Benton Harbor

8-23-2021 - Monday

I forgot to post this picture yesterday of this great bear we saw looking down on us from a ridge right above the  highway, U.S. 12 in Union, Michigan.  It was quite a shock when I spotted it.

 

So this morning, after breakfast, we headed south toward Benton Harbor and St. Joseph.  We drove into some roadside parks along the way, and one actually had a paved ramp down to the beach, Rocky Gap County Park.  The other ones had cliffs of sand you had to walk down and clamor back up, so we didn't try any of them.  Apparently, rip tides and shore erosion are a problem along these sand-dune shores.  But Lake Michigan is beautiful, just like all the great lakes, and they all look like oceans -- without salt water or sharks.

 Anyway, I got to pick up a few rocks before we headed on into town.  I forgot my sand digger of all things, I left it in the Jeep, so it didn't take long for my back to tell me to quit.  I got doused by a wave right away, but I did get a little bag full and they look like they have potential to shine.

There was a lighthouse on down the shore, which we got a better look at from the St. Joseph beach.  And I wasn't the only rockhounder out here.

 St. Joseph is a nice, beachy town, beautiful beach, a street of shops on both sides, huge, beautiful houses overlooking the water.  It had a nice harbor too, with lots of yachts and a yacht club.

One of the streets by the water was bricks (cobblestone?) and it was very bumpy.  Later on, we saw a paved street with a pothole.  Under the pavement are the bricks.  These towns could use some infrastructure money.

I went to the Visitor Center to pick up a Michigan state map, and we both walked into the 5 & 10 next door (which was pretty pricey, not anything for a nickel or dime).  I ran across the street to a small book store, but we didn't spend any money.   This street was brick too, and very bumpy.  

We drove up and down lots of streets, over the harbor, across bridges.  We saw an old turnstile railroad bridge.  It was turned sideways but we don't know if it is still in use.

There were a lot of sculptures around town too.  We thought this one was noteworthy. As with most of these kinds of things, we are not sure what it represents.

Here is the downtown street full of shops, and it is one of those brick streets too.  I had told Joe earlier that I wanted to have lunch at Panera Bread today.  When he saw the restaurant on the corner, he couldn't believe I didn't change my mind.

On the way to Panera Bread, which was out toward the interstate, we saw this building with a classic car on top -- a very cool 55 Chevy.

After lunch, we tried to find the old Farmers Market, but where the GPS sent us was just a deserted park.  But we continued on to the Fruit Market, and we did find that.  It was mostly deserted but it did look like what Uncle Marlin would have brought watermelons to.  

Joe thought there was surely a downtown area of Benton Harbor, similar to St. Joseph, but we never did find it.  He took us through some questionable areas, where we were definitely the minority.  The whole town seemed to be going downhill, including the streets.  We finally gave up, and chased down the KOA that Tommy and Katie had stayed at last month.  We found it, then headed back to the camper. but on one of the country roads in that area, we found this hibiscus plant with the largest hibiscus blooms we had ever seen -- plate-size.

We got back to the RV and started looking for our next campground.   After several phone calls, we finally found a place to stay, up near Frankfurt.  I had found some rockhounding places in that area that I want to check out.  That's as far as we have planned at this time.  But I got out the rocks I had picked up today -- they seem to have some potential for polishing.  Of course, they were wet when I picked them up, and looked more colorful.  I also picked up a couple pieces of driftwood on the way up the ramp to the Jeep.

After a rest, we drove into South Haven for dinner.  Our first choice was Clementines, but there was an hour and 45 minute wait there, so we walked down another block to a bar.  They said a 20-minute wait there, but in about 10 minutes they seated us at the bar.  In the meantime, I walked into a shop next door.  I didn't buy anything but I found these cute driftwood houses -- if I ever get the right size pieces of driftwood, I thought I could make them.

The bar was loud and busy, but they were practicing social distancing.  They had one of their "social distancing" tables filed with some strange characters.

these were my favorites.

The streets in downtown South Haven were busy tonight, shoppers window shopping, and the restaurants had people outside waiting to get seated.  

There are sculptures decorating the streets in this town too.  I liked this one, and I could even tell what it was -- a hummingbird and a tulip.

We drove back to our campground and stopped by the beach parking lot again, but we still decided it was too far to walk.  But I caught the sunset between the trees.  The colors don't do it justice, but it was beautiful.

Tomorrow we move further north in Michigan, but still in the "thumb".  Hoping to collect more rocks.  the weather forecast is 50% chance of rain, so that might put a damper on that idea.

