Our hotel stay in Petoskey resulted in a full night’s sleep with no buggy interruptions! The blackout curtains messed with our early wake up so we got a later start than “normal,” but that is okay!
We found a lighthouse before we left town, having to cross an actual drawbridge to get to the point to see it. It was a small drawbridge but it was a drawbridge! The lighthouse was situated at the end of a walkway, a walkway we entered upon our own risk! Petoskey Pierhead Lighthouse was built in the late 1800s. Lake steamers had trouble offloading summer visitors so two breakwaters were constructed to protect the landing pier. A wooden “funnel-shaped” lighthouse was built at the end of the western pier. A schooner damaged the lighthouse in 1900 but it was repaired. A severe storm in 1924 washed the lighthouse from the pier. A temporary light atop a wooden pole was displayed until 1930 when a new lighthouse was erected, the one currently here. Apparently, there is a group of lighthouse enthusiasts trying to get the lighthouse replaced with a design like the original one.
A wooden canoe with Native American markings was beached at this pier, along with a group of people sitting in a circle (It looked like they were drumming?), and a crew from a local television station. We haven’t figured out what they were doing there this fine morning. A young girl was also practicing her softball pitches with her dad and sister nearby. Summer days!!
At first I thought a few homeowners were wanting to spread the joy of petunias and planted them between their sidewalk and the curb. A house in Jasper (sort of near Trinity Church) used to do that too and I loved driving by! But a few houses turned into the entire street and then more streets. There were pink and purple petunias planted along the curbs this entire section of town! It really added something wonderful to the drive and what it says about this town!! They were neatly weeded too! So not just planted and forgotten. A few streets over, the petunias hung in pots on every light pole instead of being planted but the impression was the same, very welcoming.
We traveled down the road to a little town called Charlevoix to check out another lighthouse. This one also located at the end of a pier with a small beach. Charlevoix is located on an isthmus between Lake MIchigan and Lake Charlevoix and encircles Round Lake. This town developed into a “resort” destination early on. To improve access from Lake Michigan they began with a channel being dredged and lined by pilings and then adding lighthouses to the north and south piers. This lighthouse on the South Pier Lighthouse is a small squat one painted red, but only since 2009! It was white before that.
When we parked our car, we noticed a couple with colanders walking down the street and onto the beach. What could they be using those far? Andrew thought perhaps clams? I wasn’t sure as they were colanders! After our walk to the pier and lighthouse, we walked the beach and asked. They were looking for a special stone that can be found in this area, the Petoskey Stone. We had seen some stones and things made from this stone at a gift shop on Mackinac Island but didn’t really pay any more attention. This stone is actually a rock AND a fossil, originating a LONG time ago during the Devonian period and are actually fragments of coral that have been rounded by glacier action. They really are pretty. This couple collects them and makes things from them like necklaces and such. There were actually quite a few people searching the waters, assuming all for these stones? There was also a random guy with a metal detector! He was just looking for anything interesting, this overheard from a conversation he was having with someone relaxing on the beach. This beach also boasted playground equipment ON the beach, slides and swings. Summer fun for all ages!
One thing we found interesting while driving through Michigan was their placement of lights at intersecting roads. We first noticed a light hanging in the middle of the road on a country road, then another, and another. We thought it was just this particular road, but then we saw more on different roads. I noticed them first but Andrew noticed they happened to be hanging over intersecting roads. Great idea!
Our next stop of the day was in small town called Empire and Sleeping Bear Dunes. We got to use our National Park Pass again!! The dune that we climbed is only one small part of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. To climb UP a sand dune takes some work. The loose sand is always working against you and you feel like you are taking two steps forward and any number of steps backward! MANY people were attempting the climb when we got there, young and old alike, some running (showoffs!), some taking their time. We had to stop a few times but the view at the “top” was glorious! Watching young and some older run back down was fun. Do we dare?
At the top, we noticed we really weren’t at the top. More sand! So another hike up another dune, and another glorious view of Glen Lake. Glen Lake you are thinking? Aren’t you on Lake Michigan? Yes, but Lake Michigan is in the other direction. Michigan has lots and lots and lots of lakes. We notice yet another dune to climb and think, “Yes, we will be able to see Lake Michigan from there.” But no, that is only another part of the journey. IF you wanted to, you could hike a few miles up and down steep slopes of loose sand and catch a glimpse of Lake Michigan. It takes 3-4 hours and we opted not to do that. A guide situated under a scrubby tree between dune top 2 and 3 (!) told us that where he was standing was a post labeled “2” and there were 27 total posts until the Lake Michigan view. 27. All with up and down loose sand that today he estimated was about 100 degrees. I am sure it was beautiful! But we had other things to see. We felt our view of Glen Lake and our climb was awesome enough! We headed back towards the truck and ran down the dunes. Yes, we did run!! It was actually not hard as you just put your heels in first and sort of clomped down that way. We wondered if we should “roll” down, like we did grassy banks as kids, but when Andrew tried he veered off to the side and almost took out a small person. Running it was!
