Monday, 1 July 1029
I'd made an appointment to get Lily's nails clipped at the Banfield closest to Muskegon, where I'd made camping reservations, and the appointment was in Lansing for 11:15. I decided to leave pretty early to allow a margin for error and dog walks, so we dumped the waste tanks and the trash and were gone before 7:00.
Because I needed to cover so much ground today - Lansing is a couple of hours from last night's campground and halfway across Michigan from my next campground - I decided to take interstates the whole way. That meant taking the toll road (aka I-80/I-90) across Indiana to the eastern corner for the first 1/3 of the trip.
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| today's route |
The last time I was on the toll road, I noticed how rough the road surface was, which seems rude considering we're paying to drive on it. This time, going in the opposite direction, it still seems rough. But that's odd because I could tell the road had been recently paved, yet it was still very bumpy. The seams between the pavement sections were raised, not smooth, and there were breaks in the pavement and potholes besides. I'm guessing maybe they didn't put down a good pavement bed for the asphalt or something. But if I were in charge of paying the pavers, I'd tell them to go back and do it again. A fresh paving job should be smooth driving.
And Welcome to Pure Michigan! (That's what their sign says.)
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| Michigan - my 16th state |
Another nice note was the butterfly garden surrounding the welcome center. Actually, it wasn't labeled as that - it wasn't labeled at all - it was just the landscaping at the rest stop. But I could tell from the plants they had that butterflies and other pollinators were what they were aiming at. I thought that was nice.
I passed a billboard that said: Welcome to Michigan - Home of the World Famous Cops and Doughnuts - open 7 days a week. And it did seem that I'd vaguely heard of this before so I looked it up and learned that about 10 years ago or so, a long-time bakery in Clare City was closing and the 9 police officers at the Clare Police Dept. decided to buy it and run it on their own. And it's been going strong ever since. In fact, they've opened 2 or 3 branches in other towns. You can check them out at this link. https://copsdoughnuts.com/ I'll check them out myself if I get near any of these locations.
I passed a billboard suggesting I "discover Kalamazoo's checkered past" at the Checkered Cab Museum. Turns out it's part of the Kalamazoo Valley Museum and is free. I think I might stop by.
The road surface in Michigan is a relief. Regular old smooth concrete highway. Only ordinary bumps.
I passed another sign advertising the Gilmore Car Museum, that includes Duesenbergs among other old brands. I'd enjoy seeing those old cars but, when I checked on them, I learned they charge $15, even for senior admission, and that's a lot more than I want to pay for old cars. We'll see.
I'm continuing to pass farms, but the land here is definitely not as flat as in Indiana. I'm also passing multiple ponds - many more than I saw in Indiana.
I learned online that Michigan has been having an ongoing debate about whether to establish any toll roads, as most of the surrounding states have done. And so far they've decided that their state is off the beaten path enough that charging a toll might well discourage people from coming to the state. Even if all folks are doing is passing through, they're still likely to stop for gas or food and spend money here, so why discourage that. I'm in favor of that reasoning.
I passed an odd situation. I saw a sign warning me that road work was up ahead; then another sign warning me that the right lane was closed ahead and I should merge left; then another sign telling me the speed limit is reduced for the construction area; then I passed a young man standing on the shoulder wearing an orange vest, holding some kind of warning sign, and paying no attention to the traffic at all because he was engrossed in his phone; then I passed miles of those orange barrels spread out along the shoulder; and then I passed a sign saying end road work, without having ever seen any actual work; and then the highway was back to normal. But that left me with a big question: what on earth was that guy doing back there holding the sign? Did they just go off and leave him standing there when the other workers left? Did he think there was going to be work there and went out to do his job and nobody told him not to? Huh?
Sure enough, after all that non-road-work, the next section of the road could really have benefited from repaving. All across Michigan I found sections of non-road-work like this, and a couple of them said they'd be back to working on the road on July 8th. So I guess they're just giving everybody - including motorists - a break for the 4th of July.
In Michigan, as in the last several states, I've been seeing a lot of cottonwoods. I tend to think of those as a southern tree because my Aunt Alice had them in her yard in Austin. But they sure seem to like the northern states as well.
As I was driving along, I noticed that Dexter only had his back half on the seat. The front half of him was lying on Gracie. Not the first time he's done this and I can't imagine how it can be comfortable. But you can see Gracie puts up with it.I've never taken a picture while I was driving, and I didn't want to take my eyes - or much of my attention - off the traffic, which tends to go pretty fast. So I just tried to aim and hope for the best. You see the first one is in focus but lopsided, and the 2nd one is a slightly better aim but fuzzy. They're both good travelers, which is lucky. So is Lily, which is even luckier.
I passed an odd sign telling me that at this exit I'd find the State Secondary Complex. Which meant absolutely nothing to me and I wondered if they meant a secondary school (jr. high and high school) or what, so I looked it up. It's a 13-building center for police needs: the training academy, testing labs, offices, warehouse, vehicle maintenance facilities - like that. I can't imagine where that name came from, though.
