Month: August 2017

One evening the flies seemed to take over. Hundreds and hundreds of flies were everywhere there was light, including the screen door to the RV

so we went to the local hardware store to see if they had fly traps or/and spray to combat these masses of flies. There we met John and Leslie the proprietors. After a short history of farming and fertilizing John explained that everybody around the area had fertilized their fields the past few days, as the weather forecast called for rain. But since the rain did not happen, the flies are looking for food elsewhere.

Upon further delving into where we were from, John explained how he had spent a lot of time in Germany, first as a military brat and then as an officer with the military. Him and Leslie have been going back once a year until this day. And, to everybody’s surprise, to a small village close to where Kirsten’s parents had lived the last few years.

They came back to Port Hope, as Leslie not only was born here but is a born Stafford. Her ancestors founded the town.

Small world, and not someone we expected to meet in Port Hope, Michigan

And pleasant company on top of that.

Today we took a drive around the top of the thumb to see the many lighthouses, small villages and check out a smoked fish place we had found to be recommended online.

Our first stop was the Point Aux Barques Lighthouse built in 1847 to mark the turning point of Lake Huron into Saginaw Bay until 1939.

The next stop was Port Austin, its beach

and the Port Austin Reef Light (in the distance)

We followed MI 25 around the tip through Caseville, Michigan

to the Bay Port Fish Co., known for its excellent fresh fish as well as the smoked fish

it may not look as much (as we would be reminded later on in our travel) but the vacuum sealed, frozen fish and especially the smoked fish were delicious.

We turned east onto MI 142 back to Port Hope and followed endless miles of small villages

farms

wind turbines

and fields upon fields of sugarbeads and their processing plants

not until later, when we researched the history of the area, did we find out that the “thumb” is the sugarbead capital of the U.S.

After 6 weeks in Ohio, we started on our adventure to the northern most points of this trip.

Michigan to most means Detroit and maybe Ann Arbor and Lansing due to the well known Universities. We wanted to see what places outside these cities had to offer. We decided to take a wide detour around Detroit and went through Ann Arbor to Flint and then East to Port Huron, the last exit before the bridge to Canada.

Leaving the Interstate and heading up the eastern side of Michigan’s thumb to the village of Port Hope

were we had a reservation at Stafford County Park right on Lake Huron

We had chosen this park as it is half way up the eastern side of the thumb and a look on google earth had shown us lots of shade trees. Unfortunately the ash borer beetle also decided to visit this park last January and the trees are now gone.

Port Hope used to be a lumber mill town until 1881 when 2 fires destroyed the forest and farming has since replaced the lumber mills. The sawmill chimney, erected in 1858, is one of the last remnants of this era and is a national historic site just on the edge of Stafford County Park, named after Port Hope’s founder William Stafford.

The smallish city with 130+ households proved to be just the right place to relax

and makes a perfect platform to check out the rest of the thumb of Michigan.

Recommended to us as a day trip we took the ferry to Put-in-Bay, Ohio, which is actually a city on South Bass Island.

Named so because the schooners sailing on Lake Erie would “put into this bay” to wait out the bad weather on the lake.

We got off the ferry and were faced with our first choice of the day. As there are hardly any cars on the island it was either the “downtown bus” or renting a golf cart or bycicle. Never having been here, we opted for the bus that took us to the sleepy little downtown.

We were told to check out the Boardwalk by Jack in Sandusky, so we did. Kirsten has been trying to talk me into buying a wind breaker for a while, so we checked the Lobster Trap Boutique on the Boardwalk were we not only bought a windbreaker but met Donna who (after recognizing Kirsten’s accent as German) asked us to meet with her husband Berni (the Harbour master) who was born in Germany and needed to practice the language (according to Donna).

We went down the boardwalk and had a more than pleasant discussion with Berni about his dad leaving Germany for a job in the U.S., why he chose Put-in-Bay as his residence and how quite the Island is after the tourist season is over. Please keep in mind that according to the 2010 Census, the island had 138 inhabitants. And we just met two of the loveliest people on the island.

We then headed for lunch and were advised that local fish was walleye and perch, so we ordered one of each. Delicious!!

We were reminded that we were far away from Florida

but close to Canada (way in the background)

So we started on our way back and took the bus to the Ferry when we discovered that there was a lighthouse on the Island with seeing.

Since we had not done the golf cart, we dedicated it was time to check out another famous Put-in-Bay attraction – there are golf cart rentals on every corner of the island -.

