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In Focus: Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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This Week on the Road - July 1st-7th

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This Week on the Road - July 1st-7th

Hello Everyone. It’s been another great week on the road out here in southwestern Michigan. I had to slow down a bit because of the holiday weekend, but it’s been nice to spend some time at the beach and to have some quiet time to catch up on some work. The beaches on the shores of Lake Michigan are beautiful, and the temperature has been perfect to enjoy them without getting too hot. The water is a little chilly, but it’ll sure wake you up if you jump into it. It’s been great to see some of the beautiful lighthouses out here as well and wander through some cute little towns. Most of the 4th of July celebrations in the area were cancelled due to Covid, which was understandable but also a shame. It’s definitely been a crowded week as well and I’d just as soon avoid the crowds, so I’ve been laying lower than usual this weekl. All-in-all it’s been a good week, though, and I’m still enjoying my time in Michigan. I should probably be moving a little bit quicker than I am, but my goal is to stay happy and healthy and not wear myself out so on that front, I’m doing well. Shadow Catcher is also doing well and while I need to replace the city water connection (which I just had replaced a few months ago), that seems to be the only issue at the moment which is great.

When I left you last week, I was on my way to the Gilmore Car Museum in Richland, one of the premier automotive museums in the country, and it did not disappoint. It was clear from the minute I walked into the first exhibit that this was a museum designed and built by genuine car enthusiasts. That first exhibit was on the evolution of the Corvette from a concept car (one of which was a station wagon!) into one of the most notorious American sports cars in history. From there I went on a somewhat chronological tour through cars of different decades from the early days through to the 70s, after which cars lost all style and excitement. There were also outbuildings with different collections and themes and even an old diner brought to the museum from Connecticut. One of the coolest items was a mock-up of a Ford Model A cockpit which walked you through the steps of how to get it started. I giggled with glee and did it three times in a row (nobody was waiting or watching). I spent about 4 hours at the museum and after it closed, tons of classic cars started pouring in for some kind of event. I just enjoyed standing in the parking lot and watching them go past.

From there, I headed back to Kalamazoo and straight to the Bell’s Brewery Eccentric Café. I’ve been a lover of Bell’s beer for many years now and was excited to try some of their brews that don’t make it out of their backyard. I put Bell’s right up there with Dogfish Head as one of the absolute best and most consistent breweries in the country. They didn’t disappoint and I enjoyed a few beers in their back garden while I was there. I wandered around downtown for a bit and ended up stopping in the only other brewery that was open on a Wednesday night, which was Final Gravity. Their beer was truly terrible, but the bartender was both a fellow Penn Stater and a fellow former teacher, so I really enjoyed chatting with him over my barely palatable beer. It was definitely nice to have someone to talk with for a while…

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This Week on the Road - June 23rd-30th

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This Week on the Road - June 23rd-30th

Hello Everyone! I hope you’re all having a wonderful summer so far and are getting out and enjoying yourselves wherever you are. 2020 into 2021 was such a long year and a half and while I know we’re not out of the woods with the coronavirus yet, it is really nice to be vaccinated and on the road again. I can’t believe that I’ve been gone almost a month – it really has been flying by out here. This week wasn’t very eventful. I spent a good chunk of it in Lansing, waiting to get Shadow Catcher’s transmission fixed and hanging out with my friend, Eric. Unfortunately, I didn’t get much accomplished this week work-wise so I feel like I’ve fallen behind, but I am trying to catch up. I am going to try and buckle down a bit so I can get all of my photos edited and published this week as I make my way out to the coast and up along shores of Lake Michigan.

