100 Miles To Kentucky

Following the Ohio River Scenic Byway south from Rising Sun gave us a chance to follow the meandering waterway, admiring the corn fields on the right, and the barges on the river to the left. Forty miles south we came into the town of Florence, Indiana. Florence is the location of the first bridge across the Ohio River south of Rising Sun, and jumps right into Kentucky. What?

A few days ago we were in Michigan. Then we spent a week and a half in Northern Indiana. Now...Kentucky? After crossing the river, we headed north on US 42 toward Warsaw, KY. Just north of Warsaw we stopped at the location of a great shipwreck from the past.

From this vantage point, the majesty of the Ohio can be fully appreciated! It's a huge river!

Taking highway 127 north toward Cincinnati, we had to stop in Beaver Lick to take a couple of photos of a Kentucky Horse Farm!

We were unable to stop at Big Bone Lick due to the time, but we cruised right on into Florence, Kentucky for a quick grooming for Sasha at PetSmart. She has become a stinky dog in this humidity!
Today the humidity index was at 71% with a temp in the 80's, so we were all glowing this afternoon! We stopped for lunch at Rafferty's in Florence, a great local chain. Donna enjoyed a classic Chicken Finger Salad, and I ordered the Thursday special, an open face hot roast beef sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy. A couple of glasses of sweet tea to wash it all down, and we were good to go!

We knew it was a bit of a drive back to our rv park, so we asked our GPS to find the nearest Starbucks coffee shop so we could enjoy a sip of something sweet while we drove. Of course the GPS took us to a Starbucks that was along our route. Cool! Well....following the instructions to the letter got us to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky airport, known as CVG...Huh? Directed to short-term parking, we deduced that the Starbucks was a kiosk inside the terminal! OK, pass on that one.
But the silver lining was an adjacent vista point. A large parking area with a children's play area, drinking water and washrooms has been set aside to watch the comings and going of aircraft. Surprisingly, there were six or eight cars watching and it was a hoot talking to several of them! One gentleman has recently lost his wife after 60 years of marriage and feels lost without her. He comes out to the airport to watch the planes and remember their travels together. He is a local boy, born and raised in Kentucky, and has decided to spend his last years here with his children. We had a wonderful conversation with a fine gentleman.

Back in Indiana, heading south on US 50, we passed through Lawrenceburg and came to Aurora with its extensive riverfront park system. Sasha needed a break so we stopped to look again at this magnificent river. Looking upriver, we had to snap this photo:

Back at Little Farm on the River, Sasha and I took our evening walk throughout the park. We noticed that several new rigs have moved in for the holiday weekend, so let the fun begin!

Get Outta Here!

After eleven nights in Nappanee, six days in service at Newmar, two afternoons having custom furniture installed in the coach by Dave Borkholder of Custom RV, and multiple servings of Amish waffles, we managed to exit "stage right". All of our motorhome issues have been addressed and we have been fortunate to be able to make our home a "home" with some personalized touches.

We met many new acquaintances in Camp Newmar this year. It's easy to have a conversation when you have something in common (broken motorhome things!) and so most every day, after the coaches were returned at the end of the work day (2:30 pm or so), groups would gather, share a cool drink, and talk about the days activities. As you can imagine, a lot of griping went around the circle, but as progress was made on each coach, the attitude of the owners improved.

Bill and Netti are originally from the Netherlands, but have been in the US for years. Bill was in the Army and also had a career in law enforcement. Their coach had a number of electrical gremlins running around it, and they have been steadily working to perfect their Newmar motorhome for several months. It seems that the factory techs now have a plan to correct most of the concerns. Wayne and Debbie reside in Florida. We've struck up a great friendship with them, and hope to meet them again in the future. Dick and Judy are also from Florida, and dropped in without an appointment to fix a few things on their coach. Newmar got them into the system and on their way in three days. We learned a number of things talking to other coach owners, and feel more confident about our own after the Service Dept went over the rig. We're good to go!

