Hello Family and Friends.
Its been a few days since my last post and today being a down day, I thought it would be a good time to post a bunch of pictures and get everyone all caught up.
So, where are we now? Well, we are at the KOA in Mackinaw City, MI. Not a bad place, lots of big trees, very good, and I mean very good WIFI (no problem streaming TV with no buffering) and no road noise. Steve and Susie are two rows behind us in a site that is even nicer because they have big trees on both sides of their space. Very nice people here as well. Most evenings there are fires going in I’d say about ¾ of the fire pits which puts a very nice smell in the air
I got to do my first double cook. This time, it was my smoker and then my griddle. I slow smoked some Salmon and then finished it off on the griddle. I also made some potatoes on the griddle along with some pineapple. Twas quite the tasty meal. I hope to be able to cook again on Saturday because if I remember the schedule correctly, tonight, Susie is making lasagna, vegetable style.
On the RV side of things, the rig is holding up quite well, except for where its not. It seems that in an effort to save a penny or two the builders did not put a lot of screws into the window coverings, so they have been coming lose and falling down. I get them back up but they seem to enjoy being down more, so it is another thing for the factory to repair at the end of next month. Oh, and this morning, around 3:30 am, the main circuit popped on the pedestal, so we had no 110v power until I got my lazy self out of bed, around 9:00 this morning and reset the breaker. Other than that, oh and of course all the other new RV issues, this is a very solid rig.
One new toy we brought along with us this time was a TV to use when we are outside. It’s a smart TV and fits really nice in our main basement storage area. I set it up 2 days ago when the weather was in the mid 60’s. It would have worked great, had I remembered to bring along the remote for it. It’s a Samsung and the other TVs in the RV are LG, so we are stuck for right now. Just another thing to add to the packing list for next time.
Alrighty then, that is all caught up so now its on to our touring and the pictures. As many of you might remember, we were actually here last year and posted a bunch of pictures. But there were some things we did not see then that we are seeing on this trip. To save bandwidth, we are taking pictures of new adventures. I will see if I can post a link or something to the pictures from last year.
Our first journey was to the Colonial Village in Mackinaw City. It is a very interesting place that they have been rebuilding since 1959. They are slowly excavating the entire site and using what they find to guide their rebuild. The place was an active fort for quite a long time this area being the epicenter of the early Fur Trade. They had docents in period costume there to explain things to us and answer any questions we might have. I tried out for one of the docent positions, but as you will see in the photos, I could not get into the uniform. One interesting aspect of the place was that they had mannequins in period costumes in all the buildings. At first, it was quite a shock because they looked very realistic but once I knew they were not real, it was ok. It reminded me of my daughter who when she was little did not like, as she called them, fake people.
Our next journey took us back to Mackinac Island where I got to do something I don’t get to do anymore, take a horse drawn carriage ride. Of course, on the island, if you are going to get around it is either by horse or bike and there was no way we were renting bikes. When I made the reservations, I included a horse drawn carriage tour of the island so that by the time my bride found out we were doing it, it was too late. Let me say, right here and now, I did not touch a single horse or even wipe my runny eyes so basically, I was a good boy and Sarah was still ticked off at me a bit for sneaking the carriage ride in. Now, on to the ride itself. All the horses on the island are big draft horses and I do mean big. There are a few pictures of me next to one (not touching) and my head only comes up to the horse’s shoulder, and according to our driver, that was not the biggest on the island. They have horses doing everything from pulling trash wagons to serving as taxi’s (they claim they are the only on call, radio dispatched, 24/7 365 horse drawn taxi company in the world), to delivering Amazon Prime (we got a couple of pictures of that as well). They are beautiful animals to be sure.
The carriage tour took us to places on the island that we did not visit last year, like the carriage house where they have a collection of, yes you guessed it, carriages. Down the small hill from the carriage house was the foundry where a smithy who was featured on the TV show Forged in Fire was working, got a couple of photos there as well. Speaking of Forged in Fire, before we left on this trip I sat down with the Grands and watched a few episodes with them. They really got into it.
Our next stop on the tour was Ft Mackinac which we did visit last year (so not many pictures this time), and just as last year, we all had lunch on the veranda. Great view, great company and great food. And when you are on Mackinac Island there is always, I repeat always, one place you have to go and that is, The Grand Hotel. Been there before and yet never get tired of it.
This year, we did something very different while at the Grand, we had High Tea. Yes, we got our servings of little cakes and scones, a pot of tea, a glass of Sherry, and much lighter wallets but it was all worth it. I think we are justifying it as a Once in a lifetime experience. At least that’s our story and we are sticking to it. Of course, there are photos of the spread.
Our final activity for our day on the island was an evening sail on the Appledore IV which is an 85-foot schooner. This is the boat we were supposed to go out on two nights about but got fogged in. This time the weather was wonderful. Blue skies and a light but steady breeze, perfect for sailing. The 4 of us were the only passengers for this sail so we got to spend a lot of time talking to the crew. Total time under sail, about 90 minutes. Awesome and a great way to end the day.
Well, that brings you up to date. We are going to be here another day and then on Sunday we head off for a place called, Christmas, MI where we happen to have another cruise scheduled.
So to my family and friends
TTFN