After finishing up last week in Flint, I headed down to Lansing and met up with my friend, Eric. Eric and I were both teachers in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. We interviewed together, trained together and while we went to work at different schools, we were often together for work and after work as well. Since we both left New Orleans it’s been hard to catch up with him in person. I saw him a couple of years ago when I came up to Lansing for his office’s Grand Opening, but that was a busy day and we didn’t get to catch up much. I really enjoyed getting to spend a few days with him this week, even though it wasn’t under the best of circumstances. Eric’s friend’s 16 year-old son had just been shot and killed last week while downtown in a park. He was an athlete and a good young man who just found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. I went with Eric to the young man’s repast, which was hard even though I didn’t know him, but was definitely organized as a celebration of his life. Eric had lost two other friends who were closer to our age in the last couple of weeks as well, both due to health issues. Over the four days I was in Lansing, a steady stream of people came through their house and it was great to meet so many of his friends, even under those circumstances. I was glad to be there to help support Eric through his grief. Sometimes I feel like I am exactly where I’m supposed to be, exactly when I’m supposed to be there, and this weekend definitely felt like that.

Compared to what was going on in Eric’s life, my van issues were certainly less important, but they did need to get resolved. I had ordered new house batteries for my van to be shipped to Eric’s place and they were there when I got there. Most smaller items I can pick up at an Amazon Locker, but these were too big and heavy and I was very grateful to have somewhere where they could be delivered. There are very few places in the country where I’m more than a day’s drive from a friend and for that, I’m eternally grateful. It took me about an hour to switch them out, and I am so happy to have fully charged and functional batteries again. Eric also had a friend named James who could take a look at my transmission. As you may know, I’m not a huge fan of getting van work done when I’m out here, but it’s definitely inevitable with an older van. Of course new cars and vans break down as well and are usually more expensive to fix, so there’s that too. Bringing in a vehicle with out-of-state plates can bring out the worst in a mechanic who knows you’re vulnerable, so having a personal recommendation really makes a big difference. That and the fact that I could hang out at Eric’s place while the work was being done and not have to sit there all day was also a good thing. James seemed like a really good guy and a good mechanic, and the problem turned out to be just a leaky gasket which was what I had suspected all along. While he had the pan off, he replaced the filter and fluid and it should be good to go for another 80,000 miles or so (at least as far as the transmission is concerned). It’s a huge relief to have those two issues sorted out and I’m very grateful to Eric and his wife, Wendy, for all of their help this weekend.

I did get out to see a little bit of Lansing while I was there. I toured the State Capitol which is definitely something I have tried to do in every state I’ve been to and was lucky enough to get a private tour from the lead guide. I wandered around downtown a bit to see the Lansing Lugnuts’ stadium and Lansing Brewery and definitely ate at some pretty good restaurants as well. Mostly, however, it was about spending time with Eric and getting my van ready to roll again. I got to meet his grandson, Legend, while I was there. Legend is 2 and is such a cute and sweet little boy. We had fun playing together and twirling in circles and I definitely enjoyed spending time with him. It made me miss my little buddy, Mason, but it was really great. We had tornadoes touch down while I was there as well, and I was even more grateful to be inside and in a place with a basement if the need for shelter arose.

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This Week on the Road - June 16th-23rd

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This Week on the Road - June 16th-23rd

Hello Everyone. It’s been a sunny and beautiful week here in Michigan, and I’ve been out exploring the peninsula that juts out into Lake Huron and is lovingly referred to as “The Thumb” of the state. If you’ve never looked closely or thought too much about it, Michigan is shaped like a mitten, and if you ever meet someone from Michigan they will inevitably point out wherever they are talking about on their hand, which is really quite endearing and very Midwestern. It is a quiet and less populated part of the state with some great small towns and tremendous lake views. I finished off the week with a run of old industrial towns and the Bavarian village of Frankenmuth. It’s been considerably cooler this week and it’s often been down in the 50s when I’m going to bed which is just perfect for me. I’ve seen some great spots this week and I can’t wait to tell you all about it.

