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Adventures in Michigan – Reunion or Bust – Part 3.5

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

The Road to Williamston

It’s Sunday afternoon and we’re heading down the middle of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan towards Williamston, just a little east of Lansing on Hwy. 127. When we get a little past Mount Pleasant, the casino capital of Michigan, we cross an intersection for M46, the road that if we turned left would take us to Saginaw – my home town, but not this trip. Except for the three cousins who shared high school with me, this was not going to be a – see the family trip. We didn’t have that kind of time and once your parents have passed, as mine have – you don’t have a ready place to stay. It was hard to continue going straight down 127, but that was the plan.

This was our last opportunity to catch up with my old friend (Michael) and his family. Our schedules kept crossing and not coming together. As it turned out, his family was returning home that afternoon from South Haven – where we spent a few days a week ago. When we got to Lansing, the state capital, we found a hotel room close by to Williamston and waited for the call when they got home. That seemed the best as (Michael) had to work Monday and we wanted to get an early start back home the next morning.

When we finally drove into their driveway, (Michael) was still unpacking their car and out the door came (Lillie) their youngest, a 5th grader. Did I mention (Michael) is a few months older than me and he has a daughter in the 5th grade. If you’re doing the numbers – he’ll be lucky to retire at 70 – that’s if they soon don’t change the rules and make us all wait till then to retire. I know Linda and I were late starters, but (Michael) and his wife (Mindy) not only started later, but forget what the usual cutoff date was. Their other daughter (Amber) just graduated from high school and is headed to university. I hate to say it, but I am so glad we are past what they are just entering and will be at for many a year to come. (Amber) and (Lillie) are great children, polite, outgoing, and good old small town American children – well, (Amber) is an adult now.

Anyway, we went inside and talked a little. They had a nice home in what looked like a nice neighborhood, but we didn’t have a lot of time to absorb much and it’s a little hard to remember now. Soon it was time for dinner and they decided that C B’s Bucket Bar & Grille, a place where (Amber) was working this summer, would be the best choice for a Sunday evening. It seemed to be a sports bar with a heavy emphasis on Michigan Lottery info. The food was good – as was the conversation – we had a lot of years to catch up on with too little time.

McCormick Park

Behind the bar and grill was a river that went through the back of main street, I think the Red Ceder River, if my map is correct. When we went in for dinner (Mindy) mentioned that we could go over to the park on the other side of the road after to see the town’s sculpture exhibit. (Michael) was – “they don’t want to see that stuff.” But it turned out to be our only photo opportunity of this visit and an interesting trip – except for those pesky Michigan mosquitos.


(Lillie) and Linda checking this one out.

As I think I remember what (Mindy) told us, a tornado had come through Williamston a while ago and snapped off the tops of most, if not all the trees in McCormick Park. In an effort to make the best of a bad situation, the town had invited sculptors to come and turn those tree stumps into works of art during a Tree Sculpture Festival – and they did turn broken trees into works of art – with chainsaws.

I’m not sure my photography did the works justice, but I think you can see some details and get the idea. After all, the sun had gone down and the mosquitos were doing their thing – really good photography wasn’t possible. A few of the photos show live models standing on a few short stumps as substitute sculptures.


A sculpture named “Lillie”.


A sculpture named “Amber”.

After all my blood was drawn, we headed back to their home where we talked a bit more – about this and that, but the time was just so short. There were so many questions on both sides, it was painful to leave but Monday morning was coming soon. We were lucky to have the time together we did.

Our adventures in Michigan were fun and interesting, but all good things come to an end, and 17 hours later we were back home in South Carolina, but before I could finish this blog-o-mentary, sad news came about one of our high school friends.

I waited till all 3 and 1/2 parts were done before adding this final sad news. I didn’t want to put a damper on our adventures.

I got the call from my friend (Jim) who lives in Florida, that he had just received a call from (Doug) in New Orleans, that our good friend (Randy) had passed away due to complications in his constant and brave fight against HIV. This was terrible news, but not totally unexpected and I was so glad that (Randy) was one of the six schoolmates from high school who got together in Florida last February. I mentioned that gathering early in Part 1 – this trip was the result of that gathering. I had such a good time at that gathering I wanted to see more of my old friends, well – before it was too late.


A memory of (Randy). A picture from our yearbook.

We’re not old yet, but we’re on our way and things happen. The news about (Randy) was sort of unexpected in that during that gathering in February – considering his constant battle with one thing or another – he seemed to be in the best shape of all of us. And my memories of that time spent with (Randy) during that gathering will go a long way. I was lucky to have that time.

So, my message is that if you have good old friends you haven’t seen in awhile – now is the time. Don’t wait until it’s too late or it will be – even if you have to go all the way to Michigan or farther to see them.

I hope you enjoyed these adventures, except for the sad ending, and I thank my regular readers for putting up with them – I’ll be getting back to normal operations soon.

Thanks again to all our friends for treating us to a first class trip – as the guy from MasterCard says – it was priceless.

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Adventures in Michigan – Reunion or Bust – Part 3

Saturday, September 4th, 2010

So, as we left Interlochen, MI, in Part 2, we headed south to the middle of the lower peninsula of Michigan to the Lake Higgins area to stay at the new home of my cousin (Joyce) and her husband (Rick). This was a short trip through some back roads which took us through what might be called Christmas Tree Country. We drove along one tree farm after another. In a little over an hour or so we were at a point where our Google Maps would kick in.

