Viewing entries in
travel blog

This Week on the Road - August 12th-18th

Comment

This Week on the Road - August 12th-18th

Hello Everyone! I hope you’ve all had a great week since last I wrote. I can’t believe we’re already halfway through August, but it’s sure been a beautiful week here in Wisconsin. For me, it’s been a week of catching up – catching up on work and catching up with my family in the Greater Milwaukee area. Since my dad is from Milwaukee and I spent a lot of time here as a kid, there is a lot of familiarity to it even though it’s been many years since I last spent time in the area. It’s been great though, and I’m really enjoying it.

When I finished this post last week, I headed over to the Neville Public Museum in Green Bay. Right as I parked and got out of my van, the tornado sirens started going off downtown. The museum was clearly a better option than my van in a tornado, so I headed inside. The staff was great and moved us all into the theater to wait it out. Thankfully the tornados passed us by and I could go ahead and get a look at the museum. There were some interesting artifacts there, but I really wanted to learn more about the history of Green Bay and it didn’t quite deliver on that for me. I did enjoy the museum but I would have loved a better organized permanent collection. The top highlight was a very cool model of Lambeau Field built entirely out of Legos which was definitely worth seeing. When I left the museum, I went to a delicious little spot called PhoComa downtown. Green Bay (and Southern Wisconsin) has a huge Hmong population who settled there after escaping from Southeast Asia at the end of the Vietnam War. I have definitely been craving some good Southeast Asian food for a while, and this place was amazing. After dinner I went to see the Green Bay Booyah baseball team play. They play in the Northwoods League with the Traverse City Pitspitters, and that night they were playing against Racine. The storms had cleared out and it turned into a beautiful night for baseball, but the Booyah couldn’t pull one out for the home town crowd.

Thursday I headed out of Green Bay and drove through downtown Appleton to see where Harry Houdini spent much of his adult life. It seemed like a nice enough place but there was nothing to keep me there. I moved on to Fond Du Lac at the bottom of Lake Winnebago and visited the Lighthouse Park for great views out over the lake. Lake Winnebago is a massive lake but can’t really compare to the nearby Great Lakes. The Fox River passes through Lake Winnebago and connects the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River. It’s also one of the few northern flowing rivers in the country and was a major route for early traders. I really enjoyed learning about the area at the local Visitors Center but had to keep moving so I headed on towards Milwaukee where I met my cousin Emma at her office for an evening event. I got there a little early so we could catch up as it’s been 8 years since I saw her last. We had a great chat and then moved into the music venue at her office which does a monthly livestream of a local band. That night we got to see the wonderful duo of Andreas Transo and Charlene Adzima on guitar and fiddle, playing Irish tinged folk music with some definite Wisconsin flare. They were amazing and I really enjoyed the show and especially seeing it with my cousin.

The next day was State Fair Day for me and I was so excited to go. When I was growing up, the Wisconsin State Fair was a definite highlight of the summer for me every year I went. I’ve often said that one of these days I would make it back and on Friday “one of these days” became “today”.

Comment

In Focus: Isle Royale National Park

Comment

In Focus: Isle Royale National Park

The Ojibwa Indians called Isle Royale “Minong” meaning “a good place to be” and they certainly hit the nail on the head with that one. Isle Royale National Park consists of Isle Royale itself and over 400 smaller islands making up an archipelago in the middle of Lake Superior. Isle Royale is the largest natural island on Lake Superior and the second largest in the Great Lakes at 45 miles long and 9 miles wide. Some of Michigan’s earliest copper mines were established on Isle Royale in the 1840s, continuing the Ojibwa copper-mining tradition which stretched back hundreds of years. Commercial fishing operations also ran off of Isle Royale for many years, but it was the island’s beauty and ability to attract tourism which would create its lasting industry. Isle Royale National Park was established in 1940 and it was made a part of the UNESCO International Biosphere Reserve in 1980.

