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Michigan 2022

May - October 2022
A 146-day adventure by Katboz Read more
  • 65footprints
  • 1countries
  • 146days
  • 356photos
  • 4videos
  • 5.4kmiles
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  • TravelerMichigan 2022
    3
    Day 9

    Charlie LOVES water

    June 3, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

    Posting this "footprint " separately so I could include video of the pup. With this app you either get one video (per footprint) or 6 pics.
    Charlie had so much fun in the water feature! Since it was on the Omaha side she got to play in it as we headed across and again when we came back. Perfect way to cool her off!Read more

  • TravelerMichigan 2022
    Day 9

    And into Omaha

    June 3, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 81 °F

    After the Bob Kerry Bridge we got on the road and arrived in Omaha about 5:30 or so. Tonight we hoped our game a little and decided to over night at a Cracker Barrel. Very nice! No trucks worth their engines running all night, which actually is sort of like a loud white noise affect.
    And we enjoyed a nice dinner that did not require cooking.
    Bonus: Cracker Barrel now serves a very limited selection of wine or beer! Better then nothing!?    Read more

  • TravelerMichigan 2022
    11
    Day 10

    Almost There

    June 4, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 70 °F

    We drove from the Cracker Barrel outside of Des Moines, Iowa to the Cracker Barrel in Hammond, Indiana. (I think they call RVers like us "cracker-dockers", as opposed to boondockers or Wallydockers.) They are a pretty nice alternative to truck stops, definitely smaller, and (in our experience) just a few RVs and a relatively flat parking lot. We use our slides and generator if we need power for AC or coffee!
    Again spent the day driving across Iowa, thru the northern part of Illinois and into Indiana. Hammond is one of the many suburbs or cities that are part of the larger metropolitan Chicago area. So traffic was thick and the road surfaces awful. Most of Illinois was the same. Just patched up roads with endless bumps and potholes. I hate to think what it has been doing to the RV.
    Even if their roads are a mess, their reststops are quite nice. Some actually provide dump stations and wi-fi. You can overnight at the reststops as well, but we chose to get a little farther off the interstate with the truck stops! Way less noise? I must say this trip has helped me to become less demanding with my "sleep conditions"! Noisy, lit up, sleeping on a slope, no power, and no dog parks. It is tough to walk the pup without her finding some "choice" bit of trash to eat!

    There are lots of sight seeing stops, but for some reason we just want to keep moving. Entrance fees, access and parking concerns (RV towing a jeep) and the time it takes to visit a museum/art gallery knowing we want to get to Michigan just colors our decision-making. Gas is less than California but seems to hover around $4.50
    For us, we always enjoy the window scenery. Even on the interstate we see a lot of farming, grass plains and wooded forests, sometimes flat landscape and other times rolling hills that make us go off of cruise control. Today we think (?) we experienced our first toll experience. We never saw a booth, but we did go through this area with several cameras, and I think I saw signs that said something about paying online. We have no way of knowing at this point, and I can only hope that we will get something in the mail. Our forwarded mail? Fingers crossed....
    So we have crossed the Mississippi, and are about 300 miles from Traverse. We have decided to just head on to the RV park. We are "early" in terms of our work start date, but that will give us a nice time to settle in and establish a new lifestyle schedule for Charlie and Frank.    Read more

  • TravelerMichigan 2022
    Day 11

    Grand Rapids for lunch

    June 5, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 64 °F

    Decided we would head to traverse today, but with a couple of stops. Left Hammond, Indiana and we were through the northern state of Indiana in about an hour. Indiana has just a little chunk of the shore of Lake Michigan.
    We left the interstate to drive the business loop into St. Joseph's. Always fun to see the large lakeside homes. Like so many Michigan homes, the front yards are big green parks, well maintained with riding mowers.

    St. Joseph's was a cute lakeside and harbor town. We stopped for about 30 minutes just to get out and walk a little. There was a very light drizzle, but not enough to cancel their sidewalk antique sale. Charlie dragged us around with her nose to the ground...

    Back on the road and drive the 80 miles or so into Grand Rapids. We decided to take Shannon's recommendation and check out their downtown market place. It is a large renovated building with multiple eateries and food shops. Lots of really good food options and fun to walk through. The have a beautiful enclosed event space upstairs that is essentially a huge greenhouse. All glass, green plants and lights. There was a wedding that was just ending.

    After lunch and wandering around the marketplace we didn't get on the road until 3 or so, which put our arrival in Traverse City after 6. Long day, but we got parked and had time to give Charlie some run time! Because we got here a week earlier than anticipated we will be in one site for a week and then move to our final site for the summer. We were fortunate that the rain held off until 8 or 9 that night!    Read more

  • TravelerMichigan 2022
    Day 15

    Arrived Traverse!

    June 9, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 63 °F

    Just a quick post of our arrival earlier this summer. Need to fill in with lots of summer photos!

  • TravelerMichigan 2022
    Day 112

    Coming home!