Leaving Indiana

8-22-2021 - Sunday

 I rousted Joe out of bed about 8:30 and we were first at the dump station at 9:00. Mosquitoes just swarmed Joe as he did his outside work. After a stop in town for breakfast at Maria's PancakeHouse (large parking lot), we were on our way to Michigan at 10:10. Joe went into the restroom before we left the restaurant and snapped this picture--lol.  I didn't check out the ladies room so I don't now if they were nicer to us or not.

Found another buffalo — in LaGrange. I know there was a buffalo at our campground in Kendallville when we stayed here before, but apparently he has gone missing.

Crossed Michigan state line at 10:55, so no more Indiana buffalo pictures.  We arrived at our campground between Benton Harbor and South Haven about 1:10, but check-in wasn't until 3:00.  The person at the campground station checked us in but said there was about 140 people leaving by 1:30, and there was a back-up at the dump station, which blocked the road.  So they were having people drive their campers down to one of their beach parking lots until 1:30, at which time they thought they could let everyone in.  By the time she got us checked in and all our charges/fees tacked on, it was almost 1:25.  The park ranger had come in so she asked him if she could let us in.  He asked us to wait 5 more minutes, then he thought we could get by, so we just pulled over the the parking lot right there and waited it out.  The dump station was just a few yards past the check-in gate, and there were 7 people lined up to dump.  It looked like they had 6 dump stations right there together, but they were so close together I doubt that more than 2 people could dump at once.  Anyway, we got to our spot just about 1:30, hooked up the electricity, and took a nap.  Neither of us have been sleeping very well, and we were both exhausted (too many late night Mexican train games).  We only drove 143 miles today, but I don't think either of us had many more miles left in us.  We were glad to see that our site is not grassy - we think that's why that last campground had so many mosquitos and gnats, which we fought the whole time we were there, especially the gnats.  We had little bowls of apple cider vinegar/sugar/dawn in the bathroom and the kitchen, and still kept getting more gnats every day.

Anyway, after our little rest, we drove into South Haven.  It's a pretty, beachy town, lots of shops, nice beach and boat harbor.  We crossed this bridge with bright red flowers in planter boxes along the sides, which were very pretty.

 ,   

We failed to notice this was a drawbridge.  It's a wonder we didn't end up falling through it when they raised it, although I'm pretty sure there are barriers that come out (if we noticed them).  We made several loops through town looking for a place to eat dinner, and saw the bridge was up the next time through.  Ah Ha.  We did get lucky on that one.

coming down

That little inlet goes right down to the beach and out into Lake Michigan, which was pretty rough.  But the beach looked nice.

beach

There were lots and lots of boats in the harbor, and that inlet goes quite a ways into town and on out of town.  We drove in and out of a couple parking lots to see the water and boats. Some of the boats in the marina were HUGE.

As we drove around town, there were lots of yard decorations and flowers, but I spotted this really cool bicycle planter that I thought Mazie should have.  I think it needs to be some color other than white so it would show up better.

Another interesting site was this building with flowers in boxes on both sides of the entry way.  Very pretty and eye-catching.

There are lots of food places in town, but a lot of them were just snack shops, ice cream shops, etc., and some were closed -- maybe because it is Sunday, but we don't know.  We actually had a hard time finding something open, other than fast food or pizza.  we settled on a Mexican restaurant, which was very good.  They had a nice waiting bench at the front.

We finally headed back to our state park and drove up and down through the roads in the campground.  It was nice enough to sit outside, and the bugs didn't seem to be bothering us, so we got to enjoy the smell of campfires in our 75 degree weather.  I took my computer outside to the picnic table and started working on this blog outside, so Joe got up out of our chairs he had gotten out, and took a couple pictures.

I think the point of this next picture is that obviously I had disturbed him and he had to vacate his chair.

Our weather forecast is a low of 64 tonight (sounds wonderful) and a high of 84 tomorrow with a 50 percent chance of thunderstorms both Tuesday and Wednesday.  We are going to explore Benton Harbor tomorrow.  This is a town we heard a lot about when Joe's brother and uncles and cousins were trucking produce back in the day.  Benton Harbor was one of their main destinations, and I think his Uncle Marlin was a melon broker there for several years.  Katie and Tommy had spent a few days here last month on vacation, so it seemed like a place we should check out.  Then we will move on north, we don't now how far.

