A Whimsical Tour

"Davis, the guitar"

 

The Peanuts Gang on Van Buren St. Shipshewanna

Every year at least for the past three years we have lived in Elkhart, there has been a hay bale tour in the fall in Shipshewanna and surrounding area, usually from September 1 to November 1. Actually, it has been going on for a decade! We were happy to go on the self-guided tour once again this year.

Shipshewanna is such a fun town all through the year. It is always beautifully decorated for the seasons. This year was no exception...Scarecrows everywhere doing all kinds of antics--hanging upside down, swinging, doing cartwheels and being chased by a mean steer. There are great restaurants and ice cream shops to visit while you are checking out all the decorations--we love the Blue Gate Restaurant and a bit farther away from Shipshewanna is Das Essenhaus, both great restaurants if you want a nice homecooked meal by Mennonite and Amish folks. Lots of home goods and home decor stores are in Shipshewanna and Middlebury as well, and of course, the Amish with their horse and buggies are out and about on the county roads. Saturday is a big shopping day for the Amish.

Sparky's favorite treat while window shopping at Lolly's Fabric Store in Shipshewanna or "Shipsee" as the locals call it, is JoJo's Pretzel shop in the Davis Mercantile building, downtown Shipshewanna, where they make homemade pretzels all day long. It's fun to watch them and they are so fresh! YUM! And of course, Sparky has to have a Coke with her pretzel, that's her drink of choice.....

So here is one of Sparky's favorite hay bales this year in downtown Shipsee.

We were lucky to run into Will-Hay Nelson and friend while we were out and about! We didn't find out who his lady friend was...We will leave that to your imagination.

We also ran into Louie, the Bluey...

Buttercup, the Cow....

Sammy, the Sloth....

And a couple of aliens at the Essenhaus.

The highland steer (?) was cool...

Buzz Lightyear and Woody were in Middlebury for a visit!

There are SO MANY wonderfully decorated hay bales...People vote on their favorites and post photos online. It takes a lot of patience and skill to decorate a scratchy hay bale and make it look good, we think!

Sparky's favorite this year was the little RV....

If you are ever in the area in the fall, between September 1 and November 1st, check out the hay bale tour...you can find the information online simply by googling Shipshewanna Hay Bale Tour. Online maps are available, and you can also get info and maps at the Shipshwanna Visitors' Center. It's a fun way to spend about a half day to see many of the hay bales. Eldo is such a great driver. He organizes the order in which we follow the maps to make it a great day. (Sparky would be just all over the place, driving around, and not be as good about gas/mileage. So, a big thank you to Eldo/(Eldy)!

Architectural Icons in Downtown Detroit

 For Sparky's 75th birthday, what a better way to celebrate 3/4 of a century, than to visit some beautiful Art Deco architecture in downtown Detroit on a recent visit to Sparky's sister and brother-in-law, who live in Ferndale? Sparky's middle brother, Rich, flew in to see us, which was great! First, we had dinner at Los Galanos in Mexicantown, for a belated birthday dinner. It was wonderful!

Sparky LOVES Mexican street tacos with LOTS of cilantro.

Here we are with Sparky's sister, Lyle, and her husband, John, and Rich, my brother on the far left.

the girl with the Detroit earring

Detroit is really amazing in that the city is trying to revitalize itself and doing a fabulous job of that. Although you see pockets of poverty and abandoned housing in many places, you see the renewed visions of city planners popping up all over right in the middle of all that. Sparky is not very knowledgeable about Detroit, but she appreciates the amazing murals, the cool buildings, the architectural features, the history behind them and the bright spots all over town. 

On Saturday, we headed up north for a drive to St. Clair, to a restaurant on the St. Clair River, where freighters pass by regularly. It was called the River Crab Blue Water Inn. You can sit by the river at the waterfront tables. The day was cloudy, but the food was fantastic, and we saw THREE freighters while we ate. (We did take our time, the atmosphere was so great and the company of Sparky's family so wonderful.) The staff said that was very unusual to see three freighters in the time frame we spent while we were there. The restaurant even printed a special happy birthday, personalized message for Sparky, on the paper menu we received. 

John, Lyle, Jeannie (Sparky) and Rich

And before we knew it, it was Sunday. We decided to visit three architectural locations for a quick Sunday tour on our own. 

First, we visited the Guardian Building, 43 stories high, built in 1928, and nicknamed the "Cathedral of Finance", commissioned bythe Union Trust Company. It is located at 500 Griswold Street, Detroit, in the financial district. It was designed, built, and erected by Michigan contractors. 