When I finished this post last week, I headed out of Port Huron and made my way north to the quaint little lakeside town of Lexington. I spent some time wandering the streets and taking some photos which you can see here. I thought it was a great little place and I really enjoyed my stroll. From there I moved up the coast through Port Sanilac to Forester Park. I don’t normally stay in campgrounds, but I decided I wanted to stay on the lake for a couple of nights and not worry about it. When I went to make the bookings, this site looked like it was right on the lake, but on arrival it was actually behind a row of private homes which blocked any possible view of the lake. The map was somewhat deceiving and I was pretty disappointed with the whole thing. Soon after pulling in, I got word that my very good friend’s father passed away, and while it wasn’t sudden or unexpected, it was still hard news to get, especially just days before Father’s Day. It was a bit of a rough afternoon and I went for a walk around the campground to clear my mind a bit. When I came back to my site, there was a big 5th Wheel pulled in right next to me. I introduced myself to the man who it belonged to and we had a wonderful chat for an hour or so. I really needed a bit of companionship in that moment and just like that, it was there. I felt a whole lot better afterwards and cooked up some dinner which I enjoyed from the picnic area which was overlooking the lake.

Thursday I meandered up the coast and spent some time in Harbor Beach, a town with a massive manmade harbor which was built to provide a safe haven for ships caught out in bad weather between Saginaw Bay and the St. Clair River at Port Huron. The town had a nice lighthouse, a pretty little beach and a long pier out into the harbor. I enjoyed a stroll to the end of the pier and then went for a wander around downtown. I particularly liked the library which had an incredible set of murals on it which paid tribute to local history and people. It seems the most famous person to come out of Harbor Beach was Frank Murphy who served as Mayor of Detroit, Governor of Michigan, Governor General of The Philippines, Attorney General of the U.S. and finally as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. During World War II he was serving on the high court and moonlighting as an army officer (seriously). Apparently his most noteworthy action on the court was writing the descent against the internment of Japanese-Americans during the war which he called out for the blatant racism which it absolutely was. Harbor Beach was interesting and learning about Murphy was as well.

In the afternoon, I headed further up the coast to Lighthouse County Park, right where the thumbnail would be on The Thumb. Everything that Forester Park wasn’t, Lighthouse Park was and then some. My campsite was right on the lake with an expansive view in every direction. It was just beyond the shadow of the Pointe Aux Barques lighthouse and right on the outside edge of the park...

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This Week on the Road - June 9th-16th

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This Week on the Road - June 9th-16th

Hello Everyone and greetings from Port Huron, Michigan, where Lake Huron funnels into the St. Clair River. It’s significantly cooler here than it was in Detroit which has been a real blessing. This is the weather I was imagining when I planned to come to Michigan this summer, not the sweltering days I found in The Motor City. I have been able to cool off a little bit, clean and repair Shadow Catcher and make sure everything is in its proper place and think with a clear head as I plan for the road ahead. I’ve seen and done some pretty great stuff this week and I’m thrilled to be able to share it all with you

When I left you last week I was on my way to The Henry Ford Museum of Innovation in Dearborn. It was an awesome museum - not extremely well organized, but full of extraordinary artifacts. I should have gone right when I walked in the door, but went left instead. I got caught up in fascinating displays on mathematics, early Industrial Revolution inventions and furniture. I skipped through most of the Civil Rights section as I’ve been to some of the best Civil Rights museums in the country, but definitely spent some time with the Rosa Parks bus - the actual bus she refused to give up her seat on (although I kept thinking there are better places for that bus, especially since it’s a GM). They did do a beautiful job on the restoration, though, and I’m very glad it’s there to be seen.

When I finally got to the other side of the museum where all the cars are, I was already a little tired, but I pushed through. There were 5 presidential limos, including the one JFK was shot in (which actually stayed in use for years afterward, albeit with a solid roof and bulletproof glass). There was a wonderful history of the automobile with all makes and models represented, not just Fords. Of special interest to me were the exhibit on American road travel (motels, cabins, gas stations and even campervans), one of Charles Kuralt’s original OnThe Road RVs and the first production line Mustang, Serial #1. I was there for hours and hours and could have spent longer, but the museum was closing and I had plans for the evening.

