Halloween Fun

During our Make a Difference Day cleanup, some of the garbage consisted of old Halloween decorations. We took a load to the dump and decided that two of the decorations would be great in our garbage can, as our pickup was on Halloween morning. Nice touch, huh?

Missionary Activity Day

The local missionary zone had their preparation day activities at our house recently. Aren't they a sharp group? We have some news - our local set of sisters will be moving into our home after Thanksgiving. Another two for Christmas! Katie will have two more "sisters" in the adjoining room. And sharing her bathroom!

Make a Difference Day

Recently we had a Make a Difference Day in our community and we made considerable progress on an ongoing project I have been coordinating at the home of one of my home teaching families. This project has gone through various phases and the end is in sight. It has involved cutting down trees, removing an abandoned vehicle, cleaning, sorting, etc. This time we burned all the wood and slash that had been piled into huge mounds in the yard. Basically all that is left is to haul the non-burnables to the dump and the finishing cleanup. The project was started last June and it will be nice to finish.

GPS

We were impressed by the computer program Ric had on his computer for mapping out routes, etc. Several times it came in handy finding our way. I have been considering buying some type of GPS system, coupled with maps, for use on our trips. In doing the research, and taking into account various factors such as cost, weight, ease of use, etc., I have tentatively settled on the unit shown in the picture. Any useful feedback out there?

Ohio and Homeward Bound

Thanks to the Anderton Buckeyes for letting us hang out at their place in Columbus for a time. We got into Columbus in record time on Friday (Ric was driving), checked out Brett & Jami's new house (very nice), and then enjoyed dinner together. I don't remember the name of the chain, but there were peanuts everywhere.

Our last night of the trip was spent in a hotel by the Columbus Airport. We got a taxi to the airport in the morning and were in Seattle by early afternoon. We met up with Amy, Mike, Jon, and Cher and kids at Jon's place and had a nice visit. Amy and Mike are in town for her high school reunion. We finally pulled in the driveway of our home about 9:00pm. Very tired. (October 19-20)

Lower Michigan and the Leaves

What a day! We enjoyed nice sunny weather and the trip down the western side of Michigan from Frankfort to Grand Rapids. We stopped along the way to take a "signature" picture with some colorful trees in the background. Kristi spend considerable "arranging time", getting the camera balanced on the picnic table and getting the focus just right - then she would run and get in the picture. We did several and she finally got settled perfectly in the last one. As we were looking at the pictures later in the car, we had a good laugh, as an RV pulled behind us and parked in just the worse possible spot. We had failed to notice it at the time. So much for the "signature picture".

Grand Rapids is the home of the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum. A very nice facility with some impressive exhibits. It is really amazing how many important events occurred in such a short presidency. The Museum is on the banks of the Grand River, and as we were leaving, there were two fly fisherman wading in the middle of the river (which at the spot is in the downtown area) casting their lines in the shining sun. For the dentists in the family, Grand Rapids was the first city to add fluoride to its water in 1945.

We were looking forward - well I know I was - to our next stop, as we turned east toward Battle Creek, Ann Arbor, and Detroit. Battle Creek, or "Cereal City", is the home of factories making breakfast cereals for Kellogg's, Post, and Ralston Purina. It is dominated by the industry and has been for over 100 years. We were expecting to be able to tour a cereal plant, but were surprised to find that the Cereal City tourist attraction had closed permanently a few months ago. And since 9\11, not one of the actual factories offers a tour - I am not sure what the connection is between Grape Nuts and terrorists, but there you have it.....significantly bummed out after that news.

Ann Arbor is very nice. And it was not difficult at all to find the campus and the Big House. As we drove up to the stadium, there was an open gate and no one around.....well we had to take advantage of that! So Ric and Mike get a personal look at the empty Big House. We had dinner at the Macaroni Grill near campus, then drove into the Detroit suburbs for the night.

Crossing Over

After driving due south from the Soo, we came to the Straits of Mackinac, where the upper ends of Lakes Huron and Michigan are connected. Crossing the Straits is the impressive Mackinac Bridge. By doing so, it allows direct car traffic between the Upper Michigan Peninsula and the Michigan mainland - a crossing that was once done by ferry.

Between the Mackinac and our stop for the night in Frankfort, Michigan, we passed through a heavily-populated, but beautiful area around Traverse City. A large number of lakes, vistas of Lake Michigan, expensive homes, and apple orchards. This appears to be a popular summer destination. One place we probably should have explored more, but didn't have the time, was the Sleeping Bear Dunes Seashore. We did manage to arrive right after a Bigfoot sighting at the Dunes though. That was quite exciting. I have always wondered what Bigfoot tracks look like.

