Shrine of the Pines

In the early 1920’s, R. W. Overholzer determined to create a memorial to the white pine tree, the Michigan state tree.  He and his wife lived in a small white clapboard house near Baldwin when he started this project but they had to build a new log home to contain all the many pieces of furniture Mr. Overholzer crafted.  His home was eventually given to the state.

He sought out white pine logs, tree stumps, whole root systems and whole trees and crafted them into many various pieces of furniture using only his hand tools. He smoothed out the logs with glass, used sandpaper and raw deer hide.  His rule of thumb was that it had to be done by hand and it could not cost him any money.  Everything you see in the pictures was made by him.  Some things like the wood inlayed table and the chairs around it took over 8 years to build. The table, legs, drawers and all came from one 700-pound stump.  Most tables, cabinets, beds and dressers are from only one log each which he carved or hollowed out and smoothed. He used no metal fasteners and no varnish.

The rest of the day was spent exploring Ludington, grocery shopping and preparing for the rain storm.

Bear Lake Golfing

I have golfed at Bear Creek (at the Lake of the Ozarks) and now at Bear Lake, MI.  What’s next?  Bear River? Bear Bog? or how about Bear Back?  

I talked John into playing golf with me today after it quit raining this morning.  We drove up to Onekama (pronounced O-neek’-a-ma) and enjoyed the scenery along Lake Michigan then after a picnic lunch on Portage Lake (looks like a large bay off of the Lake Michigan) we went inland to Bear Lake where we found a really nice but inexpensive golf course.  It had turned into a beautiful day, despite the wind the course was lush and green but none of that helped our games in any way.  We are too embarrassed to reveal our scores. Although it rarely happens John did score better than me.

We stopped at a roadside bar for a cold bear and one of the patrons told us we HAD to have dinner at Glenwood Inn in Onekama!  He was right on!  We had a great meal and a great dining experience.  We highly recommend this place if you are ever in Manistee County, Michigan.

Biking To Manistee

It seems that people in Michigan stay up late but then they sleep late in the morning.  Of course the sun doesn’t set until 9:30 PM so its not totally dark until well after our bedtime!  

We rode our bikes the three miles into Manistee this morning so I could shop at the Farmer’s Market.  I keep forgetting that produce will arrive here later than in Missouri.  For instance, strawberries are in right now as is asparagus, lettuce, radishes, and new potatoes.  I was getting green beans in MO right before we left home but here they had some really nice peas.  

After riding through white picket fenced neighborhoods with homes like ones found on the Eastern seaboard, we found the 5th Street Beach and Harbor Point Lighthouse.  Even though it does not appear to be a working lighthouse, it is on the National Historic Registry and the sign on it says that the fog horn could sound unexpectedly.  Because of high waves due to storms, there is an elevated catwalk that has been preserved from long ago.  Across the inlet from this lighthouse is another, smaller one.  I have a feeling we’ll be seeing more as we go up the coast.

This afternoon we rode our bikes in the other direction and found another small beach about a mile from the campground.  We rode toward Onekema but turned around about half way there.  We put about 20 miles on the bikes today. 

Orchard Beach

Have you ever seen an orchard on a beach?  Me neither!  But this state park near Manistee is called Orchard Beach because it was first laid out among an apple tree orchard near Lake Michigan.  Today it has no fruit trees, only ash, oak and cottonwood.  We traveled here from Holland after taking one more trek up Mt. Pisgah and then around the side of the dune and back to the campground for a 1.6 mile hike.

We are not exactly on the beach as we have to descend a very steep wood stairway 75 steps to a lovely small, white sand beach at the bottom of the steps.  We walked the narrow shoreline for about a mile north where we found a US flag in the sand.  We had reached a residential area outside of the park.  Then the walk back - that’s 2 miles plus some.  As the park was filling up with campers, we drove into town for dinner and afterward walked the river boardwalk a short distance.  Short, because I’ve had enough walking for one day!

Macatawa Lake aka Black Lake

We finally made it into Michigan which has been our destination for the summer.  We stopped for the night in Holland hoping to spend the weekend at the state park but that will not happen as they have no sites available after tonight.  We should have remembered this from living here 40 years ago.  Back then one had to head to the campgrounds at noon on Friday or you wouldn’t fine a place to stay!  The exodus from Detroit back then was massive on Fridays. It seems to have moved back to Thursdays now as the park is full tonight.

We are within walking distance of Lake Michigan and across the road from Black Lake which is connected to the big lake by a man made canal.  We climbed a massive dune called Mt. Pisgah by hiking up 250 steps.  The view was so pretty of both lakes and the many condos, cabins and mansions lining their shores.  Ottawa Beach is listed on the historic registry since it was established in 1886.  It used to be a huge park with cabins all around the park and an elegant hotel as the mainstay.  But the hotel burned down in 1923.   Pres. Gerald Ford vacationed here.  It seems odd to see such a huge beach on a lake shore but the ancient glaciers left lots of sand when they pulled away millions of years ago.  I have a feeling we will learn more about those glaciers and sand dunes as we travel north along the shoreline.

The long, loooonnng trailer just like the one in the old Lucille Ball movie.

We had a short stop in Elkhart, Indiana this morning before we headed north.  We visited the RV/MH Heritage Museum and were fascinated by the motorhomes of the very early days of 1910 on up to today.  They were first called house cars with some being built on Model T’s.  The first 5th Wheels were trailers hitched to the back of cars where the spare tire or 5th wheel had been mounted. Gulf Streams were first made of wood and painted until after WWII when metal became available again and they switched over to their signature metal camper.  One RV had a painted canvas and tar paper roof.  And the furniture, beds and appliances were still original in many of the RV’s.  Very enjoyable.

