CHVA Tour 2023: I'm Very Glad We Went by Don Beck

Due to work restraints, Debbie and I didn’t join the tour until Saturday evening in Escanaba. Had a nice meal with some of the group. Everywhere we went on the tour the food was excellent, and we got big portions. I can prove that with my Belt holes moving out. 

Sunday morning we headed out for the Pictured Rocks Cruise, we decided to take an unplanned scenic route, but made it to the boarding docks in plenty of time. It was raining most of the day but it was an on and off very light rain so it didn’t cause a lot of problems. The Cruise was very nice with lots to see. I couldn’t believe how many Kayaker’s we saw out on the cold water. When you’re used to seeing murky river water or lakes with lots of seaweed, it’s nice to see huge bodies of water that were very clear without a lot of debris floating around. 

After the cruise we headed to the Magnuson Grand Hotel, I reserved a lakeside room and had a wonderful view. We had a private deck off the room and a view of the water. You would have thought we were along the ocean, as all we could see as far as we looked was water. We even had one of the local white birds (I don’t know what kind of bird it was), that greeted us on a fence post just outside our room. The bird never moved for over an hour. 

Monday we headed to the Shipwreck Museum. There were a lot of interesting artifacts from ship wrecks to see, including the actual bell from the Edmond Fitzgerald. Up close it's hard to believe how big the lighthouse lights really are, they had a couple on display. We departed here and headed for Tahquamenon Falls State Park. After a very good and filling meal we walked down the trails to see the falls. A few brave souls (believe it or not, including Rich), even walked down the steep and long staircase to the base of the falls for a closer look. We then headed to the Budget Host Inn in St. Ignace. I had reserved a suite room and lucked out. It turns out the hotel had two buildings, one had apparently been fully remodeled, the other had not yet. Our room was great, everything in it was new looking. There was a door in the back of the room and when I opened it I was surprised with an additional bedroom complete with its own TV. (You may have noticed I kept upgrading our rooms, the 19th of September was our 36th wedding anniversary so this was our anniversary trip, so we decided to splurge a little.) 

Tuesday was our Mackinac Island day. Our Hotel was right across the street from the boat dock, but we decided we wanted to drive across the Mackinaw bridge twice to board a ferry on the south side of town. (That’s our reason and were sticking to it). The horse drawn carriage ride had too many people crammed on the carriage, but we learned a lot of history about the island and it was interesting to hear and see how the horses can pull the loads and how they care for them. There were a lot of souvenir shops and places to eat in the downtown area of the island. Only transportation on the island is walking, horses, or bicycles. 

Wednesday we headed south for the Cross in the Woods for a short stop, then to Jax Restaurant for lunch, and then to the Music House Museum. This was my biggest surprise on the trip. I didn’t know what to expect in a Music Museum but it turned out to one of the nicest museums I’ve been to and the items there were on about the same quality level as the Gilmore car museum. It was a huge 100 year old barn that had been restored and contained a large collection of musical instruments that showed some of the engineering marvels of the 18th & 19th centuries. Most of the instruments on display still worked and they demonstrated numerous of them for us. After this we headed to Traverse City for our next stop. 

Thursday we spent time at the Bear Dunes and other scenic view areas and the Maritime Museum. We then headed to Inspiration Point for the photo shoot of tour participants alongside their vehicles. The area was made for a large group of cars at one time and we kind of played musical chairs with vehicles in order to get all the photos taken. We then headed for Joe’s for lunch and finished up the day at the Chateau Chantal Winery. We took the winery tour where I learned some things about wine making that I never knew. 

Friday was a rather leisure day with some more scenic sites and a stop at an interesting restaurant called Oh Brother’s Restaurant. We then headed to Holland MI. We were invited to a local dealership that had a collection of cars, mostly Mopar. Several of us went to the dealership and they had a nice collection of cars for us to look at and even had snacks for us. 

Saturday was the final day of the tour and we headed for the Gilmore Car Museum. It was very interesting that this museum, for being very well known, is actually in the middle of nowhere and we made about a dozen turns to get there. Once you find it, you get to see a large grouping of some of the finest quality cars and restorations that I’ve ever seen, spread out in numerous buildings. There was also an old style roadside diner we ate lunch in. The Model A club was also hosting a National Meet at the time we were there, so there were a couple hundred Model A’s on display and driving around the grounds. This museum was the finest museum I’ve ever been to. Next it was time for the Farewell Banquet at Brann’s Steakhouse where John Hannon proved to us he missed his calling and should have become a poet. 

Sunday morning we headed out about 6:30 am and drove back to Topeka arriving about 6:30 pm. Overall it was a great tour and I’d like to thank Steve for doing a great job.