Lake Superior and the Soo Locks

We were up early this morning, so we could put some miles behind us, and it was fortunate timing - we encountered the most glorious sunrise over Lake Superior as we were leaving Marquette and heading east along the Upper Michigan Peninsula. I think I had a bad hair night. Lake Superior is magnificent and seems more like an ocean than a lake. You can see by the signage that this area will soon be covered with snow, which is also a bit disorienting, as you get more of a feeling of California or Hawaii than the Canadian-US border.

We drove due east into Sault St. Marie, Michigan, nestled at the junction of Lake Superior and Lake Huron on the St. Marys River (which connects the two lakes). Also known as Soo to the locals, SSM is home to the Soo Locks. These locks are among the busiest in the world, as they allow passage for all the big ships plying the Great Lakes. It was getting foggy and rainy as we pulled in, and I was concerned we would not be able to see the action, but it turned out okay. We were also fortunate to see one of the big ships go through the locks - the Stewart J. Cort. Fascinating place.

Michigan Hinderland

We drove up through the middle of Wisconsin and crossed over into the Upper Michigan Peninsula today. As we traveled northward, the farms of Wisconsin disappeared and we headed into forest. The feel of the land changed dramatically. Nothing like the the forests of the Northwest, however...is there anything like the forests of the Northwest? Our goal was a small city on the Upper Peninsula that is on a smaller peninsula of its own (the Keweenaw) that juts out into Lake Superior. A city named Houghton. This town has an Anderton connection and I, for one, was curious to see it. Grandpa Anderton was stationed here in the earlier stages of his training in WWII. As he had not had time to go to college upon leaving high school, as the War was underway, he was sent here for a period of time to take some college-level courses before continuing with his flight training. At the time, the college he went to in Houghton for his classes was known as Michigan College of Mining & Technology. It is now known as Michigan Technological University. We were able to find and drive around the Houghton campus, and took some pictures of what were surely the few WWII-era buildings. It has quite a large campus now, and I believe they are even Division I in hockey. We crossed the bridge to the other side of the canal\river that cuts through the Keweenaw (and Houghton and its sister city Hancock). This area, in fact the entire Keweenaw Peninsula that Houghton sits on, was the backbone of a huge and rich north-south copper deposit. In this area in the early 1840's, after the State of Michigan was formed and the Upper Peninsula granted to Michigan, the first "mineral rush" in US history took place - for copper. It was a thick flat vein that went at an angle into the earth and was one of the main sources of US copper from 1840 - 1945. It had some of the deepest mines in the world at the time. Although the mining is now over, evidences of its roaring past are everywhere. It began raining heavily, but we were able to visit one of the mines and learn about the techniques they used for pulling the copper out of the earth here......the scale of what was done is impressive even today.

After we toured the mine, we headed east along Lake Superior and stayed for the night in Marquette, Michigan.

Wisconsin Revisited

It was a little bit of a "that looks interesting, let's stop and check that out" day. Our first unplanned stop was at the "House on the Rock", the creation and inspiration of some guy that the House on the Rock movie described as a "great man", on the level of Gandhi or Abraham Lincoln I suppose. The "house", which he never lived in, nor did anyone else that we could figure out, was interesting to say the least. Kind of weird, really. Very artsy, in a creepy Halloweeny sort of way. The Infinity Room WAS interesting, a cantilevered room that stretched out over the forest.

We passed Frank Lloyd Wright's home, Taliesin, and took a look around the Visitor's Center, but decided the $50 they wanted per head for a tour was a bit much. What a gorgeous spot along the Wisconsin River.

How can you come to Wisconsin and not check out a cheese factory? We found a small one with a tour and had a great time. The Cedar Grove Cheese Plant makes all sorts of cheeses and we got the whole rundown.....and bought out the store for lunch. Ahhh...squeaky cheese.

Our last stop of the day was in Bariboo, Wisconsin, the home of the Circus World Museum. Now this place was a winner. All that you would ever want to know about the circus through history, and then some more on top of that. Bariboo was the winter home of the Ringling Brothers Circus for many years before they merged with Barnum & Bailey (you may be wondering why they would choose Wisconsin to spend the winter - the Ringling Brothers were from Bariboo). The Museum's collection of restored circus wagons is impressive - obviously nothing like it anywhere else in the world. TRIVIA QUESTION (from our Circus World visit): Where did the term "Siamese twins" originate? First one to answer correctly gets a package of Jelly Bellies mailed to their house. It pays to read completely ALL the sections of the Miniarms and KR-Rex blog.

We made a short stop in Wisconsin Dells. An interesting place. Sort of like a Branson on water park steriods. If you want to know what I mean by that, google Wisconsin Dells and check it out.

We stopped along the freeway so that KR could have a photo op with her namesake town.