Grand Rapids Art Prize

Mammoth

Lego portrait

We settled ourselves in at General this morning for repairs..but we weren't going to spend it all day in the waiting room. My sister had told us about the Grand Rapids Art Prize show in downtown Grand Rapids. I love interactive indoor/outdoor art shows and this one was fantastic! It's a contest that started Sept. 22 and ends October 10th. The entire city becomes an art gallery during this time period. People vote on all the artworks and there are sizeable monetary prizes for the artists, who come from all over the world. There were some amazing artworks there all over the city. Turn a corner and there was another venue, or two, or three or more! some of the artwork encouraged bystander interaction, push something, draw something, touch it, or you became part of the artwork through mirrors and other pieces of the artwork. Some of the artwork made statements that made you think...the mammoth, for example. The artist, in a printed statement beside his work, says that the world is changing, death is imminent (witness the extinct mammoth). The mirrored leg shows the bystander, saying that the death of the world is not imminent, we can save the planet by human resourcefulness. He had a lot more to say about re-envisioning the future. Each artist and an explanation of their works can be seen online at the website for Art Prize, Grand Rapids, MI.

Some of my favorites were a human portrait made from little pieces of cork using the shades of natural and artist enhanced dyed wine corks, another portrait of a mother made out of decoupaged beer bottlecaps...she took over 2,000 photos of her children and decoupaged them onto 738 bottle caps! When you stand close, you see her children, when you move back, you see her own portrait---amazing!  Check out the photo of the coffin--the piece is entitled "Coughin'"--talk about a statement! It's made entirely of cigarette butts! The handles of the coffin are cigars..........

The weather was absolutely beautiful today--"Indian Summer", they call it...sunny weather in the 70's...one day down of repairs, at least two more to go...we'll see what we can find to do tomorrow....

Lion made from over 2000 pounds of cut nails

"Coughin' "

Traverse Bay RV Resort

We have stayed at this resort for two days...it's a little pricey, but every once in awhile we enjoy the extra amenities a really nice place has...this one has everything! This is like picking up your RV and dropping it down in the middle of a really nice residential neighborhood, only the neighborhood is for RVs. The RV resorts are primarily for people who want to buy a permanent site or seasonal site, but they usually have sites available for people passing through, or for tourists wanting to stay for a few days or even longer. It's $45.00 a night with no discounts unless you are staying for more than a week.

The resort has 50 amp full hookups, cable TV, wi-fi, heated pool and spa, tennis courts, hiking trails, a casino bus available, screened sunroom off the main clubhouse, a nice fitness center, 24 laundry and shower facilities, coach detailing, propane, and planned activities. The main clubhouse has a library, banquet room as well. They currently have 410 sites and are planning more.

store inside the Village at Grand Traverse Commons

The Village Complex-Italianate architecture

I wish we could stay longer to explore Traverse City, but we have to leave tomorrow for Grand Rapids for repairs at the General. We spent today exploring The Village at Grand Traverse Commons with my sister and her husband. This shopping complex has been renovated from dozens of historic buildings formerly known as the Traverse City State Hospital and before that, the Northern Michigan Asylum--a Victorian Italianate architectural complex sitting on a 63 acre site. There are some really cool stores and artists' galleries at the Village--Sweet Asylum--"a sanctuary of treats",  Fixed Gear Gallery--a fixed gear bike shop also selling technical clothing for bike riders, recycled things and other
unusual stuff, Left Foot Charlie--an urban winery! Pleasanton Brick Oven Bakery--Michigan's only wood fired bread oven--they are selling artisan breads. There are lots, lots more cool stores! Not only does the Village have wonderful shopping opportunities, there are gorgeous hiking and biking trails nearby running thru a creek and 480 acres of preserved park land. Wow! We'll definitely be back to this area again for a longer period of time...After a delicious gourmet lunch at the North Peak Brewery in Traverse City, we headed to the Leelanau Peninsula to explore a little area of Leeland called Fishtown.

