Weekly Update

 Not a lot to add from last week.  We've been riding the local bicycle trails, visiting Muskegon's Farmer's Market, and necessary shopping.  We did get down to Holland, MI on Monday

Today's pictures are from our bicycle ride while at Holland.  Holland's a neat, small, renovated town with roads not meant for dual-wheel trucks.

We rode our bicycles west from the marina along the sidewalk of the road that follows the river to Lake Michigan.  Didn't make it all the way, though.  They blocked bicycles as you approached Lake Michigan.

Other than that, we've experienced some rain, missed the tornado's, and got in a movie - Pete's Dragon.  So all-in-all, a good week.

Thanks for dropping by.  Until next week, David

Muskegon, MI

After a late start on Monday, we drove 45 minutes and through our mandatory rain shower down to Muskegon & Duck Creek RV Resort.  We're here for about three weeks.  If you look for the RV park, it's across the road from the Michigan Adventureland amusement park.  Duck Creek is truly an RV resort, too, and deserves it's Good Sam 10/10/10 rating.  What we're seeing is family's come here to camp and walk or drive down the road to visit Adventureland.  

We're trying to ride some different bicycle paths.  Without knowing what we're doing, we ended up right next to the Fred Meijer Berry Junction Trail which connects us to Montague, MI and the south end of the Hart-to-Montague rail trail.  As Donna notes, we're 18 miles from Country Dairy and their ice cream. We "could" ride our bicycles there, she says. Um-mm...sure.

Pictures here are of the Whitehall area & from our first day's bicycle ride. At the top is the world's largest weather vane in Montague. World's Largest - that's what the sign says, anyway.

Donna's gotten a Rails-to-Trails book and the Michigan bicycle trails magazine.  Looks like we're in an area ripe with rail trails and paved bicycle paths.  We're thinking of taking advantage of the predicted cooler weather & concentrate on the Holland area next week and seeing what's down there. Maybe I can talk Donna into a coaster ride or two.

Otherwise, we're just hangin' out and enjoying the area.  Thanks for dropping by.  Everyone enjoy your weekend!  David

Moo Cow Tour

Country Dairy sits about midway of the Hart-to-Montague Rail-trail.  Makes for a nice rest break when riding the bicycles.  We decided to take the dairy tour (aka Moo Tour).  Country Dairy is a small dairy serving the local area.  1,000 or so head of cattle.  They only process their own dairy's milk.  They grow their own corn & alfalfa.  Been around along time.  Original farm house is still used by the family.

Pictures here are from the tour though I've loaded them backwards.  You start with the processing plant.  Then move to the barns.

The whole place is worth a stop and tour.  If for no other reason:  their ice ream contains 16% cream.  They serve breakfast and lunch.  Smaller size store selling everything from tourist trap reminders of your tour to a meat market.  Fresh pizzas in there, too.

According to the Wii, I've gained 2.6 lbs just by going there.  And that takes into account the roughly 22-mile bike rides we're taking three to four times a week.  Guess it's good we're moving along soon!

Beth & Frank are in the area.  We're schedule to meet them in Ludington on Thursday.  Other than that, we're bicycle riding and trying to stay cool.

 Current plans are to move an hour south to Muskegon, MI on Monday & pick up other rail trails and bicycle paths to ride.  Reservations are at Duck Creek RV Resort near Michigan Adventureland.  Suppose to be there through Labor Day.  At least that's the plan.

Even though I'm drafting this while sitting at the Hart public Library.  The Verizon Wireless 4G signal promised by Verizon's coverage map is gone. Nothing I use works with 3G signal (though Verizon is adamant that it does.)  So I'm going to wrap this up quick using the library's WiFi.  Everyone stay cool & enjoy your weekend.  David

Mears - Silver Lake, MI 2016

After looking at the weather on Saturday and noting that neither Weather Channel, Weather Nation, nor Accuweather were predicting any rain  (literally 0% for Petoskey) for our planned Sunday move, we washed/waxed the trailer Saturday & left the Petoskey area Sunday morning in rain.  Not just a few sprinkles that you can get from time-to-time in this area.  Rain.  The potential afternoon thunderstorms for the Silver Lake area never materialized.   The trip down took about four and a half hours.  Unfortunately, the 4G data/voice promised by the Verizon Wireless coverage map for the Silver Lake area is somewhat of a myth.  It's here...sometimes...and doesn't stay long when it appears.  Definitely not what you need when Microsoft is releasing a large update to Windows 10 August 2nd.  Travel to Mears or Hanes, and it's all good, though.

We're trying a new campground that didn't appear on any catalog, app, or software that we have.  It's called Dunes Harbor Family Camp.  Found it via an advertisement.  It appears to be an out reach of the local Lutheran church.  It's brand new - open Memorial Day weekend for the first time.  It's really clean & nice as you can see by the pictures.  And the feature that caught my eye, the site signs are lighted at night.

You can find the campground at https://www.DunesHarbor.org

We're getting out.  We're here to ride the Hanes to Montague rail trail.  Nice rail trail.  We made a round trip bicycle ride from Hanes to south of Shelby & return, yesterday (22 miles).  Today we rode from Shelby to Montague and return (29 miles).  (We're taking tomorrow off.)

