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!