Letter 11 Trailer Capital, Michigan I

Thursday, June 10 we moved across Michigan into northern Indiana, stopping at the Amish town of Shipshewana to show Blaire about the Amish. Then we stopped in Middlebury at the Sunny Brook trailer manufacturer.

Since we had trouble in Vincennes we wanted to follow up and learn a little more about the axel and wheels. We were referred to Dexter Axel. We parked for the night at the Eckhart Co. Fairgrounds in Goshen.

Friday, June 11, we headed to Eckhart and the Dexter Axel Co. A young lady helped us out and educated us about both axels and wheels. On to the much publicized RV surplus store and we were disappointed. Yes, they had a whole warehouse of stuff, but nothing on our list. It was also hot inside.

We stopped in an Amish market and picked up some tomatoes and little new potatoes, then met a group for a tour of Sunny Brook. We enjoyed seeing from the ground up, how trailers are made.

We started by seeing the framework, chassis, of the base which is made elsewhere. Sunnybrook then starts adding to it from the base up. All the holding tanks, wiring and insulation go into the floor, then linoleum covers the entire floor. The guide showed how the

outside wall is made together with the aluminum struts and reinforcements for any cuts to be made later for ducts. Then
cabinets are installed before the outside walls are placed on the trailer.

The slide out is added next, then the outside finish and roof. It is amazing how it all comes together. We found there are two types of smooth outside finish. Sunny Brook uses a higher quality fiberglass type finish, which is superior to the finish of the doors. Some manufacturers use the door finish all over. We also learned that most of the color is decals, but when they are painted a paint job costs $8,000.

Saturday, June 12 we met Sandy & Ralph Jones, from Duncanville, at Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. This campus

is huge and we walked at least a mile to the major attractions. We visited the

Main Building which is hidden in the trees, seeing many pictures of Columbus and the

beautiful dome. Their

basilica was next, but was closed to tourists due to numerous weddings. There were four weddings that day and we saw

one couple going for photos after their wedding.

Another walk was to see the

grotto,

then back across campus to see the Hesburgh Library and the

Word of Life mural symbolizing Christ the Teacher, surrounded by his apostles and saints and scholars who have contributed to knowledge through the ages. Eleven stories in height the mural is composed of 5,714 individual pieces of granite, marble and stone from 16 countries and 11 states.

From South Bend we drove to Nappanee, IN, where a friend LaGail Damron was born, then to their Red Barn at the Amish Farm to see a performance of “Plain & Fancy”, a Broadway show about a New York couple visiting in the Amish Country and the trials of the two cultures. It was cute. We enjoyed their show.

The structure of the barn was intriguing as the top was a dome.

Sunday, June 13, we attended the Goshen First United Methodist Church then packed up and drove to Holland State Park in Holland, Michigan. The Jones had arrived about an hour earlier and we found them settled in. We parked nearby and shared

supper before going for a

stroll on the beach of Lake Michigan.

Monday, June 14 we drove south to Saugatuck and browsed in their

expensive boutiques along the harbor. We saw some very cute clothes and Blaire was inspired to try out one of the big Meijer's stores to find some copies. So away we went to the big box where she found two dresses, a bathing suit, shorts, and two pair earrings for less than the price of a dress in the boutique.

Tuesday, June 15 we washed clothes and Blaire started packing. This was her last day to be with us. Her bag was really full of her treasures on this trip. We took her to the airport in the afternoon and also stopped at a CVS to get Olivia’s prescriptions filled.

Wednesday, June 16 The Jones and us rode north along Lakeshore drive into the town of Grand Haven where we

browsed the shops and farmers market. We saw where they have a musical fountain each night in the summer, but it doesn’t start until after 10 pm. Way past our bed time. At the market we learned of

U-pick strawberries on our way home. So we just had to have that experience and both couples picked

about two pounds. Arriving back at the campground a friendly camper stopped to talk and told us to go on to Orchard Beach State Park. We had planned to stop shorter, but when Olivia checked the web sites for the parks, both of the earlier ones were already full for the weekend. After supper we decided we weren’t too old to stay up late so we drove back to Grand Haven, along the way seeing a

crazy pig sticking his head into a sign, to see the fountain. When we arrived they were having a young version of a big time band playing songs from our era and many couples

dancing on the stage. The water fountain

preformed to about eight musical tunes. The colors changed and the water danced. Our little camera couldn’t do justice to the fountain across the river.

