company and started our drive, stopping briefly in Ironwood to check out Hiawatha, the world’s tallest fiberglass Indian, before running into another Indian-themed sculpture named Nee-Gaw-Nee-Gaw-Bow (one of Peter “Wolf” Toth’s Whispering Giants) in Wakefield. We talked to a lady in the local tourist info shop and decided, based on her recommendations, even though we weren’t really hungry yet, to try the local specialty called “pasty”. It is basically a large hot pocket style pie filled with potatoes and (usually) meat. Wakefield’s Randall Bakery and Coffee Shop sadly only had the beefy variety readily available so I had a sticky bun and only tried a smidgeon off John’s pasty which was quite good.  I like the principle of pasty and can imagine making them veg with a variety of ingredients and spices. Randall’s actually makes vegetarian pasties but they are only available frozen.

After our snack we continued on north to several spectacular waterfalls along the Presque Isle River and the Porcupine Mountains State Park, home of Lake of the Clouds. The lake overview exposed us to some rather cold gusts of wind so strong it was hard to stand up straight, but the beautiful view of the lake and surrounding forests in a wide range of fall colors was worth it. All along the day had been cloudy and rainy, so our rain jackets came in handy. At the State Park visitor center we realized we had lost an hour – without fanfare we had entered the Eastern Time Zone. Sadly that meant we were running out of daylight (not that there was an abundance of that anyway with the heavy clouds) and had to get moving.

We arrived in Copper Harbor at the northern tip of the Keewenaw peninsula in the dark and found us a nice motel room before heading out for dinner. At some time during our meal at the Mariner North restaurant the power went out in the entire town, but no matter, the kitchen was using gas stoves, so we were even able to have dessert, apple dumpling a la mode, in candle light. The power was still out when we retired to our room – good thing our GPS has an alarm clock!

I wanted to take a look at the town of Fond du Lac before we left for the road north since I was curious what the town center near the lake looked like. The downtown area looked nice, but I really loved the lake at sunrise, almost perfectly still, while the cold, crisp air rang with the sounds of geese traveling overhead.

At midday we saw more and more clouds until we lost blue sky completely shortly after noon. On the other hand we noticed that driving north the fall foliage colors were becoming more and more brilliant, especially the red maple leaves which turned some trees into veritable explosions of red and oranges. It also appeared that even the smallest Wisconsin towns had at least one pub, usually with a few vehicles parked in front of it at all kinds of hours. These people take their alcohol intake serious!

Our drive today took us to the Michigan stateline at the western side of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We found our night’s lodging at the neat little Quinn Motel in Ironwood, MI, which offers friendly service and great, clean rooms for a great, low price. It also introduced us to UP magazine, a locally produced mag which is hard to classify, other than that it appeals to folks who are not taken in by glossy publications such as GQ, Cosmo, etc.

We made it! After flying to Chicago in the wee hours of the morning, picking up the rental car and throwing ourselves into local traffic with a northerly aim we hit the shores of Lake Michigan. I can’t get over how tropical this lake looks in the sun. Of course I pretty much immediately doffed my shoes and tested the waters, which were cold but not freezing. Shortly after leaving the lakeside we entered Wisconsin. Our route towards the Upper Peninsula of Michigan included a detour through Waukesha, west of Milwaukee, to sample the famous ponza rottas at Jim’s Grotto. In a nutshell I would describe a ponza rotta as “deep fried calzone” but I’m almost certain that some gourmet out there would consider this blasphemy. Oh well, according to John I was missing out anyway because I was munching the “veg” version and should have tried the “meat lovers” type that he was devouring instead.

Just before pointing our trusty rental car due north again, we made an unscheduled detour because a sign caught our attention: “Ten Chimneys National Historical Landmark“. Intrigued we followed and found the legacy of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontaine. These two were famous actors in the 20 and Ten Chimneys was their estate, where they hosted many famous guests from the world of cinema and theater. Sadly, we arrived literally minutes before the gate closed and the last tour of the house had already left. We could only catch a glimpse of the buildings, hidden behind trees from casual glances. Who knows, maybe some other time?

We wanted to cover some more ground on our trail north before calling it a night and set our sights for Fond du Lac, a larger town with several colleges that was sure to have lodging available. We did, however, make best use of all remaining day light by driving the most scenic roads possible. In fact, the plan was to follow the Kettle Moraine Scenic Drive. That was made somewhat difficult since our map and the road signs did not agree on the exact route, and the signs were often not easily spotted. After a while “find the sign” became a game and we played it even after the last sun rays had disappeared.

John and I went for a walk early on the Santa Barbara beach early in the morning when we saw her. John told me he’d seen her before at the beach, pulling her wheeled bag across the sand. At first he thought she was reciting poetry or was an actress practicing for a role, but chances are she’s just arguing with the voices in her head. Behind her you can just make out the pier.

I left work early so that I could drive down to the airport and catch a flight to Burbank. This was the first time I drove myself there and it was pretty unnerving, but I’m getting better at dealing with freeway traffic so it went just fine. Of course I had given myself way too much time to get to the airport and sat around waiting, knitting and reading for a while.