I had a wonderful 4 day/3 night visit to Isle Royale in the beginning of August. The island is only accessible by boat or plane, with ferries originating out of Houghton and Copper Harbor in Michigan and Grand Portage in Minnesota. I chose the Isle Royale Queen IV out of Copper Harbor which dropped me off in Rock Harbor on the island’s northeast side in about three and a half hours. After getting my backcountry permit from the ranger there, I headed off into the wilderness for the next three nights, staying at Daisy Farm, Lynn Cove and Three Mile campgrounds. I hiked about 25 miles during my time on Isle Royale and really found the island to be a beautiful place to be. After hiking all day, an afternoon dip in Lake Superior always felt great. I saw 9 moose during my visit and also a handful of beavers along with plenty of birds and toads. I really cherished my time on Isle Royale and hope you enjoy these photos from America’s least visited National Park.

Comment

In Focus: Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Comment

In Focus: Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Stretched between the towns of Munising and Grand Marais along the shores of Lake Superior in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is a magical place filled with breathtaking scenery. From historical lighthouses to picture-perfect waterfalls, this small and often overlooked unit of the National Park Service is sure to have something for everyone. I enjoyed hiking many miles of trails along beaches and through the woods, past the waterfalls and overlooks that have captured peoples’ attention for hundreds of years. During the lumbering era, the area was clear cut, but the forest has regenerated in the last hundred years and is healthy again. It’s no wonder that Pictured Rocks was America’s first National Lakeshore, gaining this new designation in 1966. Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is a must-see while visiting Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and a definite highlight of my time in the state. To truly see the rocks themselves, you do need to get on a boat and see them from the water. I chose the Sunset Spray Falls tour with Pictured Rocks Cruises and while I think the boat could have been better suited to sightseeing, it was a wonderful cruise nonetheless. If you’re ever traveling across northern Michigan, definitely plan on spending a day or two in beautiful Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. You’ll be glad you did. I hope you enjoy these photos from my visit.

Comment

Snapshots: Mackinac Island - A Journey to Michigan's Past

3 Comments

Snapshots: Mackinac Island - A Journey to Michigan's Past

Stepping off the ferry on Mackinac Island is like stepping back in time. I’m sure that line has been used a million times, but it’s true. Way back in 1898 the city council banned “horseless carriages” from the entire island and that ban remains in effect today. Everything on the island is delivered and transported by horse-drawn cart or bicycle. This alone makes Mackinac Island special, but there’s so much more to this little corner of the world than its lack of cars.

Native Americans traveled back and forth to Mackinac Island for hundreds of years, by canoe in the warmer months and over the ice when the lake froze over. It became an outpost for the French fur trade in the 1700s and remained under French control until the end of the French and Indian War, at which time the British flag was raised on the island. During the American Revolution, the British moved Fort Michilimackinac from its former position on the mainland to a bluff high on top of Mackinac island. After the war, American troops occupied the fort, but a surprise attack during the opening days of the War of 1812 put it back in British hands. The Treaty of Ghent would return Mackinac Island to the Americans in 1815 and John Jacob Astor would soon set up his American Fur Company on the island.

After the Civil War, tourism boomed on Mackinac Island and it was named America’s second National Park with the army unit at the fort charged with the park’s protection. To accommodate the new influx of tourism, hotels were built including the incredible Grand Hotel which still sits high on a hill overlooking Lake Huron. Mackinac Island remained a National Park for twenty years, after which time it was turned back over to the state of Michigan and became Michigan’s first state park.

Today, Mackinac Island is one of Michigan’s top tourist destinations. While the population of the island is less than 500, as many as 15,000 visitors a day descend on the island in the middle of summer. I can certainly understand why as it is a truly beautiful and unique place. I arrived on the first ferry of the day and left on the last, so I did get to see the island in a fairly quiet state. The weather and photography conditions weren’t the best when I was there, but Mackinac Island is so photogenic that I took hundreds of photos anyway and included some of my favorites in this post. I haven’t captioned them all, because many are just of Main Street with horses and carriages but that was such a wonderful scene that I couldn’t help myself. I hope you enjoy these photos from beautiful Mackinac Island, definitely one of my favorite places I visited in my two months in Michigan.