We didn't leave Nappanee until about 11 this morning, under a huge Shelf Cloud that preceded a cold front. Heavy rain and thunderstorms were predicted, but didn't appear (thank you, Lord). We headed west on US 6 until we got to US 31, where we turned south toward Indianapolis, passing by Kokomo about half way there. It was a little sketchy navigating through Indy, but eventually we merged onto I 74 toward Cincinnati. We bailed off the interstate at Batesville, Indiana, and drove by the huge manufacturing  facility of Hill-Rom, Inc. Hill-Rom is a major supplier of hospital beds, furniture, other hospital equipment, and hospital technological systems. This facility is huge and was at one time the company headquarters, which have been recently moved to Chicago. It remains one of the companys main manufacturing facilities. The Batesville Casket Company is located right next door, but as far as I know is not related to Hill-Rom. Still.....an interesting juxtaposition, no?

Heading southeast on a variety of state highways, we finally made it to US 50, an old friend from previous cross-country trips. While we were on it for only a short distance, it felt like an old friend! Eventually, just south of Aurora, we pulled into A Little Farm on the River RV Resort. The park is on the west bank of the Ohio River, and we looked forward to seeing some of the shipping traffic while we stay. Unfortunately, that will not happen since many of the sites back up to the river, but our site is a few rows removed. Still, it's nice to see this big river through the trees.

Sasha and I took a long walk this afternoon between rain showers and got a couple of pics of the Ohio. It's got a lot of logs and brush debris along the banks that are left over from the high water of the spring runoff season.

We didn't spend enough time along the river to see a barge, but we heard the sounds of tugboats somewhere upriver.

We burned up 234 miles worth of fuel today (let's see....at 8 mpg.....oh, never mind). We'll be here through Labor Day, and hope to spend a bit of time in Cincinnati as well as cruising up and down the banks of the Ohio. While we're sad to leave the security of the manufacturer of the motorhome and the good friends that we've met over the last few days, it's great to be back on the road!

Here we go again!

Feels Like 101

It's Sunday, 26 August 2018. We continue to camp out in Nappanee, Indiana. The temp is 89 deg F. The dew point is 76 deg, and the humidity is 67%. Very little breeze.

It feels like 101 degrees with a wet blanket over our heads.

We've spent most of the day indoors, with only a few chores outside. No rain is predicted until Wednesday, so I washed the motorhome and regenerated the water softener. A quick trip to the hardware store got us some velcro strips so that we could hang a clock in the living room. The Newmar provided clock was a frilly wrought iron affair that we found to be in poor taste, so we asked them to delete it. Until we find something that is "just perfect", we'll use the battery operated wall clock we found at Menard's (a big home improvement store hereabouts) for $20. Life is good!

This last week has been kinda quirky. On Tuesday we discovered that work on our coach could begin earlier if we drove it to the service facility at 6:00 am and picked it up at 2:30 pm. That saves the drivers time and allows the techs to get almost another hour of work in during the day, so we elected that option even though it meant getting up a bit earlier and being available in the afternoon to pick up the coach. After turning Nessie2 over to the techs, we went to breakfast at the C & C Cafe in downtown Nappanee and then hit the road north. There are a number of rv salvage businesses in the northern Indiana, Southern Michigan area (known as "Michiana") and we had a couple of things that we wanted to pick up if available. From previous experience we knew that Bonderants RV Salvage in White River, Michigan, and headed in that direction. Unfortunately, our trip was fruitless, but the casual drive through the countryside was awesome. Very nice and green even though the locals use the word "drought" a lot. On the return trip, we stopped at Lambright Comfort Chairs to pick up a loveseat that Vernon and his sons had made for us. Somehow all the pieces and parts fit into the Equinox, and when we got back to Nappanee, I coerced a couple of the techs into helping us get the stuff up the stairs into the motorhome (Thank you, Ryan and LaMarr). We discovered that a lot of our motorhome concerns had been addressed that day, and a plan had been developed to finish work by the end of the week, with the exception of a couple of long-lead items that will have to be postponed until our next visit.