My cousin (Joyce) and her husband (Rick) had been spending the last couple of Summers in this area at a rental home, but this year they came to buy – making themselves official snowbirds – folks who have a place to live in the North and the South so that they don’t have to live in the worst weather of each part of the country. It’s a great idea if you can work it out. By the time we arrived they had found a house – less than a mile from their rental and had already been living in the new place a month. It was a very nice house with a very nice yard. The backyard show here was a mother deer and her two does – who seem to pass through every day.

(Joyce & Rick) are retired. I hate to say this, and I’m sure she does too, but (Joyce) is the same age as me, but I’m going to be working for the next million years. I chose photo processing and publishing an arts newspaper – she was an investment counselor who got out before the big economy collapse. Is she smart or what? We made a deal over the next few days that if I ever win the lottery – she’ll be the first person I call. And I will – call her that is – if I can ever get in the habit of buying lottery tickets. It seems to be a stumbling block.

Again, Google did its duty and when we arrived we unloaded the car, did the tour and talked a bit – had a nice dinner. Again, we were being given four star treatment. By the late afternoon they had a regular habit of going over to the state park and watching the sunset, so we headed over there. This state park would become a big part of our stay at Higgins Lake.

When we got to the park we had to pass a general store there that just happened to sell hand scooped ice cream – imagine that. We watched the boats come into the marina there and saw the sunset and then headed back to their home.

When you are retired you begin to develop a routine. (Joyce & Rick) had several regular things they did most days. (Joyce is an early riser (around 5:30am) so she spends the early morning checking e-mail and other things on the computer. Around 8am (Rick) gets up and they go over to the state park and walk for an hour (they’re both very fit) and then come home to eat breakfast. When it wasn’t raining – it seemed to rain there every day for months, they did some work in the yard or around the house. By late afternoon they would go back to the park for sunset and in the evenings they don’t watch current TV much – they watch Netflix movies or TV shows.

While we were there they were finishing up the second to the last season of JAG – a show we used to watch and still do at times in reruns. Each evening they might watch two episodes. Well, (Ric) would watch two episodes while (Joyce) would get what she claimed was – some of her best sleep.

The next morning when they went for their walk I went along. I had been riding a stationary bike for 10 miles in the mornings at home to get in shape for this reunion. I’ll admit it. So I had no fear that I could walk for an hour around the park. I might not have expected to walk at the pace they were used to and talk at the same time, but I did it all while we were there. I was glad to get some regular exercise – I was worried about coming home after the trip and getting on that bike again and making it through the ten miles, but as it turned out I lost weight and kept fit during the trip.

Linda came to the park each morning to check e-mail – that general store also had WIFI too, beside hand scooped ice cream and coffee – something Linda’s day must start out with. When you’re a 911 dispatcher you need a little jump start in the morning – it’s a 12 hour day.

A Trip to Lake Huron

(Joyce & Rick) wanted to take us on a trip to Mackinac Island, which is a resort island in Lake Huron near the Straits of Mackinac where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron come together and the Mackinac Bridge connects the Lower and Upper Peninsulas of Michigan. The Mackinac Bridge is currently the third longest suspension bridge in the world.

You have to ferry to the island and there are no cars allowed on the island so getting around is by foot, bike or carriage. It would have been nice to go there, but we felt is was a little too expensive a trip for us on this trip. And, we didn’t want anyone picking up the tab for us on such an adventure. It would have been nice to go to Mackinac Island – I’ve never been there, so it leaves something to do for another trip. But, we made just as interesting a trip the next day by going over to Tawas City, MI, (the other side of the state) where her brother (Ron) lives with his wife (Dorta), an exchange student from my high school days. They have a maritime antique and sandwich shop there – right on Lake Huron. They wanted to talk with us as one of their sons is moving to Charleston, SC. That’s right folks there will soon be another Starland in the area.

We had a nice lunch of grilled brats on their patio, fed corn to the ducks in the lake and met a couple of their grandchildren who were staying for the Summer. They were going to have their hands full.

Business is not so good in Michigan, but it seemed that our visit that day brought in plenty of customers – more than they had seen in days. (Ron) had just retired from teaching at my old high school – in fact he did his teacher training there when I was a senior. He was one of two of my cousins who taught while I was there with three other cousins – two others in my own class and one in the class above. The result was – if we did anything wrong at school your parents heard about it right away. In elementary school – my aunt was the principal of the school. That puts a new twist on being sent to the principal’s office.

My family used to camp a lot at Tawas (I’m not sure when it became Tawas City). There was a state park there right on Lake Huron and a long fishing pier – that’s right where my dad could fish for perch. He and one of my uncles would also go there to ice fish in the Winter. Today that campground is a city park and looks nothing like I remember. Tawas had over grown the small community it once was. The state park had moved out to Tawas Point where a lighthouse is. We went there and checked it out too.

Lumberjackin’

On the trip back to Higgins Lake we went to Lumberman’s Monument, another place we visited a lot in my youth. This place was pretty much the same. The Monument is a 14-foot tall bronze statue, by Robert Aitken, which overlooks the Au Sable River.