3 Comments

Snapshots: Cheboygan - Gateway to the North

Comment

Snapshots: Cheboygan - Gateway to the North

Cheboygan was incorporated in 1871 and grew up around the timber industry, supplying wood for the westward expansion of the country. Located at the confluence of the Cheboygan River and Lake Huron, the town became known as the “Gateway to the North”, although now it goes by “Historic Rivertown” as well. Because of its location and proximity to the Mackinac Bridge and Mackinac Island, Cheboygan certainly sees its fair share of tourism, yet it maintains its small-town feel and felt more like a real, lived in town than many of the places I visited in the state. With two beautiful lighthouses and as the home port of the Coast Guard Icebreaker Mackinaw, Cheboygan maintains its maritime history as well. I had a wonderful time in Cheboygan and only captured some of the beautiful places the town has to offer, but it’s definitely a town worth seeing - ether as a less touristy gateway to the region or in its own right. I hope you enjoy these photos from my time in beautiful Cheboygan.

Comment

This Week on the Road - July 30th-August 3rd

Comment

This Week on the Road - July 30th-August 3rd

Hello Everyone and greetings from Copper Country. I’m coming to you this week from the Keweenaw Peninsula – the northern peninsula of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. This area is known historically for its incredibly rich copper loads which were mined from the 1840s right up until World War II. The towns up here certainly have traces of their former glory, though when the copper industry left, so did most of their economy. Today they depend more heavily on tourism as people come here for mining history and beautiful Lake Superior beaches in the summer and hunting in the fall. It’s a fascinating region and one that I’ve really been enjoying. I actually came up here once or twice as a kid with my dad, so there is some vague familiarity to it, but it’s definitely all new ground for me as an adult. When most of y’all are reading this, I’ll be out on Isle Royale where I’ll be spending three nights in America’s least visited National Park. I’ve been looking forward to going to Isle Royale for a very long time, and I hope to come back with some great photos and stories to tell. Since I’ll be catching the ferry bright and early Wednesday morning, I’m going to finish up with this week’s This Week post a little earlier than usual. That being said, even with a short week, I’ve certainly seen and done a lot so let me tell you what I’ve been up to.

When I left you all last week I was on my way out of Munising after two wonderful days in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. I headed south from there to Manistique, a pretty little town on the northern shores of Lake Michigan. I got there just before it started to rain and it rained through the night. I spent the night at the casino just outside of town and won about $50 playing quarter keno.

Thursday morning was gloomy so I was in no big rush to get up and moving. When I did I went down to the beach to eat my breakfast and then wandered out on the breakwater to see the Manistique Lighthouse, which is still active. Dark red in color, the lighthouse really stood out against the grey background of the sky. I took a quick dip in the lake which woke me up more than my coffee did and then headed out of town. I ventured up to Palms Book State Park, home of Kitch-iti-kipi Spring, the largest of Michigan’s freshwater springs. Big Spring, as it is also called, pumps out 10,000 gallons of water every minute at a constant 45 degrees Fahrenheit and is about 40’ deep in the center. The water is a beautiful greenish turquoise and was really quite something to see. The park loads passengers onto a huge raft with a glass floor in the middle so people can look down into the spring, but there were so many people there in line that I decided to pass. I enjoyed the view from the shore and will wait for the raft adventure for another time.

From there I headed out onto the Garden Peninsula which juts out into Lake Michigan and protects Big Bay de Noc on its western side. About 20 miles down on the bay side is Fayette State Historic Park which I thought was really cool. During the second half of the 19th century, Fayette was an iron smelting town, turning raw iron ore into pig iron in its giant furnace. The town attracted immigrants to work at the furnace and in its heyday had a population of around 500. When the furnace shut down in the 1890s, the town was all but abandoned except for the hotel which operated until World War II and the post office which served the area until the 1950s. The town was eventually acquired by the state of Michigan and now serves as an historic site interpreting life in a 19th century company town. Some of the old buildings are still standing, some have been restored or rebuilt altogether while some are nothing but ruins. By the time I reached Fayette, the weather had cleared and it turned into a beautiful day – perfect to explore this old town site. I thought it was a really interesting place and definitely worth a visit.

