Retirement woes!

You hear stories like this! Retired happily one minute and garbage picking the next. All contributions gratefully accepted. Remember how we decided to share the helm and share the cooking. Well, one of us threw out some of the silverware specifically purchased for the boat. That one was trying to rectify the situation and the other one??? O, she'd be the one laughing and holding the camera!

This one's for Steve

Now here was a restraurant not only with great food, but with great taste in motorcycles.

This is the little tugs beard

Is this cute? Is it any wonder we bought a Nordic Tug? We both fell in love with this little boat at De Tour, Michigan

At De Tour

This is a little renovated tug, wooden hull taboot.

Ron caught me off guard

This was on our way back to the ferry and standing in front of that Grand Hotel again. Notice the cart and horse team all sculpted bushes? Hedges? What do I know? I thought the real ones was worth the trip!

Indian Tradition

This is the Arch. Indians believed this was the gateway to the world beyond. They came to Mackinac Island to bury their dead. Many of their ancestors are buried in secret places throughout the Island because when white man finds them, guess where they wind up? Yes, in a museum somewhere on display. Another interesting fact about this Island is that an entire graveyard was "relocated" because it happened to be sitting in a place that would be more profitable for tourist trade! Humm. Thanks anyway. I'll stay with the horses!

Second half of the Horse drawn tour

This was our second team of horses. This time three together. The one in the middle is the dominant horse. They are always harnessed in the same position. There are three vets on the Island to attend to almost 600 horses on Mackinac Island. The team is always kept together. They work four hours a day, four days a week. The other three they rest in pasture. It's a four month work season and then the horses are shipped out of state where they are cared for in a less harsh climate. The driver is responsible for the care of the team. Each day he/she must bath the horse before the day begins and then again after the shift. The horse is brushed and groomed each day. They are sprayed with fly repellent and the horseshoes are specially made to tolerate the paved roads. It is a polyurethane cast with the horseshoe encapsulated within this cast. It sort of acts like a sneaker to their feet. They are rested at specific locations even during the tour where, as you can see here, they are given water at each stop. Do you get the idea this might have been my favorite part of the Island?

The Grand Hotel Stables

Behind the GRAAAND Hotel, up a hill and around the back was their horse stables. This is Ted. Ted has the afternoon shift. While they don't encourage people to touch the horses who are working, here, it was permitted by the keeper so long as he was right there with me. This was a spectacular animal.

The GRRRRRAND HOTEL -- Don't cha know!

Yea, it was elaborate. Ta da ta da and all that fluff. To stand on their porch was a fee of $17 and if you dine there, darlings, you must wear formal attire to be on premises! O yea, I just had to pester Ronald to o please just take me here ... but what they really DID have which was Super Cool was ...

Horse drawn cart museum

This fire engine was part of the museum we saw today which included the history of the horse drawn carts on the Island. To my fire fighting friends and relatives ... how would you like to have to put out a fire with this? AFTER you hooked up the team and located the fire.

The little Stone Church

The most popular church to be married in in Machkinac Island. There's a two YEAR waiting list to be married here. The guide tour standard joke is book the church now and worry about WHO you are going to marry later.

Our Horse drawn tour

We loved this.

Mackinac Island

Not an automobile on the Island. All transport is done by horse and buggy (or cart) and bicycle.

Mackinac Island

Pronounced MackaNAW, not MackinAC. We stayed in Mackinaw City and took the high speed ferries over to the Island the following morning. They do have docking at the Island but wakes, again, from the ferries make it a very unpleasant stay.

Mackinac Bridge

Mackinac Bridge and the high speed ferries. The ferries throw a wake that could drown a whale and we were told they were unrelenting. What we were told was absolutely accurate. Out they come -- three at a clip from two different locations. Intersecting wakes are fun to negotiate. Many of your personal possessions can be found on the deck. Don't even think of outrunning them.

Again notice the date!

Red skies at night ... don't believe it if you're in the North Channel!! All things considered, it had been a most extraordinary day!

The Double Rainbow

Again notice the date

This was also July 19. Hail one minute -- the most spectacular rainbow either of us had ever seen. Matter of fact, it was a double rainbow and the colors were brilliant.

Yes, it is Hail!