The Lumberman’s Monument was erected in 1931 as a lasting memorial to the lumberman that harvested Michigan’s giant white pines. The three figures represent various stages of the historic lumbering operation. In the center the timber cruiser holds a compass, to his left; a sawyer holds an ax and cross-cut saw. The river rat is on the right using a peavey.

On of the major features of this park is the observation area overlooking the mighty Au Sable River and the stairway down to the river – 280 steps down a 150 foot vertical drop from the high bluff down to the river bank. If there is anything I remember from my childhood – it was those steps. My cousin (Joyce) wondered aloud if I was going to go down the steps. That’s a cousin for you. But, unlike the other three in our party I had every intention of going down those steps and hopefully making it back up them. And I had my camera with me to take pictures along the way to prove it. Some say I paid some kid to go down and take the pictures, but no kid could match my photography skills and I wouldn’t trust any of those kids I saw there not to just run off with my camera.


At the bottom of the river looking over at the sand dune area.


Starting up from the bottom.


Many more stairs to go.

I went down the steps – all 280 of them very carefully – taking my time not to go too fast and take in the sights, but on the way back it only took me 5 minutes – and I stopped a few times to take pictures. As a kid I remember these stairs as the death march stairs – easy to run down – but it took the rest of the day to walk back up. I guess I was in better shape than I thought. The others walked over to a big sand dune bluff overlooking the river.

Since the days of my youth the US Forest Service had added a Visitor Center and some exhibits describing the life of a lumberman. I know this was new as I wouldn’t have forgotten such a cool gift shop.

Later that day or maybe it was the next, it’s all getting a little fuzzy now, we went by a Civilian Conservation Corps Camp Museum – these were the people who replanted the forest in Michigan those lumberman cleaned out. The buildings were closed – cutbacks due to the economy, but we got a little idea of what their life was like – rebuilding a forest.

The next few days we spent driving around the area to Houghton  Lake, the lake below Higgins Lake and around Higgins Lake, which is so big and popular it has a state park at the North and South end. We never did go swimming as the temps were in the mid-70’s and the lake was too cold for some – no names mentioned, but it wasn’t me.

Every time we drove somewhere we passed a place called Nibble’s. It was a popular hand scooped ice cream stand, but it was either too early in the morning or there was a long line of people waiting, so we never stopped. We had been eating so much ice cream on this trip that I was beginning to have the ice cream DT’s. I wanted some more black cherry.

Reunion Preparations

The day before our Saturday reunion (Joyce) wanted to drive by a cabin at the lake owned by the family of a neighbor who went to high school with us who was living in Arizona that she had lost contact with. We joked about the fact that we had lost contact with a lot of people, but since Higgins Lake and Houghton Lake were popular summer vacation spots -some of our friends could be up at the lake right now, so we headed over to find her neighbor’s family cabin in hopes that someone would be there and we could learn how to get in touch with our old classmate (Diane). It took some searching, but we finally found the road where the cabin was and as we drove up to the place there was a car in the parking space with Arizona plates. The joke was on us.

Long story short (if you believe that) (Diane) wasn’t there, nor was her family, but across the street was another family from her old neighborhood and we wondered if they had a number to call – they did, (Joyce) talked to (Diane’s) mother and we got her number – then got her on the phone at work. (Diane) works for the city of Phoenix, AZ, and guess what? (Diane) was on her way to Michigan and was coming to the lake house. But, it wouldn’t be until the next weekend. It was a great discovery and this extended the reunion into a two weekend event. We were only there for Part 1.

The Reunion

Well, Saturday morning started with the walk in the state park while Linda checked e-mail again. (Pati) came about mid-day, just in time for the Lunch & Open Bar break, so there we were – three classmates from 1969. (Joyce) had baked a nice pie for our lunch. I helped peel the apples. I was going to buy a cherry pie at a store, but (Joyce) volunteered to make one. It was goooood.

We had an agenda for the day.
10am – Coffee Break (I don’t drink coffee)
11am – Yearbook Signing (Joyce signed my book 41 years late)
Noon – Women’s Volley Ball (It was kind of hard for Joyce since Pati had not arrived yet)
1pm – Men’s Volley Ball (I was the only guy there from our class)
2pm – Lunch & Open Bar (we had a great lunch with homemade apple pie for desert)
3pm – Conversations about those who didn’t come to the reunion (this extended into the next time frame – as so many didn’t make it)
4pm – Yearbook Signing (Pati signed my book 41 years late)
5pm – Strip Poker (no details – sorry guys, you didn’t make it)
6pm – Open Bar Shut Down
7pm – EMS arrives.

Actually, I don’t think we made it to 7pm as (Pati) had to drive home, but I think we had a good time – I know I did. I mean think about it – how many guys get to go to a high school reunion and they’re the only guy who shows up?


(Joyce), me, and (Pati)

There’s a lot more to tell about this reunion, but I think that’s a private affair and I’m saving those stories for a Reunion Blog I’ll be creating to get people ready for the one coming in two years.

The Last Day at the Lake

Sunday we packed up the car while (Joyce & Rick) went to church. When they got back we had a big breakfast – I still can’t believe we lost weight on this trip, but we did. If I had known that all my friends were going to turn out to be such good cooks I might not have left Michigan in the first place. As we were saying our good-byes the sun came out for the first time in a week. This was good as (Joyce & Rick) were hoping to get a coat of paint on their backyard deck. I talked with (Joyce) a few days ago and it was still raining almost every day at the lake, but they did get that deck finished and a few more things. So much for retirement.

