Michigan

We left Minnesota and went across the corner of Wisconsin...

 and into Michigan.

We stayed at Summer Breeze RV park in Iron Mt. on Sept. 8 and the next day we traveled 197 miles to St. Ignace, Michigan.  We learned that it is pronounced Ig-nus.  

First night there we tried the specialty of Michigan, Pasties, (pass-tee). That is not to be confused with Pasties (pace-tees).  Anyway... didn't really think they were great.  Tammy & Rich had theirs with gravy & said it was better that way. 

We took a short ride to see where to catch the ferry and we spotted these guys in someones front yard.  Thought maybe I'd have them in my front yard at my next house... Not really!

St. Ignace is on one side of the Macinac Bridge and Macinaw City is on the other. 

Macinac is also pronounced the same as Macinaw.   Apparently originally the Indians pronounced it Macino. It is the division of Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.  You all probably knew that but as I have said before I am not good in the geography department.  So this is all new to me.  :)

They were having a tractor show in St. Ignace over the weekend.  When we went on the ferry you could see some of the 1200 tractors that were coming across the bridge. 

On Friday we took the Ferry across to Macinac Island.  You can see by the way Tammy is dressed and the fact that Donald is sitting inside that it was not very warm.



However, someone forgot to give Rich the memo.  I guess he thinks he's one of those Canadians who are always in shorts and sandals.  (Pat & Sid)

 There are no cars on the island.

 You can bring or rent a bike or take a horse drawn carriage tour.

Of course there was no bike riding for us so we bought our tickets and jumped on the carriage for the tour.

 Galan was our driver and he told us all about the things on the tour. 

Yep, that's us in the front seat.  

 And this is our view for the ride.

Galan was pretty cute!

All the luggage is taken to the hotels by carriage as well as all the food, and supplies for the stores, hotels, restaurants and even the hay and oats for the horses that is brought over on the ferry.  The only motorized vehicles are 2 fire engines.

This is only one of the places that rents bikes.  I'm glad we weren't here in the summer when all those bikes have someone riding them.  The streets were already crowed with them now.  You can very easily get run over if you are not careful.

 We made some stops along the way on the tour for pictures.

This is Fort Macinac.

We stopped at one of the famous spots on the island... The Grand Hotel.  

 Of course we had to try out a couple of those rockers.

 Tammy wanted to have the $45.00 lunch buffet but Donald and I are way to cheap so we just paid the $10.00 to be able to check out the inside and the grounds.

It was very beautiful!

 Shoot, I used to make these for a living.... maybe I could have gotten the job.  

Everything was very nicely decorated!  I loved the decor.

It's quite a view from the porch!

However, starting at $300.00 a night per person I don't think I will be staying here anytime soon.  :(  But it was fun to take a look.

 This picture of the Grand Hotel from the ferry gives you a better idea of how large it is. 

There are some other beautiful homes & B&Bs on the island.

Our driver told us that very few people stay on the island in the winter.  They also take most of the horses to the main land to a farm for the winter.

We didn't eat at the Grand but we did have a nice lunch and a great day!

Next morning we headed over the Macinac bridge.

We stayed at the Wayne County Fairgrounds in Belleville, Michigan just west of Detroit. We visited the Henry Ford Museum.

Where the Oscar Mayer Weiner mobile is of course. 

Donald is sitting in the seat that Rosa Parks sat in..

On this famous bus on the day she started to change history.

And here is the chair that Abe was sitting in when he was assassinated.

The car that John Kennedy was assassinated in. 

An older version of what we now call home. 

Here I am playing Vanna White & showing off my first car!  Damn, I wish I still had it .... and it looked that good.  :)

There was a antique car show here this weekend and some of the people were in costume of the era  of the cars they brought.  I thought this couple looked really cute! 

This is what we do while Donald continues to study each item and read each sign.  (Well almost.)  :)

We also visited the Greenfield village right next to the museum.  It is also a Henry Ford museum of homes and miscellaneous things he has collected.  

Henry also moved his school building and the house he grew up in as well as Webster's house, (the guy who made the dictionary, not from the tv program), here to Greenfield Village.  It's amazing what you can do with enough money.  

 As I said earlier there was an antique car show this weekend. There were 900 antique cars.   This was one of my favorites.

Another favorite.

Of course we had to ride the little train.

One of the original tent trailers.... We've come a long way.

This is the actual building where the Wright Brothers sold bikes.

I'd like to see Donald go 30 miles on this baby.

At the end of the day we went to dinner with Martha and Larry Bonyai.  Donald was in Viet Nam with Larry and he has only seen him one other time since then.  We were through here about 15 years ago.  It was really nice to see them again.   I asked Larry how he still has all that hair... Donald just keep your hat on!

Plus they took us to this amazing bakery for dessert!

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Sure glad I don't live too close! 

We had a great time in Michigan.

Now, I need to put a little footnote... We have been traveling with the Staads now for 2 months.  Those of you who live in AZ for the winter know that they are not usually out and about too early in the morning. Our time of departure every morning on travel days has been about 9:00am.  So when Tammy is up and ready, and sometimes even ready before us,  I have been quite amazed.  But then about a week ago it dawned on me (took me long enough).... she wants to be in the next campground and have her satellite up before 3:00 when her new crush, Jack Bauer from 24, comes on so she can record it.  She doesn't want to miss an episode.  

Oh well, whatever it takes... it's working!   

And no one has murdered anyone else yet!