Eclectic travelers

We drifted south through wonderful farm land and saw lots of Amish buggies near LeRoy and Tustin. Our travel took us on the 'quilt road', a collection of buildings and barns with painted quilt patterns mounted on their sides.  This was started by two women in the area and it has expanded every year with tour buses now wandering the rural landscape.  It felt like a treasure hunt and it made for a good exploration of the farm land and small towns. From Reed City to Evart and then to Clare we enjoyed a variety of landscapes and happily discovered Dairy DOO - a composted cow manure at Morgan Composting outside of Evart. They sell bags of compost - one of which is now in the back of our car, along with the beer and wine.  Very clever marketing and good products besides. Kate turned her gaze away from the beautiful potted and hanging flower baskets - just no room in our Prius for all the tempting botanicals. As if Dairy Doo was not enough excitement for one day, we stoppe

We enjoyed coffee in the sun room of our lodging and at Petoskey and had a relaxing start before going to Charlevoix.  This is such a gorgeous mainstreet with Lake Charlevoix and the harbor on one side and small impressive stores on the other.  The restaurant we were looking for has gone out of business, but  we had corned beef hash and eggs at FlapJacks and then went to explore the wonderful Mushroom Houses and the Lake Michigan beach. Next we went looking for Horton Bay and the general store that served Hemingway.  We found it, it looked great, but the road was in repair and we could not stop or turn off to see it.  So we continued on to Boyne City and through the glacial moraine country to Bellaire, a wonderful little community with Short's brewery - the goal of the drive. Going to Traverse city we loved the waters of Torch Lake and of course in Traverse City we enjoyed all the flavors and tastes of Cherry Republic and American Spoon before checking out some win

We were caught up in wind and rain as we drove to Bayfield dock to catch the ferry for our presentation at the Art School on Madeline Island for the Island Wilderness Preserve group.  This wonderful collection of people is protecting natural areas on the island and making sure that the one island that is not in the National Lake Shore still its natural beauty and ecology. We had a large turnout for our presentation and the excellent food that was served by Ashland Baking Company was terrific and we loved the facilities.  We stayed there overnight and then led a morning hike in the wilderness preserve with a nice group of people. The spring flowers were out, the stream was filled with water, black throated blue warblers and yellowthroats were singing and it was an excellent way to wrap up our visit. Back in Bayfield we had lunch with great friends Franklin and Gisela Crosby and their grand daughter Brittany.  We love this restaurant and all its various flamingos and this time