Today felt
really cold. It was in the 60s, but the wind was whipping and the rain was falling, which was a very cold combination. The day started out OK, but the forecast called for rain by 2 pm. We were planning on biking on Grand Island for the day but made a last minute decision to take the bus tour instead. Good Idea.
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| Grand Island "ferry" |
Grand Island is a National Recreation area just off the coast of Munising Michigan. Come to find out, there isn't really much of interest on the island, but as I said to Paul, we wouldn't have known that if we hadn't gone there! It would have served a better purpose if we could have gotten some exercise while touring it, but driving around in a bus (in the rain), there wasn't much that was worth seeing. The island was sold to the Government in the 1980s, but several families still have summer cottages on the island. They are still private and inaccessible. There was only one building we could get into, a small one room cottage built in the 1800s. About halfway through the 2.5 hour tour, the rain started and didn't really let up until the tour was over. We still got out to look at the "views" but really, there wasn't much there.
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| Miserably wet on the ferry ride |
The only way to get to the island is by private boat or "ferry". The real ferry isn't functioning, so we were carted over on a small pontoon boat that holds 6 passengers. That was fine on the way there, but after the tour, there were 12 of us waiting in the rain for the "ferry" to arrive to get us. By now, the waves were kicking up, and by the time the ferry got there, the operator said the seas were so rough, he would only take 4 people at a time. The first 4 went, and the rest of us went back and waited in the bus (until the bus driver had to leave with the bus.). Along came 10 more people, 6 of them extremely wet and muddy bike riders, who also needed the ferry. 6 of them grabbed the next ferry before any of "our people" could get out there. It was really comical. It felt like a "survivor" game where the lucky people got voted off the island first. In the end, Paul and I were in the last batch to go, because we weren't as wet as some as the others, and I was enjoying watching the ferry struggle to get across the bay. Plus, most people were jumping over everyone to get onto the ferry. We were so chilled by the time we made it home, we made Tortilla Soup for dinner.
Yesterday we weren't sure what the weather would be and we were still tired from hiking, so we drove to the nearby town of Marquette and through Presque Isle Park. Marquette is a lakeside town, but more just a regular town that happens to be lakeside. We had lunch at a great restaurant, and afterwards watched a freighter leave the dock and turn around. Not very exciting, but not every day has to have something fabulous to do!
On the way home we stopped at a cool park. Its a park with 66 sculptures made of welded scrap iron, all made by the same man. Its free to drive through and look at all of his artwork. The park is called Larkenenland, after the owner Tom Larkenen. The town has given him a lot of grief over zoning and permit issues, so at the entrance of the park, he has
custom No Trespassing signs addressed to the town Board Members. There is a well traveled snow mobile path across his property and he maintains a fire pit and supplies firewood for all of the snowmobilers to use if they want to take a break. Pretty cool.
Our first stop was near Marquette Kansas. We stayed at another Corp of Engineers Park, this time on Kanopolis Lake. The trail we hiked was Horsethief Canyon Trail. 
We didn’t hike all of it, partly because the signage was so lacking that we weren’t sure which way to go. The other issue was that it’s in a canyon and the forecast called for rain in the afternoon. 3 miles later, we were back at the truck, and headed into town to get some diesel fuel. 
We drove into the small town of Lindsborg. Lindsborg is a Swedish settlement, which we figured out pretty quickly by reading the “Valkommen” signs. One of the first things we noticed in the historic and cute downtown was the horses standing on many of the street corners. We learned that they are called Dala horses and historically they are carved by the Swedes during the cold winter months and then painted to show them off. If you search the internet for “Dala horse” the first thing that pops up is the store here in Lindsborg that sells them. 