A very different lighthouse to what we are used to seeing.

We hopped back on the golf cart and took the short ride to the ferry after a very, very enjoyable day on the island. It was pure coincidence that we met two lovely people in Donna and Berni, and we will definitely stay in touch.

One of the reasons we came here was to see the second oldest amusement park (opened in 1870) in the United States and it’s wooden roller coasters.

The park features 71 rides, including 16 roller coasters. The weather was beautiful, we had purchased the discounted tickets and parking online and were told by the locals to go Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday as these were the least busiest days.

We arrived shortly after it opened and already had to park in the 20th row. Less busy – we do not want to be here when it is really busy.

The plan was to head towards the end of the park, where we hoped there were fewer people and thus shorter waiting lines and slowly work our way back.

In order to prepare folks, the park developed a scale from blue (boring) to red (risky) in 5 steps to prepare riders for what to expect. A fact we did not pay attention to until after the first ride.

The first roller coaster we rode was the Maverick, described as “nothing wilder in the West”. It looked simple, we got in, rode the roller coaster, and were glad we did not have breakfast.

That’s when we discovered the 5-step thrill level scale and found out we had just done one of the red (5) rides. Maybe we should have started with a blue ride.

We walked through the park and every red level ride made our stomachs churn and look for something less dramatic. After all we had come to ride the wooden coasters. We found it amazing to see the younger generation stand in line for up to 45 minutes to ride all the level 5 roller coasters.

We found the Blue Streak and were amazed afterwards that a 53 year old coaster could still provide as much thrill to us older folks as the other rides did to the younger generation. One of these “you know you’re getting old” moments.

After a lunch of famous Cedar Point fries, we headed out of the park, feeling like we had just discovered our age related limits, but still feeling like kids.

Good fun and definitely worth the money.

Moved from the slightly overpriced and noisy KOA to the East Harbor State Park 30 minutes away.

Right on Lake Erie with a few spacious full hook ups

Beautiful surroundings

And plenty of wildlife

And Kirsten got to swim in Lake Erie

Went into town today as the Farmer’s Market was taking place downtown.

Took a stroll around town afterwards and were surprised to see that Sandusky was part of the Underground Railroad only to find out on Wikipedia that it was not just any stop, but a major stop on the way to Canada.

We were met with interesting architecture on our walk through the quaint downtown area. The Merry-Go-Round Museum, which used to be US Post office and opened in 1927 and closed in 1987, to become the museum in 1990.

The Erie County Courthouse

Andrew Carnegie’s gift to the city

Fred Schweinfurth’s Grocery – in the 2010 Census 34.4% of the Sandusky population claimed German ancestry

The Second Baptist Church, founded in 1849 by a group of seven ex-slaves and freeborn blacks

Very interesting and historical for a city that does not rank very high when you mention the State of Ohio.

After this we went out to see 2 of the local lighthouses. The Marblehead lighthouse

which also has a beautiful view of Lake Erie and the Cedar Point Amusement Park

and the Huron Lighthouse constructed in 1939

On the way back after a full day of historic sightseeing, we checked on a truck to see if it was worth adding to our fleet.

Sandusky, Ohio became a stop in our travels because of the roller coasters in Cedar Point. We did not know that it turned into much more.

We arrived at the KOA on a Thursday afternoon and a detour due to an accident, that turned our 90 minute trip into 3 hours. We knew the Verizon store around the corner was on our list of things to do as the previous attempt to order online did not work out.

After setting up in our tight site

we finished up work, went to the Verizon store and not only got our new jetpack (with unlimited data that is not really unlimited but another story) but also tips on a hairdresser, best bars and restaurants from Jack at Verizon.

After heading back and taking a stroll around the campground we went to bed, only to be awoken by loud train noise at 03:30h. Could not remember the train tracks we crossed on our way to the city being that close.

Friday saw mostly work and us going back to Verizon, as the jetpack did not work. An unknown problem that even the techs had not seen, but was taken care of by re-setting the unit.

Our Home for the past 12 days is a nice and quite out of the way State Park that we wished we would have enjoyed more time to explore.

45 minutes from Cleveland, OH with not a lot of camping options around Cleveland, this is a definite point of return should we be in the area again.

Surrounded by farmland

It is a place to relax.

Founded in 1833 and home to Oberlin College, this is the next closest town to Findley State Park with a Farmer’s Market.

We found an interesting small town with a lot of history, existing due to the College founded almost 200 years ago.

with very interesting architectural buildings creating the college campus.