Roses 1.0 Van Life

August 18, Left Petoskey SP and drove through both Petoskey and Traverse City. Beautiful small towns on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. Ate brunch at Bayside restaurant in Petoskey. Finished the day at Sleeping Bear NLS. Campground was full of course so we found a spot in a county park called Empire CG then we drove the scenic drive within Sleeping Bear. Each scenic overlook was nice but the last stop was spectacular. About 450 ft above Lake Michigan atop a sand dune, we watched the sun set.

Saturday August 17 Ferry over to Mackinac Island, only 4 miles wide the island is famous for not allowing cars, everyone walks, bikes, rides a horse or takes a horse drawn carriage/taxi. This was the location of an important fort in colonial period to shortly after the war of 1812, known as Machilimacinac (spelling varies), it changed hands from French, to English to American. Very touristy, of course, beautiful landscaping, lots of flowers everywhere, we spent about 6 hrs walking around and eating lunch (at Kingston Kitchen). Here are some pictures to give an idea of what it is like………

From Mackinac Island we drove to Petoskey SP. For us it was just a place to stay the night but we were impressed by the extensive bike trails linking small towns along the lake, Petoskey to Traverse City e.g.

Friday August 16, 2024

Left Tahquamegon SP around 9:30 and drove to the upper falls parking area. My opinion, upper falls much more impressive. No one swims in the upper falls. Here it is…..

Next drove to Whitefish point, known for two things: it’s the graveyard of Lake Superior, and it’s where migrating neotropicals tend to congregate as they cross the lake going back south. There have been over 500 shipwrecks off this point. Most were in the late 19th to early 20th centuries when there were as many as 3,000 commercial ships on the lake, there are only about 200 now. Whitefish point is where the lake narrows before the entrance to the St Mary’s river and the Sault (Soo) locks. It’s also where the lakes famously huge waves break as the lake becomes more shallow. The great lakes shipwreck museum is here. Regarding the neotropical’s fall migration, it is just now starting and one checklist submitted two days before we were there had 40 Cape May warblers on it. We unfortunately saw only a few Redstarts and Black-throated greens, and a Lincoln sparrow. After walking the sand beach studded with many colorful flat skipping-stone rocks, and walking the birding trail back along the huge sand dunes, we headed for Sault Ste. Marie. Had a late lunch of poutine at “The Antlers”, look at this picture of the interior and you’ll know why the name,

The Soo locks were worth seeing. There is a museum, free, and behind it a viewing platform. Only two locks are there, one small one large. A third larger lock is under construction on the Canada side. We watched a tour boat and an ocean going container ship go through. The bridge to Sault Ste. Marie Canada is a site to see but I couldn’t get pictures to do it justice.

Sault, pronounced Soo, is an archaic French word for rapids, so Rapids of the St Mary river. Many times in my life I have looked up Sault in a french/english dictionary never to find it, learning the meaning took a deeper dive. The river is about 74 miles long and empties into Lake Huron, which is really the same thing as Lake Michigan btw.

From there we finally started south, camped in Straits SP which is literally on the shore of the strait between lakes Huron and Michigan. Tomorrow Mackinac Island and later Petoskey, Traverse City the day after, then home, at least that’s the current plan.

Aug. 10, 2024 We decided a “beat the heat week” was in order so we left this morning for a few days circling lake Michigan with the UP, upper peninsula of Michigan, our primary focus. Our first night was spent at a Harvest Host site, Beans and Barley, a family owned restaurant just off I57, about an hour south of Chicago. The owner was washing dishes when we arrived, his wife and adult son were cooking. Very friendly, they visited us at our table at both supper and breakfast. I’m always amazed at how hard people work. He and his son have full time jobs during the week. His wife does the cooking, he does all sorts of odd jobs for the restaurant, he was mowing the grass Sunday morning when we left, hollered “hope to see you again soon neighbor” as we drove away.