It's a blend of Native American, Aztec and Arts and Crafts influence. There were custom Pewabic pottery tiles installed along with many breathtaking accents and architectural features. Sparky walked into the entryway and just couldn't stop exclaiming, "WOW! Oh, WOW!" Forty artisans worked on painted murals, ceilings, tile work, and stained glass in the vaulted lobby.

Check out the elevator doors!

One of the coolest parts of the bank lobby is the enormous Michigan wall map. It's hand painted and highlights Michigan farming, manufacturing and mining industries.

The marble comes from all over the world...Numidian marble from Africa, for starters. The office corridors and restrooms are lined with Tavernelle marble from Tennessee. It's a national historical landmark and is currently home for the Bank of America. How would you like to work in this environment??!!!

Next, we visited the Fisher Building....It's at 3011 West Grand Boulevard, Detroit....in the heart of the New Center, and is open 24 hours a day. It was built by the Fisher Brothers, ("Body by Fisher"), in 1928. It's 441 feet high and has fancy marble, painted ceilings, mosaics and lots of brass and bronze. Some of the finest craftsmanship in the Art Deco style can be found here. More than 40 kinds of marble from all over the world were used to build a shopping and entertainment center as a gift to Detroit from the Fisher brothers.

The planners used symbolism here to express wealth and power of the United States at the time...for example, eagles with wings outstretched. There are handpainted barrel vaulted ceilings. On the walls are 26 lunettes (arched windows), there are fluted marble pillars, the floors are Italian marble, and the mosaics are 10 feet tall.

There were different patterned painted ceilings in the different hallways. It was amazing to see this!

It would be wonderful to take an official tour, but for just a quick Sunday visit, we had to make do. There is so much more history behind these buildings!

Michigan Central Station

Our last stop was the Michigan Central Station...It is a Beaux Arts style with some Art Deco features. The history is long behind this building but briefly, it was an abandoned station left to crumble for over 30 years. Ford Motor Companty eventually became involved and invested almost a billion dollars to restore it because it represents the rise and fall and rebounding of Detroit. In the 1990's, trespassers and looters stole brass fitting, copper wiring and decorative marble from the columns and bases. Graffiti tags, some as high at 15 feet tall "decorated" the walls along with paintball splats- remnants of regularly scheduled paintball matches inside the station!

Millions of gallons of water were pumped out of the basement, 29,000 Gustavino tiles were restored in the Grand Hall. A quarry in Indiana was reopened after being closed in the 1980's to quarry limestone to replace 600 tons of damaged limestone. With all the restoration in place, the planners thought to preserve a little of the past.

They saved a graffiti block!

Many expensive methods were involved to recreate and reassemble damaged windows, trim and architectural features. They used 3D scanning technology to recreate architectural details lost to weather exposure and vandalism. 

The main waiting room was designed after an ancient Roman bath house. There are bronze chandeliers, 68 foot marble columns, and 14 marble pillars set against the walls. Three thousand, one hundred tradesmen, 1.7 million hours, 300 miles of electric cable and wiring 5.6 miles of plumbing and almost a billion dollars to bring it to today's glory. If you go visit the station, you can see many placards explaining and showing the previous condition of the train station and how it was renovated. It's fascinating to read.....

The center is currently being used for conventions, formal events, and development of new tech, and placing companies who are looking towards the future.

The day was rapidly drawing to a close, and Sparky had to fly back home to Indiana....Thank you, Lyle and John, and Rich, for a wonderful birthday weekend celebration!

The 2025 Heritage Trail Quilt Gardens

"Creativity and Structure" in Goshen on Main Street

"The Sunburst" Abshire Park, Goshen

It's that time of year again, when Elkhart County plants its beautiful Heritage Trail quilt gardens all over the county. They start planting in May, opening May 30th, and the season runs through September 15th. This year there are 16 quilt gardens and 12 quilt murals. Each year that we have lived here, Sparky and her chauffeur (Eldo) make the rounds all around the county, following the handy dandy map that is provided online, which she prints out. See the map here: quilt gardens map  You can actuallly make it a fairly economical trip gas-wise, if you plan carefully!

One of Sparky's perennial favorites (haha, did you see what she did there?) is the garden at Das Essenhaus in Middlebury....This one is called "Burst of Joy"....If you drive to it in the middle of the day, or late in the day, you can stop by for a traditional Amish style home cooked meal. They have a fabulous bakery on premises as well.

