Day 9 Mackinac Island, MI

Day 9 Thursday, July 30, 2009

Our Mackinac Island Adventure

The weather was supposed to be iffy. After monitoring the morning news stations for the radar and forecast, we decided to brave the trip with the promise that the rain wouldn't start till this afternoon.

The Shepler's Ferry Folks were eager to place us on the 9:30 am ferry. It's only a few blocks from the hotel, and Missy enjoyed (?, perhaps, tolerated is a better word) her 2nd powerboat ride and as many days. She acts as though it's no big deal, she lays at our feet and demonstrates superb manners throughout.
Smooth ride, calm seas. Nice.

Approximately 20 min. later, we arrived at the Island. A great place to explore!






Dave took 192 pictures. We walked for several miles on pretty trails, had a nice lunch with chocolate lab, Hershey, (and owner) at The Mustang Saloon.

Almost on cue, it began to sprinkle as we finished eating, but we had one more tourist-y task yet to complete (after purchasing the obligatory postcards). A visit to the Grand Hotel. We got as close to the entrance as we could without paying the ridiculous fee ($10.00) to walk along the driveway in front of the hotel (whatever). The pictures turned out nicely anyway, and, it's a must-see if you've traveled all the way here…

On the return trip, the water was not as smooth, the weather came in….



Tomorrow morning we are off to Ephraim, WI

Day 8 Northern Michigan

Day 8 Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Another vacation day from sailing.
Missy has been such a good hotel and travel dog!!
10:40 a low key start to our travel today, leaving West Branch, MI, heading slightly NW toward Houghton Lake (Dave reminisces about good times camping), then N on I 75.

Curiously, we travel through 2 cities with names close to our hearts: Vanderbilt and Wolverine. Not kidding! Look at a map!

Travel note: MI wins The Worst Road Condition Award. Aside from some nice renovation areas near Flint, "deep texture" is the theme for much of the highway.
Thinking back, we encountered a few large abrasions in the cement roadway in SC also, some holes were quite large, and conveniently right in the line of the tires (expected). At least they were few and far between.

Fun Fact: Gaylord, MI – exactly ½ way between the North Pole and the Equator.

12:15 Exit 313. Now for a FS shout out. Mike Miller, from Fishing Bay, VA is visiting his parents in Indian River, MI.

They have a lovely lake house on Mullet Lake. He was working on his trailer earlier today, and we stopped by to say hello. It was a beautiful day for a power boat ride on the lake (Missy's first!) and sitting outside, visiting with Mike and his parents.
We appreciate the wonderful lunch complete with Michigan cherries, fresh raspberries, home made cookies, conversation, and offer to stay the night in the guest house. What a great get-away!

4:45 pm We decide to press on to Mackinaw City for the night so we can catch an early ferry to the Island Thursday.

5:10 pm Rolling into MC, it's a tight squeeze pulling a Scot, but the city is cute and we're ready to find a hotel and dinner!
Fortunately, there are 52 hotels in the area and a few restaurants ready to serve us the highly recommended fresh whitefish.


Sadly, Missy wasn't allowed at Audie's, where Mike's dad said we should go, but she was welcome in downtown at The Depot, instead, and it was all good!

Day 7 Deep Creek to Michigan

Day 7 Thursday, July 28 leaving Deep Creek

We've made the last minute decision to go through Michigan to see Mackinac Island and across the UP and down to Green Bay.

Last night, Harry, Karen and Bill and Melanie gave us a tour of the Wisp Resort Area, Golf Club and Ski Area at the top of the mountain at the north end of Deep Creek.
They also have a World and National competition level man-made white water rafting venue. Pretty cool.

Yummy flatbread pizza and beer at the Mountain State Brewery

(I know you're shocked we found a brewery on our trip).
A nice sunset from the Brewery patio

The original restaurant started in Morgantown, WV, and they expanded to this area.

This morning, we did a little provisioning at the Arrowhead Deli/Store for supplies and we're off ~10:00 am. On the road again.



10:23 into WV (again), backtracking a bit to highway 79, the middle corner of the state.

11:00 into PA north to 70 West, which will take us to Columbus. We decided not to go N through Pitts, Youngstown, Cleveland. It looks a bit congested on the map and our history with the PA and OH turnpikes is not great, either. We'll only be in the bottom W corner of the state. So far the trip has included the states of FL, GA, SC, NC, VA, WV, MD, PA, OH and MI. The hands down winner for the ugliest state is Ohio!
It's a beautiful day, sunshiney and warm.
Leading the "Nicest rest stop" competition so far is the I-79 Welcome Center in Kirby, PA. Lovely, grassy area for the Missy to rest, and clean, well-maintained facilities for the humans. The stop was made complete with greetings from some Amish folk.

