Hello Everyone! Well I’m a day late and a dollar short, but what else is new? It’s been an amazing week out here on the west coast of Michigan, probably the best so far. I just got back from a wonderful 3 day, 2 night stay on lovely South Manitou Island in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and was hoping I would have time to get my newsletter done last night, but I was simply too tired and couldn’t get to it until today. Better late than never, though, and it was definitely worth the delay! It’s been such a busy week that it’s hard to imagine it all happened in one week, but that’s how it is sometimes. Before I get into the details of the week though, I’ve had some things come into my head this week and thought I’d share them here.
The first came from an old college friend from Penn State this week. He is on vacation with his family and wrote on Facebook about an 850+ mile day they had driving across several states. I simply can’t imagine doing that on a vacation – I’ve done it in my professional life as a tour bus driver, but never with passengers on board – and it was never a good time. I know I have another college friend and his family who are on a 14 day trip from New Orleans to California which is a little more reasonable but still a lot of miles for a family to cover. As you know, I’m obviously a fan of slow travel and smaller destinations, but I bring these up for a couple of reasons. First, because Americans put up with way too little vacation time, forcing these ridiculous cross-country sprints to try and make the most of what little time people have. I don’t know if people have any idea that much of the developed world has a minimum (by law) of 6 weeks’ paid vacation. Americans work too much and I wish they had more time off to enjoy this wonderful country and all it has to offer. With the decline of unions and our politicians in the back pockets of big businesses on whom they depend for campaign dollars, nobody is advocating for workers in the U.S. right now. My hope is that the current scramble for employees might turn that trend, even just a little bit. 10 days off a year is simply not enough to recharge your batteries, especially if you want to go see something during your time off. I wish this situation was different.
The second came from an old high school friend of mine, but was along a similar line. He posted something vague and somewhat worrisome this week about reaching the end of his rope. As I always try to do when it seems like someone is calling into the darkness for help, I sent him a private message with my phone number in case he really had nobody to talk to. We haven’t been in touch much since graduating from high school, now over 25 years ago, but he’s still a friend and someone I share a common past with. After I reached out, he sent me a message saying he wanted to come ride around with me for a while. I told him to come on up to Michigan and we’d go have some fun and catch up and he could get out of town for a while and clear his head. I don’t think he’s going to come, of course (although he’d be welcomed if he did), but it’s nice that I can give him something else to think about – an escape from the demons in his head right now. He was basically telling me he was overworked and underpaid and the day-in and day-out of it was really starting to wear on him. Again, I think if he had some time to get away and clear his head at some point during the year, he might not be in the mental state he is in now. I know in this country we hear about how “America is the greatest country in the world” all the time, but the people that shout that the loudest are usually those who haven’t spent a lot of time outside of the U.S. I love this country and most of the people in it for many reasons, but how our companies treat their workers isn’t one of them. When people ask me when I’m going to get a “real job”, I often tell them when I am offered a decent salary and a month’s vacation and I’m not kidding about that. I know a lot of people have to work these hours in these jobs and have families to support, and I definitely understand, but I’m still incredibly sympathetic as to how hard it is to work and do anything else. From watching your health to enjoying a hobby or taking a real vacation somewhere, it’s incredibly difficult to do when you’re overwhelmed by work all the time. We may have a tremendous GDP, but the quality of life of the average American could definitely be improved upon. Okay, enough of that…
When I left off last week, I was in Holland, Michigan and headed north. I made my way out to Grand Rapids for two days, but was very unimpressed by it. I tried. I tried really hard to find what the big deal is about it. After 2 days, I decided it wasn’t there to be found and I took off. I did run a permanent orienteering course about 20 minutes out of town at Siedman Park which I enjoyed. The mosquitoes ate me alive, but I loved exploring the park with my map and compass and tracking down the markers in the woods. I also enjoyed visiting the Founders Brewery while I was in Grand Rapids as well. It was the first big brewery I’ve been to in a while and definitely one of Michigan’s most widely known. I didn’t get into the brewery itself, although I could see it through the windows and smell it from the vents, but they had a nice taproom on the premises which was great. I love visiting breweries which I know and trying the beers that don’t make it out to the mass market. I can definitely report that those guys know what they’re doing and their small-batch brews are as good as their mass-produced ones, or better. Another highlight of my time in Grand Rapids was a little tiki bar called Max’s South Seas Hideaway which was an authentic tiki bar and very well put together. The atmosphere was perfect, the staff was great and their cocktails were pretty spot-on. I finished my month in Hawaii two years ago this week, so it was nice to sit at Max’s and think about those wonderful days in the South Pacific. Beyond those wonderful spots, I found Grand Rapids drab and lifeless and desperately in need of some beautification. The region it is in is amazing, and as a base of operations to work from, I can see the appeal. As a city though, it was less than impressive.
Leaving there, I headed out to Grand Haven, which was remarkably like South Haven in many ways. Downtown was lovely with some cool old buildings and the waterfront was great. There was another nice beach and another great historic lighthouse. Since it was a Friday, there was live music at the riverfront amphitheater which I really enjoyed. I had a great time just wandering around town and then headed down to the beach for sunset. Sunset that night was truly remarkable and it looked like the sky was on fire from the beach. After the sun went down, I headed back downtown where I sat on the riverfront and watched a very cool fountain light show across the water. It wasn’t quite the Bellagio, but it was pretty magical for a small town in Michigan. Kudos to you, Grand Haven, for putting on quite a show for visitors to your town.