On Wednesday, after dropping the coach off at Service, we returned to our favorite breakfast place in town, The Dutch Kitchen. This is a local gathering place for farmers and the like, and is operated by a group of Amish women. The food is good, solid midwestern fare, with biscuits and gravy, eggs, bacon, and pancakes topping the menu. But for about $15 for two people, you can't beat it! Ok, now we're looking for something to do for the rest of the day....

Our tire pressure monitoring system on the motorhome needs new batteries, and they have become a little hard to find, so we decided to drive to Mishawaka, near South Bend, and check at the local Batteries Plus Bulbs store. Sure enough, they had what we needed, and we left satisfied. Taking the long way home through Millersburg, we spotted the location where a fifth-wheel trailer that we once owned was built. The building remains empty, even though the business closed in 2012. Sad.

By Thursday the techs were narrowing down their lists. A couple of doors in the coach had warped since they were built, and a bit of ceiling wood decoration was flawed, so those parts were ordered. We were told to expect those part in about two weeks (after we left), so arrangements were made to ship the parts home. Very accommodating folks around here!

We decided to stay local on thursday, hanging out in the Starbucks at the grocery store, where we renewed our acquaintance with Cindy, who is a schoolteacher in Wakarusa and stops in for a cup of coffee every morning on her way to work. We met her and her husband years ago on our first trip to Nappanee. Cool! We spent Thursday afternoon in the waiting room talking to another couple that is here for warranty work as well. Wayne and Debbie are from Florida and have the most unusual background: Wayne spent many years traveling the world for a Fortune 500 company, spending a year and a half or so on an assignment to various US cities as well as India, Russia, The Netherlands, Germany, and more. It was very interesting to talk with them!

Ok, it's Friday, and the last day of 4:30 am days (we hope). Dropped the coach off, had coffee, ate breakfast, and tried to come up with something else. This is Amish farm country, so a short trip away from town brought us to some signs that advertised local produce (no Sunday sales). Ah ha! Down a mile and a half of dirt road and we found a perfect little Amish farm with a stand selling all homegrown vegetables, corn, potatoes, and tomatoes. We spent over an hour chatting with the young ladies, playing with their dog, and generally enjoying a nice day. Great stuff!

After lunch, Stan called up to say our coach would be ready for pickup soon, so we returned to the waiting room, where we again chatted with Wayne and Debbie until the coach was ready. We spent a couple of hours back at "camp" talking with them before we all decided that an early night was in order!

Saturday we were fortunate to be able to visit the final resting place of the parents of a dear friend of ours. Located near Kalamazoo, Michigan, the village of Gobles was the family home of our friend and we decided to check it out.

We decided that we've had enough of the Interstate System for the moment, and found a route to Gobles that took us on backroads and byways. Heading north toward Bristol, IN, we crossed the "80/90' (a major interstate running east and west. Also a major toll road). Michigan highway 103 got us to US 12, and then a quick turn sent us north on M40. The road into the town of Jones was closed, so we did a short work-around and got back on the rural highway through woodlots and farms. I thought Iowa and Indiana had a whole bunch of cornfields and soybean fields, but southern Michigan is right up there!

We soon came across the thriving hamlet of Marcellus where we were supposed to go into town, make a left, then a right, and continue. The authorities had other ideas! Michigan 40 was closed at the south edge of town and a detour sign sent us to the west. As we worked our way through town, we heard the sounds of a parade, so we bailed off the detour and took up residence at a spot along Main Street. Turns out we were just in time for the Marcellus Bluegill Frolic!

Some residents have eaten more fried Bluegill than others. Jus' sayin'....

But not the members of the high school marching band!

And these members of the local soccer teams probably aren't a pound overweight, either!

Of course, a variety of politicians were represented.

Of course, John Deere was represented!

As well as a local custom car fanatic.

Several entries with miniature horses passed by, including this young fella with his Coonskin cap!

Glad to see the Marcellus Library was represented as well. I'm thinking this is the librarian...

The main part of town was closed for a carnival and car show.

Just north of town we found this Welchs Grapejuice plant. Never did see the grapes, but the plant is here, so....

We stopped at a Farmers Market in Lawton to buy some flowers for the grave that we were going to visit. These flowers were grown and cut from this lady's yard!