    September 14, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 66 °F

    Can't believe the summer is gone! Hope to fill in several of our summer days later with some of our excursions. For now we are journaling trip home!
    Last work day was Sunday, dinner with Cobb family Monday, and dinner with HPTC friends on Tuesday. We were pretty well packed up for Wednesday departure and still didn't get on the road until 10.
    We headed southeast towards the little town of Howell which is about 30 miles from Ann Arbor. We had reservation to tour the"big house" on Thursday. Nice drive through rolling green hills and forests, typical Michigan!
    Lunched in Mount Pleasant at a little deli in the downtown district. Surprise, surprise, there was a local artist gallery just didn't the street. I can't resist galleries, especially local artists...so while Tom enjoyed his ice cream I got to browse. No purchases but enjoyed chatting with the clerk whose son graduated from Mich. Tech, which is where Spencer plans to go to college.
    Back on the road to Howell and the Cycling Goats Farm. We joined Harvest Hosts (travel program) for our trip home to see if it was a good alternative to Walmart and cracker barrel for "free" overnight stays. Had a GREAT first experience. We were parked in a lower pasture of a couple who have started a sustainable farm. Goats, chickens, ducks, turkeys, and pigs to come. Also they had planned a big strip of wild flowers for "u-cut" sales. Program requires that we be self contained, so no utilities. But gorgeous setting. Watched deer in the field next to us. No lights, no traffic. We visited and toured farm and then spent a nice, dark, quiet night in the coach.    Read more

  • TravelerMichigan 2022
    Day 113

    Morning with the goats

    September 15, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 63 °F

    As Charlie and I got up we discovered the deer were back and checking out the RV more closely. She has been really good, and only stares intently out the window at them. No barking. Made some coffee and we all headed up to the goat pen for the morning feeding.
    It was fun watching the "feeding". As soon as the animals see Mike and Catherine they all run to the nearest fence. Ducks quacking, chickens running around, goats bleating and hopping around. My gosh, if you had this greeting every morning you could not have a bad day. So cute. Chickens get thrown some scratch, then goats get their breakfast in their shed, you hear lots of scuffling and jumping around, then the chickens and ducks get their good food in a separate coop, the "chicken cafe", because it could be harmful to the goats. The chickens eventually wander out scratching for more food, and the ducks go get in their little ponds, while the goats are still scuffling over food in the shed. A very busy group.... Finally, we went out and watched the turkeys being fed. They hope to have pigs by next year.
    Mike and Catherine are working towards being sustainable at some point in the future. Grow and keep enough animals for all their food sources. Even if that means bartering for items, they don't produce. Extremely nice couple, with two teens. One who is interested and one who is sort of isn't.
    Said our good byes, told them we hope to come by next year when we go back and actually see little baby goats!    Read more

  • TravelerMichigan 2022
    1
    1
    Day 113

    the "Big House" tour

    September 15, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 68 °F

    Said good bye to all the goats, and headed into Ann Arbor. Our tour was scheduled for noon and we had about a 45 min drive. Wanted to get there early since we had the RV and Jeep. Hindsight should have dropped the jeep sooner. Instead we drive all the way into a downtown university town towing the jeep looking for parking! Not healthy for any marriage. Ultimately we found our guide who then let us park the RV inside the stadium gates for the tour!
    We loved the tour! A little history, a look at the press area, the suites, the locker room and then we were allowed onto the field... It was a group of about a dozen, mostly couples. Every man had his Michigan shirt on!

    Ended day with drive to Kalamazoo, west of Ann Arbor. We overnighted in the parking lot of the Air Zoo museum as part of the Harvest hHost program. Down side, I forgot to look at light pole placement when we parked. So very quiet, but not especially dark. Was too tired to think about reparking!    Read more

  • TravelerMichigan 2022
    1
    Day 114

    Air Zoo in Kalamazoo

    September 16, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

    Enjoyed a quiet morning in there parking lot of the museum. Lots of green spaces for Charlie to sniff out.
    We weren't sure we wanted too go thru the museum but decided to since we're didn't have anywhere to be.
    Really enjoyed this stop, they have a very good selection of historically and currently aircraft displayed beautifully in this huge building, I don't have any knowledge about airplanes, butv appreciated display and size of some these aircraft. Lots of docents around too share info. My guess was they were mostly ex-flyers...
    Got on the road about noon. We stopped at Meijer for a few groceries, and walked across the lot to a deli to share a sandwich. Gassed up ($3.60 a gal, not to bad)) and headed west.
    We spent the rest of the day driving. We decided we didn't want to drive the interstates through southern Chicago, so we took a bunch of county highways. Not bad, but only two lane roads, and some with little or no shoulder. Average speed, maybe 45 mph. Hindsight, we would have probably been fine on the interstate. Although roads are not always in very good shape, especially the slow lanes...
    Enjoyed the countryside, lots of corn and some other crop, soy? Wide open with ranch houses, barns and silos. Not as wooded as Michigan, but rolling hills. Humid.
    We stayed at Nature's Way RV park, small but did have electric and water. Always a plus in warm days!    Read more

  • TravelerMichigan 2022
    Day 115

    Overnight at Pleasant Creek campground

    September 17, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 75 °F

    Just wanted to make sure this footprint was included in the mail. Forgot to take pictures of our spot...but had this photo with correct date and location. Also an excellent reminder!

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