Ludington State Park Lighthouse
Saturday morning I was up and ready to head out of town. I checked the route north to Ludington on my phone and was perplexed that what had been an hour’s drive the night before was now two and a half. Digging a little deeper, I found that the drawbridge in Grand Haven, the only bridge over the Grand River for quite a ways, was stuck up in the air, closing the road entirely and forcing traffic around. Feeling quite sorry for myself and for the bridge repairman who was roused from his Saturday to come fix it, I pouted around for a while. Just as I was psyching myself up for the long drive around, they fixed the bridge and I was off and running. I made it to Ludington later than I had hoped, but in enough time to head out to the State Park for the hike I had planned on doing out to the lighthouse there. It was about a 3 mile hike each way, and I went out through the woods which was quiet and nice. The lighthouse itself was in wonderful condition, being maintained by a local organization. It was staffed by a crew of jovial retirees who convinced me to do the tour (after visiting a hundred lighthouses, there isn’t much new for me to see). I was happy to support their work though and got a few extra steps in making my way up to the top. I really enjoyed taking some photos of this beautiful light and then made my way back along the beach. It was late afternoon as I made my way back and I had the beach almost entirely to myself which was magical. When I got back to my van, I headed into town and had some fried seafood for dinner and then took a stroll along the peaceful marina as the sun was setting. Sadly I could see the beautiful cotton-candy sunset happening on the beach, but couldn’t get down to the lighthouse in time to take photos of it. I had decided to take the night off from lighthouse sunsets and should have known better. Ludington was definitely different from everywhere else I had been in Michigan thus far, and it seemed like the transition from southern to northern Michigan was somewhere right in that area. The people are different up north here and the pace of life is a little slower. I heard some great live music coming from one of the bars in town and it normally would have been something I enjoyed, but it was tight and crowded and with the Delta variant making the rounds and the likelihood that fewer people in that area are vaccinated, it made me uncomfortable and I called it a night.
Sunday I headed north again, all the way to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, a unit of the National Park Service and somewhere I was really looking forward to seeing. I spent the day exploring the scenic drive and overlooks and the dunes there are truly impressive. Later in the day, I stopped in the historic town of Glen Haven which is now completely within the park and tells the history of the port town in its heyday. A lot of the history of the area focuses around David Henry Day who came to the region in 1878 and spent the next 50 years developing the area, including bringing in tourism. It was cool to see the old cars with balloon tires that once cruised up and down the dunes in the ‘30s and ‘40s. From there I headed out to the D.H. Day campground for the night, something I don’t do often but decided to so I could stay in the park that night. I spent most of the evening preparing for my trip to South Manitou Island leaving the following day, but got down to the beach for a sunset swim in Lake Michigan.
Sleeping Bear Dunes
Monday I made my way on to Leland where I boarded the ferry for the island. South Manitou Island is a part of Sleeping Bear Dunes, and is a semi-wilderness area catering to backpackers. I had my backpack loaded for the 2 nights I was going to spend there and headed off to the Weather Station Campground which was about 1.3 miles from the dock. I found a beautiful site overlooking Lake Michigan, set up my tent and then headed out to explore what I could with the rest of the day. There was a lot of wildlife around, mostly in the form of small critters like toads, snakes and chipmunks. I headed out to an overlook over the shipwreck of the S.S. Morazan which ran aground in 1960. The crew was saved but the ship was a total loss. You can still see the main part of the ship above the waterline, which is pretty cool.
I spent the following morning in my tent as it was raining pretty hard out. It was nice to relax and read my book and not worry about anything else. When the rain cleared out, I headed off to explore the island some more. I started with a tour of the lighthouse there which was great (and free, so I climbed this one too – and there were some great views from the top). Then I went out to see the old cemeteries on the island which are still actively burying people today who have ties to the island. South Manitou Island has the deepest port between Chicago and Buffalo, so it was once a major stopping point for large ships on the Great Lakes. They would stop to take on wood for their boilers and food for their stores so it was actually a pretty busy place for a number of years. I enjoyed learning about the history of the island in the Visitor Center and the Museum and then headed out to see some of the old farms in the interior of the island and the old schoolhouse. It was a cool day of hiking and exploring and I didn’t see a single person all day once I left the village area near the dock. In the evening I enjoyed a dip in the lake under the lighthouse which was also wonderful.
I spent yesterday morning and early afternoon relaxing on the beach before catching the afternoon ferry back to the mainland. Arriving back in Leland, I wandered around the area called “Fishtown”, where the ferry was based, for a while. It’s a cool little restored fishing village shantytown which recalls the history of hundreds of such places which once lined the lake’s shore. Since the day was wearing on, I headed on to Traverse City where I grabbed a quick dinner and a couple of beers and then called it a night.
I spent today unpacking and cleaning my gear and then headed to the library here in Traverse City to try and catch up on some work and get this post finished. Tonight, I’m headed to the Traverse City Pit Spitters’ baseball game which I’m really looking forward to. Tomorrow, I’ll be back in the library trying to finish up my next podcast episode before the weekend and then hopefully heading out in the afternoon to explore the peninsula north of Traverse City, as it has a cool lighthouse and some great wineries. Saturday I’ll be off and running again visiting Torch Lake and then heading on to Charlevoix and Petosky before heading back across the state to see Thunder Bay on Lake Huron (not all on Saturday, but that’s the direction I’m going in). By this time next week, I hope to be in the Upper Peninsula and headed west to finish up my time in Michigan. But we will see. I hope you’re having a great week out there, wherever you are, and I look forward to being back with you next week. Take care and have a wonderful week and thank you, as always, for reading.
-Mike
Sunset in Grand Haven - On Fire