The MiFi says it's still got 4G (one bar), so I'm going to publish while I can.  Thanks for stopping by.  Everyone have a great weekend!  David

Week 2 at Petoskey, MI

We're gettin' use to this Michigan being a resort destination thing.  We've managed to walk & bicycle a lot of the Little Traverse Wheelway: Charleviox-Harbor Springs-Alanson to be exact. Walked some of the Bear River area a time or two, also.  Got in a visit to the Michigan Fisheries Visitor Center as well (pictures to the right & below).  Ate at a couple of restaurants Donna wanted to try plus take the free chocolate tour at Kilwins Chocolate Factory, too.

Yes, we got free samples:  ice cream, fudge and a chocolate tuttle (Kilwins version of a chocolate turtle.)

Lots of traffic & rough roads at times, though.  Managed to throw Donna's bike off the bicycle rack.  Scuffed the handle bars & destroyed the mirror.  The mirror actually saved the bike as that's what it slid on until we could get off the road.

New mirror & Donna says it's fine. I think mine's been so shaken that it needs a tune up, already (just had it done in May!)

Got in the new Star Trek movie, today.  So we're still getting out & doing things.
 

It ends soon, though.  Sunday - if all goes well - we move down to the Silver Lake region for a couple weeks.  May try to stay a little longer.

It's a new campground - Dunes Harbor Family Camp.  When I kept looking for places to stay, it kept coming up as an advertisement for a campground in the Silver Lake region.  It's a Lutheran run organization and so new that it's not listed on any app or campground directory that I have.  Google Earth and Google Maps have it & show it under construction.  So we're going to give it a try.

That's if for this week.  Thanks for stopping by & checking on us. Everyone enjoy your "warm" weekend!  David

Petoskey, MI

We made the 46 minute trip down to Petoskey, MI (Little Traverse Bay area) from St Ignace, MI on Sunday.  We managed to get on the road and into Petoskey before the rains hit.  One of the things that we didn't think too much about was how much of this area is vacation destination.  We've managed to hit the sweet spot of mass visitation & traffic and small roads in the dead center of vacation time in the northern portion of Michigan's lower peninsula.  Oh, well...

We're here for the bicycle paths.  Since arriving we've gotten in a couple of days of bicycle riding on the Little Traverse Wheelway, rode into Harbor Springs, walked Sunset and Bay Front Parks, and walked the North Country Trail around the Bear River area in Petoskey.  Also watched "The Secret Life of Pets", too.  So we've had a good week since arriving.

Every once in awhile we stay at a campground worth bragging about.  The last three photos are of the Petoskey KOA.  It's a busy place during the summer.  The cedars & pines in the cabins area remind us of western campgrounds.  Clean place.  Eerily reminiscent of Ft Wilderness at Walt Disney World.  (The straight path in the picture to the right is one of the few straight paths in the park.  All others are curved just as Disney would do.)  It's more of a resort than a typical KOA.  Like the Billings, MT KOA, this would be a KOA that I would plan our stops so we could stay at it when in the area.    I don't know if it gets the "Destination" KOA rating, but it should if it doesn't.  Unfortunately, trimming trees for big rigs isn't a priority.  Drive accordingly if you bring a big rig.  We'll be backing out of our "pull-thru" just so we're not driving through tree limbs.

Anyway, we've gotten warm, but still cool compared to most of the east.  Our highs are in the 80s.  Not too bad until you realize the dew point is about 70.  Yep, just a tad humid.

I bet we survive, though.  Hopefully, everyone else is staying cool.  Until next time, David

St Ignace, MI

Marina, St Ignace, MI.  Good week for sailboats.

Having visited the Soo Locks, we're now making a slow trip south for a planned winter at Gulf Shores, AL.  For this week, we're hanging out in St Ignace, MI - just above the Mackinac Straits, Mackinac Bridge, Mackinac Island, etc.  We've had good weather though it's raining as I type this.  Most of our exercising has been us walking the Huron Boardwalk and trying to follow the North Country Trail as it passes through St Ignace to the state park to the Mackinac Bridge.  We got our share of eating out and ice cream while doing this, too.

Once again we're in the KOA.  It's an average KOA, expensive like most, but has the most bizarre hookups at many of the campsites.  I think on most campsite review sites it's called "shared hookups".  But many sites, while having electric be the shared utility, the water connections at some sites are placed in "unique" locations.  In our case we look like a spider web.  Sewer somewhat logical while electric and water go in different directions.  So ensure you have plenty of  extensions for all utilities if plan to stop here. It is a big-rig friendly campground.  We've got a couple of 45 footer class As backed-in across the road from us.  A class B to our rear has pulled forward into a back-in site because that's the only way they could make their hookups work.  Just strange.

Once we leave here, we travel south a little bit to Petosky, MI for a couple of weeks.  From there we plan to move down to the Silver Lake area of Michigan for another couple of weeks.  Still got a good 4 or 5 weeks with nothing planned before we meet the Folks-on-Spokes group for a rally in southern Ohio in mid-September.  So we're still winging it for a little bit.

Well, that's it for this week.  Later, David