I headed back downtown and enjoyed a wonderful pizza at Buddy’s, which had come highly recommended by several friends. I have never had Detroit-style pizza before, and this was the right place to try it for the first time. There were four things right about Buddy’s pizza. First, the crust was thick but flaky and not heavy at all. Second, the sauce was perfect – savory and flavorful and not sweet like some others. Third, the cheese was real cheese and I could taste it, it wasn’t some melty, flavorless goop, and finally the toppings were also of good quality. In short, it was pretty close to a perfect pizza in my mind and I would definitely recommend it. My belly full of pizza, I headed right across the street and into the Detroit Tigers baseball game at Comerica Park. It was a perfect night for baseball – clear and cool but not cold enough for a jacket. The stadium was pretty empty, so I sidled on down to the fifth row behind the dugout on the first base side. It was a great seat and I thoroughly enjoyed the game and the stadium, despite a Tigers loss (I was routing for them because they’re Magnum P.I.’s team). After the game I headed back to Dearborn along Michigan Avenue which was just a wonderful drive. It passed through neighborhood after neighborhood packed with restaurants, bars, strip clubs, gas stations and any number of other little businesses and it just felt like a timeless route through old Detroit.

Thursday I headed back to The Henry Ford complex, this time to see Greenfield Village. Greenfield Village is an outdoor living history museum conceived of and begun by Henry Ford himself. Originally founded as a school for neighborhood and Ford employee’s kids, it opened to the public in 1933. It’s full of many wonderful original buildings like Ford’s boyhood home and school and the Wright Brothers’ Cycle Shop moved from Dayton, Ohio. Model Ts cruise the streets, as do horse-drawn carriages…

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This Week On The Road - June 2nd-9th

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This Week On The Road - June 2nd-9th

Hello Everyone! I am back on the road and very happy to be here. It’s been a week with some ups and downs, but overall it feels really good to be back in my van and back out on the open roads of America. I’m thrilled to get back to This Week on the Road and am writing to you this week from Dearborn, Michigan. It’s been hot here – like, really hot – and that’s definitely caused some struggles living the vanlife, but it’s supposed to cool off this week to something more reasonable which will be good. So let me tell you all about my week and what I’ve been getting up to.

First, the struggles! The heat has been oppressive, reaching the low 90s with high humidity, and because the sun sets after 9pm here in June in the north it doesn’t cool off until pretty late in the day. I’ve often said as long as it gets down to the low 70s by the time I go to bed, I’m okay. This week it hasn’t done that. I did plan ahead for this and brought an extra fan with me to use in case it got hot. Unfortunately, my house batteries just sat idle too long this year and don’t have anywhere near the staying power they used to. That’s okay, I can afford to replace them, but because I want the exact same batteries, I can’t just run to the store and pick them up, Because they’re so heavy I can’t send them to an Amazon Locker and get them there. That means they’ll have to wait until I visit a friend sometime next week and can get them sent to his house. It’s one of those things I wish I had known at home because it would have been a quick and painless fix. Same goes for my bathroom door which I rehung just before leaving. There was only one latch as opposed to the two there used to be, and I wanted an exact match so I didn’t have to drill new holes but I can’t seem to find one. That one latch wasn’t nearly enough to hold that heavy door closed so it’s been swinging around like crazy. It’s bungee corded to its neighbor so it’s not opening far, but it bangs around a lot. Again – this would have been an easy fix at home, and one I really should have done, but out here I will have to rent a drill this week and take care of it. It’s just more of a problem than it should be. Lastly, I’m leaking transmission fluid which I would have loved to have had my mechanics at home take care of a couple of weeks ago, but didn’t notice it then. Now I will have to find a shop to do the work which is always a pain, especially because I have to wait with it and can’t just leave it somewhere. These are all challenges to living this lifestyle, and I will get them fixed, but it’s a pain to have to deal with them right out of the gate.

The roads in Michigan so far have been terrible. I’m not saying this lightly, but I’ve seen better roads in most of the developing countries I’ve visited in the world. They are beyond bad and desperately need repair. It seems our politicians can’t get a bill passed because it’s too big and all-encompassing. I wish they would pass a roads and bridges bill and then continue to argue about the rest. We all know that we need it and even if it passed tomorrow, these roads wouldn’t get repaired for years, but I sure wish they’d get on it. Everywhere I’ve been in this country has had disgraceful roads which need repair and I think it’s something we could all agree on. Taxes are an investment, and one of the returns on that investment should be decent roads for us to drive on.