Last Day in Ft. Wayne

 8-21-2021 - Saturday

Another warm day here, predicted high of 88 degrees.  The campground filled up yesterday, I doubt there is one site left.  As we left the campground today, we saw there were events going on next door at the athletic field, so I would guess some of the campers are in town for baseball games or something.

As we turned onto the highway leading into town, an Amish family came by in a horse and buggy. This is the only one we've seen in this area this time.  But we did go into a restaurant that had Amish bread and noodles.  Unfortunately, the restaurant had already quit serving breakfast (it was after 11:00), so Joe paid for his coffee and we went back to the one we had been using.  

Joe wanted to see where the interstate was from Kendallville, so we drove over to I-69 and went to Ft. Wayne that route.  We stopped at Costco on the way to Dixie's - they don't have near the selection of items here that we are accustomed to in Arizona.  We got to Dixie's about 1:30, Lori was there too.  After we visited for a while, we started another game of Mexican Train.  Jim even played this time, so we had a table full.  Again, I forgot to take a picture, but Lori took one with her phone.

After our game, we went out for dinner, then came back and played part of a game -- until 10:00.  This time I remembered to take a picture.  Jim thought he needed to let his dinner digest, so he opted out of this round.

We said our goodbyes and left a little after 10:00.  This is our last time to make the 30-mile drive from Kendallville back to Dixie's but we had a great visit, saw several family members, and had a really good time.  We are hoping the next time we see Jim and Dixie, it will be in Arizona this winter.

Joe keeps sleeping in later and later, which makes for a short morning.  I figured out today that we just need to head to different time zone so his internal clock readjusts.  We don't change time zones until we get though Michigan to Wisconsin, but at least I see hope ahead.

Friday at Croxtons

8-20-2021 Friday - Happy Birthday Collins

I finally fixed a meal in the RV again, we had breakfast before going into Kendallville for a Walmart stop and a soda.  Driving through town, which is a pretty, clean, little town, we came across this pretty flower garden outside the park.

Then we headed to Ft. Wayne on a backroad (old hwy 3), which took us through Avilla and Huntertown.  Along the way, as we approached an underpass, we were greeted  by a doe and 2 fawns, who stopped to pose for me.  I was in the middle of sending a text to Cathy, so it took me a while to get my phone switched to camera and all that, but they waited me out.

Xaviar stopped by in the afternoon so we got to visit with him a little.  He starts classes next week as a Junior at University of Saint Francis, here in Ft. Wayne, and is in the middle of baseball practice right now.  Last year's baseball season was messed up by covid, of course, and he didn't get as much playing time as he hoped, but is hoping for a better season this year.

We sat around and visited for a while, Lori came back over with Eevee.

Our dinner plan was pizza at Clara's, which was a new experience for us.  They seated upstairs, unfortunately, but there are phones at each table and you just call in your order.  And the pizza was good!

Lori's son, Daniel, and his fiancee Kelsey (owner of Eevee), joined us after photos, but I got them back at the house.  Kelsey just placed as third runner-up at the Indiana Miss America Pageant.  We hadn't seen Daniel for a few years.  They are getting married October 9, coming up soon.

And I got a glamour shot of Paul, posing for Vanity Fair, or something.  There were several ideas thrown out for photo props but that didn't happen.

We finished our night with Mexican Train again.  Great fun, lots of laughs.  I keep forgetting to take a picture of this exciting event -- tonight will be my last chance.

We need to do a few chores today to get ready to move on tomorrow.  We have had a good time here in Ft. Wayne, got to see lots of family, and the weather, although a little warm, has not been bad -- at least no tornadoes!

Windmill Museum

8-19-2021 - Thursday

We changed things up a little today.  Instead of us going to Dixie's, the Croxtons drove to Kendallville to meet us for lunch.  Cathy had a zoom meeting this morning, so breakfast didn't work, so we met for a Mexican brunch/lunch, which was good.

Then we stopped to visit Paul's best friend from high school, who has changed jobs recently and now works in Kendallville.  Next up, we swung through our campground and gave Paul a tour of our RV, then stopped at the Windmill Museum right next door to our campground.  We didn't walk the windmills, but we got a good look from the cars, then we went inside to the gift shop.   Joe and I had visited here a couple years ago and walked through them -- they each have plaques stating where they came from, what kind of a windmill it is, the manufacturer, etc.  Pretty interesting.