Sunday Aug. 11 we drove to American Family Field to see the Reds play the Brewers, got there at 11:30 for a 1:10 game and there already was a line of cars at the entrance. We were turned away because of our dog, went to downtown Milwaukee, parked in a lot, ate at the Brat Haus (shout out to Craig and Laura for the rec) and took the shuttle to the game. Arrived as the National Anthem was ending. I tipped the parking lot attendant to let me park in a handicapped spot, it was the only spot completely shaded. The game was great despite an obnoxious Brewer fan who taunted the small number of Reds fans near him, but only when Milwaukee was ahead. He quietly snuck out when it became obvious the Reds were going to win, final score 4 -3. (Peggy wanted to taunt him back as he left, had to restrain her).

Shuttled back to the Brat Haus, then ate at the Red Lion. We had very good impressions of Milwaukee. Noticed that few places are called restaurants, but there are lots of breweries, pubs, bars and “Haus” places, so no shortage of places to eat. We had a little time to walk around on the river walk, very nice. There were lots of new apartments and condos close to the city center, a sign of a healthy city.

Drove to a Cracker Barrel in a northwest suburb for the second night.

Door County

Monday drove to Peninsula SP in Door county, had time to eat lunch at Al Johnson’s goats-on-the-roof place, and to walk along the lake. Then we checked into our spot in the park CG. The Northern Sky theatre is a short walk from Nicolet CG, we saw “Belgians in Heaven”, a slapstick, silly comedy about immigrants to Door county from Belgium. Peggy loved it. All the plays here are new plays, commissioned for this theatre.

Upper Peninsula at last

Tuesday was a driving day, Tuesday and Wednesday nights we stayed in Michigan’s Indian Lake SP. Indian Lake is 6 X 3 miles but never more than 15 ft. deep. CG almost full, beautiful sunsets over the lake. Wednesday was spent at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, essentially a National Park.

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The southern shore of lake Superior contains a long escarpment composed of two layers of sandstone with various colorations creating “pictures”, thus the name. The upper white layer of sandstone is hard, the lower darker layer is soft. The subsequent faster erosion of the lower layer leads to unusual, interesting formations, overhangs and the eventual cave-in of the unsupported upper layer, seen in the above pic. The cliffs are 200 ft high, the overhang on the right side in the picture above juts out as much as 50 ft, the cliff on the left side no longer has an overhang, instead it has a mass of sandstone rocks and rubble at its base. I’m told some kayakers were present when it collapsed, caught it on video and it’s available on youtube, I haven’t checked yet.

Lovers Leap and the Caves, two of the formations in Pictured Rocks. The former won’t be there much longer as the lower sandstone wears away it will eventually collapse.

Thursday 8/15 morning was spent at Kitchitikipi, or Kitchi-ti-kipi or Kitch-iti-kipi, or, the Ojibway language being so foreign to our ears, just Big Spring. A small, deep pool of crystal clear water it is Michigans largest natural spring. 10K gallons a minute flow into it, at a constant year-round 45 degrees, it flows into a stream that empties into Indian lake. The fish are mostly lake trout but I was told some are brown trout, they come and go between the spring and Indian Lake.

The raft is attached to a cable, someone hand cranks it across the pool and then back. It is a square with an opening in the center that has glass between the surrounding decks. It was in the center that the view to the bottom was best. After this we went to Seney NWR and did the wildlife drive, a one way, one lane gravel road. Takes about two hours, once you start you’re committed, no turning back. Very scenic, we saw trumpeter swans, loons and a merlin. Only 10 species total but the views alone were worth it. Here’s a picture……

Finished Thursday by droving to Taquamegon SP, set up camp and walked to the falls, a loop about a mile each way. Picturesque, but I expected taller, also didn’t expect to find it full of people swimming.

The river splits above the falls creating an island, with two falls, one on each side of the island. The picture with Peggy and Sammy is looking upstream above the falls.

Screen shot from a video on the right. Cold but not beyond-immersion cold. Not too slippery, but an uneven bottom which can suddenly drop two feet deeper. Sammy loves the water and of course was squatting down in it frequently. He always attracts a lot of attention, as in “Oh can I pet your dog” and “what breed is that”. Still more to see in the UP before heading home. Turns out Tahquamegon SP is the second most popular in all of Michigan. We could only stay one night, there were only 3 of more than 200 total spaces left when I went online to reserve one and none left for the weekend.

