Day 8: The Great Sibling Trip 2017

About Us

            We are a brother (Detroit, MI) and sister (Houston, TX) who love to travel together to parts unknown. This year my sister flew into Detroit and we began our journey West. Stops include Davenport, IA, the Amana Colonies in Amana, IA, Marengo, IA, Des Moines, IA, Omaha, NE, Grand Island, NE, Rapid City, SD, Sioux Falls, SD, several cities in MN including Mankato, MN, Wisconsin Dells, WI, Marinette, WI, Mackinaw City, MI and back to Detroit.

            We are also stopping for selfies and pictures along the way at some very interesting and unusual out of the way places that you will see in the blog. Enjoy!

Fun Facts:

• Total Miles Driven so far: 2,509
• Average Miles Per Gallon today: 60.4 MPG
• Car being driven: 2016 Prius 4
• Miles Driven Today: 269 Miles
• Weather: Perfect with temps around 90 

     Today was another day filled with driving, searching for geocaches and visiting relatives. Did I mention I'm getting tired of typing these updates? LOL

Several things you notice when you are on a long trip and every night is spent in a different hotel:
     It becomes difficult to remember where your room is, what number it is, what floor it's on and which side of the bed you are sleeping on. The beds seem to face the opposite direction every night and the windows are on the opposite side each night. We tend to leave the bathroom light on and crack the door open in order to figure out where we are when we wake up in the middle of the night having to make a trip to Aunt Susan. Also, the A/C seems to work differently in each room. Amana seems to be the most prominent wall A/C system. Some have a thermostat on the all; others have the temperature on the unit itself; some have digital temperature readouts while others have a rotating dial for "Colder" and "Warmer". Some run a fan constantly while others turn on and off at intervals.
     While I'm mentioning it, the bathrooms have their differences too. Some have an exhaust fan that you can turn on and off while some bathrooms only have some ventilation system we haven't quite gotten used to. Some have heavy doors while others have doors so light you can hear through them.
     Breakfasts? Some have hot breakfasts with some kind of egg and meat along with cereal, hard boiled eggs, yogurt, fruit but almost all of them have the classic waffle making machine that I love. They all have coffee and juice although we just had one place that had a gallon of OJ in a small reefer.
     The most disappointing stay we had was in Candlewood Suites. We paid an arm and a leg for one night in that hotel and we found out it didn't include any breakfast, there was no ice machine and to top everything off, the coffee machine gave us brown water that wasn't even coffee. When we told the front desk, the girl just shrugged. We stayed at hotels that were 1/3 the price but had all the above mentioned items. I don't recommend Candlewood Suites to anyone.

GEOCACHING
     We had some disappointments today trying to find some geocaches. Sometimes they are easy to spot and sometimes they are really tough.
     Today we introduced another cousin to geocaching and she helped us find a geocache that was in the area.
     Pictures of finds are below.

Colorful Car Wash
     We visited the dealer where I bought my car from and they gave me a free car wash to get the prairie dust off. I have to say, it was the most colorful car wash I have ever seen. Look closely and you can see today's mileage (60.4 MPG). This is a shot of the front windshield as the soap was applied.

Colorful car wash soap

Relatives
     Life is so short so we like to visit our relatives. Yesterday and today was filled with laughter, telling stories and good food. Tomorrow we will visit with another relative during breakfast and then head to Wisconsin.

Bad News
     Our cousin in California Emailed us this morning that our favorite restaurant (Schloegels Bay View Restaurant) that serves superb potato pancakes has closed. They served their last meal last weekend. We were really looking forward to eating those potato pancakes. Well we had to see if Mickey Lu Bar-B-Q was still open but they informed us that it would be there forever.

Day 7: The Great Sibling Trip 2017

About Us

            We are a brother (Detroit, MI) and sister (Houston, TX) who love to travel together to parts unknown. This year my sister flew into Detroit and we began our journey West. Stops include Davenport, IA, the Amana Colonies in Amana, IA, Marengo, IA, Des Moines, IA, Omaha, NE, Grand Island, NE, Rapid City, SD, Sioux Falls, SD, several cities in MN including Mankato, MN, Wisconsin Dells, WI, Marinette, WI, Mackinaw City, MI and back to Detroit.

            We are also stopping for selfies and pictures along the way at some very interesting and unusual out of the way places that you will see in the blog. Enjoy!

