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Where’s Wal-Mart?
We decide it’s time to embrace Wal-Mart’s liberal overnight parking policies for thrift and expediency of travel. For our first night, the hard part turns out to be finding the Wal-Mart. Our first attempts lands us at a closed store, cruising the abandoned lot in the rainy dark. Plan B is a nearby Target, which…
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Live Music: Carpé Diem String Quartet
I’m not expecting much from a free concert at Saginaw Valley State University, but I’m really pleasantly surprised by this quartet. They are clearly fine, professional musicians and are having fun while playing really rich music. Their credibility is established with a fairly classical sounding piece full of rich harmonies and tones, then they cut…
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Tobico Marsh Relay
When visiting Mom in Bay City, Michigan I always make it out to Tobico Marsh State Park for a hike, but some extra research from Ann adds the twist that it should be possible to reach the park from town on rail trails. To get the distances right, Ann sets out on foot while Mom…
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Plan: Visit Mom
We’re taking our home east of the Mississippi for the first time!
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Platte River Beach
My uncle Dewey takes us to this popular local fishing and sunset viewing spot. The Platte River flows into Lake Michigan here. We figure the salmon must be running now, because people are arriving with small boats and fishing from the sandy shoreline. Salmon Fishers Even the local dogs are fishing here. Dog Waits for…
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Sleeping Bear Dune Climb
We can’t resist spending a night and taking a hike in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Our annual park pass gets us in, and it’s not far off our route. The D.H. Day campground is really pleasant except for one thing we couldn’t have predicted: squirrel bombardiers. The squirrels are harvesting acorns, and they…
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Rapid River Romp
We make it into Michigan! Even though there haven’t been nearly as many state and national forest campgrounds as we’re used to, we’ve discovered plenty of city and county campgrounds to take their place. Often we just follow signs, and only once did we not find a spot until after dark, and that was after…
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South Dakota – Lake Herman State Park
Friendly staff welcome us to a near-empty park on a stormy labor day evening. We’re here, strangely, to establish an address in Madison, South Dakota. This is not because we’re going to stay here, but because we’re joining a service (MyDakotaAddress.com) that will help us in several ways while we’re touring. It handles mail forwarding…
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Book: Dark Star Safari / Paul Theroux
A good recommendation from Ann, Theroux narrates his overland trip across Africa from Cairo to Cape Town. Full of high-powered observation, criticism, even mockery that constructs a convincing portrayal of the often desperate African life that most tourists intentionally avoid. His analysis of the effects of foreign aid to Africa is enough to give me…
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Badlands – Cedar Pass
Over the night I discover that the Sage Creek campground has no nighttime lighting. The milky way is brighter than I’ve seen it for a while, despite the low elevation here. In the morning the pair of giant bison that were hanging around yesterday are still here, a little closer to our camper today. When…