July 2 through July 5 was next to the beach at Parador Resort and Spa. The climate was very different. While it was cool, almost cold at night in the central mountains, it was hot and humid at sea level. But not uncomfortable, actually not as bad as back home. Parador sits on a small hill above the ocean near the town of Quepas. We rented the “casita”, a three bedroom house in the center of the property. Monkeys, Howler and White-faced Capuchins, used our roof to partially cross over the path guests and staff use to go between the main building, pool and restaurants to the bulk of the rooms. There are trails through the forest that surrounds the hotel but wildlife watching was best done from buildings that allowed looking down on the canopy. Monkeys, sloths, macaws and toucans were easy to see. I walked the road leading to and from the resort and saw numerous other tropical birds but only added 7 to my life list. Most I had seen a few years before in Columbia.

The beach was a 20 minute walk, nice enough but the pool and restaurants and wildlife on the hotel grounds were the highlights. Here are some pictures:

Peggy and I drove, accidentally, into Manuel Antonio National Park. There were lots of people, the beach was long and wide, big waves and undoubtedly an under tow, didn’t look safe for small children. I bet we saw more wildlife at Hotel Parador than we would have seen in the park.

Lastly your peripatetic blogger wrapped in a Poor-man’s Umbrella

It was a great trip but getting home was an ordeal, for both families. Peggy and I missed our flight from Orlando to Charlotte because security found a bottle of water in her carry-on and had to pull her bag aside and carefully inspect it, once they had time of course. I went on ahead and pleaded with American airlines personnel to wait just a couple minutes but “sorry, no can do”. It literally was 3 minutes until she arrived. We finally got to Richmond around 11:30. The Venables were just then getting their much delayed flight home from Houston. Those kids are seasoned travelers. Next trip may be a van trip around Lake Michigan, and/or a short trip to europe, ?Italy. But for now, just relax and regroup, glad to be home.

Getting around on your own with limited knowledge of the language inevitably leads to awkward situations. To wit: parked in the short term lot at the airport, returned with the Venables and was unable to get out, the gate didn’t have a place to pay, and of course wouldn’t open. Backed up, drove around, no one spoke English or seemed to understand our problem. Finally, it turns out you pay at a station outside the lot then you can scan your ticket and the gate will open. Next we went to city Mall to eat lunch. Having learned in CR you pay for parking at a separate pay station outside the lot, I did that, only to have the gate again fail to open. ??? Backed up, found someone in a uniform, who, through my broken spanish was able to ask and understand that you have 15 minutes after paying to make it to the gate in your car. We had tarried a little more than 15. Had to pay a second time to get out. Lastly, the next day, after seeing the volcano we ate lunch and the waiter made a point of telling us “you are at table 31”. So what I thought. We finished eating, the staff cleared away our dishes and we sat there. Eventually everyone left but me, waiting for the check. Finally I corralled a waiter and asked for my check, in spanish he said “you’re table 31”. Right, I said. “Pagar al caja” he said and pointed to a counter. Our check was with the cashier at the counter. No other problems, just reading traffic signs, finding the speed limit signs which seemed few and far between and searching for non-existent street signs. But then there’s still 2 days left.

It was a short easy drive down the volcano and on to Peace Lodge, an incredible resort on 65 acres of private land. The land was developed in 2000, there are only 18 villas on the property. Each has two jacuzzis, one on the balcony and another in the large bathroom, two showers, one a waterfall shower the other traditional. There is a canopy bed, a fireplace and plenty of room for a second bed to be set up. Here are some pictures of the room and the view from the balcony……

The big attraction is the walking tour to the falls and the animal exhibits along the walk. The latter consist of an aviary, complete with parrots and toucans, a monkey house, a butterfly house, an insectarium, a herpetarium, a sloth house, a frog house and a hummingbird area. No way guests in a mere 18 villas support this place. Tourists staying elsewhere pay to tour the property and to eat at the restaurants or visit the bar.