We arrived in Gobles, Michigan, population 865, about 1:00 pm. After searching the cemetery for our friends, we were able to pay our respects, comment on some fond memories, and admire the beautiful location. With a fond farewell until next time, we left the cemetery and went into town to find something for lunch. Well, there's a bar. And a gas station. And a convenience store. Maybe not...
Back south in Paw Paw, Michigan (yeah, that's right), we came across the 120 Taphouse. The name comes from the address: 120 Michigan Ave, and the Yelp reviews raved about the food, so in we went. We were greeted by Justin Owens, owner/manager, and introduced to an extensive and unusual menu.

They're famous for their Doobies. Nope...the legal ones. This is their version of an egg roll, stuffed with anything from cheese, pork, dill pickles, to spinach and artichokes! Donna ordered Pulled Pork Tacos, with smoked pulled pork, red onions, and provolone cheese. Wow! I suffered through an Ottorino burger, which included a burger stuffed with colby-jack and swiss cheeses and topped with grilled salami and italian pickled veggies, peppers and olives.  No pictures of any of this....you'll just have to visit and sample yourself!

We didn't want to take the same route home, so we cruised a bit west to pick up M51, which took us due south into Decatur and Cassopolis before dropping us into Elkhart just a few miles north of Nappanee and home. All in all, it was a great day, about 75 miles to Gobles, but worth every pothole.

Sunday we stayed in. As mentioned above, it was not a good day to be out and about. Tomorrow we'll get the last of our furniture installed, and on Tuesday the last of the warranty work on the coach. We've bee assured that the doors and such that were a two week order have been sent sooner, and with luck will be finished and installed on our last day in town. There's an rv site on the Ohio River waiting for us to celebrate Labor Day!

Nappanee, Indiana

Next to a five-star resort in the Caribbean, some time spent at the Newmar factory in Nappanee, Indiana is the absolutely best place to be this time of year......or not.

Over tha last two months of Ness2 ownership we have accumulated a laundry list of small things that we want addressed. You know, little things like the water pump not working, paint missing from obscure roof areas, and the GPS system sending us off into never-never-land. We secured an appointment and brought our ever expanding list of complaints to the factory today. We rolled into town last Saturday afternoon, and promptly saw a sign for Harness Racing at the Nappanee Raceway for 6 PM that evening! Part of the ITPA (International Trotting and Pacing Association), Saturday's races were a tune-up for the ITPA Stakes race scheduled for next Saturday, and the Midwestern Stakes race that will signal the beginning of the end of this years' racing season.
Harness racing is more about driving ability than speed, but some horses really got with the program!

Most drivers are young people under not yet baptized into the Amish community. Adults are prevented from racing of any sort, but youngsters are not, so while adults train, feed and otherwise dump money into the horses, the kids actually race them!

"Rumspringa" is the name used to describe the period of time between the ages of 14 and 16 or so, where Amish youth must choose whether to remain in the faith or leave the community. Most choose to remain, however, after that decision, actual horse racing is prohibited.

The horses are absolutely beautiful! I'm not an expert by any means, but there are "pacers" and "trotters", each with a different gait. Even while limiting themselves to a regular gait, these guys can move!

Trotterbred horses came from breeding standardbred (full-size) horses with Shetland ponies, and coming up with a smaller and more agile horse. These races are very competitive, even though the race purses only average about $150 to $170. Most drivers and owners do so for the love of the sport.

As the lights came on, and the temperature dropped, we snapped a couple of photos and then split for a warmer location!

At the customer service rv park (?), a variety of coaches began to arrive Saturday evening. Most of us, if not all, have service appointments soon, and decided to get into the cheap seats over the weekend. Newmar doesn't charge for staying at either of their locations, so while it's not a destination, it is a destination....

At one time on Sunday afternoon, there were seven Dutch Star coaches onsite with the identical paint scheme: Sea Pearl. Ours is the one on the right near the white car. In chatting with the other owners, we found that we all liked that color because we thought it would be unique! Hmmm! We are all worried about the fact that all these colors were on '18 DSDP coaches with just a few miles on the odometer. Bad Karma, or ????