So, now we were once again back in the car, this time heading South down the middle of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan towards Williamston to catch a few hours of visiting with another high school friend (Michael and his wife Mindy and their two children). (Michael) just couldn’t get his schedule to work out for the reunion, but I wasn’t coming to Michigan without seeing him after all these years. The last time I saw him was at our official 30th reunion. But, that story will be told in Part 3.5.

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Adventures in Michigan – Reunion or Bust – Part 2

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

The Road to Interlochen

Well, we left South Haven, MI, early on a Monday morning headed north towards Interlochen, MI, to the home of one of my best friends from high school and for many years after (Pati) and her husband (Jim). Our paths haven’t crossed much lately, but every once in a blue moon, one of the other of us will just make contact out of nowhere.

After the gathering of some of my old high school friends in Florida that I mentioned in Part 1, I reached out and found that (Pati) was in the process of moving back to Michigan after living for some time in Lino Lakes, MN. I hate to say it but my first reaction was to ask – now why would you want to do that? To my surprise, (Pati) said it’s been a dream of hers for years.

After living down south for 36 years and Linda – all her life – moving to Michigan would be more like a nightmare, but (Pati) has been living in the northern territories for quite some time and a move to Michigan wouldn’t be that much of a change – climate wise.

So, here was another old friend who would be close by for a little high school reunion, or at least a visit on our northern trek.

From South Haven we traveled Hwy. 196 to Holland, MI, home of the Tulip Festival (what a surprise) and from there traveled up Hwy. 31 along the west side of Michigan going through many towns I knew from my youth – days spent family camping. Ludington, MI, was one of the favorite family destination, although a long trip in a car for a kid. In Ludington you can catch a ferry across Lake Michigan to Manitowoc, WI.

A little further up the coast we went through Manistee, MI. These were all places that had a Michigan State Park and good fishing. Our family trips, at least in Michigan, went always to places where there could be good fishing. My father was a fishing nut.

Along the way we kept seeing signs for the Little River Casino Resort. Michigan has gone in a big way for casinos and the Manistee area is home of the Ottawa Indians. The tribes get to have the casinos, but then what part of Michigan wasn’t tribal territory at one time – before the white man came. I guess the Indians are getting their revenge now. Having never been in a casino I was a little curious, but had visions of losing all my gas money to get back to South Carolina – so we didn’t venture into any.

Further up the road we came to Crystal Lake (properly named) in the town of Benzonia, MI. I made a wrong turn looking for the downtown area which would have taken us around the lake, but again once I knew I was lost I turned around, plus it was getting time for lunch and we passed an interesting place called the Cherry HUT Restaurant. We were deep in cherry country, but what really got my attention was a sign at the restaurant which informed readers that on Friday nights the restaurant would be serving Cherry BBQ. Now that got my attention.

We called (Pati) to tell her we were close, but were going to stop at this place and eat lunch. She said, she and (Jim) had eaten there recently – she gave it the “interesting” description, and it looked that way, but a lot of cars were there so it had to be good. (Pati) and (Jim) had been working for the US Census – so they’ve been all over this area.

I must say, the cherry theme was interesting – all things cherry, and the food was OK, but I felt like we had fallen into a tourist trap. The food was over-priced for what it was. But, I really would have liked to try the cherry BBQ – just once to see what it would be like.

Interlochen

After lunch it wasn’t very long before we got to Interlochen and this time Google Maps was right on. (Pati) was out in the driveway washing her car. After a few hugs and introductions to (Jim) – we had never met, we moved a few things from the car into their home, did the tour, talked and eventually had dinner.

(Pati) and (Jim) also have bird feeders in their backyard and in front of their living room window, so there was a lot of bird activity here too. I never saw any squirrels and that might be due to their cat.

Later we drove into Interlochen to Bud’s Coffee, Ice Cream, and Food – for ice cream – what else? Bud’s was a nice big place where you could hang out. Did I mention that I always have black cherry ice cream. It’s the cherry thing. When I mentioned the Michigan/ice cream thing to (Pati) she said one night we’d have to go into Traverse City for a real ice cream treat, but unfortunately our travels in the area never took us there. They say to always leave something for the next visit. So, we’ll always have that ice cream treat in Traverse City.

Now, Interlochen might sound familiar to some of you in the art world. This small town in the woods is the location of the Interlochen Center for the Arts, a privately owned, 1,200 acre arts education institution. The Center draws young people from around the world to participate in intensive study of music, theater, dance, visual art, creative writing, and motion picture arts. Interlochen Center for the Arts is the umbrella organization for Interlochen Arts Camp (formerly the National Music Camp, founded 1928), Interlochen Arts Academy (founded 1962), Interlochen Public Radio (founded 1963), and the “Interlochen Presents” performing arts series where this summer performers like Sheryl Crow, The Moody Blues, Bela Fleck, The Oak Ridge Boys, Lyle Lovet, Taj Mahal, and David Sanborn were being offered, among opera, theatre and dance performances.