Sporck Tileart at Fishtown

There is a preservation society trying to raise money to preserve this historic area called Fishtown that is one of the few remaining commercial fishing complexes on the Great Lakes. The buildings and fishing tugs--the Janice Sue and the Joy are currently is need of support. This was an interesting little complex on the water, complete with great little shops and a salmon fishing ladder. We saw some of the salmon, some really gigantic ones trying to make their way up the ladder. We weren't sure if they were early or late swimmers, but at their peak, hundreds of salmon are in the waters during spawning season by the bridge/ladder and by a local restaurant and inn that sit right beside the water. Fishtown had some really interesting shops. There was one that was called Sporck Tileart. The owner had gorgeous hand made and painted tiles reflecting all aspects of marine life and plant and animal life in Michigan...It was a wonderful day spent with my sister and her husband..it was a perfect day, weather-wise, and they are so much fun to be with....I'm so glad I got to see them....off to Grand Rapids tomorrow....

Traverse City, Here We Come!

Woke up to another beautiful, COLD morning, 32 degrees....our dual pane windows and two furnaces are doing the job...the car is all frosted up, but we can see clearly beautiful, blue Lake Michigan from the RV windows. I think I'll go for one last bike ride on the trail before we leave for Traverse City today. We are going to meet up with my sister, Lyle, and her husband, John tomorrow for lunch. They are from Pleasant Ridge, MI and happen to be traveling in the area where we are going to be..Yay!  She mentioned that there is a shopping area called the "Village" in Traverse City, and it is located in a former insane asylum. Interesting! Will have to check THAT out!

We've managed to get our propane tank down to 1/4, so our objective of using up the propane instead of venting it all away to the outside to get our gauge fixed has been achieved. It looks like once we get to Grand Rapids on Wednesday, we will be sitting for four days either in the General parking lot hookup, or having to get a motel room while paint cures on the motor home, we don't know yet how that's going to shake out. We've got a leaking toilet, lights on the vanity that don't always come on, a bulge in the outside wall to get fixed and painted, the Diamond Shield coating on the front of the coach needs fixing, the central vac hose won't stay hooked up, the hot water heater, although a bigger tank than our last one runs out of hot water faster than our old coach did, the thermostat in the bedroom is not working right--these are just little things, but we need to get them taken care of before traveling south...we've read of a few really major problems on new 2010 Tiffin Phaetons that are unbelievably bad. We're glad our unit does not have anything majorly wrong. Tiffin is a high quality RV, but all RVs have "shakedown" issues that usually are easily fixed. The after market service is wonderful and highly commended on Tiffins, so we're not worried. The Tiffin is made in Red Bay, Alabama, and there are nothing but excellent comments about the manufacturer's service and quality of care for these units, IF you have a problem that can't be fixed by your dealership. We're hoping General can take care of us properly.

Just have to mention a great breakfast place in Petoskey where we ate this morning--Julienne Tomato on Howard Street. It's a cute little cafe/coffee shop and deli. They serve a variety of foods, snacks, sweets, and great breakfasts and sandwiches as well.
Everything in the shop is tomato related, from the tomato salt and pepper shakers to posters and wall hangings with tomato decor. Their delivery/service vehicle is a new, funky, tomato red van with a big tomato sign on the side of it. We saw it driving around town this morning as we were making our way to the restaurant.  Even the pillows on the couches at the front of the shop have a tomato motif on them. It's a friendly staff,  a warm cozy atmosphere  and wonderful food!

Pretty Parks in Petoskey

artisanal fire bowl by sculptor, John T. Unger

biking south through Petoskey

Eldy and I went for a 6 mile ride today on the southern part of the Little Traverse Wheelway. We cycled through Petoskey and stopped off at the harbor. Down on the dock were some interesting steel bowl containers, some more elaborate than others. It turns out that these steel bowls were part of a photo shoot for a local sculptor, John T. Unger. These fire bowls are made from recycled steel and are hand cut from old propane tanks. Some were equipped for gas and some were just for a regular fire. They are called artisanal firebowls. We didn't ask how much they were after hearing they are in world class resorts....but I did go check out his website, and he has some really interesting and beautiful pieces. These bowls can be used for gas, wood or propane.