Notice the date on this picture. July 19. The hail was marble size and the wind that came with it? (that is One of the StormS that came with it), was really not nice folks! I was never so grateful for chain and the 125' we had out! We held. Many boats did NOT. This pretty well tipped us over the edge with the decision to get out of the North Channel.

Blueberry Pancakes Delayed

We didn't have the blueberry pancakes until we got to the Benjamin Islands. We were anchored with the other "Looper" couple in Mill Lake (where we found the blueberries). The day after we picked the blueberries, the couple came over serenading us at 7:30 A.M. singing they were "the friendly bakers from afar" and they had hot, freshly baked, blueberry muffins they'd just baked that morning and brought some over to share!

For the non boaters out there -- you know when people are up in the morning because you see the anchor light go out! We were up a full hour by the time they got there! The muffins were so good -- we were smiling til noon!

Back to our boat

Back to our boat with our treasure ... dreaming of breakfast the next morning.

They weren't kidding -- Blueberries!!

The woods were loaded with them.

Blueberry Hunt

This is Gilligan, Ron, Bruce and Susan. They are fellow "Loopers" and we were off on the quest for Blueberries. At Mill Lake, off of Collin's Inlet, blueberries are supposed to grow wild, they told us ...

What choo lookin' at?

You can tell we were at anchor. He's not in his life jacket. He's just hanging out on the bow looking at us through the center window! He looked so cute, I couldn't resist!

Collins Inlet - Georgian Bay

This was such a beautiful area, it's hard to pick and choose which photo's to share with you. Mile after mile and just when you thought it couldn't get any prettier, you'd come around a mountain which stopped you in your tracks. While here, in one day, I took 68 photo's and Ron and I couldn't delete one of them. You are all just going to have to visit when we get back and look through tons and tons of scenic shots.

Collins Inlet

An Auxiliarist -- WITH LOCAL KNOWLEDGE!!!

A fellow looper, crew qualified in the Coast Guard Auxiliary AND living off of Lake Michigan!! Could anyone resist pulling out charts with that kind of gold aboard? Lee showed us his favorite anchorages, many of which were NOT on the charts. He shared areas of concern with low water levels and their AOR, on Lake Michigan. He and his wife gave us some great information on which marina's to stay away from, as well as which were better to frequent. We plan on storing the boat for three to four weeks in the West side of Lake Michigan (Wisconsin) while we visit our grandchildren in Minnesota and they were very helpful with contacts there. We were very grateful to dock next to this couple with the AGLCA flag on the bow!

The family dog

Meet Brutus! If you look closely by the stern of my kayak you will see the family dog, who is accustomed to kayaking with the family. While we were nestled into the shallows, waiting for bear, he thought it was an open invitation and climbed aboard. He was so light I actually had to ask Ron if he were up there. He stayed with me for quite a while. Gilligan was back at our boat. We didn't think bear sighting and Gilligan went together somehow. Especially when she had two cubs.

A family at Hopewell Bay

We fell in love with this 12 year old. He was a free spirited, independent kid. They are the only family on the Bay and Devlin would get in his aluminum outboard and zip all over the bay. He introduced us to his parents who wanted to see the boat and brought hors d' oeuvre's of shrimp, salmon on crackers, and cheese to our boat one evening. The following day I baked Oatmeal Cookies and took them over to their little cottage. It was the best part of Hopewell Bay! A family of bear lived by this family (Mom and two cubs) and they kept a look out for us. The first evening we were there, Devlin came in his boat and said they were out. By the time we were in the kayaks and up to their section of the cove, the bear were gone. We thought we had a better chance of seeing bear with a known sighting, so we opted to stay another night. The following evening, we were in our Kayaks at 5 p.m. and sat by their known crossing for 2 1/2 hours. I'd have thought it was a "snipe hunt" but we did see the droppings. We never saw the bear -- but we did see the droppings!

Hopewell Bay

We did a lot of kayaking at Hopewell Bay. This was a lot of fun. Many coves to explore.

Clear? Thunderstorms? Clearing? Heavy winds?

A group of six "Loopers" joined up near Parry Sound and we traveled together to the Hopewell Bay area. I suppose we all felt a little safer to be in a group after the storm that had blown through the night before and the precarious weather for the day of travel. Every one of us opted to remain two full days at Parry Sound. Winds were constant at 40 knots easy. The day we all left, all reports were go. But what we found after leaving port was not at all what any of us were comfortable with. This front threatened us most of the day.

