We figure out an itinerary, sort of, which involves doubling back and exploring the North East. So we headed out of Wisconsin along the north shore of Lake Michigan. (If you’re wondering why we’re heading back, you’re not privy to “CANDY APPLE FEST” in Sunshine, Maryland on September 27th.) As we rolled into the Michigan lakeshore town of St. Ignace at dusk, a pea-soup fog beat us, giving it that spooky, seaside ambiance straight out of Scooby Doo. From there we ferried out to Mackinac Island for a day. The island is about eight miles around and full of big ole Victorian homes (including the governor’s mansion) and little shops (many fudge), but no motorized vehicles are allowed. Horses or bikes are the only options. There’s a Grand Hotel there that really is grand, but it’s $5 just to walk into the foyer. No thanks.

Following Michigan’s west shoreline down, there are areas of beachfront that look exactly like tropical beaches. No kidding—the water is that same brilliant blue-green color. We stayed pretty far south on the lakeshore, in the resort town of Mears. The vegetation here looks exactly like you’d expect for Michigan, except out of nowhere rises massive sand dunes. It’s like some misplaced desert or something. I’ll skip past the part where I decided to take a walk through them with no water and got lost. The cool thing is, you can also drive across the dunes! Russell, you’ve gotta get your Jeep out here!! The Tundra being our sole transportation, we didn’t do any dune-driving.

From here it was straight to my sister Sandy’s house in Ann Arbor. The one day visit turned into three before we knew what happened. That was due to the great fun (and food) we were having with them and to add to it all, my sister Pam and nephew Nicholas showed up! It didn’t hurt that we were frequenting Stucci’s, maker of the best hard ice cream, ever. After the weekend, we hit the road.