Northern Michigan

On July 29 we relocated to Traverse City, MI. Along the way we stopped at Friske Farm Market which is the Buc-ee’s of farm markets. It was indoors with all kinds of gourmet and locally produced goods, plus clothing and household products, a cafe and a very cool playground for the kids. We bought a pizza for lunch and it was one of the best we’ve had on this trip. The next day we rode our bikes around Traverse City. Two days later, on Friday, we were traveling to Manistee on a one lane, one way only road under construction and within 20 minutes from departure the engine temperature was in the red zone. Fortunately we found a business (a boat yard no less!) with room for us to pull over. A tow truck came to get us and spent several hours figuring out how to hook up the rig. Turns out he did it wrong and bent the steering control arms (which we found out later and the tow company paid for). By the time we arrived at the Freighterliner service shop it was closed for the weekend and we couldn’t hook up to power. We used the generator that night and luckily a worker happened to came by the shop on Saturday and offered to hook us up to power. We were also very lucky that Stuart and Lesley’s lake house was about 30 minutes away in Honor and they offered to let us stay there until the rig was fixed. Their property is beautiful with awesome sunrises over a lake and literally next to Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore. While in Honor we went on a hike with Pepper and rode our bikes outside of Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore. Our rig was ready on Aug 5 and we finally made it to Manistee. Lesley and Stuart arrived at their lake house soon after we left and we were able to visit several times. We hiked Sleeping Bear dunes with them and they came to visit us in Manistee. On another day we went to an antique engine show in the town of Buckley with Lesley (unfortunately Stu came down with Shingles). During our time in Manistee Kevin joined his golfing buddies for their annual outing and I hung out with people I met there; I saw The Odyssey in Manistee’s historical theatre and went to the 5th Avenue Lighthouse with Kim, we also looked for sea glass at a lesser known beach (unfortunately we did not find any). I also went on a trolley tour of Manistee followed by lunch with ladies from the rv resort, played bunco and “card bingo”, and started crocheting!Read more