On The Road Again 2010

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	Click on state welcome sign to see pictures from that state!
Visited Pratt, KS.	Ronnie put up the For Sale sign	Can't go to Pratt without taking pictures of dogs!
Ronald and Brutus	Bugsy	Leroy and Diesel
Newlyweds Rexana and Daniel	Everyone except David	And Rexana's friend Morgan
Mother-in-law in middle		And David
Julie and Lois	Lonnie and Fred, too.	Kingman farm lake
	Daniel, Rexana wedding
	Visiting Aubrey and Ryan	Aubrey and Lois won!
	Big wind turbine blades
	Lots of wind turbines in Iowa
	Cornflowers and native grasses
Visits with Hank	Guthrie Theater	Distinctive viewing platform
	Views from the Guthrie Theater platform
		Mississippi Queen river and lock cruise
"First Bridge", on the site of the very first bridge across the Miss. River		Approaching Upper St. Anthony Falls lock
Entering lock	Gates beginning to close behind us
	Water level lowering by 50 feet	Down river end begins to open
	Guthrie Theater from the river	"Arch Bridge", only stone bridge across the Mississippi River
Mill City back in the day		Upper St. Anthony Falls
Returning up river	Water raising us 50 feet
Wanted to see game and new field	Sold Out, including all "Standing Room Only Seats"	Must be the new field -- opened in April
	Our first stop in Wisconsin	Some sort of fungus - does anyone know?
Shelf fungus	Glen Loch falls
Getting ready!		No fish!
Our canoe ride - Fred thinks he is cute taking this picture!
Modified motorcycles		Tour of Leinenkugel brewery
Used to keep their horses	Lake Winnebago
	Fond du Lac lighthouse	View of our car from the top
		Very fine sand
Water in Lake Michigan is very cold	Very, very cold	5-mile Mackinac Bridge
Like our ride to Mackinac Island (Note)	Governor's House	Grand Hotel
	We missed the lilac season - can you just imagine how beautiful and sweet smelling!	There are no motorized vechicles on Mackinac Island, since the early 1880's, so bicycles are popular.
The very first fudge shop out of 17 on the island	Ft. Mackinac	Grand Hotel carriage
UPS wagon	UPS guy
Our second carriage ride	Arch Rock	Water looked like the Caribbean.
		Tidbit-A tourist is called a "fudgie" is he does not know that Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island are pronounced the same way (aw). Fred and I are definitely "fudgies" when we are wearing our jeans and sweatshirts and everyone else has on shorts and t-shirts! We are enjoying the cooler weather!
Early chapel	We had a sample
Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. These locks are between Lakes Superior and Huron	Joseph L. Block cargo ship coming into Poe Lock	728 feet long and 78 feet wide. The longest that uses the locks is 1,013 ft.
		The bridge left is between Canada and U.S. We debated whether to go into Canada and we are glad that we decided not to go. Bridge is probably 2 miles long with cars and trucks solid all the way across in both directions. Slow getting through customs.
Lowered 21 feet -- white bow with flags above.
Castle Rock, 200 feet tall	View from the top	We were huffing and puffing and forgot to count how many steps to the top
Saints Steel Band, Mackinaw City	Beach, Traverse City, MI
Old Mission Lighthouse		With Elaine and Ron (Note)
Hops grown on the peninsula	Blue Spruce
Part of Disney crew minus costumes	Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, 425 ft. high. (Note)	Lois is looking instead of climbing
Success, at last! 11 inch Brown Trout	Tawas Point Lighthouse (Note)	Lake Huron
	Sail boat race
Lumbermen's Monument (Note)	Log jam	Lois trying to roll a log
"Shoepacks" in and above the boots to stay warm	Sand rollway for rolling logs down to the river	Au Sable River
	Iargo Springs (Note)
	Foote Dam
Lynn and Sherrill's Fudge and Ice Cream shop	Lynn, Sherrill and us	It's always Christmas time at Bronner's
In Frankenmuth, MI

When first getting to this area, newcomers are confused by the different spellings of Mackinac Island and Mackinaw City, they are both pronounced "mac-a-naw." When the French got here, the Indians called the area "Micinnimakinong". The French changed it to "Michilimackinac" in 1715. Even though they spelled it with the 'nac' they pronounced it 'naw'. In 1781, the British came into the area and took over the French fort and changed the name again to use 'aw' at the end and later shortened it even more to "Mackinaw". The French kept the 'ac' spelling and everything north of Mackinaw City uses the 'ac' spelling. Either way of spelling, it is pronounced 'aw'. (Return to Photos)

As we travelled north in Michigan and then again after we reached the far north part of Michigan and headed south, we kept crossing a line called "The 45th Parallel". This picture was taken while standing right on the 45th Parallel. The 45th Parallel is the line of Longitude, which means that the line they are standing on is exactly half-way between the Equator and the North Pole. Look at a globe at the Library and see on what Longitude your home town located. (Return to Photos)

The very high sand dunes are part of "Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore" that are on the edge of a penisula in Lake Michigan. These dunes cover hundreds of acres and were deposited here when the glaciers of the last "ice age" retreated to the north, many thousands of years ago. Just off the coast of the dunes are two large islands. The name of the park 'sleeping bear' comes from an old Indian ledgend that many years ago, there was a mother bear and two cubs that were driven into Lake Michigan to escape a forest fire. After swimming for a long time, the cubs began to lag behind the mother. She reached the shore, but the two cubs drowned. The "Great Spirit Manitou" created two islands to mark where the cubs drowned and a large sand dune on the land to mark the place where the faithful mother bear landed. (Return to Photos)

The Tawas Point Lighthouse was built to keep ships from running aground as they brought iron ore to the port. The lighthouse is now about one-half mile from the edge of the beach because the currents keep adding more sand to the point. The currents are such that they loop by this area and the beach is a huge curved shape. The lighthouse still operates and has a horn during foggy weather but I think it is more for tourists because ships today have much better navigation equipment and the port no longer operates. (Return to Photos)

This area of Michigan has always been an area of heavy logging. This monument is dedicated to the many men that worked the forest and rivers to log the timber and then get it to its final destination down the Au Sable River. The "shoepack" that you can see above the edge of the lumberjack's boots was a combination of leather and wool that was to keep their feet warm. The most famous maker of "shoepacks" in this area was the grandfather of our friend in Tawas City, Lynn Phillips; he was called 'shoepack Jake". The main reason for needing the shoepacks is that the logging was only done during the winter so that the logs could be moved through the snow on sleds. The logs were felled, then cut into 16 ft. lengths that were pulled to a gathering place where they were placed onto large sleds. They were then pulled to the edge of the Au Sable River and rolled down the "rollways" shown by the sandy hills. The river was partially frozen during the winter, so the logs did not get to the market until the Spring thaw. The most dangerous part of the whole logging process was when the Spring thaw began and loggers had to break up the huge log jams. This was done by loggers called "river rats" that actually stood on the logs, out in the river and used a long tool, called a "peavy", with a metal spike and hook to roll the logs to loosen the jam. (Return to Photos)

Iargo Springs is one of many tributaries into the Au Sable River. Iargo means 'hill of many waters' and was named by the Indians. (Return to Photos)

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