Fun Facts:

• Total Miles Driven so far: 2,240
• Average Miles Per Gallon today: 59.5 MPG
• Car being driven: 2016 Prius 4
• Miles Driven Today: Over 240 Miles
• Speed Limit in South Dakota on I-90: 80 MPH
• Speed Limit in Minnesota on I-90: 70 MPH

     We were busy today but not as much as the past few days so there won't be too much in the way of text to protect the innocent.

Geocaching
     We did some geocaching in South Dakota and Minnesota. We found several geocaches in both states.

Midwest geocache

Signing the log

Midwest geocache

Midwest geocache

Midwest geocache

What a clever geocache

Graves / Cemetery
     We visited the cemetery where our relatives are buried to pay our respects. It is out in the country in the middle of farmer's fields.

     There is also a grave stone that was discovered buried under a few feet of dirt of a veteran. They cleaned the stone off and placed it on top of the grave site.

     A few years ago we were here and the grave digger told us about a Fairy Circle that appeared in the cemetery. Legend has it that if a teepee had been standing for a long time in one spot, the oils from the hides would drip down on the ground causing the ground to be more fertile.  The result is a circle of darker grass and at certain times of the year, large mushrooms grow in the circle of dark grass.

Fairy Circle

Fairy Circle

Our summer town revisit
     When we were children, we used to visit this town all the time. We try to come back to it when we drive through the state and see how it has changed.

Relatives
     We visited with several relatives on the way to our next destination but to protect their privacy, I won't add pictures here.

Hystad Cabin
     On our drive through the Minnesota county, we ran across the Hystad Cabin. Here are some pictures of it.

Retracing Our Past Through Travel - Day One

     In May, my mom died at the ripe old age of 99 years. She was a marvelous woman far ahead of her time and she lived life to the fullest. She passed away in Pennsylvania but she needed to be buried in Minnesota. She told us she wanted to be cremated and then taken to where she was born in Minnesota to be buried next to her parents.
     This first installment on my blog follows the trip that my sister and I are taking to take our mother's cremains to their final resting place. This trip is retracing a trip that we took countless times to our grandma's farm in Minnesota when we were children.
     So...we begin with my sister calling me a few days before she was to arrive telling me she traded in her gas guzzling mini van for a gas sipping Toyota Prius. Well, I thought to myself, there goes my packing list. You see, I take after my mother and take everything but the kitchen sink with me when I travel. So now I had to repack everything into a smaller sized load. Let's see...slide projector and slides to show to relatives along the way, computer in my Swiss backpack, good camera in my Lowepro backpack, suitcase, survival bag and cooler for drinks. Check!
     I looked out the window as she drove in the driveway and almost fell off my chair. An ORANGE car and a small one at that! Oh No!!! It's a clown car from the circus! Everyone is going to laugh at us!

Here it is!

     I'm thinking to myself "another yuppy car..." but little did I know what the future held for me.

     We packed the car and...well, you better take a look at it...

The full car

     Yes my friends, it is packed to the gills with all our things along with Mom and the back seats are even down. I thought to myself, "Man, the mileage is going to go to hell with all this weight."

     Our first stop on the trip while retracing the drive we took so many times was to Mackinac City, MI to take in the 5 mile long Mackinac Bridge. It's a suspension bridge over Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. 

Here's me in front of the bridge

     Next, you will soon find out that FOOD is at the top of my list so you will most always see pictures of food. We looked up a good restaurant and while on the way, I hit the brakes pretty hard. We heard a loud BANG! when something slammed into the center console. I said "What was that!". My sister calmly said "That was Mom." We had a good laugh. Here's a picture of my fresh Michigan Whitefish dinner.

Whitefish

     After dinner we walked to a local fudge shop and bought 4 slices of fresh Michigan fudge. Boy was it good. 

Fudge

     Last thing I did for the day was venture into a local saloon for something to cool off with. I was enjoying my brew and when I looked up, I saw something familiar; a toilet seat with some writing on it.

1st Place

     The bar entered the 1st annual Outhouse Race in Mackinac City in 2013 and they took first place. Apparently 1st Place was awarded a toilet seat! I should know something about Outhouse Races. They are built on skis and pushed 500 feet on hard-packed snow. I should know; I was the official photographer of the Trenary Outhouse Races for ten years. The races are held every year in Trenary, MI. 

     End of Day One