We are now into the stage of our trip where we are basically putting in time between baseball games. The goal for this week is to get to Detroit in time to see a ball game next Sunday. Not much in the way of photos this week.
The forecast for Sunday was pretty sunny so we decided to stay in Homerville an extra day and just veg out and use their excellent looking pool. The morning started out pretty nice as everyone around us cleared out but by late morning, as people rolled out, the clouds rolled in and the rains came, pretty well washing out any hope of getting in some pool time. Oh well, must be time for some laundry :-) For a late lunch, early dinner, we drove over to Medina, about half an hour away. After driving around the small town a bit, we stopped in at P J Marley's Pub & Restaurant for a peanut butter burger (Brian) and tacos (Kris) for dinner. Excellent choices! It turns out the Indians ball game was played after all, so we watched the end of the game on TV while we ate. Indians fell 2-0 to the A's.
Monday we headed further west into Ohio. Man is this state flat with more cornfields than you can image. It is quite a change from a few years ago when we traveled through the mid west in the middle of a drought. At that time corn crops were failing due to lack of rain, There has been so much rain this year that the corn crops are quite a bit ahead of where folks expect them to be. On the negative side, in some cases, there has been so much rain that some of the crops are failing due to too sitting in too much water! We stopped at the Pleasant View Recreation campground just outside of Findlay Ohio for the night. The campground is so wet we had to try several sites before we found one that was on a little higher ground. In drier times this is probably quite a nice campground but on this occasion we might have to just chalk up the rather mildewy restrooms to the excess rains they have had. No cooking outside here tonight. It was still only about mid afternoon so we took a drive into Findlay where we found Coffee Amici, a pleasant coffee house on the main drag where Kris got in some knitting and Brian played around on the internet using our iphone. After the coffee rest we drove around the town a bit then back to the campground where we discovered that the WIFI really sucked, a common theme the last little while. Early evening we headed back into Findlay where we ended up in Logan's Irish Pub for dinner, some wine and to watch the baseball all-star week home run derby on TV. For dinner we both had the excellent shepherd's pie.
Tuesday we continued west through northern Ohio then, at Defiance, turned north to Hillsdale Michigan where we stayed at the Gateway Park Campground. The countryside continues to be very flat agricultural land with vast corn and soy bean fields. The last couple of days we have driven mostly smaller county roads and have seen first hand the impact of the rain in these parts. There were numerous detours due to "high water" where low spots were under water. The folks at the campground were glad to see a bit of sun as we heard the, all to common, "we've had enough of this for now". Along the way, for lunch, we stopped at Spokes Country Restaurant, a small country diner at a crossroads. This place appears to be very popular with the local farming community as it was very busy with an obvious farm like crowd. As usual, this type of place offers up very large, hearty portions. We each had an omelet, although if the truth were told we could have easily just shared one (yes they were that large). Already we are starting to miss the wonderful seafood lunches we had along the New England coast. After getting checked in at the campground, we drove into the town of Hillsdale and found the cute local Jilly Beans Coffee House in the historic old downtown area. More knitting and fooling around on the internet! Sort of sad to see many empty storefronts in the old buildings along that main drag. Later, after our GPS sent us on a snark hunt for a Shell station that was nowhere to be seen when we "arrived at Shell on the left", we drove around Hillsdale for a bit, settled on a Citgo gas station and then stopped at Kroger's for some deli salad fixings for dinner.
Wednesday, our GPS started right where it left off the night before. Out of the campground we followed it's direction away from the town (and the main state highway) along a county road from which, a few kms later, it told us to turn right onto a very small gravel road! Not this again! NO! So we turned around to head back towards town. The GPS immediately recalculated and told us to turn left onto a road for which there was a rather large "NO OUTLET" sign. It appears we are dealing with a lot of bad GPS data for this part of the country. We drove back into town and onto the state M-99 Highway. The GPS recalculated again and took us on main roads up to the freeway where we decided to stay for the day. Heading west on I-90 across Michigan we stopped at the Firekeepers Casino, at Battlefield Creek, for some lunch in their Cafe 24/7. Although we miss the seafood lunches on the coast, we can only reiterate that the places in this part of the country are not shy about the amount of food they serve you. Once again we had lunches that neither of us could finish. So Kris packed up half a quesadilla and Brian packed up half an omelet to go. These were more than sufficient for dinner later. Our target destination for the day was the Covert KOA (not a secret one, just the name of the nearby town!), a few miles from the eastern shores of Lake Michigan. We booked in for two nights, got the wee trailer settled and hit the pool, our first since that killer waterslide pool back in New Hampshire. Aaahhhh!
Thursday, a rest day, we drove about 12 kms north to the resort town of South Haven. We used our GPS to find, what appeared to be the only coffee shop, to start the day but, once again, there was no coffee shop in sight when we "arrived at it on the right"! South Haven appears to be a very nice and very busy resort town. We parked just off the main street and wandered around. Spotting a fellow carrying a take away coffee cup we deduced from whence he had come and sure enough found a place that served up excellent lattes. Take that GPS! After coffee we wandered around the harbor area and the main drag. South Haven lies at the mouth of the Black River as it flows into Lake Michigan. Beautiful little resort town, marina and sandy beaches...
