Michigan
We're alive, here's how it went:
Wednesday
Weather: Warm and sunny, cloudy towards the evening
Hit Allen for antiques. For the record, there's this shop on the same street as The Bookstore That Is Never Open, with a red/white/blue ANTIQUES flag out front; this store is very cool. Got this nifty bone carving, but don't be afraid to dither on prices: the guy will cut them in half automatically, everything is overpriced by about 50%.
Continued from Allen to Three Rivers to see Michigan's longest covered bridge. Not too spectacular...needs a coat of paint. But the drive in the country was really nice.
Drove from Three Rivers to Kalamazoo: the Super 8 in Kalamazoo is crap. There were stains on my bed sheets. Very icky, decided to grab my blanket from the car and slept on top the comforter of the bed.
Thursday
Weather: Cloudy and sprinkling, intermittent rain
Continued from Allen to Travers City by way of US-31, traveling through Grand Rapids, Cadillac and Manistee. We stopped in Historic Manistee and looked at stores and what-not, apparently Luddington was the dry town in the 1920's and everyone went to Manistee for fun. The tour book said that it was so rowdy if you weren't seen drinking there were huge barrels full of beer on the street that the locals would throw you in.
We ate at a bar and grill...I'm trying to remember the name...maybe Mom will later, it was fantastic, had absolutely massive servings. Anyhow, my ego was stroked cause it was a slow day and the waiter was a shameless flirt. Finally got on to Travers by the end of the night. For the record, the Travel Lodge (Travelers Inn?) was wonderful!
Friday
Weather: More sunny than Thursday but still the same for the most part
Spent the day in Travers for the most part. Drove around the Peninsula but everything was closed...except the General Store, and guess who I should run into there? The owner used to live a few blocks from my house here in Minneapolis and he worked with the Guthrie Theatre Co. Having found out I worked as menial labor in the scene shop for a semester or two he gave me the name of one of his friends and told me to email him. Unfortunately for me, I wrote it on a post card which is buried somewhere in the massive pile in the living room. (I'll take photos, it's quite scary...the pile, not the post card.)
Anyhow, he was the highlight of the day... imagine getting good Greek food at the almost-tip of a peninsula in Michigan...but it happened! Spanikopita and Baklava... so yummy. We drove from Travers to Petosky (tried to find a store the gal at the Travel Lodge had told us about, but couldn't), then went onto St. Ignace across the Strait of Mackinac.
Mom was freaking out about driving over the bridge...not sure why. I think she thought it was going to be a 5-mile version of what we have over the Mississippi, but that would've just been ridiculous. Got to our hotel in St. Ignace...can't remember what it was, obviously couldn't have been that bad.
Saturday
Weather: Dreary, cold, windy. Sunnier in the afternoon, still cold
Mackinac Island! Yay!
Got up hideously early only to discover the weather was total crap. Took a Shepler's ferry across the bay at 9:00 which was rather cool cause A) No one was there except some old guy with a newspaper and B) with the wind the whole trip you were above deck you were in danger of getting blown over.
No motion sickness thank God, that would've been totally in keeping with my character, but that day it was okay. Unfortunately, after having spent most of the trip above deck, my up-do was ruined (tried the curl-hair-and-stick-a-shit-load-of-pins-in-it thing, which worked out well until the wind interfered.) Also discovered that the three layers I was wearing wasn't enough, so we bought a sweater (yay tourism!)
We wandered about, discovered the multiple fudge shops, took a tour of the island by carriage, and no I was not pointing and yelling "Horsie!" every five seconds...I did yelp "Puppy!" at one point but that was different and mom did it too. For those who don't know--cause I didn't--Mackinac Island has no cars or trucks on it except for a fire truck, a couple emergency vehicles, and golf carts. Everything else is either powered by bike, horse, or walking. It gave a really different atmosphere to something that was feeling a bit like the MN State Fair (which I have missed like crazy).
So anyhow, there are stables that rent out horses by the hour for people who want a trail ride, and obviously I wanted to ride a horse, so I volunteered my own money for the venture. Mom went and chilled at The Mustang on the suggestion of the stable owner, it's the bar where the locals go... wonderful food, good atmosphere, there were tourists leaving & warning my Mum that it was "really rowdy" so of course my mother happily bounces in and sits down with a beer. Anyhoo, I'm riding this really lovely horse named Festus (five points to whoever remembers the principle parts of the verb "festus sum", and what it means), and I get to be in the lead which is also good cause damnit I plan to trot a little--we're allowed to, just not on roads--and I don't want to be in line with someone who is content to amble around.