Thursday, June 17, Three months out! This was moving day and we took the freeway north to Manistee and Orchard Beach State Park. We happy the temperature was about 15 degrees cooler in this area of Michigan than where we had been the last few stops. We were told this is normal. Highs here were generally in the mid seventies. Sometimes in the low eighties, sometimes in the low seventies. Lovely weather! This was a very nice park and we had

a wonderful view of Lake Michigan. True the sites were not very level, but we found two vacant ones and made them work. Later we walked down the 75 steps to the beach and enjoyed

picking up rocks. Information at the beach showed a contour of the lake. Fred was surprised to learn the lake was over 900 feet deep in places. Through the years we had heard of the pollution of Lake Michigan. We learned the pollution was just near the big industrial cities and this remote area was never polluted. The water was chrystal clear and very clean looking. It was a beautiful afternoon. Later we enjoyed the beautiful

sunset over the lake. It was an attraction for a lot of other campers who were gathered to watch, with cameras in hand.

We sat by the campfire pit, minus the fire, and visited until good dark. It was a very nice day.

Friday, June 18 we piddled all morning then left to scout the area. Our first stop was the information center to find out where all the sites were. We left with a county map all marked up. We drove through town to a park where we took pictures of their

two lighthouses.

This was a beautiful sunshiny day and our pictures showed it.
Manistee came of age in the 1800’s as a lumber boomtown that, in the Victorian era and at one time had more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in the United States. The flourishing economy produced great wealth which is evident in the

ornate buildings. It continues to be one of the busiest ports on Lake Michigan.

We walked on their river walk and saw two ladies sitting on the bench. Fred walked over asking if they were in a time warp. They laughed and said they were the local greeters waiting to meet a

cruise ship. It had already been by, then turned around in Manistee Lake before coming back through the draw bridge to dock. It was unique to watch the docking as they pulled up even with the dock, then moved sideways to the river walk. Several times we have been on the ship side of a docking, but never from the land side.

We drove into the country and hunted for a tunnel of trees but never found it, but did find the

Wier Spawn center. Since it was not the season for the salmon to run, it was closed, but signs invited viewing when in operation.

We drove north of town to the

Douglas winery and enjoyed tasting nine of their ciders and wines before checking out the Indian casino for cigarettes and Texas Hold’em. They were short of both.

We decided to join the

Elk’s club Friday night fish fry for a good fish dinner before we returned to the trailer to crash for the evening. After that good supper and back at our trailer we saw there were clouds covering the sun, we settled in for the night. About 9 pm Olivia was ready to go to sleep but when she turned off the light, the sun was coming into the front window. Sure enough there was another

beautiful sunset. We rushed to watch, along with many other campers. We watched

children playing on the beach below, then said with others,

going, going, gone. As we left

others were still watching. After we were back at the trailer the sky changed to many beautiful colors of orange and red and we wished we had stayed to watch it.

Saturday, June 19, Happy Anniversary Bob & Pat. We left the trailer about 11 am and visited the farmer’s market in Manistee where we picked up a few goodies, then on to the

Lake Bluff Bird Sanctuary to see the

Michigan Champion Giant Sequoia (see Sandra in red at the base.) and the

Michigan Champion Sycamore Maple. The view over the Lake was spectacular. We drove through Onekama to the Portage Pt to see some small lighthouses, then north to Miller’s market for tomatoes and to see some Petasky stones. Hopefully we will see more when we near Petasky. We picked some more

strawberries and ate lunch while picking.

Then to Betsie River Lily Farm where we saw her

enchanted bottle glass forest among other unique garden items.
Olivia bought the

Delmonico,

Grand Gentleman and Semuramide to send home to the girls.
Most of all she had acres of day lily’s which had not blossomed yet, but it has to be gorgeous when it does. We did buy the three varieties that were blooming to send home to Angie and Teenya.

Our next stop was in Kaleva to see a

bottle house built from over 60,000 pop bottles, most of which came from John Makinen, Sr’s business, the Northwestern Bottling Works. The bottles were laid on their sides with the bottom ends to the exterior. A native of Finland the builder completed the house in 1941. It is now on the National Register of Historic places and is the Keleva Historical Museum. We were disappointed when we went inside not to see through the bottles, but the walls were just like any other house.

Finland's population is less than that of the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, so it was interesting to learn entire cummunity was founded by Finish emigrants.

Brethren was the next town for their

“Spirit of the Woods” Folk Festival. There was music

and we enjoyed the different

craft booths. Not like the ones at home.

A full day and to top it off the Jones fixed Tortilla soup for us. We wondered if there would be another sunset to keep us up.

Sunday, June 19, Father’s Day. We attended church at the

Manistee UMC and heard a very good sermon in front of their

beautiful stain glass window. They had just celebrated their 150 year anniversary and had a

very interesting banner. One like that would be good in our church.

After church we visited K-mart and a nice grocery store before catching up with odd jobs around the trailer. At sunset

Sandy and Ralph waited behind a bush for our

last sunset in this campground. God surely has blessed us by showing us these beautiful sunsets.

Next letter will be more of Michigan and from the beginning it is proving to be a wonderful state to visit and we are just getting started.

As always, let us hear from you by clicking on Olivia@bobheck.com or fredharrington@yahoo.com