Rochelle, Illinois

Three hundred and seven miles from Charlotte, MI, finds us parked in a Walmart parking lot in Rochelle, IL We were not looking forward to the drive through Chicago suburbs, but for the most part, the trip was "OK". Road construction south of Charlotte started our day out with a bang. Literally.

 We found that the roads in Michigan leave much to be desired. At one point, we unavoidably hit a pothole that had to be two feet in diameter and...who knows how deep. The frame of the motorhome will never be the same. 

Interstate 94 leaves central Michigan heading west and skirts the southeastern flank of Lake Michigan. Just before we got to the lake, we passed the sign for a town that we have a particular fondness for. 

Paw Paw, Michigan, is the home of the 120 Taphouse, a great little restaurant that we discovered several years ago while visiting friends in the hamlet of Gobles, just a few miles north of Paw Paw. Unfortunately, a special lunch was not on the schedule today, so we continued on into Indiana.

We stopped at one off the nicest rest stops we've seen to start the tow car. We've been having difficulty with the electrical charging system on the car while we tow it, and have begun to stop every few hours and let it run for awhile.

After navigating around the south end of Lake Michigan and through Gary, Indiana, and Joliet, Illinois, we found ourselves on Interstate 39 heading north and passing by yet another town with an interesting name:

This area of Illinois is as flat as Kansas, with thousands of acres of land just now sprouting the summer crop of corn.

Sliding off the road at exit 99 and driving west a mile and a half got us to a Walmart Superstore that allows overnight parking. The parking lot is a bit congested, but we worked our way to the truck delivery area, turned a great big U-turn, and found a few unused parking spots that we proceeded to commandeer!

The huge grass area at the edge of the parking lot is perfect for Her Majesty Sasha! She has already explored it and is now demanding a ball-throwing session! Not a bad over-nighter.

Tomorrow we're back on the road, continuing north. It's supposed to rain.....

Charlotte, Michigan, Day 2 and Day 3

 Plans to get together with Dave and Toni were delayed a bit by weather on Friday, the 28th of May. The temps were in the 40's with winds gusting to  20 mph and heavy rain in the am. It is unusual for mid-Michigan to have such cold weather this time of year, but not totally unheard of. Dave and Toni dropped in about 2 in the afternoon, and after a great reunion, we went to downtown Charlotte for dinner at The Thirsty Bird. I should have taken a pic or two, because this place is a small, narrow, old building that has been remodeled with exposed old brick walls and pressed tin ceilings. A local hangout, the menu was "enough", with burgers and appetizers being the main items. Queso cheese dip and chips started us off, then Donna wolfed down a bacon cheeseburger and I dove into a "Cam" burger, which had a fried egg and bacon on it. Side salads went all around. The server was also the owner, and she treated us very well, which was unexpected because she had been unable to get help and was doing everything but the actual cooking herself!

On Saturday, we were greeted with a clear, sunny day, and a brisk breeze. DnT took us to one of our favorite places in the area, Horrocks Farm Market in Grand Ledge, Michigan. Located a bit southwest of Lansing, Horrocks has a selection of "stuff" that knocks our socks off. They also have a picnic area near a lake where we could sit and enjoy the view, so we started there.

The patio is near the greenhouses and the outdoor plant displays. From flowers to Firs, they probably have it all!

The building covers most of a city block. Inside they have jams, jellies, soups, candy, cheeses and bread. Gardening supplies, pet supplies, and gifts.

'Twas a Saturday, so the store was extremely busy. Even though Michigan is preparing to relax Covid protocols come the first of June, most people were either wearing a mask or keeping as much distance away as they could. What a remarkable store! After spending a couple of hours there and running up a hefty tab, we checked out and ran for the car!

On the way back to the motorhome, we stopped at The Sanctuary, also in Grand Ledge. This refurbished church has been turned into a distillery and brewery, but the reason we stopped was for the Mexican food from the food truck in the parking lot. Alas, they were closed for the Memorial Day weekend, and we struck out. Oh, well. We suffered through.

Disappointed with the food truck, we took a quick side trip to downtown and stopped at Cancun, a great Mexican restaurant that we've patronized in the past. Chili Rellenos, Quesadillas, chimichangas, and shrimp dishes took care of our disappointment!