We make the turn to Hwy 70 W, just south of Pitts. (Hi Tom and Chrissy. Amy, John, Colin and Buster!) and the GPS is in a TIZZY! This takes us back into WV at noon, for a minute or two, then into OH by 12:15. We are getting ever closer to, dare I say it, Columbus. At least the highway circles around it and we do not have to actually enter it.

Curiosity:
-Melinda's mom, self-proclaimed MSU, GVSU, and UM fan, who is from MI said she planted a buckeye tree in her yard (maybe I had too many margeritas to really understand this correctly)

- we passed Upper Sandusky and noticed it is SOUTH and west of Sandusky.


We have no idea what this might be!


4:30 Phew! Finally getting close to the OH/MI line. Ugh, of course, we couldn't leave OH without a little traffic snafu. 2 miles of slowness.
To counteract the effects of Columbus and the Ohio Experience in general, we press on!

North to Ann Arbor!! 4:40 Ahhh, in MI. We are a little distressed by the condition of the road surfaces, however.

We receive good advise from the Michigan travel advisory board: Prisoner area. Do NOT pick up hitchhikers. Good tip. Will make a note of that one.

7:40 and a few detours and a good hour after Daves back was done with the driving thing we find exit (212) that has 2 of the precious few chain motels goin'. Quality Inn- no dogs allowed (cue music from Peanuts cartoons re: Snoopy)
Super 8- yay, we can stay!
Dinner at the nicest attached-to-a-hotel-restaurant The Lumberjack Food and Spirits (2 of my favorite words at this point).

We did 616 miles today in about 9 1/2 hours so progress was good with mostly light traffic. Still having problems with the image uploader so we will try to add them tomorrow.

Nitey nite!

Day 6 A Little Housekeeping

Ahhhhh, nice to sleep in, the trees keep things nice and dark and cool. Just perfect in the mornings, about 63-64 degrees at wake up time. On the Missy walk this morning, there was evidence of night creatures and their nocturnal activities. Residents of Deep Creek have special creature-proof structures for their refuse. Apparently bears are not discouraged by dumpster lids and some residences and DCYC –Deerhaven had some clean up to do!

After morning rituals, coffee, etc. It was off to the FS factory to pay our bill and visit with Harry, Karen and Buffet.



Missy and Buffet had a grand time chasing tennis balls together! We had a boat to take out of the water and prepare for travel, so back to DCYC-Turkey Neck for a little work.



and with that done, we were able to relax this afternoon on the porch (and catch up on correspondence) at the cabin.

We hope to get some nice pictures tonight as we'll gather for pizza and exploring at some higher elevations on the other side of the Lake. Tomorrow we travel!

Still trouble with uploading images so we will try it again soon.

Day 5 Second Day of Racing at Sandy Douglass Regatta

Yes we are falling woefully behind so Kim is stepping in to help us get caught up.

One race planned for today (Sunday). Gray skies, moment of brightness and blue, then more gray with some drizzle thrown in. We were ready for inclement weather with our fowl weather gear and Fowler sails!
Early morning dreariness before the breeze arrives.

The puffs remained big, likely over 20 knots, as we saw more Scot bottoms than usual, the wind causing more heel than you'd like for efficient and speedy Scot sailing.

We wonder how are friends are doing in Toms River (Lightning ACCs) and in the Cape (Daysailer NACs). The weather folks were not giving the greatest forecasts for the conditions in the northeast.

Finishing the course was the goal for the day and we achieved it! Not spending any more money on broken parts was a secondary bonus! We had our share of fire drills, though…hope we have the kinks out, as we cannot afford these mishaps in WI! Dave mashed is big toe in some uncoordinated maneuver so a new toe nail will be in his future.

Going into the day, John Meredeth with crew Tom Wolffe were tied for first (at three points each) with Chris and the family Danilek: Linda, Lee, and Roger.
Local knowledge prevailed with Tom and John winning the race and the day. The Danileks had the additional challenge of digging out from and around-end maneuver at the start. Good Show!

The Winners!!

Our housemates for the weekend were third in the race today, the Blonski family from Ohio sailed 3 up with father Paul skippering, daughter Jody and son Paul Jr. as crew, they were 4th in the overall standings. Local rock star Joni Palmer and crew Darrell Van Hutten were 3rd in the final standings with an 8th for today.

Melanie, Bill and Courtney Dunham invited us to dinner with Mel's parents and their 2 labs Mocha and Jibe. Harry and Karen Carpenter joined us with Buffet (golden retriever) and while Missy had about all the canine companionship she could take, we had a lovely time with friends.

Buffet and Jibey sharing the tennis ball

These two did this for about three hours

Day 4 First Day of Racing at Sandy Douglass Regatta

Breezy, warm mostly nice day with gusty, shifty breeze which peaked at about 22 knots. Deep Creek Lake lived up to its reputation as super shifty but John Meredith and Chris Danilek were unfazed with each getting a first and second to end the day tied.

