A weekend in Michigan, part 2

Backstory

Two weeks before my class reunion, I contacted my old friend Huck to see if she was going to be in town while I was. She and Margie have a cabin in Honor, MI, and I knew from Facebook that they had been spending time up there. It turned out that she was going to be at the cabin. I wanted to see the cabin, so I asked for the address so I could get an idea of the travel time. After typing it into Google Maps, I texted, “Man, you are way the hell up north!”

It was near Traverse Bay. How long would it take to get home? I clicked on “Directions” and put in my address. Seven hours to drive, but the first suggested route was the Lake Express Ferry from Muskegon to Milwaukee. More Googling. $101 for the car, $91 for me. Leave at 10:15, arrive at 11:45, which is 2.5 hours with a one-hour time change. A bit over 2 hours to get from Honor to Muskegon, and an hour from Milwaukee to home. No driving through Indiana!

I discussed it with Terry. “It’s expensive, but I’ve always wanted to take the ferry.”

“If it’s on your bucket list, you should check it off,” he said.

I got out my credit card and booked my passage. It would be an adventure. Besides, Huck and Margie had started planning what we would do during my visit from the moment I suggested I might make the trip. They would be disappointed if I decided not to go.

Sunday, July 30 was another beautiful day in Michigan. I drove to Honor, MI by way of Muskegon so I could be sure of 1) where the ferry dock was and 2) how long the drive was to Huck and Margie’s from there. I had to be at the dock 45 minutes before departure, and after spending all that money, I did not want to miss the boat!

I got to the cabin about 12:30. Huck and Margie gave me a tour of their cabin and property. It didn’t take long because neither was large. The lot borders a small river that is popular for kayaking. They have a small yard on one side of the cabin and a wooded lot on the other side. Nice place.

They had a tour planned for the afternoon. It began with lunch in a little diner in Honor. After lunch, we began a driving tour of Sleeping Bear Dunes. We began at a beach known for Petoskey stones, the state stone of Michigan. We climbed down the stairs that led to the beach. Huck walked up to the water, looked around briefly, and picked up a Petoskey stone. Unbelievable! It only had the classic coral fossil on one side, however, so she put it back.

Huck and Margie looking for Petoskey stones

Huck particularly likes the little ones, like this.

Tiny Petoskey stone

I found a nice one for Kate. As she is a geologist, I figured she already had some, but she didn’t! She was thrilled when I gave it to her. I had to do some education on pronunciation. She thought it was Pe-TOE-skey, when in fact, it is Pe-TAH-skey. Potayto, potahto.

A Petoskey stone for Kate

I found another one to give to Hilda to remind her of looking for Petoskey stones when I was a kid. Good times, good times.

Huck and me on the beach

We went to Glen Arbor next to visit Cherry Republic. A friend of Huck and Margie’s was the company’s first accountant back in the day. There are several buildings now. We spent most of our time in the main store, which sells everything you can imagine that can be made with cherries as well and T-shirts and ball caps. I was able to do a side-by-side comparison of Montmorency and Balaton dried cherries. I’d never had Balaton cherries before. They were not quite as sweet and had a stronger cherry flavor. A pound was $15.95. One might expect a half pound to be $7.99 but you would be wrong. It was $8.95. “They want you to buy a pound,” Huck said.

“It will work, too,” I replied, taking a pound of Balaton cherries to the check out.

We drove around the north side of Big and Little Glen Lake to a historic village on Lake Michigan. There were only a few buildings. There was a working blacksmith shop and a general store. Another was an old cannery that had been converted to a boat museum

Next we drove around the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive. We stopped at the overlook for Glen Lake, featuring Alligator Hill, so named because of its resemblance to an alligator.

Huck and me with Glen Lake and Alligator Hill in the background

According to my hostesses, the barn in the distance in this overlook is the most photographed barn in the nation. Or in Michigan. Or something. It’s a very famous barn.

Very famous barn in the distance

Another stop explained that plants growing on dunes need to be adapted to the shifting sands. Sometimes trees get buried and have to sprout roots on their trunks to continue living. Sometimes the roots get exposed as the sand is blown away, as with this magnificent basswood tree.

Basswood tree roots exposed from sands eroding away

Our last stop was at the Lake Michigan overlook. The dune was very steep.

VERY steep

This sign was at the top.

Sign at the top of the dune. Apparent translation: "C'mon down! It'll be fun!"

As usual, there were a good number of fools who ignored the sign and went down anyway. They did not have any visible water or other provisions.

People at the bottom of the dune

It was obviously difficult to climb up a pile of sand at such a deep angle. Crawling on all fours was common.

Crawling back up. Not on my bucket list.

Back at the cabin, Huck started a fire while Margie started making a chocolate cherry cake in the Dutch oven. 

Huck builds a fire

We were skeptical about the cake recipe which seemed too easy: two cans of cherry pie filling in the bottom of the Dutch oven and dry chocolate cake mix sprinkled on top. But we’ll try anything once

Huck puts coals on the lid of the Dutch oven

With the Dutch oven on the fire, Margie starting prepping zucchini, onions, pea pods, baby carrots, and hamburger for foil packs. The potatoes had been cooked earlier. We each put in what we liked. No carrots for me, thanks. Huck put them on the fire, and they sizzled immediately in a satisfying way.

Foil packs in postion

The foil packs turned out great. The chocolate cherry cake, not so much. We ate it anyway, all of us former Girl Scout camp counselors accustomed to eating any number of odd things cooked on a fire. We agreed that an important instruction had been omitted, namely “mix cake according to package directions.”

We talked a bit longer, and then I went to bed. I had to be up at the crack of dawn to drive to Muskegon.

The next day, Monday, I was up at 5:30 to take a shower, pack and load my stuff, and be on the road at 6:30. I arrived a bit after 9:00, exactly as I had planned it. A man and a woman were already working to line up the cars to load the ferry. I heard the man tell the woman that everyone was getting in early today. A short while later, they were only waiting on three cars.

My car in line

Here is the boat approaching.

The Lake Express coming into port

And the cars from Milwaukee coming off.

Then it was our turn to drive on.

Waiting to drive on

We left the dock 3 minutes early. Once we got out of the harbor, the captain put it up to full speed, which (I saw on a bulletin board) was 33 to 39 mph. I read my Nero Wolfe mystery in a comfortable chair for two hours. As we got closer to the other side of the lake, I went to the sun deck, which should have been called the wind deck. Even if the day had been perfectly calm, a person would be standing in 33-39 mph winds. It was a bit dicey to walk across the deck where there was no railing to hang onto. Something hit my glasses and stuck. It was a small fly, smashed like a bug on the windshield. Not kidding about the wind here.

Milwaukee came into view.

Milwaukee in the distance

Slowly getting closer.

Milwaukee shoreline

And closer.

Almost there....

We entered the harbor.

Coming into Milwaukee harbor

And by noon (local time), I was off the boat and on my way home. So much more relaxing that driving around the base of Lake Michigan. I would totally do it again. I'll save my money.