Now, (Pati) works at a Target store in Traverse City, from 4am to 8am, restocking shelves with merchandise before new shoppers arrive when the doors open at 8am. I never imagined she would be working at a Target, much less any retail establishment, but Target is my favorite store and stocking shelves early in the morning hours with no customers around – I can see that. Running a maple syrup farm – yes. Doing people’s star charts in a room full of old looking books and sky charts – yes. Working at Target took some getting used to at first, but then over the years I’ve done a lot of things I never imagined myself doing. Like writing a blog.

Over the years (Pati) and I have had some adventures. A year or two before I moved from Michigan to South Carolina I flew out to San Francisco to meet up with her to spend some time in California and then help drive her car across country back to Michigan. She had been staying in a place north of San Francisco in a small hippy community near Bodega Bay, CA, but was planning to return to Michigan. That was my first experience with the West Coast life-style and I found I was a Midwestern boy at heart. Later on, when I was living in North Charleston, SC, she and a friend came to visit me, for what I remembered as a few weeks and later learned was six months. She even had gotten a job at Charlestown Landing while she was here that I forgot. Again, just another instance where my memory had failed me of certain chapters of my life.

There are a lot of stories attached to these two instances, but there is no time for them here and some are best left in my fuzzy memory banks.

The next day, (Pati) planned to take us on a drive around the area – especially to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, but we started at a little rock shop we passed on the way to her house back on Hwy. 31. I wanted to get our son a Petoskey stone as a souvenir of our trip. Remember, he’s a degree carrying geologist.

I feel another lesson coming on.

A Petoskey stone is a rock and a fossil, often pebble-shaped, that is composed of a fossilized coral, Hexagonaria percarinata. The stones were formed as a result of glaciation, in which sheets of ice plucked stones from the bedrock, grinding off their rough edges and depositing them in the northwestern portion of Michigan’s lower peninsula. Petoskey stones are found in the Gravel Point Formation of the Traverse Group. They are fragments of a coral reef that was originally deposited during the Devonian period, about 350 million years ago (for those of you who believe the world is more than a few thousand years old). When dry, the stone resembles ordinary limestone but when wet or polished using lapidary techniques, the distinctive mottled pattern of the six-sided coral fossils emerges. It is sometimes made into decorative objects. Other forms of fossilized coral are also found in the same location. In 1965, it was named the state stone of Michigan. (Thank you, Wikipedia.)

While I spent time looking for the right Petoskey stone (meaning one we could afford) Linda looked at the other pretty gems they had – one of her favorite pastimes.

Next we stopped at a road side market and looked at more gems, some vintage CD’s or CD’s of vintage rock groups, and I got my first bag of Michigan cherries. We learned from (Pati) the night before that the cherry season came early this year and that we were at the tail end of getting local cherries, so this was a find and they didn’t have many left.

Between the market and the Dunes we stopped at a local chocolate shop that (Pati) stops at on her way to go swimming in Lake Michigan. As I stated earlier – we ate well our entire trip and the great thing was we didn’t gain weight – we both lost weight, so we were eating better than usual. Of course we were getting a lot of exercise too.

Once we got to Sleeping Bear Dunes we got on the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive. As we entered (Pati) made a joke about the other cars entering the drive that these would be the people we would be seeing the sights with – how true that turned out.

OK – here’s the legend of Sleeping Bear Dunes. “Long ago, along the Wisconsin shoreline a mother bear and her two cubs were driven into Lake Michigan by a raging forest fire. The bears swam for many hours, but eventually the cubs tired and lagged behind. The mother bear reached the shore and climbed to the top of a high bluff to watch and wait for her cubs. Too tired to continue, the cubs drowned within sight of the shore. The Great Spirit Manitou created two islands to mark the spot where the cubs disappeared and then created a solitary dune to represent the faithful mother bear.”

The two bear cubs are South Manitou Island and North Manitou Island and the mother bear is at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

I had memories of coming here as a kid, but the dunes looked different and I later learned that the place I was thinking of was the dunes at Silver Lake near Saugatuck, MI. I was just getting my memories mixed up. What else is new about this trip.


Linda, Me, and my friend (Pati)

Either way these dunes were amazing as you’ll see in the pictures. At the dunes overlook I asked a fellow visitor to take a photo of (Pati), Linda and I – to help my memory in the future. Turns out it was a fellow Southerner from Georgia visiting a friend in Interlochen. Small world. After that little encounter we kept running into those same folks all day – even after we left the park and went into Glen Arbor, MI, for lunch. After the fourth time we just checked with each other to see what was next. I guess we broke the pattern when a gallery was across the street from where we ate a late lunch and I ventured in – knowing I probably shouldn’t have, but this was a step above the last gallery we went in.

The gallery presented a lot of nice work, but most of it was by artists from the Northwest Coast. I figured the owners must have moved to Michigan from that area bringing the artist’s works with them. I was glad to not see anyone else’s work I recognized.

(Pati) was willing to take us to other spots of interest, but I had to admit that the day had gotten the better of me and we headed home. We had done a lot of walking and driving.

The Tree Farm

Our stay in Interlochen would be short, so the next morning we got a little tour of their new maple syrup farm – a little smaller than the 50 + acres they had in Minnesota and Wisconsin, but still big to us. Plus, (Pati) would be coming to Higgins Lake, our next stop for the reunion on Saturday.