From there, we headed back to Ft. Wayne.  Dixie had some errands to run, so we didn't get our Mexican Train game started until almost 6:00, but it went fast, so we played 2 whole games.  Lori stopped by with the dog she is babysitting, Eevee, and Dixie fixed dinner -- she thawed out some fricassee, and added cheese and crackers.  That's about as good as it gets at Dixie's, when she retired from nursing, she also retired for cooking.  

Another late night driving back to Kendallville, but Joe has that down pat now.  Our time here is getting short, and we are still discussing our next destination.  We have had milder temperatures, mid-80s, but it's starting to get a little warmer every day so time to move North, I think.

Another Day with the Croxtons

 8-18-2021  Wednesday

Today was just a visiting day.  We ran into Kendallville for a late breakfast (11:30), then headed back to Ft. Wayne.  Just as we got into town, Dixie texted that we were going for a late lunch with Jim's newly found half-sister and her husband, at 1:30.  We were still digesting breakfast, so we just ordered dessert.  I'm not sure what kind of logic that was, but Joe had a piece of 6-layer chocolate cake, and I had a piece of New York cheesecake.  No more meals today, although we did have some cheese and crackers during our domino game.

Lunch at Casa Ristorante was entertaining, our first chance to meet these new family members.  That consumed about 2 hours.  Faye and Mike live in Sun City West (Arizona) so we might cross paths with them again in the future.

I took the laundry to Dixie's so I got that worked in during our game of Mexican Train.  We had a good time, laughed a lot, Dixie was the big winner.  I should have taken a picture but I forgot -- I imagine I will have another chance before we all leave on Sunday.

Joe had an interesting encounter at the gas station today.  A lady pulled in at the next pump, desperately needing gas.  The building was locked up, but Joe used his credit card and filled up the Jeep.  The lady only had cash, but there was no way to put it in the gas pump, so she asked Joe if she could give him $10, and would he put $10 worth of gas on his credit card.  He did it -- I sure hope that wasn't some kind of a scam.  She said she didn't have enough gas to go to another station.  He used the credit card himself and stayed there until the pump shut off, so hopefully it was just a Good Samaritan act.

Another pretty nice day, a little warmer but not too bad, and no rain.  My Facebook account got hacked today, so my tech guru, Paul, took care of getting my phone straightened back out.  I'm sorry for everyone on my contact list -- I think they all got a message from me that I didn't send.

Still discussing where we go next -- no decision yet.
  

Visiting the Croxtons

 8-17-2021 Tuesday

We survived the night with our guest, Cathy, on the sofa. Joe told her yesterday that he didn't think we had a passenger ride with us since we took Lucille home in it several years ago. We all got up about 8:00, had our coffee, and went into Kendallville for breakfast.  There are several "daisies" on trees around the park, so I took a picture for Joe to use as a template at home.  The only problem is that we don't have many trees to mount them on.

 After we loaded up the jeep back at the campground, we headed back to the Croxtons in Ft. Wayne.  Jim, Paul, and Lori were all sitting on the back patio, and Dixie was just getting up. Everyone was surprised and happy to see Cathy (Joe and I were expected, but Cathy wasn't).  We visited for several hours, then it was time to go find some lunch.  No trip to Ft. Wayne is complete without a stop at Coney Island, so that's where we headed.  It was yummy, as usual.

Joe had to back into the men's restroom doorway to get the picture, so Paul got a picture of him taking the picture of us.

It was one of those things -- you had to be there to appreciate it.  Anyway, we headed back to their house, and my technical support gurus, Cathy and Paul, started working on my keyboard problem.  Cathy had brought tools (magnifying glass and German tweezers) and told Paul about the U-tube video she had watched, and they collaborated on the problem for an hour or two.  They successfully got the shift key back in place, but it still doesn't work.  Maybe after some hours of use, it will start capitalizing my letters again.  Meanwhile, I am going to have to go back over my text and fix them all.

I had brought shredded beef and peppercinis for Italian beef sandwiches for dinner, and some corn on the cob. Dixie also had some corn on the cob, so we put together dinner.  Everything was good, including local cantaloupe, peaches and tomatoes.  After we cleaned up the dishes, Joe decided he would like to get back to the RV before dark, so we headed back to Kendallville.  We got in about 8:30, and were ready for an early evening.  

Tomorrow we will head back to the Croxtons.  No definite plans except a game of Mexican Train, since we bailed on that tonight.  We had a nice, cloudy day today; the sun finally popped out about 5:00.  We have a chance of rain here tomorrow afternoon, so we will see if that materializes.  If it keeps the temperature down, I am ok with that.