We did the frog tour the first night….

We did two tour the second day, the guided tour which I will call the “knowledge” tour. It took nearly 4 hours, ended at 12:30, and went through each display ending with the famous waterfalls. At the end of the day, at 4:30 we did the feeding tour where you are allowed to feed the toucans and the sloths. Here are some pictures.

We finished the stay at Peace Lodge birding at 6 AM with our guide Michael and fishing in the stocked pond/swimming pool. Throw a chunk of fish food in and the trout swarm it, throw a chunk of fish food on a hook in, they ignore it completely. It took some subterfuge and luck to catch three, here is Margaret with her catch, being held by Anne.

I added 24 new birds to my life list, 7 of them hummingbirds.

We checked out at 11AM, drove to Parador Resort in Quepos next to Manuel Antonio NP. While it was cool, actually cold at times on the volcano, it’s hot and humid here at sea level. We stopped near Jaco for lunch at a restaurant called Stephen Lisa’s. Lucky with the weather so far, it rained on us as we drove but began to pour once we checked in. Any concern about seeing monkeys was gone nearly as soon as we got to our room, white face Capuchins were on the roof of our room and in the palm tree next to our balcony.

It’s been over 20 years but we are finally making a return trip to CR. June 26 (2024) we hit the road mid afternoon with our carry on bags, loads of dog stuff, and of course our dog. Slept in the van at a Cracker Barrel in Barbourville W Va, then on to Kevin and Jackie’s. We ate at Duran’s on the outskirts of Charlottesville, left Sammy with them, and drove on to Richmond. After showers and 5 hrs of hotel room sleep we went to the Richmond airport and began the flights to CR, arrived at the Holiday Inn express by the San Jose airport at about 4:00 PM, 6/28. We ate at Pescaria da Limonta that night, just ok, then rented an SUV at Vamos rent-a-car Saturday AM. We were at the airport to greet Don and Anne and co. when they arrived at 1:15. The only major obstacle for us was getting through customs at the airport. When we came to the enormous room with a line snaking around it, we stopped and gawked at the ordeal we faced. Suddenly a thin tall man in some kind of uniform stepped in front of us, pulled back tape creating an opening to an empty space and nodded to us to proceed. We did! Apparently this was the handicapped line. One group was at the customs agent, one was waiting and then us!!! Five minutes tops and we were through. Texted Anne and Don about it, same thing happened to them. Still have no idea why.

Took them to city mall to eat lunch, then we drove to Hotel Altura, which is very near our first site to visit, Poas Volcano. At a mile across, it’s the largest active volcano crater in the world (or so they said). Occasionally the pressure from below exceeds the weight of the water above and it “spews” ash and rock as much as 800 ft, but since the crater pool is 1,200 ft down you’re pretty safe. We were all required to wear a hard hat. There are gas vapor monitors at the crater edge and the smell of sulphur hovers all around. A guest at Hotel Altura told us they had pebbles fall on their heads (Luna 10yo) and one woman (Luna’s great aunt) said the sulphur smell was too much for her, she had to leave immediately. You are only allowed to stay there 20 minutes.

We made the check out time of 11AM and drove down the volcano a couple of miles to Freddo Fresas, a restaurant. (fresas is Spanish for strawberries). The food was excellent. This region of CR is known for its strawberries and its cheese. After visiting an art gallery next door and talking with the owner, Gustavo, for quite a while, we headed for Peace Lodge (next entry).

Noel had a soccer game in Memphis, the Venables were going to be in New Orleans right afterwards, so we decided to make a trip out of it.

Friday 02/16 we drove to Memphis and met Colleen and Noel at the Germantown Commissary for supper.

That’s a huge slab of ribs with two small loaves of bread in front of them. It was good, and we were early enough to beat the crowd. Will and Anne Kash drove separately and arrived at their hotel around 10PM. Saturday morning Peggy and I went to Beale street, a place we had never seen before, nor had we seen downtown Memphis. After the afternoon soccer game, a 4 – 4 tie, played at the Mike Rose soccer complex, Will and Colleen went there while we stayed with the girls. Here’s a prank we tried to play on Peggy when she got back to the hotel, supposed to think there’s a strange person in the room, almost worked.

