Captain’s Log – Star Dates 08032009 through 08052009
Location: Star Cluster of the Sleeping Bear
(Translation: Traverse City KOA, Buckley, Michigan)
Trip Miles -- 5661.4
Diesel Price -- $2.55 per gallon; 32.8 gallons loaded.
Report from Engineering: Everything is smooth as a baby’s butt since the engine repair! Sweet!
Weather: Truly spectacular! Brilliantly sunny with daytime temperatures of 75 to 78 degrees F.

Raymond W. Overholzer was one strange character! First, he married his third-grade teacher, who was 24 years older than he was. Second, he built a small house out in the bush below Baldwin, Michigan. Third, when Henry Ford offered Overholzer fifty grand for a wooden table he’d made, the crazy dude REFUSED!

Overholzer was, however, an inspired worker of wood – a Da Vinci – class artist who spent his life creating masterpieces of furniture from pine stumps left over from clearing land for farming. The house he built is today known as the Shrine of the Pines and is a must-see for anyone visiting the state of Michigan! Examples of his work include a rocking chair so perfectly balanced that it will rock over 50 times before stopping. He built an enormous 70-ton fireplace in his home from local stone. The magnificent table he crafted from a 700-pound pine stump was the table Henry Ford craved. We had not expected to come here and knew nothing of this out-of-our-way treasure. John Lincoln suggested our visit --- John and his wife Linda toured the Shrine with us. We were in awe and grateful to John for suggesting our visit!

We would not have visited this treasure-crammed part of Michigan had it not been for Tom Bishop. Tom is Barbara’s childhood friend and high-school classmate. At the class reunion, Tom and his wife Cathy asked us to visit them at their home on Crystal Lake near Frankfort, Michigan. Happily, we did so…and performed our day’s worth of exercise pedaling Tom’s pontoon boat on the ultra-clear, blue surface of Crystal Lake! Tom and Cathy then gave us the grand tour of Frankfort, a vibrant, charming artists’ town on Lake Michigan. We all walked on the beach at Point Betsie Lighthouse. In the evening, Tom and Cathy graciously treated us to a lake perch dinner. Tom, a veteran fisherman, had caught the delicate fish himself, filleted them, covered them with a special seasoning and cooked them with love to a golden brown. Served with fresh fruit and Cathy’s hot home-made bread…they made a dinner to remember for life!

The Interlochen Center for the Arts hosts an internationally-renowned summer program for youthful musicians and artists from all 50 states and 40 countries. I heard about this famous place as a high school music student. Barbara spent a summer here before a series of injuries ended her professional dance career. It was silent on the day we made our visit to the lovely lakeside campus, the summer program having ended a few days previously. Sadly, we could hear no music being rehearsed! So…we mounted the Kresge Auditorium stage and performed ourselves for Barbara’s camera! We even drew an ovation from two girls sitting in the back of the hall! Classical music, broadcast over Interlochen Radio at 88.7 FM, is a friend on our travels in this region.

North of Traverse City, Michigan Route 22 winds along Grand Traverse Bay toward Northport --- the perfect road for a relaxed, scenic drive. At the tidy Northport marina, we learn that Michigan has more registered boats than any other state. Boat and ship traffic creates a problem for the lake ecology through the introduction of foreign species, such as Zebra mussels and sea lampreys.

Heading south along the Lake Michigan shoreline, Barb enters her photographer-mode! Entering the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore, she is in utter rapture over the fields of tiny purple flowers along Route 22. We must STOP and take PICTURES…NOW! Later, we learn that these plants are spotted knapweed, a terrible-awful alien species that destroys native plants with a chemical toxin. What an absolute BUMMER!

Try a fast climb up a tall sand dune, friends and neighbors! That activity will raise your heart-rate for sure! We did it at the Dune Climb at Sleeping Bear. We also drove the lovely 7-mile Pierce Stocking scenic loop, which gave us glorious views of dense forests of birch, the Lake Michigan shore and fields of high dunes.

There are too many – far too many—treasures here to share them all with you! Please enjoy Barbara’s wonderful photo displays!

We are now buying a “Sea-Salt-Scrub” scented candle at the fragrant Candle Factory in Traverse City and rolling up Highway 31 toward the great Mackinac Straits Bridge to the Upper Peninsula – the UP! Stay with us and enjoy the ride!

Affectionately,

Captain Baldy