U. P. Trip - Fall 2010 - Day #5

This was a day of successful changes of mind.  It was again sunny, but quite breezy and distinctly chilly.  All three of us slept later than usual but otherwise the routine was normal and we pulled away from the hotel around 9:30AM.  First order of business was 3/4 tank of gas in the van (this is not a part of the country to run out of fuel) and then it was up onto the Interstate for the run up to Sault Ste. Marie.  We quickly discovered that to visiting tourists this town is both parking- and pet-UN friendly.  In the locks' visitors center we discovered that while 5 big ships were expected, none would be there until the afternoon.  We had also missed the morning tour boat and would need to wait over 2 hours for the next tour.  Up overlooking the locks (with the tour boat down in the nearest one) we realized it had little protection from the elements and out of the sun (or even in it) it was still very chilly.

We looked, and photographed the locks from the viewing platform and decided that a lock tour could remain on John's list for another year, deciding this would do for a "been there, done that" experience for Marissa who has much more interest in pretty and waterfalls than in man-made marvels.  So we decided to leave & change our plans to do Tahquamenon Falls again this year.  Last year the U.P. had been dry & the river was down, this year would be the opposite.

In due course we arrived and "did" the Lower Falls, a good long walk and several photo-ops.  We then made our way to the Upper Falls complex.  With the concessions closing we had to order carry-out from the one restaurant still open & had a very nice whitefish sandwich.  Then we walked, and walked.  Since the steps are such that Zoe needs be carried Marissa & Zoe turned back from the 117 step descent to view the falls from down in the gorge, leaving that to John.  He eventually caught up with them, passing on about the 50th step of the merely 97 step descent/ascent to the viewing area at the brink of the falls.  We returned to the van together & set sail for Munising.

We reached the town in good time & turned away from the hotel and drove some miles in order to get to Miner's Beach, where Zoe finally got to run free, which she did at extraordinary speeds and with a great deal of energy, although even she eventually flagged.  We cruised back and through the town and on up to the motel at which we had stayed last year, settling in for three nights stay.

It seems we have timed our trip perfectly from a color perspective.  It is truly lovely up here right now and it is just a pity that roadsides that look quite wonderful from a driver's seat simply do not photograph well enough to do them justice.

Since pictures are worth thousands of words, today's have been added to Flickr which you can find here.

U. P. Trip - Fall 2010 - Day #4

We knew this was going to be a good day when we watched the sunrise turn the sky orange out over Lake Huron.  It was cooler than even we would have wished, and a bit breezy, but sunny all day and gradually warming.  This was the day when we could finally look people in the eye after saying we had been to the U.P. and say yes to the inevitable question "Did you go to Mackinac Island?"

We three, a few other tourists and two full coachloads of Japanese tour groups took the 9:30 Arnold line catamaran (since it was "pet-friendly") for the 20-odd minute ride over to the island.  There we walked - a lot!  Transportation on this non-motorized island is either by horseback, by horse-drawn vehicle, on a bicycle, or like us, on foot!  Interesting, but watch where you step when crossing a road.  Marissa pointed out the irony of anachronistic transportation having seen a cab driver texting on his cell phone while his horses plodded along!

In general we resisted being nickel and dimed by the tourist traps, but did less well with items requiring plastic to purchase, eventually returning with several large bags!  But we did make the climbing walk up to the Grand Hotel, where we oohed and aahed suitably and took lots of photos.  In due course we found a place where we could sit with Zoe and have a hot lunch in the sunshine.  We discovered that there is no 2:00PM ferry back, so the shops benefited by our being there an extra hour before returning to the mainland in a much less crowded boat.  Zoe was equally well-behaved coming back.  She had enjoyed a good walking work-out and had been a great ice-breaker with many strangers, but was finally exhausted.

Once back at the hotel we rested, did a fair bit of organizing, relaxed a while and ordered our dinner delivered.  It has been a good day.  However, the Internet connectivity here has its quirks, to say the least and picture loading to blogger is excruciatingly slow.  Flickr is also slow, but much better relatively, so for some pictures of our day follow this link...