We went on to New Orleans Sunday morning but stopped at a roadfood.com recommended place, the Dinner Bell in McComb Mississippi. 16 people can sit around a table which has an enormous lazy suzan in the middle. We sat with three guys who had been on a quail hunt that morning (at a game farm) and an older couple with their adult daughter. The food was typical southern food, very good and plentiful, basically an all you can eat deal.

We stayed Sunday night at a brewery, Fauberg, an ambitious attempt to create a craft beer business on the grounds of the hurricane-Katrina-ruined Dixie brewery. The building is very nice, the grounds impressive, with walking trails, frisbee golf course, bocce ball courts, lots of chairs and tables. The only thing missing was customers. Empty. We stayed there again Tuesday night before heading home on Wednesday and we may have been the only people to buy a beer that day. It’s very difficult to get to and although nice inside of it’s fenced in area, not in a good part of town.

Monday AM we met Don and Anne and family at Court of Two Sisters for a jazz-breakfast buffet, great food and good live music. We walked around the quarter, then took the St Charles street car to Camelia grill for lunch. I met them with Sammy in Audubon park. Later that evening we stayed with Margaret and Thomas while Don and Anne went to eat at Cane and Table (top 5 meal lifetime they said). Peggy and I checked into the Kimpton hotel on Poydras across from Mother’s, dog friendly, we want to remember it for next trip. Tuesday was the aquarium in the morning, lunch on Decatur street (the Gazebo) and then City Park sculpture garden in the afternoon.

Aquarium, Jackson Square, and two picture of the Sculpture Garden in City Park.

Finally Margaret and Thomas cruising on down the river.

Wednesday morning as the Venables boarded the ship we checked out Bayou Segnette SP and found it to be very nice, 25 minutes from CBD NOLA. We will probably stay there at some point in the future. Then I had a Po Boy at Parasol’s, Peggy had a Irish Sundae (beef gravy on top of potato salad, she liked it), we gassed up at Costco and hit the road. Uneventful return trip, arrived home 3:30 Thursday afternoon.

Left on the afternoon of Thursday 01/11/2024 for our regular Ft Myers beach trip despite some reservations, many had assured us it was back from the destruction of hurricane Ian in fall 2022. Well not exactly. I’d estimate only about 30% of the buildings were restored and usable. Our condo was running on a generator, the elevator wasn’t reliable, and getting in and out required navigating an obstacle course of construction equipment and paraphernalia. No businesses were open, no restaurants, and no pool for Peggy to exercise in each morning, as is her Florida routine. Many buildings are being fixed, but many are in ruins and will be torn down. Here’s a picture of the Wyndham resort just two blocks from where we stay….

We stopped to see Mike and Vicki’s new home on Saturday before going on to our rental in Ft. Myers Beach, stayed the night with them Friday 01/16 and stopped by briefly on our way home. Their house is lovely, on a peaceful street with a view of a state park out back. Here’s the view you see as you walk in the front door

There’s no development behind their house, just park. They both are very happy there. Played golf with Mike on Saturday then we all went out to eat. On Friday before the visit Peggy and I drove to Jack’s London Grill for the Robert Burns day celebration only to discover I had read the ad wrong, it was to be on Saturday. We returned to Ft Myers on Sunday.

I played tennis each morning, we went out to eat daily and took our regular walks until 01/26 when I came down with covid, about 36 hrs later Peggy did too. We quarantined essentially until it was time to come back home.

Before covid we were able to attend a lecture on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict at FGCU and an excellent concert by Seraphic Fire but we had to cancel plans for other events we had tickets to. Other noteworthy things: we came in fifth at trivia at Landsdowne Street pub, just the two of us. There were 20+ teams, fifth place wins a reserved table for next week (we brought 4 people with us a week later and didn’t so well the second time), I finally saw a Red-cockaded Woodpecker in Babcock-Webb WMA, birding being a great covid quarantine activity. Got home Sunday evening 02/03/24.