We learned from her that the year before was devastating to their maple syrup business as some worm had come to the area – like one of Moses’ plagues – eating all the leaves on the maple trees. The output of syrup depends on the crown of the tree and we could see that the trees were just beginning to come back, so there was some doubt as to what kind of crop they would have this next year. They didn’t get much sap out of the trees this year, but, I was lucky enough to buy one of the last bottles they had, but later sorry I didn’t buy a bigger bottle.

Just a week or so ago I finally made pancakes to try the syrup out and the 8 oz. bottle I got only lasted two days. I split the batch I cooked into two servings. It was goooooood. And, as Linda says – “would you like some pancakes to go with your syrup?” But, it’s a good thing I didn’t have more at this point as I would just end up eating too many pancakes. I’m trying to lose weight right now. You know the older you get the harder it is to carry that weight around and I’m enjoying the last year of my 50s.

So now I’m going to do some marketing work for my old friend. You can find a website for their business, Trees of Gold – Pure Maple Syrup, at this link. They’re still working on the site, but they may have a few bottles left and then you can check back to see how the harvest turned out after this next March. I told (Pati) that she needs to get working on her blog to show people the process – it will make buying the syrup even more interesting – seeing how it’s made and where it comes from.

How often do we get a view of the process involved in producing the things we eat? With one set of Grandparents who ran a dairy farm I got a complete picture of where most of our dairy products and meat comes from – other than off a grocery shelf.

It would have been nice to spend more time with (Pati) and (Jim), but they had other friends coming and we had the third link of our trip to make before the big reunion. So later that morning we headed south to the middle of the lower peninsula of Michigan to the Higgins Lake area to stay at the new home of my cousin (Joyce) and her husband (Rick). See you again in Part 3.

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Adventures in Michigan – Reunion or Bust – Part 1

Sunday, August 29th, 2010

The Setup

They say you can never go home again. Well, someone said it and they must of messed up, as I’ve gone home several times with no problems and this year had planned a major trip back to Michigan, my state of origin. I’d say my home state, but since I have now lived in South Carolina longer than I lived in Michigan, I think old SC will have to be considered my home state. After 36 years here I’m still coming to grips with that notion, but that’s another story.

What that person should have said is – Oh, you can go back home, but it will never be the same. At least those things you remember will never seem the same and since no place stands still – there will be a lot of different things there. And, if I learned anything on this trip – my memory for the past is just not what it used to be and is surely not as good as some people’s. I know I said this a lot – “I don’t remember that.”  I’ve been telling Linda, my better half, for years that I’ve got “old timers” disease and now after this trip I’m sure she believes me.

Well anyway, this trip was to be a reunion with some old high school friends, which included a few cousins. At least that was my plan. This idea was hatched last February when a few fellows from high school got together at a friend’s home down in Merritt Island, FL, next to Cocoa Beach. One guy came from New Orleans, LA, two came from Saginaw, MI, I was coming from Bonneau, SC, and a fifth friend came for a day from a town 50 miles or so away from Merritt Island. Others from Michigan just couldn’t fit the trip into the time frame we came up with. So, at that gathering we planned a summer trip up to Michigan – closer to many other old high school friends – hoping more people could get together.

We had done this in the past when pretty much this same group of guys came to Charleston, SC, and we rented a place out at Folly Beach on the Atlantic Ocean. It took me years to live that gathering down. And it’s just getting to the point where I can show my face on Folly Beach again. It’s a good thing we’re a lot older now.

My friend (Jim) (no last names – to protect the innocent – right) who organized the Florida gathering took the lead in getting this reunion organized. A few friends in Michigan said they couldn’t, wouldn’t, be on the organizing end of anything. A big breakthrough came when we visited one of my many cousins on another trip to Florida when we learned that she (we’ll call her Joyce) and her husband (Rick) had been spending summers up at Higgins Lake in Michigan – the middle of the lower part of Michigan. So we had a southern contact that would be up north by the beginning of Summer – this was progress. There was a State Park at the lake where we could have a gathering – if people actually came.

As things turned out, after all our efforts to find some folks and get them on board for the time frame we selected, it ended up that our trip was going to be in three or four locations – pretty much the folks we had planned to see and even (Jim’s) plans changed at the last minute and he ended up in upper New York state. We’re now planning to try and get folks together in two years – hoping that will give them time to get organized and make it happen. But if it doesn’t – it doesn’t.

And, at this point I want to state that this trip wouldn’t have been possible without the generosity of our three hosts in Michigan. They treated us like royalty. We hope to one day be able to return that generosity.

For the purpose of keeping these entries as short as I can, I’m going to break this trip up into 3 1/2 parts. But, those who know me know – nothing is short once I start talking or writing.

So one evening after we finished our August issue of Carolina Arts after Linda got off work at her other job at 7pm, we packed up the car and headed north up I-26 to I-40 and then hopped on I-75 in Knoxsville, TN. From there it’s a straight shot up to Michigan – except for Kentucky and OMG Ohio. A drive that is so boring it takes forever to make it through that state. But, I drove straight through for 19 hours – with one unscheduled stop in Berea, KY, at the Kentucky Artisan Center which I’ve already written about.