So we're riding and I keep mixing up English and Western habits (I'm in a western saddle), then finally get the seat and signals down only to discover the girl on the horse behind Festus and I isn't keeping her horse away from mine, and hers is trying to bite mine in the ass for most of the ride, which also explains why my horse is moving to the middle of the street instead of staying over to the right where it ought to be.
We get out onto the trail and I'm immediately going "giddiyup horsie" and Festus, having had this other horse's nose up his ass for far too long is like, "yo, I'm cool with that" and we get moving. In fact, Festus enjoys not having the horse's nose up his ass so much that he is actually unhappy when we're not trotting and tries to kick behind him, so it's "giddiyup horsie" the whole time we're not on pavement. By the end of the trip, Festus has bucked (just a little bounce actually) trying to kick the horse behind me--cause the girl STILL wont keep her horse back a few paces--and I'm coming to the realization that perhaps trotting for five or six minutes wasn't such a good idea, and maybe I should've stretched before getting on. Other than the horse behind us being a bastard, Festus was wonderful. We got back to the stables, dismounted, and I realized that no, trotting for so long was not a fantastic idea.
Of course I didn't care cause by gum I'd ridden a horsie and I was happy! :)
Got back to mom, ate food, got tired, we decided that the tourists and stupid teenagers were obnoxious and took the 2:30 ferry out. I'm on the upper deck and almost fall asleep on the trip back to the mainland.
We leave St. Ignace for Marquette, which is about half-way through the UP. Discover it's a Super 8 and decide to check our room before agreeing to stay. Thank God we did 'cause they'd put us right in next to a family of 4 or 5 young, screaming children who were very excited about the pool. Our card key didn't work, we went back, demanded a different room, and the guy working behind the desk was a total douche and rather rude. The guy the next day was not a total douche. We got a different room.
The restaurant right next to the Super 8 was great they had a wonderful waitress, made a wonderful meal, and fed my Mum and I for 20$ Very, very good.
Sunday
Weather: windy and drizzling/raining
Got up late, just barely beat the Mother's Day rush to restaurant next door, still waited 10 minutes for a table to open up, but the food and service were still good. Got out a little late (obviously) and decided to just drive back home, no sight-seeing. I tell Mom I'll drive Wisconsin and Minnesota, but would you finish up Michigan? It still seems a little far-away for me to be driving. Ohhh would that I had driven... alas...
Mom gets pulled over.
How over the speed limit was she going?
Not 10 miles...
Not 15 miles...
Not 20 miles...
...22 miles over the speed limit.
That cop was pissed. He wanted to take Mom's license--which is kind of retarded cause A) I'm technically not supposed to drive cause I'm under 25 and it's an extra fee if I want to, and B) One is technically not supposed to drive if they don't have their license...and we've still got another state to cross through, never mind the 3-some hours in MN till we hit the Twin Cities. So I suggest we use the ATM at the Gas Station, the cop is irrationally pissed and says no. I get rationally pissed and explain, "we can get money to pay the bond if you let us go to the Gas Station," apparently he needed this bit of logic explained, cause then he said yes.
100$ just to pay the bond, that 100$ will be applied to the ticket which will probably run something like 275$ (if we're lucky). He kept asking where we were from and what we were doing, etc. Finally I spat out that I went to college in Hillsdale... "oh the College down there?" "Yes." "Oh." *eyeroll*
So we get out of MI, I switch over and drive WI and MN, I am such a good driver all the way through WI... get into MN and the speed of traffic is somewhere around 80mph the whole way back, so naturally I'm doing 85, in this huge-ass van while it's sprinkling outside. But we've got MN plates...so it doesn't matter.
Get back around 8:00 MN time, decide to immediately leave the house and go hang out with Rachael. Poor parents...but seriously, I think Mom would've killed me if we'd spent any more time around each other.
The world is well. Still haven't had Bill's Garden yet.
Need to go take a shower, dry my hair, and look for a job. Hope you all are well!