Comment

Snapshots: Beaver Island - Michigan's Emerald Isle

5 Comments

Snapshots: Beaver Island - Michigan's Emerald Isle

Beaver Island is the largest island in Lake Michigan and is home to a year-round population of around 650 people. Beaver Island has an interesting history for such a small place. It was originally settled by Irish immigrants, but in 1848 a group of Mormons, led by James Strang, came to the island and took up residence. After the death of church founder Joseph Smith, most Mormons recognized Brigham Young as his successor, but a small group known as “Strangites” believed Strang should lead the church. They named the main town St. James in his honor and he declared himself king of the island, pushing many of the original Irish settlers who wouldn’t convert back to the mainland or to Mackinac Island. In 1856, Strang was assassinated by two of his former followers as he walked down the main street in the town named after him. When news of his death reached the mainland, the Irish exiles returned to reclaim “their” island. More Irish immigrants would come to Beaver Island after being exiled from their island of Arranmore in County Donnegal and many of their descendants still live on the island today. I only spent one night on Beaver Island, but it was long enough to explore the St. James area and get a feel for the island and its people. If I had another day, I would have rented a car and gone further afield, but it was still a nice day.

I love islands and their distinct characteristics and quirks, and Beaver Islands was no exception. The islanders like to use the word “boodling” which I’ve seen loosely translated as “to roam in a carefree and loosely structured manner, often with beer”. Apparently they sometimes boodle by throwing a picnic table in the back of a pickup truck (somehow legal on the island), and drive from place to place enjoying beers and snacks. The next time I’m there I will have to try it out. I really enjoyed the two museums on the island - one about local history and the other about the maritime history of the island (the docent there said I got the record for most time ever spent in that museum). I happened to be there during Museum Week which meant that the night I was there had a performance called Music on the Porch, which brought out the island’s musicians to perform from the porch of the old Mormon Print Shop (the local history museum). It was wonderful to be a part of and I really admired those who were perhaps less talented who still got up to perform. I had a great time out on Beaver Island and I hope you enjoy these photos from Michigan’s Emerald Isle.

5 Comments

This Week on the Road - July 22nd-29th

Comment

This Week on the Road - July 22nd-29th

Hello Everyone! How are y’all doing out there? I hope everyone’s summer is going well and you’re getting out and having adventures of your own out there. I can’t believe it’s almost August and I know it’s going to be cooling down here in the north in just a few more weeks so I’m trying to soak up the sun and enjoy the summer while it lasts. Even Lake Superior is pleasant to swim in this time of year up here, so I’m swimming every day I can. It’s been a busy week here in Michigan as I’ve finally crossed over into the Upper Peninsula. It’s definitely different here from what I was finding “down south” – the towns are smaller and less polished, but the people are friendly and very passionate about their region. These “Yoopers”, as they call themselves, weren’t connected to the rest of Michigan until the completion of the Mackinac Bridge in 1959, so they’ve developed independently of the rest of the state. It’s interesting to see. I’ve had a great week of lighthouses (surprise!), history and some really beautiful sights and I can’t wait to share with you what I’ve been up to this week, so here we go:

When I finished writing last week I headed out of Petoskey and hopped on Michigan 119, the Tunnel of Trees Scenic Byway. It was a beautiful road, barely two lanes wide, which bobbed and weaved up the coast through some cute little towns and beautiful scenery. I imagine it would be quite spectacular in the fall when all those deciduous trees have changed colors. The Scenic Byway ended in tiny Cross Village which is home to the Legs Inn, one of the more well-known off-the-beaten-path restaurants in the state. The Legs Inn was built by Polish immigrant Stan Smolak almost a hundred years ago and it’s still owned and run by his family today. It gets its name from the old stove legs which run the length of the building’s roof. The rest of the place is a work of art in its own right having been carved out of whatever wood or other materials Stan and his mostly Odawa Indian friends could come up with at the time. A lot of the tables are two tree stumps with a plank between them (cleaned, sanded, stained, varnished and looking really good, though). The food is from his native Poland and in a regular summer they would bring Polish students over to work at the inn. My server was from Poland, here on a student visa since before the pandemic. I had a taste plate which included a cabbage roll, hunter’s stew and pierogis, and I washed it down with a refreshing Polish beer. My lunch was very good and the atmosphere was great and it was definitely well worth the stop.

From Cross Village, I headed clear across the state to Cheboygan on the banks of Lake Huron. I went out to the State Park for a quick swim and then came back to town in the late afternoon. I visited the old Crib Lighthouse, which was very cool and made for some good black and white photos, and then just wandered around downtown for a while. Although there is definitely tourism there thanks to nearby Mackinac Island and the lake itself, Cheboygan felt more like just a regular town than most I have been in on my way up the Lake Michigan coast. To be honest, I found it quite refreshing. In my time in the Deep South and Appalachia I felt like regular towns were the norm and touristy places were the exception. Here in Michigan I’ve felt quite the opposite. That being said, there was some great public art on display including a wonderful mural of the town’s history. I stopped in the Cheboygan Brewing Company for a quick beer and they had a great fire pit outside which made conversation with strangers quite easy. From there, I had to make a quick stop into Pub 27 up the road because they had a great neon sign outside and it looked like a regular people’s bar in a regular people’s town. I was sure glad that I stopped in. The bartender, Taryn, is a 3rd generation Cheboyganer and the bar is owned by her parents who own several other business ventures in town as well. Her boyfriend, Alex, was very friendly as well and they were interested to hear about my travels and what I thought of Michigan. I enjoyed chatting with them, but I had an early start the next morning, so I called it an early night.

Comment

In Focus: Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Comment

In Focus: Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore was designated by Congress in 1970 to protect the wonderful dunes and historic towns on the Lake Michigan shoreline between the towns of Frankfort and Glen Arbor. This region of Michigan is an absolutely beautiful stretch, with remarkable landscapes perched high over the magnificent lake. The park gets its name from an old Ashininaabek Indian story about a mother bear and her two cubs who were starving in Wisconsin and set out to swim across Lake Michigan. The way was long and the two cubs couldn’t make it. They went under and returned to the surface as the Manitou Islands. The mother bear barely made it and climbed up the dunes and turned into a dune herself, forever perched on high looking out at her two lost cubs. The scenic drive will take you to some of the best lookouts in the park including a view of the Sleeping Bear Dune, while two campgrounds allow for wonderful overnight adventures. The old town of Glen Haven tells the story of logging and industry in the area as well as early tourism. The park also covers North and South Manitou Islands, two beautiful islands an hour offshore. I had the pleasure of spending two nights on South Manitou Island and it was one of the top highlights of my whole two month visit to Michigan. The island is basically uninhabited save for a few rangers and a small handful of others, but toads, chipmunks and snakes abound. You can even find a grove of ancient cedar trees in the interior of the island. With the deepest natural harbor between Chicago and Buffalo on the Great Lakes though, South Manitou Island was once a busy place, and some of the old buildings around the island are very well maintained. I loved the old homesteads, the cemeteries and, of course, the lighthouse. In 1970, the ship Francisco Morazon ran aground off of the south shore of the island and while the crew was saved the boat still rests were it hit and is visible above the waterline. While the island is designated wilderness and camping is the only overnight option, you can visit the islands as day trips as well and tours are offered. I had a wonderful stay in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and highly recommend it if you are in this part of Michigan. I hope you enjoy these photos from my visit to Sleeping Bear Dunes and South Manitou Island.

