It's hard to believe that we are already a quarter of the way through the adventure...
Today, we drove the Jeep through the locally famous 29 mile drive TUNNEL OF TREES...your Captain expected this...
...or maybe this...
...after all, this "tunnel" is famous. What we actually got was...
...this, and...
...all quite pretty, but really...TUNNEL OF TREES...c'mon on really?? I, for one, think that those charged with the responsibility of naming highway attractions in these parts need to get out more often. Jes sayin'...
Anyway, after breaking out of the "tunnel" we encountered...
...the home of "World Famous Pot Pies". These we had heard about. Imagine our delight to find them by accident! We entered the Goodhart General Store, met the proprietor Jim (from Washington, DC) and purchased as many beef and chicken pies as the Commodorable felt our freezer would accommodate.
Jim is a retired U.S. Coast Guard pilot and ran away from east coast civilization years ago to run this General Store/Post Office. He has great stories to tell and I can say that he ranks high among the really colorful characters I have met in my 40 years of world travel. We highly recommend stopping here for both the baked goods and the conversation.
We soldiered onward to a place called Cross Village where we ate at...
...LEGS INN...a 5 Star restaurant restaurant featuring authentic Polish cuisine. No kidding...
The interior...all carved, whittled and chopped from north Michigan trees...
Proof...your Reliable Captain didn't make this place up...
...After a hearty polish lunch, your crafty Captain, inspired by all the carved work around him, took his ever present multi-tool knife, hollowed out a large pine tree stump to make a very comfortable chair...What you see in the above photograph is a chair carved from one piece of wood.
Ok, Ok, the Captain didn't actually carve this chair, but only because he was short on time. You see, Dear Reader, we had to march on to...
...Harbor Springs, MI... This is a truly post card beautiful little village. Here the Commodorable noticed a sister ship to our first motor yacht, the Partnership II...
...she is identical to our girl...We bought her in 1984 and had some incredible times aboard in Washington, DC. and the Potomac River.
...waterfront home in Harbor Springs.
From here, we headed back to camp at Hearthside Grove where we saw this...
...this is a used 2015 American Heritage (the same model we have, only ours was born in 2006.)
Every electrical feature in this beauty is controlled by an iPad!!! Lights, shades, heat, air conditioning, blender, etc...
Since this coach was aggressively priced and with only 5089 miles, and was still under warranty we test drove it, placed a large cash deposit on it and went back to our now traded-in Beast to contemplate what we had done.
Sleep was difficult that evening, but we did finally doze off after talking excitedly for hours about our new purchase and the forthcoming 10,000 mile journey through the American West.
Thursday morning dawned, we ate breakfast at the Hearthside Grove clubhouse and went immediately to visit our new coach. If anything, it was even more impressive than the day before!!!
By mid-day, we had talked with a wonderful mortgage broker lady about financing a portion of the new baby. With those wheels in motion, we got the Beast ready for travel to Traverse City, MI.
At this point, an odd thing occurred...
While readying the Beast for travel, your Captain began to appreciate how much he likes his dear old Beast...
...the Beast...
And so, as we drove the 90 minutes from Petoskey to Traverse City, we talked and we talked about the new purchase and just how much we liked the new coach. Then we spoke at length about what it featured that was missing on the Beast...same size engine, same number of baths (1.5), same sleep sofa, etc., etc.
When we realized that it was simply newer, but offered little that we did not already have, we cancelled the deal. At least for now. Tomorrow is another day. Whew!!!
Next, we will explore Traverse City and the surrounding area.
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