21 June 2024 Archibald to East Sparta, OH

We have done this drive several times before. It's pretty boring along the toll road and we made good time. The toll road cost $33.75 from mile marker 26 to where we got off for I-77. They have finished the road construction at I-77 and US30 that has been going on for a decade and the road was nice and smooth through the area compared to the teeth jarring surface that was there forever. We are staying at our usual, the Canton/East Sparta KOA ($89.48 per night with KOA discount). We are in one of the deluxe pull through sites at the bottom of the hill with a patio, table, fire pit and grill. These sites are the easiest to get the Wanderer into verses the sites on the hillside. Keira was very Happy to have a dog park to run around in again!

18-20 June 2024 Sauder Heritage Village

 David spent most of all three days we were in the Sauder Heritage Village working. We both caught up on chores. The weather was very warm (we were under extreme heat warnings the entire time) with the heat indices near 100F. We did visit the Sauder Furniture store to see if they had anything we might like for our future home. We ate one night at the Barn Restaurant on site. David ran up to the bakery for fresh donuts one morning. We walked Keira around the lake each day. On our last night around 5PM, the power went out in the entire RV park from all the RVs and the hotel running the air conditioners on full. Luckily, some clouds moved in and kept the temperatures down until they got the electric repaired around 11:30PM that night. It took until 2 in the morning for the air conditioners to catch up and cool the Wanderer down. 

17 June 2024 Frankfort, MI to Archibald, OH

 We have done the drive down through the center of Michigan on US127 three times now. The road needs some TLC in several places. It was a 286 mile slog down to Saunder Heritage Inn and RV Park ($46 per night). We knew it was going to be a long haul because we have stayed here several times and knew what to expect. We drove into a heat wave for the area (99 degrees) but some cooling rain came through later in the evening. 

16 June 2024 Old Mission Peninsula Wine Trail

 We decided to leave Keira at home since it was going to be a fast paced trip up through the Old Mission Peninsula. We headed out to the Old Mission Peninsula Wine Trail right after lunch. We did wine tastings at three wineries. Our first stop was at Black Star Farms. They had one white wine we liked but their reds wines were not especially to our tastes. They really did not pay much attention to us, just kind of dropped the wines in front of us and did not try to explain them at all or offer to answer any questions we might have had. Our next stop was at Hawthorn Winery. They had a lively crowd in their very nice tasting room. Their wine servings were interesting but the varieties were limited to specific combinations. Their servers took the time to talk to us about the wines. We really liked their wines and ended up buying a half case of an assortment. Our final stop was at Chateau Grand Traverse, mostly because some other folks at Hawthorn had said the view was spectacular. They had a cherry resiling that was fun so we bought a bottle of that to take back to Texas. By the time we got home, Keira was ready to go for a walk and we were tired of driving!

Blackstar Tasting Room

BlackStar Tasting

Hawthorn Tasting

Chateau Grand Traverse Tasting room

View from Chateau Grand Traverse patio

14-15 June 2024 Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and Leelanau Peninsula Wine Trail

 We had wanted to visit Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore last year when we were in Mackinaw City, but had decided it was going to be too long of a drive. So, we decided when our itinerary got replanned this spring to spend the time getting up to see it. We drove along the back roads toward Empire and stopped at the Point Betsie Lighthouse. It’s not part of the National Lakeshore but is run and maintained by the county. It is a beautiful old light house and rescue station. From the lighthouse, there is a beautiful view of Sleeping Bear Dunes along the sweeping lakeshore. From there, we made our way to the visitor center in Empire. We got our passport stamp, watched the park film, and talked with the Rangers about possible hikes. They gave us a nice suggestion for a short hike that was dog friendly and did not involve climbing any Dunes. After that we drove up to the northern section of the park and did the Peirce Stocking Scenic Drive and enjoyed the views from the top of the dunes out over the lake. We really could not see the outline of a sleeping bear at the top of the dune. Erosion caused by construction in the early 1900s has flattened it out. We then drove on up to Glen Haven, over to Glen Arbor and then up to Pyramid Point. On the way back to Frankfort, we stopped in Glen Haven for dinner. 