After checking out the fire bowls, we continued on with our ride towards the south. We were continuously amazed at the beauty of the parks along the lakeshore...just about all of Petoskey's lakefront is park after park, with the Little Traverse Wheelway winding through it. We saw a little waterfall along the way, beautifully constructed stairwells to the upper street levels, we saw new and well maintained rest stops with bathrooms along the way. The views of the lake are exceptional, and whoever planned this tremendous resource ought to be commended for how it's laid out, landscaped, the attention to details everywhere. The city of Petoskey is to be commended for how it's maintained. I could see living in this beautiful town full time if we weren't traveling..it seems like a really healthy place to be with the beautiful parks and trail for the residents and visitors. It's our last night here and I will miss this pretty town and great bike trail, but it's on to bigger and better vistas...there are many more beautiful places to explore in the U.S.A. and we can't wait to see them!

beautiful grating under trees at harbor

Sunset Magnus Park, Petoskey, MI

A Grand Bike Trail--Little Traverse Wheelway

Lake Superior beach at Grand Marais

Got a leftover photo from Sable Falls visit back in Grand Marais...thought the stones on the Lake Superior beach were beautiful and very different from the stones of other Great Lakes. I loved this piece of driftwood. My sister makes candles with only Lake Superior stones all around the outside of the candle, they are gorgeous! In my humble opinion, everything about this area of northern Michigan is grand!

Wheelway mini park

portion of the bike trail

another portion of the bike trail

It's a chilly October fall day in Petoskey, MI...low 50's....it's a little too cold for Eldy's liking to hit the bike trail, but not for me, so off I went today to explore this marvelous bike trail in Petoskey. This bike trail runs right through the grounds of Mangus City Park where we are staying. I saw a sign that said Grand Traverse Wheelway, but I guess this bike trail is officially known as "Little Traverse Wheelway"...This paved, wheelchair accessible, wide trail runs from Charlevoix to Petoskey and on to Harbor Springs..over 25 miles of trail. Talk about a grand, front row seat (bike seat) of Little Traverse Bay, this is GORGEOUS! There is a 1.4 mile segment known as "Resort Bluffs" between East Park in Bay Harbor and Magnus Park, our current location. This part of the trail is its own "mini park" with overlooks, picnic areas, and steps down to the lakeshore...the plantings of ornamental grasses, shrubs and protective mulch is just beautifully landscaped and makes for an exceptionally enjoyable ride. It's fairly level much of the way, but there are some "ups" and "downs" to it. The trail is rated "easy to moderate", whatever that means! The scenery changes from a lakeshore view to riding in the forest, to riding alongside developed condos on the lake, and highway 31 south off to your left. I managed to ride 14 miles round trip without even thinking about how much distance I was covering, it was so pretty!

Noises, Locked Out and Other Tidbits

We were sitting in the RV last night while it was raining buckets. I heard some kind of persistent vibration..it sounded like it was coming from the side of the RV. Being the resident and perpetual worrier, I said to Eldy, "Do you hear that?" He did, and we looked at each other, like, ok, now what is going wrong? We have a toilet leaking, we have lights in the bathroom that stay on, and sometimes they don't, so we are hypervigilant about noises, sounds, and vibrations to add to the list of repairs for next Wed. at the General. I went to the bedroom, it sounded louder. It was in the general location of the generator. Just when I thought I'd better get rain gear on and go outside to check it out, Eldy beat me to it. I didn't see him don his rain gear and go out. In the meantime, I went to the back and looked out the window. Here comes a noisy small boat with a persistent whine. I yelled back to Eldy, "Hey, hon, it's just a b--" and in he comes soaking wet with a disgusted look on his face...."a boat." Uh, sorry, hon..I was going to tell you but you were already out the door!