Each quilt garden has a signpost telling what flowers are used and a vivid description of why the particular flowers were chosen. Unfortunately, Sparky cut off the vivid description on all the signs, focusing on what kind of flowers were used!

One of the most challenging gardens to view is the "Just Wingin' It" garden at the Elkhart Environmental Center. It's four birds and difficult to see the lines of distinction, like the birds' beaks for instance. But still, an amazing floral feat!

There are over a million blooms total in the gardens and gigantic quilt murals to see as well....

Bonneyville Mill Park mural

At Bonneyville Mill County Park, not only can you see one of the quilt murals on the big red barn, but you can see a beautiful dahlia garden just beginning to bloom in July....The garden was just beginning to show its colors when we visited.

Dahlia at Bonneyville Mill Park

Speaking of dahlias, this quilt garden at the Wellfield Botanic Gardens in Elkhart must have been planted a bit later than many, so it is just getting started. 

"Giant Dahlia"

Here are few more of Sparky's favorites--a trip to Shipshewanna to see this one at the Farmstead Inn, called "Goosetracks". 

"Goosetracks"

"Flying Swallows" at Ruthmere Mansion in Downtown Elkhart...

Can you see the "Sweetgum Leaf"  tree in downtown Bristol, IN?

It is really fun to take a road trip that lasts less than a day if you are in the area and want to see quite a few gardens in a short time span. 

And there are more gardens to be seen, these are just a few of Sparky's favorites. We highly recommend taking this road trip if you are in Elkhart County during the summer months. It's a wonderful trip down nostalgia lane to see the Amish farms, towns and small town living in northwest Indiana. There are great places to stop and shop and eat in each of the towns along the route--Elkhart, Middlebury, Goshen, Shipshewanna, Bristol, Wakarusa, and Nappanee. Hope you enjoyed today's quilt garden tour!

Yooper's Delight

We got the "hitch itch" again....That's when you are RVing, and the urge strikes you to move on, or you are ready to head out for another destination. Never mind that we have come off the road and don't have an RV any more, we still "itch" to travel somewhere, even with Sparky trying to get her "normal" self back while recovering from cancer treatment. Not sure what normal is going to look like from here on out.

One of our favorite places to be is "up north", specifically in Yooper country, which to Michiganders, is the UP or upper peninsula. People who live in the UP are referred to as Yoopers, and they refer to people living in lower Michigan or "under the bridge" as they say, as trolls. Pay attention. This is important later!

 Eldo says one day this past week, "Wanna go to the UP and see the barges again?" We used to stay in Sault St. Marie and watch the barges go by REGUARLY each day on the St. Mary's River, as the barges would pass through the Soo Locks each way. Eldy has an app that tells you which barges are traveling what direction, how fast they are going and approximate arrival time to the locks. (It's called Marine Traffic). 

Why OF COURSE Sparky would like to do that! Especially fun when it's a spur-of-the-moment idea, and off we would go the next day or two. So we did! 

We left Monday, early in the morning and planned to drive all day (about 8 hours) to get to Munising, home of many waterfalls, hiking trails, and former RV stays/campgrounds. There's a small park right on the lake, our favorite being Munising Tourist Park Campground, on the shores of Lake Superior. 

On the way to Munising, Sparky saw a sign for the small town of Germfask, MI. She squealed in delight. Germfask is home to one of Thomas Dambo Trolls! You have got to check this out! (How Sparky got interested in recycled wooden trolls and this guy, is a wonder to me! remarks Eldo.) Sparky doesn't know either. Something about trolls just popped up on her FB feed one day.

Thomas Dambo is a Danish artist and recycling art activist. He is known for his whimsical colossal sculptures of trolls, and other artwork, made mostly from recycled materials. He creates these sculptures with the help of local volunteers and materials, then "hides" them in natural locations all around the world. Some of the trolls are in the US, some are permanent installations, and some of the trolls move around. Because they are made from recycled wood, the weather influences how long they last, but they should be around for 10 years or so. Each troll has its own unique story and message or poem. He has over 100 troll sculptures in 17 countries and 18 U.S. states. If you are interested in visiting the trolls in the states, please check the status of them through research as to where they are currently, and which ones are permanent installations. There is a troll map online of where they are as well.

Benny the Beard Fisher

Dambo likes people to engage with his trolls, and they do! We did! Germfask has a permanent installation of a Thomas Dambo troll. It is on the shores of the Manistique River between Manistique and Newberry. The Seney Wildlife Refuge is here as well. 