Despite a day of negligible vehicle mileage today, since leaving Columbus the van has now logged 1225 miles.

U. P. Trip - Fall 2010 - Day #3

This was a day of fits and starts.  Alarm, rush about, get Marissa to the hotel downtown for the 7:00AM breakfast, followed by a more leisurely clean-up and shave and another very good breakfast back at the motel.  The morning was leisurely, getting caught up on the PC as well as slowly moving our stuff out to the van ready for our next leg, plus sorting out, in mild panic, the fact that our tonight's reservation was not listed as for "Priddis" but for "John", but at least it did exist!.  Zoe felt energetic and dragged me for an extra long walk around the complex and even over to the edge of the adjacent shopping center.

After a noon check-out and the pleasant surprise that our deposit covered the whole stay & not just the first day, Zoe & I headed to a nearby park to sit, read, lightly picnic, growl and bark at several squirrels that had the temerity to appear within sight, and eventually take a another significant walk.  We were already on our way downtown, through traffic snarls & road works when Marissa called for her pick-up.

Soon we were heading east, making our way to Big John's cider mill complex.  It was breezy, very overcast and occasionally showery, so we stayed much more briefly than last year's visit, but got apples, cider, cheese curds and delicious cookies, and then headed northwards.  Some hours later we reached Mackinaw, kicked off briefly to visit our favorite pasties shop, then back up and over "Big Mac" leaving the Trolls of lower Michigan (so called because they live beneath the bridge!) for the Yoopers of the U.P.

The further north we went the less trees were green and the more they were somewhat colorful, appearing more so as we left the overcast and rain behind and moved into blue skies and sunshine.  Portia led us to our hotel, where we three ate our pasties (see Marissa's blog for pictures today), before unloading clothes more suitable for the northern cool than southern heat.  We have the same room as we had last year and Zoe has celebrated with a burst of zoomies in the sandy plateau outside our patio overlooking Lake Huron.

U. P. Trip - Fall 2010 - Day #2

This is the day the conference began, and the reason we are here in Grand Rapids at all.  Zoe did not get us up too early and after the usual routine we headed to the breakfast room.  Of all the hotels of this type this one has to have one of the very best breakfast selections we have yet experienced, fresh fruit & yogurt, omelets to be filled as desired along with home fries, waffles (without which no "UP Trip Day" would be complete) as well as all the usual stuff.

We elected to let Portia guide us to the conference hotel, hitting a slight snag at the end where a ramp was closed for rebuilding, but after making several squares we found the right place, but were much too early, so we headed off pretty much at random.  In due Course we saw direction signs to the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, about which Marissa had read so we thought we'd give it a try.  It was delightful and impressive and even had the traveling Chihuly exhibit, which we were able to see before finally being busted for having a dog (not allowed in the park) and asked to leave. This is a place that Beth Campbell should put on her "must visit" list, some of the samples being:

Although still a little early we elected to return to downtown & for Marissa to drop off & try and meet some of the delegates she knew before things started officially.  John & Zoe promptly went into GPS Purgatory!  Portia could not comprehend that a ramp was closed & led us around and around in ever larger circles but always ending at the same useless place.  Eventually we drove way off in a random direction until she could "recalculate" an entirely different route involving miles of a main city street with traffic lights every half mile!

In the afternoon we allowed Portia to guide us to Grand Haven, but inexpert programming guided us to a dirt road, whereupon John became unmanly enough to ask directions - twice!  We finally found the beach area, but disappointingly it is also "no pets allowed".  However, we did find a long riverside boardwalk leading right out to a pier/lighthouse in Lake Michigan and walked the whole thing - both ways.  Needless to say Zoe was less than scintillating company coming back to the motel as she slept the whole way!

Marissa gets fed at the conference so a quick foray into the gigantic Meijer store next to the motel (which is equipped with refrigerator and microwave in each room) solved the eating problem.  Marissa finally called for transportation around 9:00 PM & an error-free run was made in to get her.  With two lots of eyes & better experience we were able to fake out Portia & return via the Interstate so were back at the hotel and ready to go hot-tubbing by 9:45PM.  We have now driven the van about 900 miles so far.