 

For our second day, we drove up to the trailhead for the Empire Bluffs trail (1.6 miles, 154ft of elevation gain, 381 calories burned) that the ranger recommended and were happy to see other hikers with dogs. This was our first hike with Keira. It’s a wide, sand and gravel surface trail through the shady forest up to the top of the Empire Dunes with wonderful views of the lake. Keira settled down into our hiking rhythm and did really well. She would pull on the leash if Leslie was out in front, but would walk along just fine between us is we walked side by side. Most of the climbing was in the first quarter mile which had all three of us breathing hard! It has been a few months since our last hike in New Zealand. Once we returned, we decided to see how Keira would do in a patio situation. Se we headed up to the Leelanau Peninsula Wine trail. We stopped at the Bel Lago Winery and enjoyed a wine tasting. Keira was a little nervous on the patio at first since there were other dogs and live music, but she eventually settled down and relaxed. We liked a couple of their whites and rose wines and picked up a couple to enjoy later. Keira passed out in the back seat on the drive back to Frankfort.  

Point Betsie Lighthouse

Lakeshore from the Lighthouse

Rescue boat

Entrance Sign

Tasting at Bel Lago

13 June 2024 Berrien Springs to Frankfort, MI

 It was supposed to be a relatively short drive today of only 209 miles, but there was a 47 mile detour that pushed it into a 256 mile drive up the west coast of Michigan. Fortunately, the roads were in good shape and we did not have any low hanging tree obstructions. Most of the route was along US31. We are staying at the Frankfort Crystal Lake RV Park ($76 per night average, each night was a different charge between $72.50 and $84)) just outside of town. They only had back in sites but at least they were angled to make it easier to back the Wanderer in. The weather cooperated and we did not get rained on until later in the evening.

12 June 2024 Lake Shore Wine Trail

 We decided to explore some of the wineries in the area along the Lake Shore Wine Trail. We did not know this was such an extensive wine area. It’s has climate similar to Western New York and the Roan Valley in France. The grapes grown in this area are the same grapes grown in France, including Cabernets and Shiraz. Our first stop was Domaine Berrien Winery. The grounds were pretty basic, but the wines were very good. They had some really nice dry reds and whites. We walked out with ½ of a case. Our next stop was Lemon Creek Winery. They were celebrating their 40^th anniversary. Their wine tasting approach was different. They had fixed sample wine pairings (Dry White, Dry Reds, etc.) but you could swap out one wine for another. They gave us souvenir glasses, but the wine samples came in plastic cups. They recommended we pour them into the glass to sample. Hmmmm. We sat outside under a huge old Oak Tree. It was a beautiful day to relax and sample wines. The grounds were nice, with lots of outdoor tables. Their wines were ok, a couple of the dry reds were good, but their bottle prices were higher than we wanted to pay for the wine. Our last stop was in town at Chill Hill winery tasting room. These wines were only started 5 years ago. The vineyard has been around for 80 years, but they sold their grapes/juice to other wineries. Five years ago they started making their own wines. We liked a couple of the dry whites, but the reds were not to our tastes. 

10 June 2024 Return to Stray Dog

 Keira woke us early again this morning (5am), but we knew to get her out quickly this time and there was not an accident. This time we did get back to sleep! When we were at the Indiana Sand Dunes National Park a few years back, we stumbled onto a wonderful bar and grill, in New Buffalo on the shore of Lake Michigan, called “The Stray Dog”. The shirts we bought back then garnered a lot of comments but wore out over time. So, we needed to return and get new shirts. We drove down for lunch today (only 31 miles away). We were seated on the rooftop and enjoyed a wonderful lunch on a beautiful day. Of course, we stocked up on new shirts. Even got one for Keira. Along the way, we noticed signs for the Michigan Lake Shore Wine Trail. We will have to try some of the wineries over the next couple of days. 

9 June 2024 Carlock, IL to Berrien Springs, MI

Keira woke us up early, 4am, with an apparent potty need. Unfortunately, we did not figure out what she needed until it became too late. After the cleanup and getting her out JIC, we did not get back to sleep until 6 just to be up at 8:30 to get on the road. The drive took longer than planned. We ran into heavy slow traffic on I-80 through southern Chicago that added an hour. The I-80 road surface was really rough from Joliet to the border. David decided to stay on the I-80 toll road ($32) until we got to US31 since the other shorter routs would have taken us down county roads with potentially low hanging trees. That pushed the milage up to 268 miles. Along with the shift in time zones, it pushed our arrival time until 5:30. So it was a long day. We are staying at the Shamrock RV Park ($45 per night, no discounts) along the banks of the St. Joesph River. Rather than cook dinner, we ordered a Detroit style pizza from Town Hall Pizza. It was just the ticket we needed!