Thursday, 11 July 2019
Leaving the campground today I passed a small flock of Robins, one of whom had spread out its wings, drying them in the sunshine. I haven't seen Robins doing that before.
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| today's short route |
We left the campground fairly early to go to a laundromat in Holland (I couldn't find one online in nearby Zeeland). While the clothes were being processed, the dogs and I walked around the neighborhood (lots of sidewalks). Holland has a large video rental business. I guess Netflix put Blockbuster out of business, but there's still a market in small towns.
The parking lot for the laundromat lies across the street from a large building labeled H. J. Heinz Co., which is next to an entrance to the Heinz Waterfront Walkway. I looked them up and learned that in 1897, the PA-based Heinz Co. (i.e. catsup and pickles) chose Holland as the site of a new pickle factory, asking local farmers to agree to send 300 acres of their cucumbers to this plant. The farmers pledged 500 acres and the city threw in waterfront access to Lake Macatawa for the company's shipping. This pickle factory, still in operation, is now the largest such facility in the world and it packs 1,000,000 pounds a day during the season. That's a lot of pickles.
The waterfront walkway runs along part of southern Lake Macatawa (pronounced mock-a-TAH-wah, I think) and is apparently very popular with local dogwalkers and runners. As I'd been driving through town trying to locate the laundromat, I'd been thinking this looked a lot like a working class town, and apparently it is if they're providing the workforce to support the world's largest pickle factory. It seems a nice clean little town. Incidentally, US Sec. of Ed. Betsy DeVos is from here.
After getting my clothes clean, we went to a grocery store, and then drove back to Zeeland to a liquor store. That liquor store, oddly, didn't have a much better liquor selection than the grocery store had. I guess because so many places can sell alcohol beyond beer and wine in this state, those designated as liquor stores just don't have their hearts in it. Apparently all these places have to buy their liquor from the State of Michigan, which explains why I'm finding the exact same selection everywhere - the state's already done the selecting for us. I think free enterprise does a better job for the consumer, though maybe not as good a job for the taxpayers.
Back in the campground I was having my usual problem of finding our next campground that was in a location that would be convenient to where I wanted to visit, and that also had campsites that would accommodate my dog problem. I finally settled on Camp Dearborn for one night, figuring if it worked out I could extend my stay.
Camp Dearborn is owned and operated by the City of Dearborn, which is nowhere near the campground. It's more than 30 miles away and the campground is located in the village of Milford. Go figure. But we need somewhere to go tomorrow that's within reasonable range of Lansing and Detroit, and this seemed like it, so we'll see.
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