Michigan: the Rest of the State and Headed to New York State

I have a much better appreciation of Michigan after 11 days around the state. Tom went to Pinckney High School, near Ann Arbor, MI and lived on and off in that area for about 9 years, but this trip was his first visit to the Upper Peninsula and Northern MI. We dropped down to Southern MI and we revisited Memory Lane around Detroit, even though we didn’t visit the Pinckney or Ann Arbor area.

We spent our 32nd Anniversary crossing from Michigan, across the northern boarder of Ohio, a bit of Pennsylvania landing just east of Buffalo, NY. 3 more states to add to my state map of our RV retirement travels!

August 4 – 6: We drove across the Mackinac Bridge to spend a few days in Northern Michigan with Kathy and Bill Gilbert, friends from church in Boulder, CO, playing tour guide. We were hosted for a lovely afternoon at their “cottage” on Lake Louise and then they toured us around the area with stops at Lake Charlevoix and Petoskey.

Bill & Tom enjoying conversation lakeside

Sunset at Lake Louise

Bill, Kathy, Jeanne & Tom

Fine dining lakeside

Another Mushroom House

Charlevoix Mushroom house by Eric Young

Petoskey Marina

August 6 – 8: Then we headed down to the Detroit area for Tom to continue his sleuthing on family history (I call it “looking for dead people”) on his father’s side at The Cathedral of St. Paul Episcopal Church and two historic cemeteries, Woodland (where Tom’s great grand uncle Rt. Rev. Warren Lincoln Rogers, great great grandfather Samuel Hartshorne Rogers and additional Roger’s family members are buried along with Rosa Parks and Aretha Franklin) and Elmwood (where Tom’s great great grandmother and quite a few Motown greats are buried), then visited the now so called “RenGMCen” (GM’s Renascence Center) in downtown Detroit. We finished up with dinner near our campground visiting with Ellen and Tom Wietecha, the parents of Will’s good friend and former room-mate, Nick, from university.