Here is "Benny the Beard Fisher". He is 30 feet long and 14 feet high. Dambo used recyled cedar from an Amish lumber mill, and all kinds of branches from the surrounding area. For just 10.00, you can sit with Benny, chat with him, and take lots of photos of him. He's located in a beautiful small campground/canoe livery, and that's all Sparky is going to say, because Thomas Dambo wants you to figure out where all his trolls are, and researching is half the fun!

Benny's big behind....(Sparky couldn't resist)

On to Munising! We stayed at the Pictured Rocks Inn and Suites, a mid-priced hotel in the area. It was a little dated, but the rooms were clean and the price was right. We ate dinner at the DogPatch Restaurant, another very old restaurant icon in town. The food was meh, but the atmosphere/decor was entirely Lil Abner style and made the dining experience interesting if not novel. Remember that comic strip? Sparky barely does, it's that old and so was the restaurant. Well, ok, not that old. (The comic strip started in 1934 and ran for 43 years).

The next morning, we did a little exploring as we had done years ago. Sparky hiked a short distance to a waterfall, Miner's Falls...It's a .6 walk one way through a beautiful forest. There was a profusion of little blue wildflowers. According to Sparky's Seek nature app, they were Water Forget-Me-Nots.

The trail was so beautiful!

And the falls as well....The small viewing platform was crowded this morning, best to get there before 10:00 AM next time!

Sparky passed an interesting clump of flowers on the way back to the car....Striped Coralroot....

With renewed energy, it was on to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore for the afternoon! We walked around the top of the hill and got some photos of the beautiful Lake Superior waters down below and the famous Chapel Rock.

You can take a nice short walk downhill to a lower level through a shady forest to see Chapel Rock closer. There are beautiful trails nearby to hike as well.

After we spent some time at the lakeshore, we headed towards Sault St. Marie. Time to see some barges and listen to their magnificent horns! We stopped by Aune Osborn RV park, where we used to stay right on the St. Mary's River to see if it was crowded or not early in the week. There were a few spots available but none on the river. Right next to the park is Rotary Park with a fishing pond, picnicking areas and benches to sit and watch the barges. We stopped at that park, got lucky and saw one barge, a Laker, that afternoon. There are "Lakers" and "Salties". Lakers are built to only travel between the Great Lakes (makes sense, haha) and Salties? You guessed it--they are ocean going vessels that navigate both the Great Lakes and the salt water oceans. Lakers can be longer and larger than salties, and often have a deeper draft (the part that is submerged in the water). Salties carry a wider variety of cargo and are built substantially more robust to handle the oceans. 

Indiana Harbor

We were hoping to see the longest laker, the Paul R. Tregurtha, at 1013.5 feet long. We saw its relative, the Lee Tregurtha, which is 826 feet long. Other 1,000+ ft. freighters are the Stewart J. Cort, the Burns Harbor, and the Mesabi Miner. These barges come through the St. Mary's River channel on their way to and from the Sault St. Marie locks. They are CLOSE to the shore! Sometimes they blow their horns and sometimes they don't. We were lucky to have TWO pass each other in the channel and got to hear the horns!

Indiana Harbor

The Lee Tregurtha....

After watching the barges come through and knowing, through Eldy's app, that no more were coming for quite some time, we headed for a wonderful early supper at the Lockview Restaurant, in Sault St. Marie, right across the street from the Soo locks. Dinner was fantastic, and we highly recommend the restaurant!

Weathervane Restaurant

The next day, Sparky wasn't feeling all that great, so we decided to head back home, stopping on the way in Charlevoix for lunch at the Weathervane Restaurant.  The restaurant is right on the river next to a drawbridge and you can watch the boats come through while you eat. The restaurant is in the style of the "mushroom" houses in the area and is quite expensive but the food is AMAZING! Sparky had chowder and a French dip, Eldy had a Michigan salad--blue cheese, apples, greens and nuts.

Sparky's chowder....yum! The bread was fantastic, and there were the most delicious handmade potato chips to go with it. If you'd like to know more about the mushroom houses in Charlevoix, you can read about them here: mushroom houses in Charlevoix

lunch at the Weathervane Restaurant

With that wonderful lunch under our belts we headed home, hitting a terrible thunderstorm in the Grand Rapids area for a short while, but Eldy got us home safe and sound. Thanks for following along and hope you enjoyed today's post!

                                            Sparky and Eldo