Of course we stopped at a million rest stops in-between. We crossed the border into Michigan about 5pm the next day and once we got to Ann Arbor we were headed West on I-94, going through Jackson – I had a relative who was the warden at the State Prison there – then Battle Creek – where most of your breakfast cereals come from – then Kalamazoo – where I attended my last years of college at Western Michigan University (I never finished, with just one more semester to go – that’s another story) and then on to South Haven, MI, on the shores of Lake Michigan.

South Haven – Our First Stay

When we arrived in South Haven we got lost. Google maps sent us in the wrong direction. Get this folks. I stopped the car and called for directions. Does this make me any less a man? After 19 hours of driving I was ready for this trek to be over.

When we got to my cousin’s home we parked that car where it stayed put for days. We’ll give my cousin the name of (Rocky) and his wife (Sandy) – like the waters of Lake Michigan turn rocks into sand – lots of sand.

After a tour of their home and a little unloading of the car they drove us into South Haven to the Riverfront Park – catchy name – the Charleston, SC, area has three of them (Riverfront Parks that is). This park sits along the Black River which runs into Lake Michigan. It’s a favorite place for folks there to walk along and watch the sunset.

We see lots of sunsets on Lake Moultrie at home, but this lake is a little bigger – there’s no seeing across to the other side. From South Haven, looking across the lake your left eye is looking at Illinois and your right eye is looking over at Wisconsin. There aren’t many places where you can do that.

We have to stop the story for a little geography lesson. Lake Michigan is 307 miles long by 118 miles wide, with a maximum depth of 925 feet, but the average depth is 279 feet. The lake has 1,660 miles of shoreline – largely of sand and pebble beaches touching four states: Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana. Now that’s a big lake. The Great Lakes – Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface and volume.

It was here (back at the Riverfront Park) that our host learned how easy it was going to be to entertain us – at least me. We later learned that everyone was planning art adventures for us. They wanted to show off the arts in their area or thought that’s all we were interested in since we do an arts newspaper – wrong. We get enough of that at home – everyday. Parading through a bunch of art galleries and art museums was the last thing I was interested in – I was on vacation. Linda and I also determined that this was the longest we’ve been away from South Carolina and our business – ever or at least in a long, long time. So we wanted to get away – far away – as much as we could.

So here’s the deal. After the sunset on the walk back to the car I see fireflies and go nuts. They’re (my cousin and his wife) amazed at my excitement. We used to see fireflies in our backyard when we first moved to Bonneau, but after we cleaned up the jungle in our backyard – we never saw them again. We’d have to go up to the mountains in Western North Carolina to see fireflies, and I can’t remember seeing any on my nighttime delivery trips of Carolina Arts. So, this was an occasion. Everyone soon learned that we had no formal plans to see anything, do anything (with a few exceptions) – we had come to visit them. But we saw and did plenty.

At this point I think it’s a good time to mention the temperatures in Michigan. The highest it ever got while we were there was 84 degrees, and there was little humidity – except when it was raining. Some days it never got above 74 degrees and one day it was cool enough to put on light jackets – well Linda got cool. I was born in Michigan. I only wore a coat for a few hours when it was raining.

In South Carolina we had been having months of 95 + degree days with lots of humidity. It was going to be hard going back and it was. The heat is still turned on here. But as someone said in Michigan – at least you don’t have to shovel heat. They had a point.

After we got back we talked a little bit, but then we crashed – we had been up well over 24 hours at this point – it was time for bed.

My cousin and his wife have a backyard that is half garden, half wildlife preserve – they were feeding birds, squirrels, and chipmunks from miles away. There was always something going on back there to watch. And, we spent plenty of time out there – as it was nice enough to do so. Back in SC – I don’t go outside unless I have to in the Summer. Their backyard also backed up to a cranberry bog – which was interesting. I’ve never see one of those before. Now, I can check that off my life list.

The next day we went back to the downtown area for a tour, first by car and then by foot. The homes along the lake shore were mostly owned by folks who lived and worked in Chicago – at least the big places. This seemed to be a theme all along the eastern side of Lake Michigan – which is all sand dunes, and I guess considered to be the best side of the lake. I saw the same thing in Maine when I was there. Most of all the land along the coast was being bought up by people from Boston and New York City. It’s the same way at our lake in Bonneau – politicians, judges, teachers, business moguls, lawyers – they all live along the edge of the lake. Little folks like us have to live on the other side of the road across from them. Of course when one of our neighbors explains that his breakwall cost more than his house and he’s replaced it twice – I always tell him I’m happy to be where we are. It seems that the more money you have, the more troubles you have. And, a lot of these folks staying in the big houses in South Haven are only there during the summer. But the town looked really nice with a lot of the old homes being restored.

When we got to main street, which wasn’t named Main Street, it was inevitable that we would come to an art gallery and end up inside, but I wasn’t ready for what we would find there. I’m walking around and pretty soon I see a painting and mention to Linda – “this sure looks like an Eva Carter painting”. She agrees and the next thing we do is turn it over and Eva Carter’s name is on the back, but this is not an Eva Carter painting.

Eva Carter is a world famous painter from Charleston, SC. We’ve known her since the days we began our arts newspaper, we have some of her work in our collection and we know her work doesn’t go for $650 – not a painting this size. My cousin and his wife (Rocky and Sandy) were amazed that I could identify a painter’s work by sight and so was I as I didn’t expect to see it in this gallery. I took a picture of the painting without anyone from the gallery seeing to deal with this later. You see, we should have stayed out of art galleries – now I had a duty to preform when we got back home.

