Sleeping Bears

M22 is a Michigan highway that runs along the Northwest coast of the lower peninsula.

It takes travelers along some of the most beautiful stretches of road you will ever see.

My little car was begging me to take it here.

Good Morning America asked viewers to vote where the most beautiful place in America is.

America voted for M22 and The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park.

For reasons that you are about to see, I think you might agree.

As you enter the park, this is one of the first things that you see.

At the first turn off, you can look out over these lakes and the rolling countryside.

The leaves were just starting to change when we took these photos.

Imagine this scene in full fall color.

Here, we get our first glimpse of the dunes and a hint of Lake Michigan in the distance.

The dunes are constantly changing so it may look different each time you visit.

It's so nice to get away from our busy schedules for the day.

Here, you can see the sleeping bear herself. The large mound would be her belly and the small point to the right would be her face. Several years ago, it looked more prominent than what we see today. After all, the dunes are constantly changing.

The native story goes:

There was a huge fire in Wisconsin that forced the mother bear and her two cubs out into Lake Michigan for safety from being burned to death. The bears swam and swam. Finally, the mother bear reached the shore of Michigan and fell asleep in the sand. When she awoke and turned to her cubs, she noticed they didn't make it to the shore. They had drowned just off the shore. Where they laid, sand deposited and formed the Manitou (Bear) Islands. The mother laid down herself and let the sand cover her. From the Sleeping Bear Dunes, one can see the islands just off the coast to the North.

Wildflowers along the path to the dunes.

Back in the car to the next scenic turn-out.

I've been here before. But Edward had no idea what he was about to see.

A 450 foot cliff of sand that drops off into Lake Michigan.

Some vegetation tries to hold the hill together. But the mountain of sand moves about 2 feet East each year.

By the size of the people in the photos, you can judge the size of this sand hill.

The view to the North. You can see the south island in the distance.

Looking to the South you see miles and miles of Michigan coastline.

From here, it is 53 miles to Green Bay Wisconsin, if you can swim that far.

It is fun to run down this mammoth sand dune. 

Just remember, it's 450 feet up, climbing sand

that falls to the lake as you try to climb back up.

It is HIGHLY recommended to NOT try this.

The dunes are about 2 miles deep and more or less run the length of the western coast of the state.

Even a gentle breeze across the lake hits this wall of sand and is forced upward at a high rate of speed.

It was all I could do to keep my shirt from flying right up over my head.

It was a beautiful late summer day in mid-September.

Temperatures were perfect.

A slice of heaven.

It really doesn't get any better.

HD Thoreau wrote, "Heaven is under our feet,

as well as over our heads."

I'll remind you, It's your choice weather to find it or not.

You don't need to travel to the most beautiful place in America to find heaven.

Look around you.

Look at the wonderful people and places that you've chosen to surround yourself with.

You can't control others. 

But you can control how you feel.

Choose heaven every day.

From here we'll see more of this amazing coastline.

Bear Lake

There we were. In Bear Lake Michigan. 

As a small child, I remember coming here to visit my father's mother. My grandmother. Gongi as my cousins all called her. But she was Grandma to us. She lived here with her third husband Sylvester. We called him Grandpa Sy and loved him as much as our actual grandfather.

Coming here now, I could see what they saw in this place.

Life just moves a little slower here. And the vistas are absolutely amazing.

But you'll see more of that in the next post.

After finishing our horseback riding adventure and driving past Grandma's old house, and visiting many memories that until this day had been put away in the dusty corners of my mind.

we grabbed a quick snack.

Since Bear Lake is near the Leelanau Peninsula and Traverse City (the cherry capital of the world),

Cherry-Maple Jerky and these Polish Roses seemed a good choice. 

Our next task...

Finding Grandma.

After her death in 2002, I was not able to attend her committal service and therefore,

had never visited her grave. I've found that until you get your chance to say good-bye, 

a person isn't really gone in your mind. I knew she had died, but I still found myself watching weather reports for her area and wondering how she was.

Since I had finally gotten the chance to visit my Grandfather's grave last year (Her first husband that had died in 1981), and I've buried both my parents and visited Ed's mother's grave too, my Grandma was the only one I had not had the opportunity to say good-bye to.

It was time.

Time to find Grandma and let her go.

We found the cemetery easy enough. Then we quickly got distracted by all the kewl markers that we found.

I've seen Woodsman stones before, but this one was unique.

Finally, we decided to start at one end and search until we found her.

We devised a plan and started on our way.

After about 30 seconds of searching, Edward once again, went right to it.

We found her here next to Sy.

It was nice to be able to put 11 years of wondering to rest.

To finally say, Good-bye Grandma.

You are truly missed.

If there is an afterlife, I know she's happy to see her boy (my dad) again.

We found this symbol next to her husbands grave.

We've both been in the funeral business a long time but have never seen this one before.

If anyone knows what it is for, I'd be very interested.

Perhaps a fraternity or other group of some sort.

After saying good-bye, I turned to see my car. It seemed to be waiting for me. 

Ready for the driving adventure that was to come.

Kit Kat Too

It's happened again!

A trip down the street to the post box resulted in yet another wonderful surprise from far away.

I really do have the greatest friends in blogland.

Some new found flavors are quite the delightful way to finish off a busy weekend.

Thanks Anne & K! Y'all are too much. It's so nice to get something other than bills in the mail. And you really seem to know where my sweet tooth is.

If you haven't checked her blog out yet, click on over to Morning AJ for a variety of interesting topics and a wonderfully sweet friend. In case you missed it, This happened back in August.

Rockin' R

Let me tell you of a little trip we took a couple of weeks ago.

As you know, it's difficult for us to get away. I'm a man in high demand!

When we do get away, it's usually for only a day and then back to work.

So when we get the chance to escape, we squeeze in as much as humanly possible.

So after finishing up a service on Friday afternoon, I rushed home to through a few things into a bag and we were out the door. A four and a half hour drive was in front of us and it was rush hour, so we knew it would be longer.

We got to Cadillac Michigan as the sun was setting over the lake. I had to stop and get this photo as we cruised through town. It was a start to an incredibly beautiful trip.

We got to our destination at about 10:30pm and had been warned by the manager over the phone

 that they lock up tight at eleven. No exceptions!

It was a creepy place reminiscent of something out of psycho.

Morning came and I took a shower without incident so we proceeded with our plans.

Next stop. The Rockin R Stables.

It was a bit of a ghost town. But since when has that scared us off?!

As we strolled into town, we spied this makeshift cemetery and began to wonder where he had landed ourselves.

The sign says welcome. But I'll pass on the wild bear, thanks.

Edward was quick to make a few friends down at the saloon.

But, what are we doing here?!

My Eddy has never ridden a horse.

And a man can't go through life without having ridden a horse.

It's just not right.

I found this ranch just 4 doors down from where my Grandmother lived when I was a child.

Since I had not been back there for some 30 years,

we decided it was time.

He's still a little nervous here.

He was like a little kid. So nice to see. Look at that smile!

I rode a horse named Charm and he, Charisma.

I think Charm kept falling asleep and Charisma wanted a snack.

She kept eating during the whole ride.

The view from atop the hill.

Come on, keep up.

Then Charm fell asleep and Ed and Charisma tried to cruise by.

Looking more natural now.

Our guide for the day kept having to wait for us.

Am I a natural?

Just look at these studs.

After our long ride, we rallied back at the Trading Post for a cold one and game of checkers.

What a great way to start our mini-trip.