Ike's tail and other things- overdue update

We were last heard from while we were in northern Michigan on the Leelanue peninsula but we fially had to say good-bye to our friends in the area and head south. We look forward to returning next year prior to a trip out west.

From northern MI, we went south to the Kalamazoo area to visit with Linda's mother and brother Mike. Mike was kind in allowing us to park the RV in his drive and hookup to his utilities for a few days.

Next we went east back to western PA for Labor Day and to visit with Terry's mother and brothers during the holiday. Brother Dan flew in from Las Vegas and brother Tim came over from north central PA. We spent Labor Day trimming trees and other yard work.

Next Linda and I moved the RV to Hershey, PA to attend the "largest RV show" as they bill themselves. We stayed in the Highmeadow campground where we were packed in like sardines.

On the Tuesday before the RV show we drove to Gettysburg to see the new visitors center at the battlefield. The center is very nice but we missed seeing the new cyclorama section of the center which does not open until Sept 27th. The next day we attended the RV show and found it to be large but definitely not to the scale of the Tampa RV Supershow that is held every January.

When we departed Hershey, we attempted to go north into north central PA to the Foote Rest campground. There are few campgrounds in north central PA that appeal to us but we have been to the Foote Rest before and liked it. However, I could not get in contact with them by phone. No one answered the phone and they did not return my call even though their message said they would. Oh well, we went elsewhere.

So we ended up at the Kalumet Campground near Cooksburg, PA. Kalumet is a vey nice campground but we had no cell phone service or internet connection. We stayed a couple of days and headed back to the Mercer KOA.

During Hershey trip we developed a problem with our electric steps that are on the RV at the entry door. The steps normally extend or retract without incedent. Now the steps only partially extent or retract and make a very loud grinding noise. I believe the gears are out of alignment. I'll tackle that problem after we have finished with Ike's problems.

Eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania suffered the effects of the tailend of hurricane Ike as it pasted through the area. The big problem was high winds knocking down trees and taking out power lines. By Florida standards this is a small event. But by their standards (or lack there of) this is a big time event here that has left thousands without power. The lackluster emergency respone to restore power and help citizens would never be tolerated in Florida.

Anyhow, we have been out of power since Sunday along with thousands of the locals. My (Terry's) mother also has no power and has been bailing out her basement subpump by hand so that the water would not flood the basement. It took a couple of days to locate a generator, but our friends Lyle and Sandy Johnston (of the Johnston;s Apple Castle) were kind to lone their generator for my mothers use. Good thing, as there are no generators available in the area.

Well that is the catch -up for now. Sorry for no pictures. Will change that in the near future.

Signed- powerless in PA.

Charlevoix revisited

A few posts ago we made reference to the beauty of the village of Charlevoix. Due to circumstances we were not able to get photo's during that trip. This necessitated a return trip!

As previously noted, the main street is lined with flowers, so to save a thousand words here are the pictures.
The marina in Charlevoix is second to none in my book. The marina sits in Round Lake between Lake Michigan and Lake Charlevoix. The west exit of Round Lake takes you out the cut to Lake Michigan and the east exit of Round Lake has you exiting into Lake Charlevoix, which is a substantual lake itself (15 miles long and over 2.5 miles wide). I've tried to capture some of the water sights here. The picture with Linda is the water front area immediately adjacent to the marina.

Of course there are some fantastic homes near the marina, here is one example.

This is the cut from the marina/Round Lake to Lake Michigan.

The Emerald Isle, a passenger and vehicle ferry, heading out onto Lake Michigan to go to Beaver Island thirty five miles away.

The next picture is the exit of Round Lake to Lake Charlevoix. The exit is in the backround of the photo.

Lastly, we include a sailboat that is coming in from Lake Michigan to the marina. There are many fine sailboats all around the state. This one is even equipped with solar panels which indicates to me that the crew spends a significant amount of time on board.

All this maritime stuff here has me (Terry) wanting to buy a good used boat (with galley, head, and sleeping quarters) and keep it in Michigan for our use in the summers!

Boat Show part II

Blogger is a pain to work with pictures, so I divided up the pictures from the boat show for easier posting. Here are more wood boats.

Les Cheneaux Antique Wooden Boat Show

The annual boat show held at the Hessel marina in August is a fine display of wooden boats and one of our favorite festivales. Of course, there are plunty of booths selling other things but the spotlight is the boats.

Most of the boats are made by Chris Craft with boats from the early 1900's to the 1970's in attendance. The owners of many of these boats have spent hundreds or thousands of hours in the boats restoration. And they look it. Some of them are better than new.

Speaking of new, we discovered that you can buy a brand new custom version of these fine wood boats if you have the cash. Hacker Craft makes hand made reproductions and had one on display at the show. If you have a spare $170,000, one can be yours! By the way, that's for a 22 footer.

So it's time for some pictures.

Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum

The museum is located northwest of Sault St Marie and is located on the grounds of the Whitefish Point Light Station. The museum is one of several that pay tribute to sailors lost in the Great Lakes. It has been an eye opener as to how many ships and boats that have been lost to the lakes. Most people are familiar with the most famous sinking (in our times), the Edmund Fitzgerald, but there have been hundreds of sinkings over the last 200+ years, sometimes with the loss of more lives than the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The musem highlights several of the shipwrecks but contains an item that is of special interest to your photographer. A fresnel lens from a lighthouse. I think these lenses are artwork. Hopefully the pictures here will be of good enough quality to back that up.

Cedarville RV Resort

This is our 3rd stay at the Cedarville RV Resort. The campground is right on the waters of Lake Huron and is very picturesque. For the week we were there the resort was full, a product of the Boat Show weekend. The photo's from our campsite are actually on Lake Huron but appear to be a smaller body of water due to the water curling around the campground forming a small bay.
It is very quiet here. The villages of Hessel, Cedarville, and DeTour have populations of a few hundred each but the area is a boaters dream. From Cedarville eastward to Detour there are miles of pristine shoreline- a rarity in the US these days.

I'm guessing the winters have contributed to the lack of developing along the shoreline.

That's a good thing.

Cedarville, DeTour, and Sault St. Marie

Well it has been a while since the last post primarily due to a poor internet connection. The wifi at the Wild Cherry Resort near Suttons Bay is usually good, but we took a week and traveled over the Mackinac Bridge to the Upper Peninsula and had no internet connection. So this post starts a series of catch-up posts.

The main reason for the trip, was to go to the Les Cheneaux Islands Antique Wooden Boat Show that is held at the marina in Hessel, MI. The show is held annually the 2nd weekend of August. We attended the show a couple of years ago and were quite impressed with the quality of the boats. More on this in a later post.

To get to the Upper Peninsula (UP) from northern Michigan requires a drive accross the Mackinac Bridge. The bridge is 5 miles long and rises 199 feet above the water. Lots of steel cable was used to construct this suspension bridge- 42,000 miles worth to be exact. Those cables weigh over 23 million pounds and the bridge total weight is over 2 billion pounds. All this to go across the Straits of Mackinac. It is one impressive structure. Here are bridge pictures of our crossing.


Our campground was located in Cedarville about 4 miles from Hessel the location of the boat show. Cedarville makes for a good central location for exploration. One of the side trips took us to the Village of DeTour located at the east end of the UP. Traveling farther east than DeTour requires a ferry ride to Drummond Island. We have done that in the past and decided to not take the ridethis time. A couple of pictures of the ferry tells the tale.
Another side trip was a drive to Sault St.Marie and a visit to the locks on the St. Marys river. We always enjoy watching the ships "locking through" the locks. We lucked out as we got to see 2 ships lock through within 2 hours.

The first photo's show the empty lock, a ship entering, and the ship fully in the lock. This ship is 712 feet long and 72 feet wide. The second ship pictured is one of the Great Lakes big boys. It is 1000 feet long and 105 feet wide. This is the first time that we have had the chance to see one of the big ones- what a sight. Click on the full length view for a good look.

Bay View and Castle Farms

This past weekend we pulled up stakes and moved the motorhome to Petoskey, MI for the weekend. It is about a 2 hour drive from Suttons Bay northward up the coast and takes you through the small city of Charlevoix.

Charlevoix sits between Lake Michigan and Lake Charlevoix. The city is one of those picturesque places that makes the local chamber of commerce's job easy. It looks great from any angle. The main street through town is lined with flowers, the businesses all face and partially surround the bay, and the recently updated city marina is close to the restaurants. To draw a better mental image, imagine the main street running north with the businesses and restaurants (several with outside seating) on the west side of the street. On the east side of the street the city has a narrow city park area with benches. Right at the park area is the marina, so when you are seated at an outside eatery you can gaze past the flowers to the boats that are only about 150 feet away. Very nice indeed.

So where are the pictures you may ask? Well, Charlevoix was in the middle of a celebration and street fair, so there was no parking available for anything the size of our motorhome. We hope to return to Charlevoix for pictures before we leave Michigan.

We arrived in Petoskey and set up shop in the Petoskey KOA (Kampgrounds of America). The campground was absolutely packed with campers and RVers. Each campsite was equipped with at least 8 kids and all their toys. Each evening the campers fired up their camp fires and created so much smoke we thought the campground would make the TV news as a wildfire. We were glad to stay only 3 nights at the KOA.

We did go to the adjacent community of Bay View, MI. Bay View has many old homes worthy of a stroll and viewing. We had a pleasent smoke free walk and aquired a few photo's. Here are some examples of the homes in the area.
We also made a trip to a place called Castle Farms.

Castle Farms is styled after midevel-style castles and although it is modernized, you can see the influence. There was a Fiber Arts Festival in progress at the facility which included all kinds of spinning related gear and supplies, a sheep herding dog demonstration, live entertainment, etc. The sheep herding dogs were something to see- those dogs are remarkable.

Castle Farms:



After our weekend trip to the Petosky area, we returned to Suttons Bay and the Wild Cherry resort.

We will now have to relax and recover from our KOA experience.