Their website touts the complex as having achieved a new level of energy efficiency by adding ice-based thermal energy storage to its ordinary systems, a process that allows them to use stored energy during peak-demand times, thus helping out the power grid and saving the taxpayers money. The website went into some detail about this ice-based thermal energy storage, and I tried really hard to understand what they were talking about, to no avail. If you're interested, though, they'll be glad to tell you. http://www.calmac.com/state-of-michigan-secondary-complex
We found the PetsMart surprisingly easily, considering it's in the town of Okemos, which I'd never heard of, on the east side of Lansing. It took them a while to get the job done because they had some surgeries that took longer than expected. But Lily got her claws clipped, and I had them give her her monthly dose of Advantage® (which she fights me on doing), and they charged me $17, and it's still worth every penny to me.
We went from there to another little town, Dimondale, which I also hadn't heard of but is just south of Lansing, to go to a grocery store there. I'm sick and tired of Kroger, whose stores all carry the identical items which aren't always what I want. And I think ALDI is a racket and object in principle to Walmart, so there isn't much other choice for groceries - hasn't been since Ohio. I'm gradually learning that there are still smaller groceries around, usually locally owned, usually with an affiliation to Kroger or Safeway but carrying their own ideas of inventory. And Carl's Super Market was the only one that popped up online for this area, so there we went.
And it's a nice little supermarket. Including a selection of liquor. I just find it hard to get used to seeing rum and vodka and bourbon out on grocery store shelves like flour and sugar.
From there we headed west toward Muskegon. I should note that, since I made my reservation a couple of weeks ago, I'd been pronouncing it in my head MUSK-eh-gone. It surprised me to find a decent-sized city that I'd never heard of, since other Michigan cities sound so familiar. But a day or two ago, I accidentally said to myself muss-KEE-gun, and that sounded very familiar - aha! I've heard of that. Habits die hard, though, and I still catch myself saying it wrong. At least I didn't do any of this out loud.
I crossed the Grand River a couple of times and suddenly a light bulb went on over my head - it felt like it literally did - and I thought Grand River - rapids in a river - Grand Rapids - aha! (I'm having a number of aha! moments lately.) Anyway, I looked it up to see if I was right and, long ago, I was right. There used to be rapids a mile long, 300 yards wide and 10'-15' high, but when dams started to go in in 1835, the rapids started disappearing. There haven't been any in 100 years, and that's another special thing lost in the name of progress.
I passed a sign noting something named after Gerald R. Ford and suddenly remembered he was from Michigan. I'm sure there's a presidential library or something and I'll have to go find it. I always liked and respected him.
I stopped for gas and, when I was trying to get back on the road, I passed a business called "nothing bundt cakes" - no capitals. Just as well I hadn't seen it earlier. When I looked it up I learned it's headquartered in Addison, TX, of all places and has franchises all over the place. I had no idea.
I passed a camper that had, on the back, the star-outlined shape of the continental US; inside it was this:
Travel is fatal to
- bigotry
- prejudice
- narrow-mindedness.
Mark Twain
My kind of people.
I passed an old Pace Arrow (RV brand) about the size of mine, that was towing a car, but not the usual small car - it was a Chevy, bright blue with white top, looked like maybe a '70s era Nova - that kind of Chevy. But then, these folks who hang onto campers for decades (and this one was at least 20 years old) have vintage tastes.
I learned from a billboard that there's a National Baby Food Festival coming up, reminding me that I'm in Michigan - land of breakfast food and Gerber. I looked it up and it is indeed set for July 17-20 in Fremont, where Gerber baby foods started. The line-up for the festival is entirely child- and family-oriented: a Hula Hoop contest, bubblegum blowing contest, water balloon toss, frog jumping, turtle race, beanbag toss, kids parade, rides, a flea market and Christian music, ending with an early Sunday morning worship service. Too wholesome for words.
I happened to notice a car stopped on the left shoulder on the other side of the divided highway and a police car pulling up behind it with flashing lights - and from then on for many miles the traffic over there was backed up. It was around 4:00, folks were probably going home, and by the time they made it through the congestion there was probably nothing there to tell them why they'd had to deal with it.
All the waterways we passed were very full, and the Muskegon River (north and south branches) were no exception. The water level was halfway up the reeds or whatever that green stuff was growing on the banks. It reminded me a little of swamps I've seen in Florida or along the northern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico where I've seen wild flamingos.
I passed a sign for the World Famous Flea Roast and Ox Market, which was unfortunately held last week.
And into the campground, which is one of the least developed KOAs I've seen, and also one of the smallest. Looks like they cater as much to tenters as to RVers, which is unusual, and they've got a lot of cabins, all sitting on a tiny lake that doesn't seem to have a name as far as I can tell. (Per the KOA map it's called "Private KOA Lake.) But we're here for the next 6 days, thanks to the 4th of July holiday, and I'm sure it'll be fine. Lots of trees.
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