I’m not going to mention the gallery, they probably don’t even know they are helping rip off an artist. I later learned from Eva that this has happened many times to her now – it’s the price you now pay when you’re an artist who creates works that are popular all over the world – people rip you off and there’s not much you can do. If you catch someone, it might cost you more to stop them and even if you do, someone else will pick up right behind them. If someone wants to rip you off these days – they can do it. There are plenty of people willing to pay less for a ripped off copy of good art.

I guess the only benefit, if you want to call it that, is that now works by Eva Carter are sold all over the world. She gets reports from friends all over who run into works where they shouldn’t be, but if you want an original Eva Carter you’ll have to get one from her. And, you’re going to have to pay more than $650, but you’ll be getting more than a $65 poster mounted on board or canvas. The good thing is – this is only happening to a few images – but, over and over again. Buyer beware!

As much as you try sometimes you just can’t get away from your work.

We had lunch that day at Joe’s Bar & Grill (I’m not making these names up.) where (Rocky and Sandy’s) daughter, (Laura) worked. I had two foods on my list of things to do – eat Michigan cherries and lake perch. They had perch on the menu and I ordered it. Oh man, oh man, if there is anything I miss from living in Michigan – it was fried lake perch and it tasted exactly like I remembered on the first bite. I later learned from (Rocky and Sandy’s) daughter (Laura) that these perch were not from the lake. I’m like – what? Apparently restaurants can’t serve perch from the lake because of the mercury levels. So where do these perch come from? She didn’t know. And, what about all those perch people are fishing for in the lake and taking home and eating? She (Laura) said she didn’t know.

What’s this world coming to when you can’t get Lake Michigan perch when eating in a restaurant in a town on Lake Michigan? This would have been perplexing until we found ourselves in a Wal-Mart and they had cherries, but the cherries were from Washington state! We were in Michigan, one of the biggest producers of cherries and Wal-Mart is selling Washington cherries. Go figure.

I learned on this trip that my cousin (Rocky) had become quite a cook, which was a bit of a surprise to me, but very good news – we were eating very well. I’m including a photo of one of the meals we had – it looks like something you would see in a magazine. We ate really well the whole trip. But, one of the things I learned about folks in Michigan I guess I never really knew when I lived there was that folks in Michigan are nuts about ice cream – not just the kind you buy in the grocery stores – the kind served by people who make it themselves – hand scooped.

One afternoon they took us to Sherman’s Dairy Bar. If you’ve ever been to South Haven you probably were taken to Sherman’s. I’m glad we were taken, but this was just the beginning of one of the themes of our trip. Sherman’s is the type of place where you get a number and wait and when you get your ice cream – you may have to wait to sit down and eat it. Well, you’ll start eating it the second you get it – or you’ll be wearing it. They believe in giving people their money’s worth and more. They want satisfied customers and they get them every time.

Another highlight of our South Haven visit was going to see the movie, Inception, at the Michigan Theatre (really, I’m not making these names up). It’s just $3.50 for first run movies, and if you buy one of their popcorn buckets for $2, you can enjoy popcorn at every movie you go to there after for $.50 – and drinks were just $.50. Boy, I wish we had one of those kind of movie theatres in the Charleston area. The Michigan Theatre is one of those small town restored theatres right downtown – not a big multiplex outside of town.


The 13th Hour

Back in high school, my cousin (Rocky) and I were in a rock and roll band – we lasted a couple of years before our own Yoko broke up our band (another tragic story of fame and glory cut short), but (Rocky) has kept up with his guitar playing, while the last time I played a guitar, I was playing The Beatles Rock Band game with our son. But, today, (Rocky) plays on Sundays for Jesus. On our last full day there, we went to one of the services at First Baptist Church in South Haven. This was one of those modern multi-media services – we have them in our area, where going to church is more like going to a concert. The minister did a power point presentation for his sermon. It’s not the kind of church I went to as a youth, but if I was a church goer – I could get used to this kind of church.

On our way out we were spotted as someone new and a member of the welcome committee made sure we left with one of their welcome packages – which included a copy of the church’s cookbook and a mason jar full of ready-to-make brownies. We had them a week or two after we got back home. (Rocky and Sandy) kept trying to tell the person we would be a 1,000 miles away in a week, but it didn’t matter to them – they wanted us to feel welcomed – and we did.

The last event of our stay in South Haven was a private, after hours, visit to the training center at the Pailsades Nuclear Power Plant, just south of South Haven where (Rocky) works. He keeps the equipment running for the test they do to see how prospective employees would handle themselves under the pressure of something suddenly going haywire in the control room. We got to see a run through of all the bells, buzzers, and flashing lights going off – in case someone spilled a Pepsi on the control panel  or something like that.

(Rocky) got his training in the US Navy and he assures me nuclear power is safe and I believe him. It’s one of the only things France has gotten right. We need a Nuclear America and we can send all our waste to Iran – they seem to want nuclear stuff for some reason.

Early the next day we were headed north to Interlochen, MI, to visit an old high school friend (Pati) and her husband (Jim) who had just moved back to Michigan from Minnesota, where they had a fairly large maple syrup operation. But that’s Part 2.

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