Arriving Ft. Wayne

8-16-2021 - Monday -- RIP Elvis 

We are leaving here this morning, so we had a few chores to take care of.  After filling up with water (we didn’t have water at the site but Joe only had to back up a few yards to a water faucet) and dumping, we got on the road about 10:35.  We have a passenger with us on this trip — Cathy decided to ride up to Ft. Wayne with us and surprise her parents so Joe M brought her out to meet us at the campground -- and we were on our way.

I told her there were lots of responsibilities in the co-pilot seat.  Mapping (she is better at this than I am), keeping the GPS facing Joe so he can read it, watching the road when he isn't, saying "whoa whoa whoa" when he is about to run a stoplight, etc.  She performed admirably, she's hired. We crossed another of the Columbus architectural bridges as we made our way over to highway 9.  

I also told them both that if they saw things of interest, give me a heads-up since I'm not in the co-pilot seat, but all Joe kept pointing out was Circle K stores.  Obviously, he had his daily Diet Coke on his mind.

It took about all day to get to Ft. Wayne. Joe F and Cathy had looked at the map and figured out a route to bypass Indianapolis since there is so much road construction in that area. So we went to Columbus, then on over to hwy 9. Well, not only is there more road construction over there, it came with detours, so we were on and off hwy 9 several times. Finally around Pendleton, we cut over to I 69 and made better time. We arrived at our campground just before 5:00.  We drove 232 miles and it took us 6 1/2 hours.  We did have a fairly long lunch break at Cracker Barrel, but it was a slow trip.  However, since Joe had a new co-pilot, I got to take a short nap on the couch on the I-69 stretch.

We have stayed at this campground (Bixler Lake campground) once before and knew

it was nice.  The only campground in Ft. Wayne, Johnny Appleseed, did not have anything available, so we are about 30 miles north of Ft. Wayne, the best we could do.  We fueled in Shelbyville for $3.189, the price of gas just keeps going up.

 It was cloudy all day, which made for pleasant driving.  We are here until Sunday, so we should get in some quality visiting time with Jim, Dixie, and Paul, not to mention more time with Cathy.  Good times ahead. 

Last Day in Bloomington

 8-15-2021 - Sunday

Before we left Cathy's last night, she tried to fix my shift key on the computer.  I forgot to post that picture.

Today our only plan was a cook-out at our campsite for Joe M.'s birthday.  We went into town for a late breakfast and a grocery stop.  I-hop had a 20-25 minute wait, but we waited it out.  There are a lot of students returning to IU and their parents were taking them to I-hop before leaving them here, I guess.  And like everywhere else, I-hop was short-staffed.  The manager was bussing tables, and the host taking names said if they had enough wait staff, they could have had everyone in line seated and fed.  I told him I felt sorry for him, trying to run a business without enough help.  The grocery store was crowded with students too, stocking up for their first week.  But by the time we finished up there and got back to camp, it was going on 2:00.  We had a restful afternoon though.  Occasionally it would drizzle just a little, but the temperature stayed in the 70s and it was very pleasant, even into the evening.

Joe and Cathy brought some wood, so Joe F got a fire started shortly after their arrival.  It was a struggle, and took most of a bottle of charcoal lighter, but he finally got it going and we got to enjoy it for several hours. 

 Joe grilled hamburgers and hot dogs (he REALLY grilled the hot dogs), and I fixed some stuff.  Once the food was ready, we all dove in.

We even had a little carrot cake to celebrate Joe M.s birthday.  We did have a little intrigue going on -- the camper over by the woods was drawing attention because people walking by could hear an alarm going off inside.  While I was taking a nap, Joe noticed several park officials walking around over there, but then they left.  While we were all sitting around the campfire, another camper lady walked over there like she was on a mission.  When she passed by our campsite, she asked if we had seen those people.  She said that alarm had been going by for more than 12 hours.  Apparently she called the officials again because they showed back up, walked around it.  Then they left.  Then the owner of the camper walked up from the lake, with his wife.  She backed away from it while he went inside.  A little while later, he walked past our campsite on his way to the restroom, and stopped and talked on his way back.  He said apparently his wife had accidently his the button on the gas stove when she finished cooking breakfast, and turned the gas on a little.  But all was well, they sat outside for a long time but eventually went back in.  So no harm, no foul, I guess.

It was a very pleasant evening to sit outside.  And a nice day all around.  We are leaving this area tomorrow but Joe and Cathy really showed us a good time here -- we never knew much about this part of Indiana and they are great tour guides.  Now on to our next adventure.