Several years ago, Rich announced plans to host a national tour around Lake Michigan, and as most of the route would be new experiences for us, Sherri and I were both looking forward to the upcoming trip. Then COVID-19 hit, and the tour was postponed. Although not officially named as such, then COVID-20, COVID-21… but as the trip finally became a reality, we were ready to hit the road again. Steve & Diane Schneider took over the trip planning with the tour starting in Oshkosh.
With my father’s passing last summer, we had spent a lot of time working with my mother through the transition and all the changes in her life. Last April we decided she needed to get out of the house, so my oldest son went up to Iowa and brought her down to Kansas City for a week. We gave her the grand tour, and on one of the afternoons, I took her out for a drive in our ’78 Lincoln Town Car, which she had not seen before. Part of the reason for taking her out in the car was to pitch the idea that she could accompany us on the national tour in the fall. Sherri was also working on the same with her mom and both agreed to go.
The day before the tour started, we headed up to Fort Dodge, IA to pick up Sherri’s mom and then headed over to Cedar Falls, IA to spend the night and get my mom in the morning. A Lincoln has a huge trunk but 10 days of luggage for four will do a decent job of filling it. The trip to Oshkosh was smooth and it was great to reconnect with the CHVA family. Our first stop was the EAA Museum and it’s a great venue of aviation history. After lunch the group ventured to The Paine, a mansion and arts center. Upon learning the history of the home, it reminded me of a line from the old Joe Walsh song, Life’s Been Good – “I have a mansion, forget the price, I’ve never been there, they tell me it’s nice.” As spectacular as the home and grounds were, the family never lived there. After the depression and WWII delayed the interior finishing, it was directly opened to the public.
Saturday we were on the road again with the Iron Mountain Mine being the day’s attraction. Neither of our moms had been in a mine or underground like this before so it was quite an experience for them. At a gas stop, my mother-in-law said she wanted to cover the fill up. I’ll bet she regretted that decision after the pump whizzed past 20 gallons. The Lincoln is many wonderful things, but fuel efficient is not one of them. Sunday was the only day we encountered rain on the trip so the boat cruise out to Pictured Rocks was wet, although at least the return trip on the boat let up enough to stand outside and get some good pictures. We headed north to the Magnuson Grand Hotel which afforded nice views out onto the water.
Monday, we continued north to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, another great museum full of fascinating history of what the men in the U.S. Life Saving Service had to endure. This was the service that became the Coast Guard in 1915. Besides the museum, there were entire grounds of period buildings to explore. The only drawback was I had the Gordon Lightfoot “Edmond Fitzgerald” song stuck in my head all morning. That afternoon the group descended to Tahquamenon Falls. So, how long did you just pause trying to pronounce that word! The view and falls were spectacular. There were two viewpoints, the first was about 50 steps down and the four of us headed down. When we got to the second, it was about 250 steps down. My mother, who is 85, didn’t do the second one as she has a knee that isn’t 100%. Sherri’s 86 year old mother went down, and back up and left Sherri in the dust.
Tuesday was a day I was looking forward to, as that was our day at Mackinac Island. As someone who was in high school when the movie Somewhere in Time came out, I always wanted to see the Grand Hotel. It was cloudy and cool, but the ferry ride out was smooth and quick. Our ferry was originally supposed to have departed from St. Ignace but we had to go to Mackinaw City instead. Sherri didn’t mind the detour since it meant we got to go over the bridge several more times. It seemed like a bit of an oxymoron spending the day where no cars were allowed, but walking around the island they really aren’t needed. What was more interesting was the realization that everything must come to the island by boat and over the ice in the winter. After the horse drawn carriage ride, we explored the island on foot and one fudge shop at a time. We did have to try and buy fudge from almost all of the different companies.
Both of our moms enjoyed the Cross in the Woods and spent a lot of time on the walking paths following the guide through the forest. We were there as they were preparing for large bus groups, but our time was quite peaceful. The afternoon destination on Wednesday really struck a “note” with my mom when we got to the Music House Museum. My mother was a voice major, piano minor in college and spent much of her career as an elementary music teacher so a museum full of musical instruments was right up her alley.
Thursday, remembering to take our National Park pass, the next stop was Sleeping Bear Dunes which had a very picturesque and steep drop down to the lake. We were all entertained by the signs that stated if you hiked down but couldn’t make it back up, it was $3000 to rescue you. This was also the afternoon of our photo shoot, the annual tradition of getting photos with everyone and their cars. A nice venue known as Inspiration Point provided the perfect backdrop. The afternoon we headed up the peninsula north of Traverse City to visit the Chateau Chantal Winery. The whole area was either cherries, apples or wineries and my mom kept asking what kind of apples were in the trees. You know it's kind of hard to tell as you’re whizzing by at 60mph. Not being big wine drinkers, we headed off on our own further north to the Mission Point Lighthouse which provided a nice beach if you wanted to dip your toes into the lake.
Friday was mainly a driving day, and fortunately as the trip was nearing its end, no one so far had experienced any mechanical issues. I had noticed some faint smoke smell at a stop light our first morning but a quick peek in the hood confirmed my hunch, back corner of the cork valve gasket had decided 45 years was enough. No major issue other than the small drip was conveniently located right above the exhaust manifold. Friday evening involved an impromptu visit to a local “car show” and visit with a local car dealer with a private collection, memorabilia and snacks. We then headed to a nice local diner that accommodated all of us for dinner. Again, our moms were learning how friendly car people are everywhere.
Saturday was another venue I had been wanting to visit for some time, the Gilmore Car Museum. As an added bonus for a Model A owner, our visit coincided with International Model A Day, always held the third weekend in September. Since MAFFI, the Model A Ford Foundation, Inc museum is located on the grounds, a large number of Model As are always in attendance. I feared we would “car out” our mothers as we trekked from building to building but they found them all interesting. The weather was absolutely perfect as it was for much of the trip.
That afternoon, the Babsons had the first issue on the trip when their Zephyr encountered some electrical gremlins. Fortunately, some local mechanics came to their rescue, and they were back on the road in time for the evening’s banquet. The tour was worth the wait and many thanks again to Rich, Steve and Diane for all of the effort and hard work that went into hosting. We packed up the Lincoln and headed back to Cedar Falls and dropped my mom off. The next morning, we headed west to Fort Dodge and dropped Sherri’s mom off and headed back to Kansas City. We covered about 2700 miles, and everyone had a great time. A day of washing, vacuuming and new silicone valve cover gaskets and we’re ready to go again. The trip was a real revelation for both our moms. My parents did a lot of camping in the UP but had never explored like we did or stayed in hotels. My mother-inlaw has done a lot of bus tours but again not out on the back roads like CHVA does. Both enjoyed all the cars in a line and the CB conversations were entertaining to them. Who knows, you may see them again on future tours. We joked that next time we’ll take the Datsun.