Two races in and 2 DNFs for us. During the first race as were were rounding the leeward mark to go upwind the rudderhead strap that holds the mainsheet lower block broke. There was a powerboat close by offering a tow so we dropped the flogging mainsail and tossed them a line. The schedule includes a lunch stop in between the first and second races so we figured we would snag a new part form Harry, grab some lunch and be good for the second race. We didn't anticipate being forced onto a rocky leeward shore by a nameless, overzealous challenger fleet boat. This was the reason I filed a protest although racing rules are not real specific about such situations. The protest was dismissed and the full story too long for me to tell here. Fortunently, the damage to the tow boats prop is not too severe and only our rudder hit the rocks so nothing a file can't fix. I was sweating the centerboard, for sure but it's ok.

Lots of overly aggressive sailing, seemed kinda un-Scot-like. Knowing how hard we race in the Florida District Championship with rarely a protest and not too much shouting has me thinking we are pretty fortunate.

We even broke the cooler but the ice and beer were unaffected.

Day 3 Life in Deep Creek MD

Look at this an early report, how dedicated are we?!

Good cabin sleeping was going on last night after a couple of restless nights. Kim and Missy did some early morning hiking through the woods, Missy likes it here.Some random kid on the pirate ship...


Went to the club and set the boat up before heading over to the factory for some research. We had to check out Karen and Harry's Golden Retriever whose name is Buffet, like Jimmy, not food.Play Time!!
FS 5884 and 5885 are about to leave for their new homes. Went for a sail after that, it is beautiful here today. Mostly sunny and breezy and super shifty out on the lake. We checked in and learned that 50 boats are registered so far. Holy Crap.

On the way back to the cabin I almost picked off some deer. Looks like a mother/daughter team.


More later...

Day 2 Charlotte to Deep Creek

July 23 Charlotte NC to Deep Creek Lake MD

So last night was a new first for Missy, the first night in a Hotel. We weren't worried about her at all so long as we were in the room with her. Leaving her unattended was a little more iffy because we don't know how much she would bark, we weren't going to find out about that.

About 2 minutes into checking out the room she walked past the full length mirror and flipped out on the "other black lab" in the room. Then randomly through the night she would hear something and jump up give the "intruder alert bark" and head over to guard the room door.
No idea what she was hearing but thankfully the last alert happened around 3 am and we had no complaints.

We awoke to a foggy overcast morning which sounds crappy but it was much better than the thunderstorm that passed through last night. Thankfully we had checked in but it prevented us from the Missy walk till later than desired. We were off at about 8 am and were hoping that Charlotte traffic would not be too annoying. Since we were leaving town while most were heading into town we had smooth sailing, Nice.

Fast facts and curiosities: we passed the home of the Carolina Panthers and arch rivals of the Lightning, Carolina Hurricanes, and Charlotte seems to be known as the Queen City.

Our first fuel and comfort stop was at 9:20, just south of VA. Not especially noteworthy except it's funny that I had difficulty with all things mechanical at the store. The toilet paper thingie, soap dispenser, I couldn't even turn the water on without a trouble. Ugh. Maybe some iced coffee would help fix me. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the fountain to work either. Sigh.

9:50 – we're in VA! Clouds are blocking the tops of the mountains, but it's beautiful nonetheless. Elevation is causing ears to pop. Missy hasn't moved since she started sleeping again after the last stop. Per the warning signs on the road, we'll be engulfed in fog, watching for falling rocks, and being wary of crosswinds. Click, click.

10:50 – through the East River Mountain Tunnel into WVA, Wild and Wonderful (and rainy). We turn onto US 19 (just like home) south of Charleston (hi Mindy and Nate!)

More curiosity…Fayetville, WV claims to be the "Coolest Small Town" according to the road sign. It lacks specificity, however, as in "In the world," or "In the state" or for what it may be coolest? "for antiques," or "for biscuits?" Clearly, the WV-ians haven't been to Dunedin FL. Later, we also traveled over the Western Hemisphere's Longest Arch Bridge, the New River Gorge National River. Very Cool.

3:22 pm – into MD and Garrett County! According to the signs, we are to stay alert for MD wildlife (but Carrie moved to Wisconsin!!)
We've already seen several deer and a bear, but they were too quick for the camera. Sunny Day maybe around 75 degrees, 4:00 pm we arrive at Deep Creek Yacht Club. First leg is done after 1060 miles and 18 hours. Wooo Hooo!

We met Harry at the club and visited while watching Catherine and Jeff Penfield (surprise) set up their boat.
So there will be 2 FL boats at this weekends regatta. Harry then showed us the way to his cabin where we will stay this weekend. Holy Crap we would have never found it our selves, for that matter once we leave we may not find our way back. It is really secluded, heavily wooded and ultra lake front cool. We are jealous!