And so concludes our visit to Charlotte, Michigan. We got reacquainted with old friends and enjoyed a variety of weather while doing it! We'll be back!

Charlotte, Michigan Day 1/2 and Day 1

Before we leave Marysville, OH, I have to post another photo. The parking lot at Walmart was settling in for the night and Sasha and I stepped outside for a "break". It was a day before the Full Moon/Blood Moon but the sight was wonderful. We both looked at it for......5 seconds or so.

Since we were already on US33 heading north, we continued on that highway toward Ft Wayne. Through Bellefontaine and Cherokee, and then on to New Hampshire (no, not that one). We turned west there, and went through Wapakoneta on our way to US127.

The road was divided highway through farmland for the most part, with sections of two lane here and there. The weather had turned wet and cloudy just after leaving Marysville, and it became an interesting drive across the freshly tilled fields.

Along the way we passed a large wind turbine facility, placed just behind a long forgotten home.

Ohio booted us out into Indiana and we creeped through the main street of Van Wert. I wish that photos had been possible as we went through a town that has so many stately, old mansions. I'm sure that Van Wert has a lot to enjoy.

Just north of Van Wert, we turned northwest toward Ft Wayne and points north, finally pulling into the customer service parking lot at Spartan Motors in Charlotte, Michigan.

Technically this lot is reserved for motorhomes that were built on a chassis provided by Spartan, but the Service Department "indicated" that very little was happening this week, so we "might" be able to "take a chance" on finding a spot for "a day or so". We figured we would chance it. The rain from Ohio and Indiana had disappeared, and the day was warm. We choose a site far away from the service area that only has an electrical receptacle, but the plant has a dump station and water supply nearby. We emptied some tanks, filled others, and moved in.

Sasha immediately made herself comfortable, as a young lady should.

There are two main reasons for visiting the little burg of Charlotte, and they both involve good friends. Some years ago we met Bill and Diane in Arizona and became friends. Over the years we've spent time traveling with them and enjoying their company. They spend the summers in northern Michigan, so we wanted to see them. Unfortunately, due to the upcoming Memorial Day weekend, rv sites were impossible to find, hence the stay at Spartan, but we still wanted to visit with BnD, so we elected to meet for lunch about half way between our "homes". We chose the town of Bay City, Michigan to host our party.

Bay City is located near the base of the Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron, about 124 miles from our "home", through Lansing, Flint, and past Frankenmuth. The city is divided by the Saginaw River and benefits from a deep water channel from Lake Huron that encouraged lumbering, milling, and shipbuilding in the late 1800's. It remains a thriving community of 35,000 plus, but still retains strong ties to its past. In 2010, a workman was grinding metal in the attic of the 113-year-old City Hall and the sparks started a blaze that caused the sprinkler system to run for nearly two hours, resulting in a multi-million dollar remodeling project to the historic building. Downtown has been restored as a destination for restaurants and shops, so we met at Populace Coffee on Saginaw St to get reacquainted. Populace has a different take on coffee, with special care and attention given to each cup. Each cup is prepared individually from beans ground just for that cup, and water quality, amount and temperature are strictly controlled. This is not a mass-production operation.

After good coffee and good conversation, we (some of us anyway) shopped for knickknacks and clothes at My Secret Garden just down the street, and then, after lightening the wallets and purses a bit we slid into Gatsby's Saloon for a late lunch. The food was very good, the service attentive, and the prices were very reasonable. 

As I write this, Friday morning, the 28th of May, we are experiencing another thorough soaking rainstorm. It has been raining since midnight last night, and is expected to continue raining until mid afternoon. Hopefully that won't impact the second reason that we're in Charlotte: friends Dave and Tony. They also spend summers in Michigan, but travel throughout the rest of the year in their motorhome. They enjoyed a grandchild's school graduation yesterday, so a late afternoon visit is on the schedule. 

More on that later, if the rain stops!