Wednesday
Weather: Warm and sunny, cloudy towards the evening
Hit Allen for antiques. For the record, there's this shop on the same street as The Bookstore That Is Never Open, with a red/white/blue ANTIQUES flag out front; this store is very cool. Got this nifty bone carving, but don't be afraid to dither on prices: the guy will cut them in half automatically, everything is overpriced by about 50%.
Continued from Allen to Three Rivers to see Michigan's longest covered bridge. Not too spectacular...needs a coat of paint. But the drive in the country was really nice.
Drove from Three Rivers to Kalamazoo: the Super 8 in Kalamazoo is crap. There were stains on my bed sheets. Very icky, decided to grab my blanket from the car and slept on top the comforter of the bed.
Thursday
Weather: Cloudy and sprinkling, intermittent rain
Continued from Allen to Travers City by way of US-31, traveling through Grand Rapids, Cadillac and Manistee. We stopped in Historic Manistee and looked at stores and what-not, apparently Luddington was the dry town in the 1920's and everyone went to Manistee for fun. The tour book said that it was so rowdy if you weren't seen drinking there were huge barrels full of beer on the street that the locals would throw you in.
We ate at a bar and grill...I'm trying to remember the name...maybe Mom will later, it was fantastic, had absolutely massive servings. Anyhow, my ego was stroked cause it was a slow day and the waiter was a shameless flirt. Finally got on to Travers by the end of the night. For the record, the Travel Lodge (Travelers Inn?) was wonderful!
Friday
Weather: More sunny than Thursday but still the same for the most part
Spent the day in Travers for the most part. Drove around the Peninsula but everything was closed...except the General Store, and guess who I should run into there? The owner used to live a few blocks from my house here in Minneapolis and he worked with the Guthrie Theatre Co. Having found out I worked as menial labor in the scene shop for a semester or two he gave me the name of one of his friends and told me to email him. Unfortunately for me, I wrote it on a post card which is buried somewhere in the massive pile in the living room. (I'll take photos, it's quite scary...the pile, not the post card.)
Anyhow, he was the highlight of the day... imagine getting good Greek food at the almost-tip of a peninsula in Michigan...but it happened! Spanikopita and Baklava... so yummy. We drove from Travers to Petosky (tried to find a store the gal at the Travel Lodge had told us about, but couldn't), then went onto St. Ignace across the Strait of Mackinac.
Mom was freaking out about driving over the bridge...not sure why. I think she thought it was going to be a 5-mile version of what we have over the Mississippi, but that would've just been ridiculous. Got to our hotel in St. Ignace...can't remember what it was, obviously couldn't have been that bad.
Saturday
Weather: Dreary, cold, windy. Sunnier in the afternoon, still cold
Mackinac Island! Yay!
Got up hideously early only to discover the weather was total crap. Took a Shepler's ferry across the bay at 9:00 which was rather cool cause A) No one was there except some old guy with a newspaper and B) with the wind the whole trip you were above deck you were in danger of getting blown over.
No motion sickness thank God, that would've been totally in keeping with my character, but that day it was okay. Unfortunately, after having spent most of the trip above deck, my up-do was ruined (tried the curl-hair-and-stick-a-shit-load-of-pins-in-it thing, which worked out well until the wind interfered.) Also discovered that the three layers I was wearing wasn't enough, so we bought a sweater (yay tourism!)
We wandered about, discovered the multiple fudge shops, took a tour of the island by carriage, and no I was not pointing and yelling "Horsie!" every five seconds...I did yelp "Puppy!" at one point but that was different and mom did it too. For those who don't know--cause I didn't--Mackinac Island has no cars or trucks on it except for a fire truck, a couple emergency vehicles, and golf carts. Everything else is either powered by bike, horse, or walking. It gave a really different atmosphere to something that was feeling a bit like the MN State Fair (which I have missed like crazy).
So anyhow, there are stables that rent out horses by the hour for people who want a trail ride, and obviously I wanted to ride a horse, so I volunteered my own money for the venture. Mom went and chilled at The Mustang on the suggestion of the stable owner, it's the bar where the locals go... wonderful food, good atmosphere, there were tourists leaving & warning my Mum that it was "really rowdy" so of course my mother happily bounces in and sits down with a beer. Anyhoo, I'm riding this really lovely horse named Festus (five points to whoever remembers the principle parts of the verb "festus sum", and what it means), and I get to be in the lead which is also good cause damnit I plan to trot a little--we're allowed to, just not on roads--and I don't want to be in line with someone who is content to amble around.
