Ken and Karen’s travel adventures
Wednesday we headed out for a very rough ride to Frankenmuth Michigan. Boy howdie are Michigan’s roads rough! Yikes! At least they welcomed us and I got the picture and we didn’t have to pay tolls. Our mission today was to go visit our very good friends Mike and Patty, who we met in 2018 on our first Great Loop. They have been very special friends ever since.
Wednesday August 25, 2021.
Temp: 🥵 90/71, Humidity: 54/90%, Top Wind:SW 10 mph, Precip: some sprinkles after dark, otherwise sunny and hot, Miles Traveled: a couple
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It was so hot today we just hung out inside the boat. There is free laundry here, so I washed up whatever I could find. Kenny fixed the shower faucet, and worked on Wally – his computer. The cord is not charging the battery, so poor Wally is fading into a slow death. He odered up a new one from Amazon that we can get at our next marina.
Here is our current marina. It is a nice location, with a big grassy areas, picnic tables, grills, nice clean bathrooms and free laundry!
Tuesday August 24, 2021.
Temp: 🥵 93/74, Humidity: 54/91%, Top Wind: NW20+ mph, Precip: Big storm after dark, otherwise sunny and hot, Miles Traveled: a few in a car
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It was a nice sleep-in day, just taking it easy in the morning. Around 12:30, a friend that we’ve never met came to visit! Justin is one of my faithful blog readers, encouragers, and fellow Bayliner owner. He brought us a growler of home-brew-beer: Altbier, which is a style of brewing the comes from Dusseldorf Germany. And we gave him a four-pack of a beer that we picked up for him while we were at Petoskey Brewing. 👍. We visited for a while in the A/C of Island Girl, then set out for lunch and a beer hopping tour. 🍻. It’s kind of funny meeting people who read my blog. They know all about us, so they already know all of our stories!
Read moreMonday August 23, 2021.
Temp: 84/63, Humidity: 50/87%, Top Wind: W13 mph, Precip: none-sunny and hazy, Miles Traveled: 49
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Today looked like it would be a nice day out on the lake, but we were in no hurry. We didn’t even pull our lines and leave the dock until almost 9:00. I know – you early birds are thinking… what? You just lost three hours! 🤷♀️. What can I say. Sometimes the pillow wins the fight. It’s kind of funny, because I never remember numbers in my head. Weird for an accountant, huh? I always rely on what I’ve put on paper and don’t trust my memory. So when Captain first asked how far it was to our next destination, I said 60-ish miles. So he had 6.5 hours in his head. Then I looked at my paper plans, and routed again to make sure, and it was 49 miles. When I told him, he said he’d ask again in a few hours and then maybe it would be 35. HA! But our travel time in his head just went down by over an hour, so why get up early?! And there you have it.
This was our slip at the Eldean Shipyard. We won’t miss the constant water wave action here.
Sunday August 22, 2021.
Temp: 78/71. Humidity: 71/81 %, Top Wind: NW17 mph, Precip: none- Another Sunny HOT & HUMID Day, Miles Traveled: 20-ish by CAR, thank you R&R!
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We learned from a local boater that the Northwest winds are the ones you really have to worry about around here. And today was Northwest all day, which resulted in Small Craft Advisory waves until 11:00pm tonight. It isn’t even that the wind is so terribly strong. It’s that if it blows clear across the lake for very long, it builts giant waves. As long as the wind direction keeps changing, waves don’t have a chance to get big. But if it stays from one direction for very long, especially from the northwest, it’s gonna be ugly out there. And today, it was.
We had a nice relaxing morning just hanging out. Rick & Rhonda from R&R came and picked us up around 12:30 for a land adventure. They live just a mile or two from the marina. We drove the ten miles to Saugatuck and drove around looking for a parking spot and to find some place for lunch. While driving, they spotted a fellow looper named Joe, so we picked him up and took him along. We decided to tootle down to Douglas, which is a tiny little ten building town nearby.
Saturday August 21, 2021.
Temp: 87/73. Humidity: 66/81 %, Top Wind: SW10 mph, Precip: none- Another Sunny HOT Day, Miles Traveled: 15-ish on the bikes
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Today’s adventure was to ride to town and see what there is to see in Holland. Because actually, the marina is located in Macatawa. 🤷♀️ It’s about five miles from the marina, mostly flat on bike lanes or sidewalks, and all along the lake were beautiful homes. It wasn’t a bad ride! First stop in town was the farmer’s market. There was soooo much fresh produce that I had to contain myself. I really wanted to buy some stuff, but it would have had to jostle along and cook in Speedy’s saddlebags, so I didn’t buy anything. Everything was so delicious looking and full of color!
Friday August 20, 2021.
Temp: 87/64. Humidity: 51/91 %, Top Wind: S10 mph, Precip: none- Another Sunny Day, Miles Traveled: 22
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It was a short travel day, so we didn’t want to leave too early – because we didn’t want to arrive at our new marina too early. It was just 22 miles from Grand Haven to Holland, so we bugged out at about 9:00. As we cruised down the channel, this is looking back at the amphitheater and the row of boats along the wall, known as the municipal marina.
Thursday August 19, 2021.
Temp: 87/67. Humidity: 50/93 %, Top Wind: W8 mph, Precip: none! Sunny Day, Miles Traveled: a couple on bikes
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Remember the big ship that came by yesterday? We watched it go back out the channel….. stern first! And then this one came in. I guess this is a one way street and no turn arounds for these monsters. They don’t seem quite so huge out on the lake, but they are just so big in this channel in tight quarters!
Wednesday August 18, 2021.
Temp: 75/55. Humidity: 56/89 %, Top Wind: SW8 mph, Precip: none! Hazy Day, Miles Traveled: 68
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We had kind of a long day planned – at least seven hours at sea, sir. It was another beautiful morning, with the sun decorating the morning sky with beautiful colors and the promise of another blessed day. We pulled our lines and tootled on out of our slip just after 7:00 and we were on our way.
Tuesday August 17, 2021.
Temp: 75/55. Humidity: 56/89 %, Top Wind: SW8 mph, Precip: none! SUNNY ALL DAY!, Miles Traveled: 51
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We had a really peaceful night at anchor. Captain never sleeps good when we’re on the hook, but it was as calm as could be. Very rarely did we even hear water slapping on the hull…. except for when the fishermen were still coming in at nearly midnight! There was a boat launch to the east of us (right about where the sun is coming up) that all the fishing boats went to. But they came in at no-wake, so it was fine. Another beautiful sunrise for another beautiful day on Lake Michigan. I’m sure that these kinds of days are why people live here.
