Top up drive today.

6/20/2014

It rained last night and was threatening this morning.  It was also about 20 degrees cooler today than yesterday.  But, because of the weather, we kept the top up.  After breakfast, we went back to Shipshe for a little more shopping.  The mural painters were back at it with some great looking artwork.

Notice the dog on the lift (yes, he was tied on)

After leaving a little more money in Shipshe, we headed to Hickory Corners, MI to the Gilmore Auto Museum.  After passing though the nice towns of Three Rivers, Schoolcraft and Richland Village, we got to the Gilmore Museum.  This is an absolutely fabulous museum and if you are ever in this area, you have to stop.  It is on 90 acres and is composed of multiple buildings filled with beautiful cars as well as items of interest, such as an actual classic working diner and a recreated old service station.

Where we ate lunch

In addition to all the cars on display, there was also a large collection of pedal cars and hood ornaments and name badges, including MG!

After leaving the museum, where we could have spent another couple of hours, we looked for the W.K. Kellogg manor home that is in Hickory Corners, but we couldn't find it.  So, we continued on to Holland, passing through the nice towns of Plainwell, Otsego and Allegan on the way.  Shortly after leaving Hickory Corners, it started raining again and we drove through the rain for quite a while.  The big negative so far - the roads in Michigan are absolutely horrible.  I thought Indiana roads were bad (they were), but Michigan's are even worse.  I couldn't watch traffic down the road because I had to watch the road right in front of the car so I could try to dodge all the huge cracks and holes in the road.  I hope they get better as we go.

It was not raining when we got to downtown Holland so we parked and walked around.  It is a very nice downtown with lots of shops and restaurants.  One of the stores had an Austin Morris Mini as window dressing!!!  There were also several whimsical sculptures along the tree lined main street.

How much is that Mini in the window?

Street sculpture

Downtown Holland, MI

After walking around, we ate at Crane's In The City, a very good sandwich shop with homemade pies for dessert.

We then drove down South Shore Dr., along Lake Macatawa looking  for the Holland Lighthouse.  There were some extremely nice (expensive) homes along the lake.  The road ended just past a marina at a guard house for the private property beyond.  We asked the guard if she could tell us where the lighthouse was.  She said it was opened to the public on Tuesday and Thursday only.  But then, guessing we were from out of state (did our accents give us away?), she said there were exceptions for visitors from out of state.  So, we parked and walked about 1/2 mile to the lighthouse, fondly known as "Big Red", that sits where the Macatawa channel meets Lake Michigan.  We then headed to the hotel, which was packed due to some sort of youth baseball competition in the area.

Tomorrow, we'll head north along the western coast.  Our goal is Traverse City.  I hope the weather is better tomorrow (and the roads, too).

Big Red