So we're riding and I keep mixing up English and Western habits (I'm in a western saddle), then finally get the seat and signals down only to discover the girl on the horse behind Festus and I isn't keeping her horse away from mine, and hers is trying to bite mine in the ass for most of the ride, which also explains why my horse is moving to the middle of the street instead of staying over to the right where it ought to be.
We get out onto the trail and I'm immediately going "giddiyup horsie" and Festus, having had this other horse's nose up his ass for far too long is like, "yo, I'm cool with that" and we get moving. In fact, Festus enjoys not having the horse's nose up his ass so much that he is actually unhappy when we're not trotting and tries to kick behind him, so it's "giddiyup horsie" the whole time we're not on pavement. By the end of the trip, Festus has bucked (just a little bounce actually) trying to kick the horse behind me--cause the girl STILL wont keep her horse back a few paces--and I'm coming to the realization that perhaps trotting for five or six minutes wasn't such a good idea, and maybe I should've stretched before getting on. Other than the horse behind us being a bastard, Festus was wonderful. We got back to the stables, dismounted, and I realized that no, trotting for so long was not a fantastic idea.
Of course I didn't care cause by gum I'd ridden a horsie and I was happy! :)
Got back to mom, ate food, got tired, we decided that the tourists and stupid teenagers were obnoxious and took the 2:30 ferry out. I'm on the upper deck and almost fall asleep on the trip back to the mainland.
We leave St. Ignace for Marquette, which is about half-way through the UP. Discover it's a Super 8 and decide to check our room before agreeing to stay. Thank God we did 'cause they'd put us right in next to a family of 4 or 5 young, screaming children who were very excited about the pool. Our card key didn't work, we went back, demanded a different room, and the guy working behind the desk was a total douche and rather rude. The guy the next day was not a total douche. We got a different room.
The restaurant right next to the Super 8 was great they had a wonderful waitress, made a wonderful meal, and fed my Mum and I for 20$ Very, very good.
Sunday
Weather: windy and drizzling/raining
Got up late, just barely beat the Mother's Day rush to restaurant next door, still waited 10 minutes for a table to open up, but the food and service were still good. Got out a little late (obviously) and decided to just drive back home, no sight-seeing. I tell Mom I'll drive Wisconsin and Minnesota, but would you finish up Michigan? It still seems a little far-away for me to be driving. Ohhh would that I had driven... alas...
Mom gets pulled over.
How over the speed limit was she going?
Not 10 miles...
Not 15 miles...
Not 20 miles...
...22 miles over the speed limit.
That cop was pissed. He wanted to take Mom's license--which is kind of retarded cause A) I'm technically not supposed to drive cause I'm under 25 and it's an extra fee if I want to, and B) One is technically not supposed to drive if they don't have their license...and we've still got another state to cross through, never mind the 3-some hours in MN till we hit the Twin Cities. So I suggest we use the ATM at the Gas Station, the cop is irrationally pissed and says no. I get rationally pissed and explain, "we can get money to pay the bond if you let us go to the Gas Station," apparently he needed this bit of logic explained, cause then he said yes.
100$ just to pay the bond, that 100$ will be applied to the ticket which will probably run something like 275$ (if we're lucky). He kept asking where we were from and what we were doing, etc. Finally I spat out that I went to college in Hillsdale... "oh the College down there?" "Yes." "Oh." *eyeroll*
So we get out of MI, I switch over and drive WI and MN, I am such a good driver all the way through WI... get into MN and the speed of traffic is somewhere around 80mph the whole way back, so naturally I'm doing 85, in this huge-ass van while it's sprinkling outside. But we've got MN plates...so it doesn't matter.
Get back around 8:00 MN time, decide to immediately leave the house and go hang out with Rachael. Poor parents...but seriously, I think Mom would've killed me if we'd spent any more time around each other.
The world is well. Still haven't had Bill's Garden yet.
Need to go take a shower, dry my hair, and look for a job. Hope you all are well!