Today, Monday the 20th, Todd arrived at our coach at about 6:30 am. That's Eastern Daylight Time. Three hours earlier than our normal Pacific Daylight Time....Ouch. We got up at 4:30 to have the coach ready to roll into the service building, and had enough time to cook up a cup of coffee before the crew arrived. Todd is the lead person for mid-line coach repairs, and has assigned a crew of four technicians to our coach. We visited the coach this afternoon in the "hospital" and talked to Stan, the crew foreman, and were very impressed with his knowledge and demeanor. A number of our concerns were checked off the list today in Newmar's new service facility, Building 42. This is an addition to an existing building in an industrial park on the east side of Nappanee. Over the next few months, that original building will be remodeled and the service area will double in size. Both service and parts will be located in this same building, with an rv park located a hundred yards or so away for the convenience of customers as well as techs. This will consolidate functions that are now located in a variety of smaller buildings on the present campus on the west side of town.'

We spent the day today taking a short drive around the center of Indiana Amish country. Shipshewana, Middlebury, Goshen, and Topeka were on the route. Everything looks just about like it did the last time we were here, a couple of years ago. Lovely farm country!

Be Back in a Jiffy

Ok, it's Thursday. We've chosen this day to visit one of the iconic midwestern factories. We've been waiting for this for months, and The Day has arrived!

Located in Chelsea, Michigan, about 50 miles east of us, the Chelsea Milling Company was founded back in the '30's as a traditional grain mill. This part of Michigan grows tremendous amounts of wheat and this local mill allowed farmers to process their crops locally rather than transporting the wheat to mills miles away (mills miles?)

Grain is brought to the mill and stored under strict temperature and humidity conditions in huge concrete silos. As the grain is processed, and taken out of the bottom of the silos, new grain is added. Two types of grain are planted in the US: winter wheat and spring wheat. Winter wheat is planted in September and harvested the following July. Spring wheat, as you might guess, is planted in April or May and harvested in August or September, so you can see that a great deal of grain arrives at the mill in late summer and early fall. Some corn is mixed with the wheat, along with baking soda, sugar, and such, and those items are out-sourced. The wheat comes from an area of about a 150 mile radius of Chelsea.

We watched a couple of short videos about the mill before we entered the actual production area. We found that "Jiffy" came from the wife of the company's founder, when she said that the dinner biscuits would be ready in a.....Jiffy. She also had the idea to retail a ready-to-go baking flour in the now familiar blue boxes. The production volume varies during the year as demand and supplies dictate. The crops come in in late summer, just as the school season starts, and just as retailers are stocking their shelves for the winter holidays. Production is reduced during the Spring and Summer, with staff spending a lot of time cleaning and "tuning up" equipment for the next season. The plant operates 3 shifts continually throughout the year, and produces 1.5 million little Jiffy boxes per day!
Recently the Chelsea Milling Company has expanded into commercial markets with baking products packages in quantities suitable for large-quantity use.

The tour was about an hour and a half long, and very interesting. The tour guides were humorous and informative, and at the end, we all received a couple of boxes of Jiffy muffin mix! Unfortunately, photography is not allowed within the plant, so you'll have to imagine whirring, clanking equipment (most from the 1930's), conveyor belts, tubing full of flour mix, and workers feeding boxes into machines. While 95% of the process is automated, I was tickled to see that a worker sat on a stool beside the machines that fold the boxes, feeding flat cardboard boxes into it, a handful at a time! Hey, Daddy, what did you do all day.....?

I shouldn't do this, but since we're all friends here, I will.....

We were asked to don particular gear before we went into the production area. I should say that a young girl behind me couldn't stop giggling....

Ok, stop it right now!

Tomorrow, Friday the 18th of August, will be our last day in Marshall, MI. We've enjoyed the time here and have discovered several interesting things. I'm sure we missed many more. We will spend the day cleaning, maybe have an extra cup of coffee, and prep to leave here Saturday.

Stay with us!

