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.