Long Drive

At least it seemed like a long drive!  We headed north through Louisville and Indianapolis on some of the worst bumpiest roads we have ever traveled!  So the 7 hour drive seemed much longer! Whatever Indiana spends their tax dollars on it’s not their interstate highways.

We are spending the night near the Newmar factory in Nappanee, IN so we can pick up a small part and then we’ll go the the Motorhome/RV Museum close by. After that we will head north again.

History Through Museums and Distilleries

Since Kentucky played a large roll in the Civil War almost everywhere one goes there is a Civil War museum of one kind or another.  Bardstown is no exception.  I dragged John through two of them today.  The main museum told the story of the war with collected artifacts and story boards and did a very nice job with both.  I came away almost in tears from the stark reality of death and dying on the fields of battle.

A short walk through a reconstructed Bardstown village circa 1870 cleared my head and then we viewed a small museum focusing on the women in the Civil War.  I always think of Scarlett O’Hara, nurses and mammies but the reality is that many women were actively involved in the war.  Not only were they nurses in the field and in field hospitals but a couple of stories told about lady spies with Confederate leanings and more than a few women dressed as men and actually fought on the battle fields.  One lady was a sharp shooter, better than most men, and another not only cut her hair but added a beard and mustache so that she could join the army.  And we can’t leave out the black ladies like Harriet Tubman who risked their lives spiriting many black folks to safety through the Underground Railroad.

We learned a lot about the people of Kentucky by following their family trees as they have been making moonshine, whiskey and bourbon for many generations.  Today we toured and tasted at Heaven Hill and Willet Distilleries.  Heaven Hill produces bourbon with familiar names like Evan Williams and Elijah Craig.  It has a very large production.  

Willet Distillery on the other hand is a small craft distillery so our tour there took us through all parts of the process.  We saw the mash, the yeast bubbling up and the copper pot distiller.  A very small part of their production is automated, they have 40 employees, 8 rick houses, and the master distiller is the grandson while his father runs another part of the production.  By the way, the rick houses where the barrels are stored will hold anywhere from 6 - 10 thousand barrels.  A lot more than I previously reported.

We did not care for the sips we got at Heaven Hill but found Willet’s Bourbon to be very nice.  We had a bourbon flight at a restaurant before dinner and tried 5 more whiskeys with Jim Beam having the best of the ones we picked.  We can’t wait to open our Knob Hill now!

Jim Beam

After a visit to the visitors center in the middle of Bardstown, we walked a few blocks to look at some of the 150 - 200 year old homes.  All have been restored and are used as homes or for businesses.  There were 48 listed but I’m sure there are more.

Our next stop was the Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey History located in Spalding Hall.  This 200 year old building used to be part of a boys school, was a Civil War hospital and now is part of a college campus.  Mr. Getz collected many rare bottles, some still filled with whiskey, Carrie Nation’s hatchet, advertising art, and old copper stills. Information about the various families who have made and are still making whiskey in this area lined the walls.

Did you know that Bourbon is always a whiskey but whiskey is not a Bourbon?  Bourbon must be produced in the USA, be made of 51% corn, free of additives, aged in new, charred, white oak barrels (many come from Missouri!) and aged for a minimum of 1 years.

The tour of Jim Beam’s Distillery started in their small batch distillery since one could easily see the whole process of whiskey making.  First you grind the corn, rye and malt, mix it with boiling water, add the yeast and then cook it for 3 days.  It is distilled twice before it goes in the barrels where it is aged from 1 to 12 years.  Most common bourbon is aged 4 years.  We went into parts of the main distillery where we saw the large cooking tanks and the final product coming out of the still.  In the bottling facility we ‘washed’ our own bottle with whiskey then followed it through the process of filling, capping and labeling before the wax seal was added.  At the end of the tour we had our bottle etched with our name and we are the proud owners of some fine Knob Creek Bourbon aged 9 years.

Jim Beam has over 72 warehouses for their barrels, each holds over 1500 barrels, each barrel will produce about 225 bottles of whiskey.  They have produced over 13 million barrels since 1794.

The single barrel dumped through a screen then “our” bottle moving through the bottling line.

We had two tastings from the numerous blends and flavors of Jim Beam.  I’m not much of a whiskey person but the 9 year old bourbon was definitely better than the 1 year old I tried first.

College Roommate

After spending a couple of days with my mother in St. Charles, MO we drove to Newburgh, IN where we spent Saturday and Sunday morning with my college roommate Colleen and her husband Dave.  I had seen Colleen last about 10 years ago when she joined my girls ski group out in Breckinridge, CO.  We had such a great visit.  I don’t think Colleen has change any through the years.  They live right on the magnificent Ohio River and within walking distance of historic downtown Newburgh (outside of Evansville).  This town was established in the late 1700 and was a major stop on the Ohio River between Cincinnati and New Orleans.

We left Colleen and Dave and drove to Bardstown, Kentucky, the second oldest town in Kentucky, the home of Stephen Foster (My Old Kentucky Home) and - this is the important thing - the center of Bourbon country!

Home and Gone Again

I was so excited to arrive at our daughters home in Norman, OK and play with our grandsons that I completely stopped writing. We enjoyed the Easter weekend with our family and arrived home April 21. 

 

We spent Labor Day Weekend camping with RJ and Erin's families on Beaver Lake, Arkansas then a week camping with our 8-year old grandson in Branson, Bull Shoals and Petit JeanState Park.

 

We are now on the road for our summer adventure. Our plans are really loose at this ime. We know we will be in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan mid-July, Oshkosh last week of July and at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN on August 4. After that is a big question mark.