Some travel days are exciting – some are pretty routine.
This one was … routine.
It was a short day. We left Mackinac City KOA and headed a bit south to the Traverse City KOA – a mere 125 miles or so.
Before leaving Mackinac City behind us – Noel wanted to get a few stickers for our travel log and a
Christmas Ornament for our holiday tree. While many of you may use terms like “curio” shop to describe the type of store she was looking for – she cut to the chase and said we needed to find a “junk shop”.
As part of our sticker shopping – which was successful – we also toured a local co-op art gallery, several t-shirt shops, and anything else that looked interesting. We happened upon a shop that specialized in Michigan Cherry products – so we bought a bunch of different items to try back in Washington. We were both really impressed with the Michigan Cherry industry and their partnerships to get cherries in so many goods like salsas, baked goods, and almost anything you could think of.
We were hungry after the cherry store – so time for lunch.
The White Buffalo Bar & Grille in downtown Mackinac City had some tasty smash burgers which we had for our mid-day meal. Interestingly you could get your patties as hamburger, bison, or “beast”.
You cannot see something like a “beast” burger on the menu and not ask what it was. It turns out that “beast” was a combination of wagyu beef, bison, elk and venison. Noel and I went with the hamburger – and Tim opted for the beast patties. They were good – but with the cheese on them I am not sure I could taste a difference.
Following our carnivore inspired lunch – it was time to hit the road to Traverse City.
Our motor home is a 25 foot Class B+ camper – so most often if we are going to leave the campground when we are camping somewhere we disconnect everything and drive it around.
A lot of RVers with motor homes tend to pull small cars or jeeps behind their motor home. When they get to an area to spend a few days – you park the motor home, disconnect your jeep – and drive it around.
As an experiment for this trip – and since we will be in the Traverse City area for 5 days – we went ahead and rented a car at the local airport for us to use in going to dinner or seeing the sites. We have also used Uber or Lyft in the past – but this time we wanted to see what it might be like to have a smaller car to drive around ourselves.
Game changer.
We have loved the freedom and flexibility the car has allowed – and I am sure we will continue to experiment with this type of set up to see how we like it on future trips.
We ended the day with an obligatory visit to Walmart (in Schulz family language – “Wallyworld”). At some point – you just have to stock up on things like TP, toilet chemicals – and perhaps some food items. It is amazing how quickly our shopping trip went with 4 of us combing the aisles of Wallyworld and checking off items on our shopping list.
Tomorrow we will start our touring in the greater Traverse City Area in earnest.
I can guarantee you it certainly will not be … routine.
Kirk’s Travelogue 