Beyond those things, I’ve been having a really good time. I wanted to write to y’all last week, but my last day in D.C. was a struggle. I stayed an extra day to be there when the internet men came to run my folks’ new internet cable into the house. Even though I knew it would be a challenge, I hoped it would take them less than 2 hours. It took them 6 ½. I was trying to help and pack and finish up some things and it all just became a bit much. I finally left about 6:30 and made it as far as Cumberland, Maryland where I crashed for the night. It rained the whole way.

Thursday was better though as I made my way north, through Pittsburg and western PA, and into Ohio via Youngstown. I got in to Chagrin Falls right at 4:30 to meet my good friend Mike Vasko, at whose house I was staying that night. We went out with a couple of his old friends from school for some amazing (and huge) sandwiches and a few beers. Then we went back to his house and played video games with his kids for a while and then chatted until way too late. I did pay off the bet I owed him from last year’s Penn State – Ohio State game though, with some Pennsylvania beer!

I had been to Chagrin Falls before, during my visit to Ohio, and thought it was such a cool little town that I went in in the morning to take some photos and have a wander around the downtown area. You can see the photos I took while I was there at the link here.

From there, I headed up to the shores of Lake Erie and started heading west. It was a sunny day and taking a long, leisurely drive along the coast was blissful. I stopped often, got out to take photos and wander around, listened to some great tunes and smiled a lot…

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The Road Ahead

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The Road Ahead

Hello Everyone!

My departure is getting closer by the day. It’s been a very busy week of trying to get everything ready and organized and packed, but I’m getting there. So far I’ve gotten many of my belongings loaded up and it still feels like there’s a ton of room in Shadow Catcher to spare – which is definitely the plan. Over the last year I’ve rethought a lot of my organizing strategy and so far it all seems to be coming together quite nicely. I have had a few family things come up this week which may delay my departure by a day or two, but I have every intention of being on the road by this time next week. I’m writing this post to make a very brief introduction of myself for those who have joined us recently, to take an introspective look back at some of the things I’ve learned and decided over the last year and a half and to look at the road ahead and where it’s going to lead me from here.

A Brief Introduction

So especially for those new to this blog: welcome. I’m thrilled that you’ve decided to come along for the ride. My name is Mike and I was born and raised here in Washington D.C. where I’ve been waiting out this pandemic for the last 14 months. I am a Penn State graduate with a degree in Wildlife and Fishery Science and a minor in American History. Putting those two interests/passions together, I became a small-group adventure camping Tour Guide back in 2000 at the age of 24. Since then, I’ve spent 14 years on the road guiding tours to every corner of the U.S. and Canada – from San Diego to Nova Scotia and Key West to the Arctic Ocean. During the early part of my career, I took my winters off to travel the world. At some point I looked up and I was 30.

Not too long thereafter, I decided to settle down a bit and see what life was like off the road. I moved to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to help reopen the public school system there. I spent two years in the Big Easy and then continued teaching for a bit here at home in Washington before heading off to teach in rural Japanese public schools for two years. I enjoyed teaching and I loved working with children, but I didn’t love being inside all the time and I didn’t find that the M-F workweek suited me too well. I didn’t like counting down the hours of the day or week and I couldn’t get much of a break over the weekend (especially as a teacher as there was always something that needed to get done before Monday). I started to think of what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, and what came out of that very long internal discussion was this blog. I began planning and working on it in Japan and it started to come more clearly into focus. I decided I wanted to buy a van and live in it while I traveled to each U.S. state and spent at least a month learning what made each unique and individual. I bought my first DSLR camera (at a pawn shop in Japan) and started taking photography a heck of a lot more seriously.

From Japan, life blew me down to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands for a year and a half and then I returned home and started guiding tours again, saving all of my money to try and get this project and my dream off the ground. Sometime in there, I turned 40.