As we were driving we knew we were going to head through a city called Traverse City. It sounded so familiar but we couldn’t think of why. A famous author? Lighthouse? Then it suddenly hit Andrew: pie. Yes, in Terre Haute (and once upon a time in Evansville) there is a pie shop called the Grand Traverse Pie Company and you can have your pieces of pie blended with ice cream to make a pie shake. They are AWESOME!! So we Googled and discovered the original Grand Traverse Pie Company was indeed started in Traverse City, Michigan, in 1996. A couple had big “jobs” and were looking for something more fulfilling. They happened upon a pie shop in California and the owner took them under her wing and taught them everything they needed to know to make great pies. They started with that one and have locations in MIchigan and one in Indiana (Terre Haute!), totally about 15 pie places. We started reading their blog and they “partnered” with a local Traverse City Brewery called Right Brain Brewery and created a Cherry Pie Whole Beer to celebrate the National Cherry Festival. We had to stop; I mean, cherry pie AND beer? We assumed they’d have pie, but they didn’t. They literally use entire pies, crusts and all, along with tart cherry juice when brewing the beer. It was actually good. They had MANY different flavor combinations of beer and ades available, some very interesting combos!
Since they didn’t have pie, we drove a few more blocks and stopped into the actual restaurant and split a bacon/Pesto quiche and a piece of All American Pie, which was cherry and blueberry. They did not have pie shakes at this location, but pie in its original form is still wonderful.
We stopped at Ludington State Park to hike to their lighthouse. Information we’d found said it was open until 6 and we could climb the tower. The park ranger said it was only open until 5 and it was a 2-mile hike to the lighthouse. Well, we wouldn’t get to climb the tower itself but a hike was good. So we paid our entrance fee and hiked along a sandy trail. We had to pass through a campground first, crowded with lots of people enjoying this fabulous location. Lots of kids on bikes, and swim gear laying near their campers, smells of food grilling, lots of shrieks and laughing. This campground didn’t allow long term camping so to speak, only 15 days at a time but some still made it their home away from home for that short term with outdoor furniture, lights, plants, etc.
We weren’t on the beach but just on the other side of big dunes, which has its own diverse ecosystem. Ponds and swamps, scrubby trees, different critters. I think we could have biked it as evidenced by other bikers we passed while walking. The Big Sable Point Lighthouse itself made its appearance as we rounded a corner, a really tall lighthouse (!), one of the tallest in all of Michigan at 100 feet! This one was built in 1866, as a need was validated with 12 shipwrecks in 1855 alone. This one was painted black and white.
There were outhouses here modeled after the original ones. I wondered why one was bigger with one door and the other smaller with two doors? Handicapped? But Andrew told me to go back in and read the infographic. The MAIN lighthouse keeper got a bigger facility, a one “seater” with 2 vents while the 2nd and 3rd lighthouse keepers had the smaller “2-seater” with only 1 vent. Too funny. I didn’t read the infographic as it was BEHIND the toilet, not on the door, so it is understandable that he caught it and I did not. :)
Funny thought: Hunting is allowed in parts of this park. There are signs that say either “Open To Hunting” or “Closed To Hunting and Trapping.” These signs were back to back on the same post. We looked at each other and smiled, envisioning animals on one side going, “Nananana!” because they were on the no hunting side whereas the hunter was not.
While we were hiking towards the lighthouse there was a sign signalling an “Historic Shipwreck” with an arrow towards the beach. So, on our way back, even though it meant climbing more dunes, and we popped off the trail and climbed, and landed on a small narrow beach. No shipwreck. Hmm. We wondered about the three tall posts we encountered between dune 1 and 2 but they really looked like trees and not ship masts. No shipwreck was obvious at all, not even hinted at.
We decided to walk along the beach back to the truck instead of going back to the trail. What a great decision. The beach was narrow but beautiful. The water was more warm than cold. The “official” beach came into view and there were such nice crowds all enjoying this wonderful evening, reading, building sand castles, digging deep holes, floating about in the water..
