And the 60+ guy, driving his riding lawn mower down the downtown main street, on the wrong side, in one of the little towns we passed through.
We worked our way up the coast to Holland, Michigan (new to us). The Holland area had been settled by the Dutch, and their influence is strongly apparent. The local amusement park is the Dutch Village
Complete with a carillon, playing "When the saints go marching in" for the next odd occurrence - it just sounded odd, done with bells.
We didn't go into the amusement park, but we did shop the shops. They also have a wooden shoe factory in town and demonstrations of how wooden shoes were made (when you realize they didn't have sandpaper, it gets very interesting).
Along with "souvenir ceramic wooden shoes".
Gabe's comment was that he felt short: the people working the shops were wearing traditional Dutch outfits, complete with wooden shoes which add about 3 inches of height.
Near Shelby, Michigan, they had a billboard for Paraflying (you have the parasail above you and a go-kart with a BIG fan on the back). We went to check that out and ended up at Silver Lake Dunes. This is evidently the center for ALL four wheeling in Michigan - more off road trucks, quads, dirt bikes and vehicles for getting in the dirt of every variety than I have seen anywhere else in Michigan.
The place evidently lives on the tourism of the dunes (which people four wheel on and ride through on SUV "buses"). We had an excellent lunch and continued north.
Along the way, we passed through the Asparagus Capital of the world. Evidently it had been too cold since they were just starting to plant.
I've been VERY surprised at just how rural Michigan is… there are evidently multiple micro-climates near the lake and just about everything under the sun grows there. Michigan is the world's leader in the production of tart cherries - but I had no idea that there were a fair number of wineries in Michigan, either.
We continued up the coastal area, passing Crystal Lake (amazingly blue) and the Platte River Canoe station (they have a major canoeing and tubing business there: unfortunately, it's been a bit cold up here so they were not too busy).
We got into the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore around 3:00 pm. It edges Lake Michigan at the upper west side where the land begins to turn up (put your hand up again - go around the tips of your fingers) towards the "tip" of Michigan with the Mackinaw Bridge (see "Sled Dogs Don't Come with Mud Flaps" for word about the Bridge).
The area is named because of a large dune, said to look like a Sleeping Bear.
http://www.nps.gov/slbe/ppmaps/slbemap1%2Epdf
The Indians used it to navigate and they told a story of how it came to be:
Long ago, a mother bear and her cubs were forced into Lake Michigan by a forest fire. They swam for a long time, but the fire followed them. Finally, the mother made it ashore on Sleeping Bear Point and waited for her cubs to follow. The cubs, being weaker, drowned within sight of land.
The mother finally went to sleep, still waiting for her cubs.
The Great Spirit saw this, and turned the mother into a dune, and made two islands (shown on the map) to show where her cubs had drowned.
The area was heavily glaciated in the last Ice Age (which also dug out Lake Michigan) and has resulted in HIGH bluffs along the edge of the lake. The prevailing wind is Southwest and QUITE strong… strong enough to push the sand dunes up.
The first "Park feature" that we encountered was the Pere Stocking Scenic Road. Pere was a lumberjack who lived in the area (around 1960s) and wanted to show off the natural beauty of the area as well as conserve it. To do this, he developed a private operation "scenic road", which was opened in 1976 (it became part of the National Lakeshore in 1986).
It is a one lane road that winds through the lakeshore area, eventually leading out to the dunes. On it, you can walk a trail along the dunes (impressive), watch the changes in climate (go from the dune area with its scrub and grasses, over the tip of a hill, and you are suddenly in deep forest), and stop and look out over the bluffs to Lake Michigan.
This is a picture from the trail over the dunes
Another picture of the dunes.
Those bluffs deserve special mention. At that point, it is 450 feet high, and leads VERY steeply down to the lake. Visibility can be about 16 miles to land, or to the horizon if you are looking out to the lake (a LONG way out).
View down the bluff to Lake Michigan. Notice the two people that have walked down to the beach
A wider angle shot of the view, showing a bit more perspective
The wind is steady and VERY strong.
Jon, leaning into the wind. It is what is holding me in that forward lean, not me.
There are spectacular views.
We finished touring the area (a small fishing village that is now inside the National Lakeshore and no longer occupied and some other scenic spots) then headed back home.
We were surprised by a wild turkey by the side of the road. Evidently it knows it isn't hunting season since it simply stood there and watched us go by.
It was rather like the kids at the front of the Crystal Mountain Ski Area. We were driving by (it's right off one of the main roads up there) and swung in to take a look.
Two local teenagers were sitting in front of the sign, evidently watching the cars go by. I'm still trying to figure out if that is better or worse than watching the traffic light change….
On the way home, we passed through the "Mushroom Capital". Frankly, that is a place I would have loved to investigate but we didn't get a chance.
We stopped for dinner near Cadillac, Michigan, at a nice place called Timbers with some interesting history of the area (Cadillac was originally a serious logging operation, with the site of the town "changed" to allow logs to be floated across the lake to the railroad).
After that, it was a straight shot back to Kalamazoo and home.