For lunch we went into the popular Clementines (we can say "popular" because of the 20 minute wait) where the steak salad and taco salad were very good and, of course, both bordered on being "too big". This restaurant is located in an old bank building and, along with the good food, has a cool atmosphere. After we finished sightseeing later in the afternoon, we stopped at a Meijer store. This is a Michigan based grocery, pharmacy, electronics, home goods chain that reminds us a lot of the Fred Meyer chain we frequent out west. We checked out most of the store but ended up just with what we were looking for; pre-cooked chicken and salad fixings for dinner along with some watermelon for dessert. Very nice store!
Friday we packed up, headed north towards Grand Rapids then east past Lansing (the state capital) to Lowell and Lake Chemung Outdoor Resort, our stop for the night. This was an entire freeway driving day and we somehow managed to go the whole way without stopping anywhere for lunch. We arrived at the resort a little after 2:00 PM. After getting checked in and the wee trailer set up, we decided it was still early enough to head over to Lake Orion, about another hour further east, this afternoon rather than drive that way on Saturday. It took a little over an hour so it was about 3:30 when we arrived in the small downtown area. Kris popped into the highly recommended Heritage Spinning and Weaving shop (the reason for coming this way), had a chat with the very talkative shop keepers, and picked up some more yarn while Brian had a nap in the car. By now it was definitely time for some lunch. We spotted CJ's Lakeside Grill, although there is nary a lake to view from the restaurant, and decided to head in there. This place serves breakfast all day so Brian opted for an Hawaiian Omelet (yes, ham and pineapple) while Kris went for the Tuna Salad. Both excellent choices and, yes, both very large so a good portion of each came away with us to finish off later back at the wee trailer.
Ahhh, yes, back at the trailer. Lake Chemung Outdoor Resort is mostly made up of "owned" spots with some obvious long time residents. Everyone is very friendly but you do get the feeling that you are looked upon as "fresh meat". Although it appears that most people take excellent care of their spaces, there are definitely some signs of "trailer park itis" around.. Near us there were several old "mobile homes" that looked like they had been there quite a while and had the mildew to prove it! One of our immediate neighbours told us that they liked the area so much that they just purchased their spot. He wouldn't say what he paid for it but looking at the "for sale" board in the office it was likely in the $17,000+ range then they pay a $120 (or so) monthly condo fee. They also have to pay to have cable hooked up and pay their own cable and electric bills. At one point in the evening, our neighbour on the other side was chatting with the new owner and went on quite a rant about "the board". Typical condo stuff! Oh well, we are only here for one night and at $40 it is entirely reasonable with good showers and, albeit way too humid, clean restrooms.
Saturday we continued on towards Detroit. We have reservations at the Harbortown RV Resort in Monroe Michigan, about 40 minutes south of Comerica Park home of the Detroit Tigers MLB baseball team. Since we had gone to Lake Orion on Friday we decided to head south past Ann Arbor then south east to Monroe. Once again we found just how vindictive a GPS can be. US Highway 23 runs almost due south from Howell past Ann Arbor and just to the east of Monroe. Perfect. After setting the GPS to what appeared to be the desired route off we went. Well, you know, that little screen on the GPS can be a bit deceiving. It looked like we were destined to travel south on US 23 BUT NOT! Instead, the GPS took us on a country road that paralleled US 23 by up to a few miles, although in some places we were right beside it. Now, that would normally be ok because we actually prefer to drive the quieter (less traffic) secondary or tertiary roads but in this case, the country road was in terrible condition having been patched and re-patched then re-patched some more (and maybe even several more times). A tad rough to say the least! At one point, just north of Ann Arbor, the GPS put us onto US 23 (finally) but then decided we should visit downtown Ann Arbor so off on US 23 Business Loop we went. Hmmm, not a bad idea since it was nearing lunch time and maybe Ann Arbor might be worth a drive through. So we did not object. We should have! It appears this weekend is a very large street art fair resulting in many road closures, diversions, pedestrians all over the place and absolutely no where to park even with a trailer as small as ours. We would have been better off just staying on the main US 23 and bypassing the city. Anyway, as we leave the city, the GPS decides "No, we don't need to travel no stinkin' US 23, I have a better idea" and we, not realizing we had left the US 23 Business Loop (due to the street closures in the city) just followed the instructions. Side note: we usually have the detailed state road maps but for some reason we did not pick up a Michigan one when we were planning our trip. Hint: Get a map! Anyway, we found ourselves on a 30 km long country road before the GPS put us back on US 23. Again, should not be too bad, but about 10 km into this particular leg of the trip, we entered what can only be described as "pot hole hell!" Man, these people out in the country here need to pay some taxes!
Well, with no real options to turn around or turn off this road, we soldiered on, slowly, and eventually made it to the Harbortown RV Resort, in Monroe. Huge place and packed. Lots of family groups on a weekend getaway. Nice large cement sites, pretty good restrooms/showers and a nice looking pool, although the water could have been quite a bit colder for our tastes. After getting the trailer set up we headed into Monroe for some lunch. Our GPS suggested a BBQ joint which, of course, is no longer there, so we went into Mugsy's Sports Grille & Bar where a couple of very large salads made for an excellent lunch with more than enough to take away and finish for dinner later. While in Mugsy's we realized we got there just in time as the skies opened up and it absolutely poured for about 10-15 minutes then cleared off. After lunch we went back to the campground where it apparently had not rained at all (surprising since Mugsy's is only about 5 minutes away), hit the pool and called it a week... tomorrow is ball game day (weather permitting).
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