Need to Have a Backup Plan

Left Princeton, West Virginia, this morning in a light mist. We've enjoyed the area, and having a few days to decompress is absolutely wonderful. The people, the food, and the local sights are wonderful. We found miles and miles of trails to explore on the SxS should we ever come back this way with the machine, and allowed as how we could probably live here. At least until the trails ran out!

We're heading north toward Michigan where we'll spend a few days catching up with friends. The halfway point is near Columbus, Ohio, so we planned an overnighter at the Ohio Expo Center. Part of the fairgrounds complex, and just a few blocks off of Interstate 71, we figured it would be a great place. They advertise hundreds of rv sites, and do not take reservations, because  they say they never fill up except during fair time. This info and our plans were based on their website, which we found out today, hasn't been updated since 2010! It turns out that the entire facility is closed to the public, evidently due to the "Vid. We pulled in, noticing that there weren't any other rv's about, but not seeing any signs or closed gates, and set up. A nice Rent-A-Cop soon came by to encourage us to leave. Like in an hour, ok? After a bit of grumbling, we checked on our backup plan. Unless we have a guaranteed site at an rv park, we usually find an alternate site. Today the plan worked! 

Interstate 77 took us north toward the Ohio border, and near Silverton we turned west on US 33, which is primarily a four land divided highway all the way to Columbus. The Expo Center is located in a sketchy part of time, and we were approached by a seedy older gentleman that offered to show us the town for a small fee. After we left, we thought that the Good Lord was watching out for us, as we wouldn't have gotten much sleep!

Plan B was a Walmart in the town of Marysville, Ohio, just 35 miles north of Columbus. Marysville is the home of Scotts Miracle-grow Products, so the sign across the highway at the edge of town says "Where the grass is Greener". Founded in 1819 by Samuel Cuthbertson, who named the town for his daughter Mary, it has hosted research and development facilities for Nestle and a Honda motorcycle assembly plant. Frank Lloyd Wright built a Prairie Style house here, and at least eleven additional different building styles are to found in town, from Cape Cod to Italianate Victorian. Pretty interesting little town!

So, after 286 miles, we scored a site near the grass at Wally World. Sasha approves of the grass, but the 90 degree temperature and high humidity has slowed her down.

Onward and Upward tomorrow!

West Virginia, Day Three and Day Four

After a trip through West Virginia coal country on Friday, we needed to have a "down day" to do laundry, clean the motorhome, and such. And, I've got to tell you, the trip through the hard scrabble towns in the hills and valleys of Southern West Virginia was an eye opener. With a little imagination, the bustling villages can come to life. Underfed, overworked men, women, and children can be seen laughing together after a days' hard, satisfying work; gossiping over the "doin's" of the neighbors family. Dirty long days in the mines, always with the threat of explosion, cave-in, and mine closure in the back of everyones mind. Boys went off to the mines at twelve or fourteen because their income was needed. Girls were expected to leave home as soon as possible to lighten the load on the family table. But they made a kind, resourceful, considerate and accepting life. Generations of families came and went, not knowing anything about life outside the "holler", their only touch of outside at the company store.

We are in awe at the life these coal mining families led and that now is lost.

So, Saturday was a cleanup day. We finished our chores in the late afternoon and went into town for a cup of iced tea....

We have not experienced the drink that was presented to us: Black iced tea with lemon and sweet cream! Must be a West Virginia thing! We felt refreshed after drinking it, but allowed as how we probably won't repeat the experience!

Sunday, we needed to see a couple of the sights around Princeton. Just a few miles from the rv park, Pipestem State Park has a nice camping, golfing, hiking, zip lining, tram riding, and sightseeing facility. We drove around the park expecting to see rock formations that resemble pipestems but were disappointed. Turns out, a Pipestem is an evergreen shrub native to the southeast, with stems growing to 12 feet high. The stems are hollow, hence the name....

Evidently there are a lot of them around here, but we didn't see any. Must be the wrong time of year!

An overlook along the road gave us a bit of a sense of the mountains that surround the Bluestone National Scenic River. Zip lines and a tram normally descent from the state park down to the river, but the entire operation is closed for remodeling.

Forty miles southwest, near the town of Bluefield, we took Highway 598 to the top of a mountain where West Virginia and Virginia meet. A scenic lookout gave us a cool view of Bluefield and surrounding area.