Calhoun County Fair, 2018

We think we've started to run out of things to see in south central Michigan. But wait....if you give it a little thought and check with the young lady working at the local Biggby Coffee shop, you'll come up with a couple of ideas...

This week the annual Calhoun County Fair is being held. We always like to see local stuff, so we drove south a few miles to Marshall, and the county fairground. With a history spanning some 170 years, this county fair is among the states longest continuous running fair.

The central exhibition building is original to the beginning of the fair, but has just recently been completely rebuilding. The four wings of the building showcase the work of local home-makers, farmers, and students.

Of course, we had to tour the animal exhibits! There were horses, cows, pigs, sheep, goats, and of course, rabbits. We particularly liked this distant evolutionary cousin of our Boston Terrier companion, Sasha!

 These sleepy lambs reminded us of our days with our children in 4-H.

Of course, any county fair wouldn't be complete without an exhibit of both new, old, and unusual farm equipment. This late 1940's Ford tractor is one of the most unusual we've seen! My Dad had one just like it....without the unusual track system.

But then we saw this unusual exhibit:

We particularly liked the decorations in the Horse Barn!

See what I mean? What a way to kill an afternoon, and it was Senior's Get In Free day!

Cereal and Senators

We hopped (ok, slowly crawled out of) bed on Monday morning thinking that a day trip to the home of Kellogg in Battle Creek, Michigan would be a great thing to do. Noting a slow air leak in a tow car tire, we stopped at a Discount Tire store just a bit south of Battle Creek and only about 20 minutes from our "home". The techs found a screw and a nail in the right front tire, repaired the bad areas, replaced the valve stem and rebalanced the tire.....at no charge! We've been customers of the Discount/Americas Tire chain for years, and now we know why.

It turns out that the tire shop is in the same area as a shopping mall, so we dropped by Petco, Bed, Bath and Beyond, Kohls, Bath and Body Works....you get the picture. All that shopping made us hungry, so we stopped at Ruby Tuesday for a salad bar trip.

Now we had the rest of the afternoon to kill in Battle Creek, the home of the Kellogg and Post cereal empires. I offered up a trip to the Gilmore Auto Museum, said to be the country's largest collection. So, we went downtown to try to find the Visitor's Center, and locate some history about the cereal business instead....The address we had for the VC turned out to be the Battle Creek Police Department (no visiting there). We did find an address for the Battle Creek History Museum, but it seemed to be under construction, so we did not venture in. Turns out that factory tours were stopped some thirty years ago, and various attempts to highlight the cereal industry have not been altogether successful. the summer home of W.K. Kellogg in the area of Hickory Corners (just a few miles south of Battle Creek) and is open to the public. Kellogg manor is now used to host weddings, dinners, conferences, and the like. We again were not able to locate the venue, and time was getting away from us, so we decided to take the long way home and spend some quality time with Sasha.

We headed north out of Battle Creek, and drifted a bit east into the little town of Bellevue, where just outside of town are the remains of the Dyer Kiln in a cute county park. This kiln was used to cook limestone to be used in the making of cement, the ingredient in concrete that makes it all get hard.

So....no cereal in Battle Creek, The Home of Cereal.....

We did find out that Kellogg's was founded in 1906 by W.K. Kellogg as an outgrowth of his work with his brother John Kellogg at the Battle Creek Sanitarium. The Sanitarium was sponsored by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, which follows strict dietary guidelines. W. K. was searching for a food that was inexpensive and nutritious and fit in with the Adventist protocol. Kellogg's Toasted Corn Flakes were hugely successful and now the company has offices and factories in 18 countries and is marketed in 180 countries. From 1930 until after the Second World War, Kellogg factories operated on a 30 hour workweek so that additional shifts could be employed. This offered more people work during the hard times of the Depression and War Years. Kellogg's is the world's second-largest snack food company after PepsiCo, owning Pringles, Famous Amos, Keebler and others.

Since we didn't have much luck in Battle Creek on Monday, we decided to head back to Lansing today, Tuesday. On our way we stopped in the community of Charlotte (pronounced SHAR-lot) to visit the plant where our motorhome chassis was manufactured. Uh-oh....no tours. Can't see anything behind the fences and trees. Bummer.