the infamous bedroom window

OK, this morning, we are packing up to get ready to leave Munising. Both of us headed out the front door, shutting it firmly behind us to keep the drizzle out. We start putting things away, and Eldy goes to open the door and it's LOCKED! How the heck did that happen? Neither one of us had motor home keys or the car keys on us, and it's starting to rain a little harder! Eldy did have his cell phone---whew! Guess we were going to call CoachNet, an RV service that provides many things--locksmith for one...wait a minute...maybe we can get in through one of the windows....there's a back exit window, but it's SMALL! But it's unlocked! OK, move the picnic table under the window...put two logs on top of the picnic table for a little step to get me closer to the window opening. Step up on the two logs....slide the screen open, push out the window, heave me up to the window by giving me a butt boost while I try to do a pushup into the window ledge. ..I'm halfway in, I'm halfway out, legs and butt hanging out the open window on the outside, Eldy's trying to hold the window open so it won't slam on me...I'm laughing so hard all Eldy can see is my butt a-jigglin' and a shakin'! I can't stop laughing because I have this vision in my head of what it must look like to anybody passing by. Like one of those Halloween stuffed figures that are halfway in a haystack and halfway out, or something like that! Anyway, I get enough presence of mind to realize if I don't stop laughing, I can't get the rest of the way into the bedroom. I grab the inside of the bedroom chest of drawers ledge and haul myself in, muddy feet all over everything. I get the front door open and everything is back to normal! OK, lessons learned...#1. Jeannie's butt is small enough to get through the bedroom window...#2. keep a spare key somewhere safe from here on out...#3. The door lock position all the way to the RIGHT means you just electronically locked the door on your way out, and #4. We're idiots, we could have much more easily gotten in through the LIVING ROOM window, which is also an exit window, and MUCH BIGGER! We panicked at the time and saw the bedroom window as the only way in. The living room window exit didn't occur to us until driving down the road today to our next destination! I happened to look back and saw the big RED exit smack in the middle of the window. "Uh, Eldy, did you know that there's another exit window in here?"  As a consolation, Eldy says, "But your butt made it through that window, no problem!" For the record, the window measures 28" wide and 19" tall...till later!  


We finished out the day in Petoskey with no further mishaps... We are at the Mangus City Park Campground, right on the shores of Lake Michigan...24.00 a night, full hookup..well under budget, AND a fantastic bike trail that goes from Petoskey to Charlevoix, MI...many many miles of paved trail--awesome!  Till later...

Grand Marais, MI

On the way to Grand Marais

We thought we'd go exploring by car today..Eldy's feet hurt and my feet hurt from yesterday's 6 mile hike, so we thought we'd just be tourists today...off to see the town of Grand Marais right on Lake Superior, and a one hour beautiful scenic drive from Munising. The trees are maxing out their colors right now. On the way out of Munising, we thought we would check out Horseshoe Falls, a 50 ft. drop falls located within two blocks of downtown Munising. It wasn't listed in the brochure for waterfalls we picked up, and there's a good reason for that. The falls is located behind a fenced in park, and they charge 5.00 for you to see it. There are some giant trout in the park somewhere, but for 5.00 a person, our interest  just wasn't piqued enough to pay when there are many other falls to see for free. On to  Grand Marais....

Eldy at Lake Superior

Sable Falls at Grand Marais

Pickle Barrel Museum

There didn't seem to be much going on in town due to late fall and a cold, cold, windy day...I almost said winter day!--it seemed like that with the dark clouds passing overhead and the rough waves..wind chill factor had to be in the 40's....but we accidentally stumbled on more of the Pictured Rocks Lakeshore and the beautiful Sable Falls. From the parking lot in the Pictured Rocks Lakeshore park the walk to the falls was about 500 feet.  WOW! Awesome waterfalls! We then followed the waterfalls descent down to Lake Superior on a very well constructed series of viewing platforms and stairwells. Easy going down, LOTS of steps coming back up..that got the ole hearts a-pumpin!  Lake Superior was wild and wooly today...high waves crashing on the shore, there are some sand dunes right next to the waterfall's exit, but we didn't explore them today. We looked around Grand Marais a bit. The historical landmark that was shaped like a pickle barrel caught our eye, and it was appropriately named the Pickle Barrel Museum. Someone famous built it for his wife, a children's author, many years ago, and they actually spent quite a few summers living in it. It's not in its original location, and has been restored but it still looked very cool. We would have loved to see the inside of it, but it wasn't open.

We're trying to decide where to go next...it's going to be very cold in the U.P. this weekend, which is not a problem for us, but cold coupled with wind and rain really curtails our love of outdoor activities. So we're thinking of moving towards the lower part of Michigan Friday and through next Tuesday to head back to Grand Rapids. Our toilet now leaks, the bathroom cabinet lights appear to maybe have a short in them, so the list of repairs is growing! Darn it!