Comment

This Week on the Road - July 15th-21st

2 Comments

This Week on the Road - July 15th-21st

Hello Everyone! It’s hard to believe another week has passed here in the Great Lakes State. They really seem to be flying by and while I am seeing and doing a lot, the time is really moving. I’ve finally crossed the 45th Parallel (midway between the equator and the North Pole) for the final time here in Michigan and am only heading north from here. I spent a little more time than I would have liked to have in Traverse City this week, but it was a nice town and I was able to catch up on some work. I finished another episode of my podcast (out now – listen to it here or by searching “American Anthology” wherever you get your podcasts), which is always a bit of a chore even if it’s something I really enjoy doing. I also spent a night out on far-flung Beaver Island, Lake Michigan’s largest island and an interesting place to visit. The weather has been holding up pretty well, but we’ve had some hazy days here which hasn’t made for the best photography conditions. All in all, it’s been a pretty good week on the road.

When last I wrote, I had just arrived in Traverse City. Traverse City is a very pleasant town with a good variety of services which allowed me to get some work done. In addition to the library which had good internet access, they also had a gym to shower at and plenty of shops to restock my supplies. On Thursday night, after I finished up last week’s This Week, I headed out to the Traverse City Pit-Spitters baseball game. The Pit-Spitters are a part of the Northwoods League which is a summer league for college players. The game was a lot of fun and it was $2 beer and hotdog night which you really can’t go wrong with. I also have to applaud whatever genius came up with the name “Pit-Spitters” because I absolutely had to buy a t-shirt at the game. And the Pit-Spitters won, so that made it even better.

On Friday morning I toured the old Michigan State Asylum in Traverse City. At $30 for a ticket, it was a bit pricey for a walking tour, but it was really good and I would say definitely worth it. Our guide grew up in the area and had several connections to the hospital when it was still active (which it was until the 1980s). He intertwined his personal stories in with the history of the building and what they accomplished there. The central idea by which they operated was “beauty is therapy”, which meant that the campus was full of ponds and flowers and walking trails and the buildings had big windows to let in plenty of sun and it was well appointed with nice furniture and plenty of art. Patients were expected to work, and the hospital was self-sustaining for much of its early existence, producing enough food that there was a surplus which was sold to the local community. When the hospital officially closed, the community banded together to save it from being demolished. Today the campus is getting a second life as a mixed-use complex with condos, restaurants, studios and low-income housing. The whole place was really cool and definitely worth seeing. After my tour, I enjoyed a nice lunch in one of the restaurants there. When I finished at the hospital, I embarked on an afternoon drive up the Old Mission Peninsula which took me to the Old Mission Lighthouse and past some wonderful farm stands and wineries. They’re coming to the very end of the cherry season here in Michigan, and it’s been great to eat so many cherries and taste different varieties. I’m probably about cherried out though. Heading back in Traverse City, I went to a nice winery just outside of town for some live music and a few glasses of wine and to finish writing the last bits of my podcast.

2 Comments

Snapshots: Grand Haven - The Jewel of Ottawa County

2 Comments

Snapshots: Grand Haven - The Jewel of Ottawa County

Grand Haven is a beautiful town of about 10,000 people located on the shores of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Grand River. It’s history is similar to that of many of the towns I’ve written about coming up the Lake Michigan coast. Originally inhabited by the Potawatomi people, it was later visited by French fur-trappers and then settled in the mid-19th century as a lumber town and shipbuilding site. Today it has a strong Coast Guard presence and hosts an annual Coast Guard reunion which brings people from near and far. Grand Haven also has a huge tourism industry as visitors come to enjoy the beach, the lighthouses, watersports and the pleasant downtown. I had a wonderful visit to Grand Haven and was especially fond of the double lighthouse and the beautiful sunsets over Lake Michigan. I hope you enjoy these photos from my visit to Grand Haven, Michigan - the Jewell of Ottawa County.

2 Comments

This Week on the Road - July 8th-14th

Comment

This Week on the Road - July 8th-14th

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.

Comment