U. P. Trip - Fall 2010 - Day #1

After an erratic night with us all sleeping, waking, and sleeping at different times we made a reasonable start and had the van fully loaded and ready to go at 8:45 EDT (7:45 local).  These pictures fully illustrate the Priddis expression "traveling heavy":

The first "leg" went smoothly and after almost exactly an hour we pulled in to the Pilot just after turning north on US 41 from I-64.  We topped up (1/2 tank) with gas, bought surprisingly tasty Subway omelet flatbread sandwiches and large cups of Pilot coffee.  Then with John still driving we headed north, and north, and...north!  Zoe was surprisingly good and mostly just lay in her bed between us, but once in a while she liked to get the cobwebs blown away:

The picture really doesn't do justice to the way her fur was blowing in the wind.  Later, with Marissa driving a leg north of Terre Haute she had another chance & using the outside mirror John got a more or less front view:

Apart perhaps from driving across Kansas there can be few less interesting drives than Hwys 41/63 from the bottom tip of Indiana to a little south of Chicago.  It was also very windy, but at least it was sunny.  We knew the upper part of the state had some wind-power activity, but we were completely unprepared for the massive extent of them - horizon to horizon, north-south and east-west:

Eventually "Portia" told us to kick right and over to I-64 and on to I-94 and eventually to I-196, so the latter stages were slightly higher in speed but much denser in traffic.  Throughout the day we made periodic stops for all the normal reasons and eventually Portia guided us into our motel for the next two nights at around 5:30 PM.  The room is very nice & convenient and we had a bonus, not only do we get a free breakfast but late afternoon/early evening we get free pizza, which with a little supplement from our road food took care of tonight's need for food.  Afterwards, we took Zoe for an extensive walk around this large complex with lots of grassy areas & finally settled down for the evening.

Since John pulled out of his driveway with the trip odometer set to zero the van has racked up 693 miles so far, so a "local" day tomorrow will be welcome.

U. P. Trip - Fall 2010 - Day #0

All went slickly in Columbus and serious driving commenced just after 10:00AM following a meeting. Apart from a 15-mile stretch of construction on I-64 (the usual 14 miles of nothing at all and 1 mile of actual activity, but all at reduced speed) traffic and road conditions were excellent; the roughly 210 miles were completed in just over three hours. After communications were established we met at the library where Marissa showed off all the summer improvements – impressive, then John took her to lunch. We then separated for the afternoon. Zoe was ecstatic to have unexpected company, but soon resumed guard-dog position, watching the veritable dust storm created by the farmer laying lime on to dry as dust fields just across the meadow! She still doesn’t know what is in her future as Marissa has yet to dig out suitcases, etc.

During the afternoon John had an appointment for a haircut, Marissa completed the preparations to leave the library for 2 ½ weeks and then had an appointment with her chiropractor.  Since there is no readily available food in the house we popped out for a sandwich.  Subsequently the primary activity was Marissa packing & miscellaneous joint preparations, including a toenail cutting for Zoe (strictly a 2-person operation) and the baking of cookies for the lady next door who will keep an eye on the house.  Slowly but surely we are approaching full readiness & the van isn’t groaning under the load – yet!

U. P. Trip - Fall 2010 - Preamble

Following the success of last year’s trip we decided to do it again in 2010. After Marissa was accepted as a delegate to the ACS Relay For Life convention in Grand Rapids we debated the before or after aspects but decided to get the convention behind us before embarking on the vacation proper.

Since Zoe would again be with us we needed to make hard reservations well ahead to ensure getting “pet-friendly” rooms, especially as it would be what was anticipated as peak fall color season.

Less than a week before departure we got word that Peggy Livermore, or Mum-Mum, our matriarch had passed away in her sleep. John had spoken to her four days before and had seen her (and effectively said the good-byes) in February, so after many phone calls and messages it was generally agreed that the presence of a extra body in England at this time served no useful purpose and that the vacation should go ahead as planned.

Perishable foods & cold drinks excepted all is packed in the van except for overnight essentials and the first activity will be for John to go down to Mount Vernon for a night before we head north tomorrow. As usual, Priddises “travel heavy” when going by road!