In Lansing our goal was the Michigan State Capital building, located, of all things, on Michigan Avenue.

Construction began in 1872 and the structure was completely renovated in the 1990's. Original cost? 1.5 million dollars! About $50 million in today's dollars. A real bargain, I'd say! One of the ways that was accomplished was the extensive use of native White Pine in lieu of marble or English Walnut. Imported craftsmen used multi-layer paint systems to make the wood appear to be stone or exotic woods. Painted plaster detailing on the walls and ceilings further enhanced the gracious decor.

This original gas/electric light fixture is made of iron and painted to look like bronze. It incorporates symbols from the state's coat of arms: the elk on the left and the moose on the right represent Michigan; the word "Tuebor" under the animals means "I will defend", a reference to Michigan's position along the US border.

Outside the Governor's ceremonial office, one of the few remaining original gas lamps (now converted to electricity) has been refurbished.

The ceiling in the Governor's office is the only remaining original ceiling. It was cleaned during restoration, but not repainted. The "dusty" appearance of the paint is a result of the burning of gas in the original light fixture.

The furnishings in the Governor's office are mostly original to the office, including the magnificent sideboard featuring hand-carved details that was carved by the same craftsman that did the table and chairs.

From the third floor, the rotunda has a completely different look. You may not be able to see them, but the "eye" of the rotunda contains a group of stars. Each star is roughly the size of a dinner plate, which gives the viewer a sense of the height of the dome. Like the US Capitol,  the Michigan State Capitol has two domes, made of iron.

Looking down on the glass tile floor is a bit eerie. The tiles are set so that some people see a depression in the floor (not there), or a slight dome in the floor (not there), or waves in the floor (not there either!)

The original Supreme Court Chamber is magnificent, befitting the station of the justices. The bookcases behind the justices is the only furniture in the capitol made of English Walnut, and the ceiling and columns are elegant.

The tops of the columns are unique works of art. The original artist did not keep notes, and the architect gave the craftsmen a free-hand with their work, so we don't know what they represent. Some see Cheshire Cats. Some see gargoyles. Some see modified Egyptian motifs. Take your pick.

The House of Representatives Chamber was closed today for minor updating, but we were able to view the Senate Chamber with it's 38 chairs representing 38 districts in the state, each with about 250,000 citizens. Next to each Senators' padded chair is a small desk with a wooden chair facing the Senator. This is for their assistants!

The ceiling of the chamber is composed of panes of glass embossed with the seals of each state. Reproductions of original gas lights hang from the ceiling.

Each fixture is lowered to the floor once a year and cleaned. There are over 1,700 pieces of crystal in each fixture, and 6 to 8 hours is required to clean each one!

Of course, being from the West Coast, we had to snap a photo of the California State Seal. As we looked up, the tour guide asked if there were any visitors in the group from out of state. To our surprise, there was another family from California, and indeed, from a town only about 30 miles from our home!

All in all a very attractive structure. Now used primarily for ceremonial occasions, it brings back a hint of the days when government was more formal and structured, and was more responsive to the citizens it served.

As with many cities, Lansing has an "Old Town" that badly needed a make-over. Lansing is in the process of converting many of its old buildings into restaurants and music venues. We chose to have lunch in the Creole Burger restaurant, which is housed in a narrow old building with eclectic decor and an unusual menu.

The menu sports a unique take on the usual burgers....but the hook in the joint is the "Trust Us". This is listed on the menu as a creation of the chef that changes each day, and the server will not disclose the ingredients or the entree until it is served. The only inquiry is about allergies and strong dislikes. Donna decided to go with the surprise, while I opted for the more traditional Creole sandwich.

Donna's burger came with a stuffing of smoked mushrooms, chipotle pepper cheese sauce, and a fried green tomato layered on top! All on a home-made bun.

The Creole Burger was a perfectly cooked patty, with pepper jack cheese and oysters on top. Delicious! We both brough home a half of a burger for lunch (or dinner) another day. The sandwiches were huge!

Ok, now we've done Marshall, Battle Creek, and Lansing....what's next?