May 5 - 15 - Holland, Michigan, and Huron-Manistee National Forests
After a chaotic few days involving selling the beloved Sportsmobile camper van, dealing with my car in the shop, getting it back the day before we left, driving up to Liberty to get kayak racks put on it and then having said car die in the Costco parking lot, swapping the racks onto Matthew's car and having my car towed back to the mechanic, it's a wonder that we got packed up and on the road close to our timeline. A drive through the rain and construction and we finally arrived at cousin Carolyn's in St Louis. We had a lovely visit with the family before driving north on Thursday.
Our first night's stop was south of Chicago at a Harvest Host that was a breakfast/lunch restaurant in farm country. They offered free full hookups, which is unheard of. Then they invited us to a free baked potato bar dinner, along with the other two solo women campers staying for the night. It was yummy and the conversation was fun. After a bit, the hosts went across the lot to their home and told us all to stay chatting in the restaurant as long as we wanted, just turn off the lights and shut the back door (don't lock it) when we left! Small town life! We did pay to have breakfast the next day; it was reasonable and delicious.
Friday we drove to Holland and left the camper at our host's spot before driving into downtown to watch the Dutch dancers in traditional dress dance and wander around town a bit. Unfortunately, Mother Nature doesn't pay attention to festival calendars and most of the tulips were either already gone or on their way out. The locals call the Tulip Time festival the buds and stems festival, with abundant blossoms being an elusive hope this year.
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| There was this weird fountain in the main square park - no explanation what or why it is. A local told us the youth call it the moldy penis fountain. |
Frank Baum's family had a vacation home in Holland so the library had this display of characters from the original illustrations.
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| Matthew and his childhood nightmare of the flying monkeys |
On Saturday, we went early and staked out our spot to watch the parade. Evidently, people did this before 6am, but we lucked out at our 11am arrival and found a spot on the street behind a blanket. Leaving our chairs, we wandered through the stores lining the street and people watched.
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| Kansas City has this same sculptureStreet performer playing a barrel organ |
Nearing the parade start, we returned to our chairs and the folks next to us offered the blanket in front since their other party wasn't going to show. We had our chairs, so we offered it to two families with little kids. People here are so frigging nice! The parade was fun with the best being an ice cream company celebrating its 100th anniversary. They had a whole bunch of employees doing a synchronized percussive performance and dance using aluminum ice cream scoops as the instruments.
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A car wash float bubbled the crowd
The evening entertainment was a fireworks and drone show so we walked down to the waterside park to claim a perfect spot. We saw more tulips on this walk than we had in the town center.
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| Yard sign about their dog testing in the shade - could have been written about me |
That ice cream company from the parade was celebrating its 100-year anniversary by handing out free ice cream bars. The cherry fudge was yummy. The fireworks were great and the drone show was so impressive. 
Mother's Day I spoke to my kids and my mother, packed up and drove back into town to walk along the river, see the only authentic Dutch windmill in the US, and enjoyed the warmth of a fire in their (empty) ice rink park.
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| Reminiscent of Zaanse Schans and its crowds |
Ended the night boondocking at a yummy brewery in Muskogen.
Monday we drove to a National Forest outside of Ludington to boondock for a few days. It's been rainy and then chilly so we haven't taken advantage of the nearby state park or the trails here. It's a beautiful place but we've mostly been hunkered down reading and rearranging things. The downtime has been nice.
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| Love the mossy path |