We will be visiting the factory and then back to the club to unpack the boat and go for a sail.

2009 Flying Scot Sandy Douglass Regatta trip Day 1

July 22, 2009 Leaving Dunedin, First leg of trip FL-Charlotte, NC

Is Missy excited? She knew something was up when her cage and bed disappeared into the van last night…



After loading up our possessions, leaving notes for neighbors, hitching the boat to the van, at 10 am we told Missy to "Oddy-up" (rhymes with giddy-up, almost) and we started our '09 Journey to the NAC.

One PB & J, 4 Diet Cokes, and 255 mi later, we cross the state line into GA, first milestone – check. Avg. 48 mph (several rest stops), Missy sleeps.

Two more DCs, two mini snickers, and the clock says 4:30 pm. Next milestone, SC state line – check. Missy stirs slightly during celebration. Our average speed is up to53 mph, (fewer rest stops), 366 mi.

We're reading Janet Evanovich's 2nd book for some light entertainment. Not bad for some light entertainment, and passing the miles.

Happiness is noticing gas prices decreasing as we go. Dave had a beer craving at 4:45pm and settles for crackers and Gatorade along with another Aleve for the aching back. Ugh.

Curiosity list:
An interstate sign in SC reads "Parking area - no cars allowed" Hmmmmm. Followed by another sign that reads; "No facilities" So if I can't park do I really care what facilities are not there?
Newspaper headline "Man tasered, bursts into flames" Some guy in Australia was sniffing gasoline (???!!!) and ran out of his home with a lighter (!!!), was tasered by the cops and ignited into flames (!!!) At leats it wasn't FL.

Another Headline; "My boss won't let me use Facebook" Gee why is that? How Rude. Another victory for FL though since this story is from Texas.

Fun new fact: Okefenokee means "land of the trembling earth" in Seminole language. Do swamps tremble?

Now we're drinking Frescas so as not to be overcaffeinated tonight. 745pm: crossed line into NC, just south of Charlotte and stopped at LaQuinta Airport South. AAA discount and no deposit or fees for puppy. Score! 8:00pm check in, walk Missy, lie down, pop beer.

To sum up; 606 miles in 10 hours, about 380 to go tomorrow.

Out.

Flying Scots Fleet Race in July

Uh oh, the RC boat waits for breeze (click to enlarge)


Kim and I were not racing today, owing to my recent Lasik surgery and Dr's orders to lay low. That created a good excuse to try out my new camera from the nicely shaded upper deck of the DIYC clubhouse. The deck is also conveniently located near the the bar and some cold draft beer.

Our fearless fleet captain Andy says;

Our July fleet practice races are in the books, we lost some of our regular "owner operators" to other aquatic pursuits, the infidels shall remain nameless... We still had 7 boats out which for the middle of Summer, not too shabby!
Andy and Drew charge out of the basin, Breeze On!

Big welcome to Robbie Brown and Richard to their first fleet event, they had the newly refurbished FS2052 going well!

There was a big kid's theme going, there was youngsters on three of the seven boats, (and I'm not counting Cameron!!)Stewart, Drew and Lilly Taylor and Drew Hayward all racing hard!


Dawn and Matt heading out

We had to wait for wind, but a nice Westerly filled in around 315 and was in the 12k range to start, fading slightly as the races clicked off. Big thanks to Dave and Dean Bell, Lisa Hayward and Paul for running some nice races!!
The stacks showing the westerly and a little storm cell but it stayed "over there"

Results:

Boat R1 R2 R3 R4 Tot

Robbie Brown and Richard # 2052 1 3 2 1 7
Al Thompson and Cameron Salmon # 504 3 2 3 2 10
Nate Velardebo and Crew # 2007 4 4 1 4 13
Andy and Drew Hayward # 38 2 5 4 3 14
Tom, Drew and Lilly Taylor # 4321 6 6 5 5 22
Dawn Naramore and Matt Dalton # 2262 5 7 6 6 24
Mark and Stewart Taylor #4925 8 dns 1 8 dnf 8 dns 25


Here we have the stragglers bringing up the rear. Again! Jeez.

Our next event was supposed to be the much heralded Lake Hollingsworth Invitational, July 25th but it will be re-scheduled for this fall.

Now for the fun stuff on the drive home;

Biker Down! I hate it when that happens!


The next victim?


Another one not really getting the "side of the road concept"


Re-arranging "the Goods"... always a priority


A little thrill for wheel chair guy! and Kim,

NOT!

Stay tuned as we begin the road trip next week. First stop is the Sandy Douglas regatta at Deep Creek then to WI for the NAC. Missy will be joining in the fun.