We're BAAAACKKKKK!

So, did 'ja miss us????? We reentered the U.S. yesterday at Drummond Island and spent the night at De Tour Marina, De Tour, Michigan. Tonight we are docked in Mackinac City Marina. We will take the ferry tomorrow morning to Mackinac Island. We hit some very bad weather in the North Channel and weather reporting was not exactly accurate. After much discussion, Ron and I decided to push on through and return to the United States. Two families dropped out of the loop based on the storms that came up out of nowhere and one of the ladies who had been sailing for 6 years, said she'd had enough. Their boat will be up for sale when they return. He hired a captain to complete the journey and bring their boat home again. This might give you some idea as to just how bad it was. We have pictures of some of the hail storms covering the deck which I will share with you shortly. This picture of Gilligan is at Mill Lake last Thursday.

Internet access woes!!!

Hi all!!

Just wanted to let you know that we have little or no access to the internet while we are in the remote (but beautiful) sections of Canada. We will be back on line and posting tons of pictures we are storing up from the beautiful sites we are seeing. We miss you all and look forward to talking to you all again soon!!

Love,
Ron and Jean and of course Giligan :-)

PS: This is Faith sending the message from beyond!! Hope you are all well. Love Faith :-)

Bear Traps

We were passing by a government building and noticed a sign that read Government Information Center. Those of you who know me, KNOW I'd be looking for bear and moose up here at the crack of dawn and at dusk. Well, this was a golden opportunity to get the real "scoop" on the bear population. The office rang up and sent down the lady who directs and actually does the trapping and relocating of problematic bear. These are the actual traps which are baited and once trapped, they relocate the bear to less populated areas. There is an overabundance of bear this year she said, due to a heavier than normal mosquito population this year, which are driving the bear down into more populated areas. Plus they love bird feeders and of course, people's garbage and once they find the treasured items, they tend to return until the area is void of those items and will continue to return for days in hopes of finding the food again. Bear also return to the areas they are transported from, especially the females. This young woman was probably about 28, 100 pounds soaking wet, and picturing her out there with these huge angry animals was hard to grasp. Humm, wonder why she wouldn't let me put Ron in the cage for a picture? Any guesses? When we went back there to see the traps, Gilligan went nuts. The smell of bear was so powerful and not just the excrement (which actually was still in the last cage used). I tried to convince her to let me go with her to check on some of the traps, but most of us know when the word "government" is involved, rarely are exceptions made and I am certainly NOT authorized personnel! Well, even if we don't SEE bear in Canada while we're here, we certainly SMELT bear in Canada. Now, how many people can say that!!

7/ll Tonight we are at Parry Sound, Ontario

We had planned on docking last night, catching up on laundry and do some provisioning. However, this morning we had heavy winds with small craft warnings. We decided to remain here another day. Winds currently are blowing at 35 knots. Just watching people walk on the dock is amusing -- and we're about to become one of those walkers, who will be grabbing their hats and pulling the coats around them, as we go for a walk with Gilligan. Ron has the weather channel on as I type and they tell us the waves on Lake Huron are 1-3 meters. Yes, I'd rather be right where we are! This is a sunset from two nights ago. It was so pretty I thought you'd like to share it with us.

Looks like he's having fun, ha?

In fact, this was more maintanence work. We picked up some horrible blown sticky matter that clung to the white waterline and nothing we did at the dock removed it. This is a two person job and while Ron scrubbed, I repositioned him all along the rail. I can't begin to tell you why he's smiling here?????

Gilligan over a barrel

This was part of the historical tour at Discovery Park. Pet's welcome! Isn't that nice. We all laughed when they took us to the cemetery of a young soldier and his brother who both died in route to this base. Gilligan is a Cairn Terrier. Cairn's tend to dig a lot! Intently I'm listening to the story of these two brothers and the tour guide begins to laugh. There's Gilligan digging away on the path worn down by tourists being brought through there. I picked him up, apologized to the group, and said: "Gilligan, never never dig in a cemetery!" We all had a good laugh and in gratitude that he did NOT come back with a bone -- we moved on!