I bought Shadow Catcher, my beautiful 1998 Coach House 192KS Class B Camper Van, in 2017 and got to work outfitting it and getting it ready to hit the road - which I finally did in November of that year. Over the next 18 months I traveled to 10 states in the Deep South and Appalachia, taking photos, exploring, producing my history podcast American Anthology, and trying to live out the dream in my head. It’s been a challenging but amazing time.

I thought that I would be able to make enough money to keep this project going through advertisements and selling photos and maybe some freelance writing gigs or photo shoots along the way. That turned out to be an almost total bust, but I’ve been grateful to go and pick up some guide jobs when the money has gotten tight and be able to stay on the road. At the end of the day, it turned out I was pretty okay with being an unsuccessful travel blogger!

In January of 2020, I headed out again with the goal of crossing the country through the southern states to California, working the summer tour season out there, and then making my way back through the next layer of states up. I had an amazing month in Mississippi and had begun my long journey around Texas when the pandemic started turning up the heat. Through a lot of thinking, conversations with friends (including one who had gotten the virus early and really struggled through) and with my mother who is a nurse, and some serious soul searching on the beaches of South Padre Island, I decided to turn my headlights towards home. And here I’ve been ever since.

What I’ve Learned From My Time At Home

It’s sure been an interesting and challenging year for us all. I had no idea when I came home that I’d end up being here for as long as I have been, but I feel very blessed to have had somewhere to land during this time. As much as this wasn’t where I planned to be this year, I certainly tried to make the most of it and got to spend a lot of time with my mom and stepfather which has been great. Traveling around the area with my mom every week has helped keep me calm, let me keep practicing my photography and definitely allowed me to explore my own hometown and surrounds more deeply than I ever have before. I have been telling people for years both in this space and elsewhere that there is always something new to explore and it can be closer than you think. This year we’ve tested that theory and to be honest there are still plenty of places we never got to this year and look forward to visiting in the future.

Over the last 10 months, I got to be the best friend to a 2 year-old boy. This has been a life-altering experience for us both. I’ve dedicated plenty of space to my adventures with Mason on this site over the last year, so there’s no need to go into any great detail here. Getting older and with no kids of my own, it’s been truly special to be able to watch someone grow and learn and laugh on a daily basis for so long. We got to see the seasons change all the way through and discover things about the world and about ourselves in the process…

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Happy New Year From Miles2Go

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Happy New Year From Miles2Go

Happy New Year Everyone! We made it! It’s not as though as the bell tolled midnight on New Year’s Eve all our problems disappeared, but it still felt like a weight was lifted nonetheless. 2020 was a year I’m sure none of us will ever forget, but I hope we’ll remember the good that went with the bad. Catching up with old friends, learning new skills, starting new hobbies, or just learning to slow down a little bit – these are all really good things that I hope will balance the memories of 2020 for some of us. I’m obviously not making light of all of the challenges we faced, the loved ones we lost and the economic devastation that so many people have and will continue to experience, but I hope that in the end there will be good memories somewhere during this year for us all.

2020 started on a very positive note for me. I headed south to Mississippi, one of my favorite states and one that I was looking forward to getting to know better. It didn’t disappoint. While Mississippi is probably the deepest of the Deep South states, and one of the most economically and educationally challenged, it’s also full of wonderful people, music, history and scenery and it’s a place that keeps drawing me back.

I was there longer than I thought I would be and ended up heading to New Orleans just in time for Mardi Gras. I enjoyed catching up with some really good friends that weekend and of course feasted on crawfish and king cake. On Mardi Gras Day, I got up early to wake up the Treme neighborhood with the Northside Skull and Bones Gang. After a long morning march followed by a cup of coffee, I headed to the Marigny for brunch with my Mardi Gras Morning Krewe and then paraded for a while before chasing the Mardi Gras Indians around town in the afternoon. It was amazing and looking back I’m so glad that I was there for it.

Leaving New Orleans, I headed for Texas where I felt like a new chapter was finally beginning. As much as I loved my time exploring Appalachia and the Deep South, it was time for some new scenery and some different history to contemplate…

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