When we left the park, we stopped by the gate and asked about the mysterious shipwreck and he sort of looked sorry but said whether we see it or not depends on the sand. It is visible and invisible depending on the wind blowing the sand around. So, in theory, we walked over the top of it when we walked over that last dune towards the beach. Internet pictures did show parts of a ship (very few!) and the beach much wider than we encountered so we will settle for knowing we walked over it.
We are now heading home and have one more night on the road. To camp or do a hotel. We aimed for another state park, this one Grand Haven State Park, located literally on the shore of Lake Michigan but in the town of Grand Haven. The first questions we asked were 1) if we could use our pass from earlier in the day, and they replied that we indeed could, so we didn’t have to pay that extra, and 2) if they had openings. Being “official” tourist season now, all campgrounds started looking more and more crowded. The next and most important question of all questions was, “Do you have mosquitoes?” The park attendants smiled and said, “No, we don’t have bugs.” NO bugs? Really? Well, okay!! We were in! Yes, the campground itself was on the parking lot. It really was. Each camper was allotted space between two yellow lines (about two cars width) and a strip of sand along the “back.” We were probably the only pickup with a camper shell, but we backed in and grabbed our bikes. The lighthouse here is gorgeous and quite frequently photographed. It was nearing sunset so we biked out to the pier to watch. Sunsets over large bodies of water are beyond written descriptions. After the corals, and grays, and blues, and purples faded, we went in search of a light supper. We found a lovely patio overlooking the waterway and, while we were finishing up, lights and music popped up in the near distance. Yes, popped up. They have a ‘music fountain” that has a light/music show each evening. We watched as we finished our dinner and paid, and then for a bit by our bikes before heading back to bed.
I am writing this as we head towards Indy. It was a great day yesterday but climbing up dunes and such made us tired!! Sleeping with water breezes is so very restful. I did wake up a little after midnight with a case of slight indigestion (probably the wasabi on the sushi!). I hopped out of the back and got a Pepcid and crawled back up. My light on the phone indicated slight movement on the ceiling so I aimed it in that direction and OMG, the ceiling was covered with mosquitoes, our worst nightmare. But they weren’t moving, and they definitely weren’t biting at all. Strange. Very strange. With no bites thus far while we’d slept, I figured all was okay, and did fall asleep knowing (and hoping) they wouldn’t dare bite during the night. Andrew was a little taken aback at their numbers too when he saw them in the morning, and we don’t know why they didn’t attack. The temperature wasn’t cold as it was only 66 this AM when we got up, and prior experience has demonstrated bugs will bite at much lower than 66. Something about those big glorious breezes off the lake kept those, and perhaps all bugs, at bay. I read once they don’t like moving air but this was creepy to see, all of them there just there. I wonder what was going through their minds, knowing we were right there, within luscious reach, but they couldn’t even get to us because of the wind.
We discovered the restrooms were closed until 8 AM??? The gates they leave open so we knew we could leave early, but the bathrooms?? Really? Yes, most people do have RVs and campers, but there were some tents too! So we hopped into the truck for our final leg, searching first for a restroom. We are heading to Indy for 24 hours and then taking a loop to Urbana before heading home yet tomorrow.
Our trip was very fluid, and we like them that way. We can spend more time if we need to or less. It gives us a “taste” of what is out there and we know what we’d like to explore further if/when we can. We skipped some things but will put them on another list for another day.
We took tons of pictures, of which only some made it to the blog. We will work on getting those organized and accessible for anyone that wants to view.
Another amazing journey is now one for the books. Amazing is not really a strong enough word. We saw so much together. :) TOGETHER, side by side, for the entire journey. Thank you, Andrew, for planning this foray into lighthouses, the most eastern points (USA and North America(!)), end of roads, and everything possible in the between. You are much loved and appreciated and I wouldn’t want to see sunrises and sunsets and all that in between with anyone else. This year we celebrate 40 years together (37 of them married), and it just keeps getting better.
Some statistics:
1 moose
1 bear
3 whales
6 deer
Lots of roadkill porcupines
?? lighthouses, all amazing as were their own stories
Lots of people we encountered and their own stories
49 states now visited
9 of 13 Provinces
No breakdowns
No robberies
No tickets…
9982 miles in the truck… plus various other miles via trains, planes, ferries, bikes, etc.
25 nights sleeping in the back...
6 nights in hotels
3 in an air bnb
7 nights leaving/returning to Indiana --- 3 in Kyana for the wedding weekend and 4 in Indy with the grandbabes….
Fin.
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