We slid back onto I 77 North at Rocky Gap, Virginia, and soon came to the East River Mountain Tunnel.

Opened in 1974, the 5,412 foot long tunnel lies almost exactly half and half in the states of Virginia and West Virginia. It's one of only two tunnels in the entire country that crosses the border between two states. The only other state-crossing tunnel is the Cumberland Gap Tunnel between Kentucky and Tennessee. Before the opening of the tunnel, travelers crossing East Mountain had to navigate the narrow, twisting, two lane Highway 598 that we had just traversed! Closed for fog and snow often in the winter, the road presented an obstacle to interstate travel.

After an arduous 85 mile day trip (!), we stopped in Princeton for a little lunch at Tudors Biscuit World! With everything on the menu revolving around biscuits, how could we go wrong? Well, reheated biscuits and hockey puck sausage smothered in leftover sausage gravy kinda ruined it for us. No pics, folks, nothing to see here.

On our way back to Brush Creek Falls RV Resort (whew! I'm glad the name isn't any longer), we stopped at a narrow bridge and admired.....Brush Creek.

Ya gotta love the scenery in West Virginia!

West Virginia, Day Two

 Just ripped off 114 miles today. Nice, short, enjoyable day of sightseeing.

From the rv park we headed west on US52, through Princeton, and on into the hills and valleys of Coal Country via the Coal Heritage Byway. We made our first stop at Pinnacle Rock State Park.

A short but steep climb brought us to the south side of the rock and a view that encompassed three states: West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina!

The hills are densely packed with hardwood forests. Gotta be here in the fall!

This spur of Flat Top Mountain is ore than 2700 feet above sea level.

The town of Bramwell, "Home of the Millionaires", is so named because many of the coal barons of the late 1800's and early 1900's built fancy homes in the area. Bramwell sits beside a creek, has a bit of flat ground for construction, and was far enough away from the coal mines that the ladies wouldn't smudge their dresses on the coal dust that seemed to permeate the very air itself.

Today, coal mining takes a seat in the very back of the bus. The main attraction now is the Hatfield~McCoy off-road system that snakes through West Virginia mountains for more than 1,000 miles! 

There are numerous entry points to the system, but Bramwell seems to be the hotspot to enter the Pocahontas area.

King Coal has been beaten and battered, enduring booms and busts. Now is a bust. There are still mines operating, and train cars hauling coal out of the mountains, but not like the "good old days". Locals cling to the hope that coal will come back, but regulations are stifling the industry, leading to hundreds of small towns that once survived on a local mine to die a slow death.

Empty houses and commercial building stand silently waiting. For something.

Passing through Switchback, Elkhorn, Powhatan, and Northfork, we arrived in Welch, the county seat of McDowell County, with a population of 2,500. 

It is a vibrant city, having shifted it's economic base from coal to new state and federal prisons. However, Welch, in the 1950's proclaimed itself "The Heart of the Nation's Coal Bin", and has not forgotten it's roots. In 1892, Welch was made the county seat by election, replacing the town of Perryville. Results of the election were contested, so to avoid violence, county records were secretly moved by wagon in the middle of the night! In 1921, the Welch City Council met to discuss the impeachment of then Mayor JH Whitt. Whitt showed up at the meeting and disrupted the proceedings. The City Council asked Sheriff William Johnson to investigate. Later that day, Mayor Whitt shot and killed the sheriff, and then arrested and charged with murder. He won acquittal allegedly based on perjured testimony and left the area for parts unknown that same year.

PARKING LOT?

Tuning south on 103 towards the "Friendly Town of Gary", we came across this coal conveyor belt system crossing the highway. 

Most of the small coal towns had some form of company housing. Some homes are still being used, some are not. Many are simply boarded up.

We decided to skip the towns of Skygusty and Horsepen, but made a note to try to get back to Jenkinjones. A return to Princeton found us at the only known Dairy Queen to have it's own menu in addition to the company fare. Upon a good friends recommendation, we ordered slaw dogs, a soda, and a berry shake. The dogs came with mustard, chili, slaw and onions. I'll let you know later this evening if I liked them...