Our next steps took us to Wisconsin and across Lake Michigan from Milwaukee to Muskegon. After a visit to friend Mike Beres in Free Soil, Michigan, we crossed the state to Port Huron. Here are some pictures of that segment. Some of these pictures are already in the flow of the journal text. They are only here to put all together in one place.
Classmates Tom Trausch and Dan Friend organized a mini-class reunion of my 1961 Marion Central High School Class in honor of our arrival in Woodstock. We all had a fine time talking with each other after so many years. This tablet welcomed us to Tom's home.
Before leaving Woodstock I had to photograph what I see as a rather bazaar addition to the city. These new high-end apartments started before the bottom fell out of the housing market. They just don't seem to fit in Woodstock. They don't even real in this picture. They sit on top of an old factory where my dad worked 25 years and my brother Marty ten. They tore it down years ago.
We have had breakfast with my brothers Marty and Cork and are ready to walk away from Woodstock September 2.
Late summer colors along the path in southern Wisconsin.
More color on the Wisconsin path.
A bridge on a bicycle path in Wisconsin.
Along a cycling path south of Milwaukee on Lake Michigan.
I look a bit too solemn as we enter Muskegon Harbor after crossing Lake Michigan from Milwaukee, Wisconson.
Petra poses in the middle of a birdhouse farm along the path.
We saw this in its original museum setting in the Piazza del Popolo in Rome when we walked there in 2007. Now it's here in Michigan.
The farther north of Grand Rapids we walked the more the path deterioriated. Then we entered a new county to this. It's ok for walking but hard on our carts, especially Petra's with its small wheels. But the colors are getting richer and richer. Fall is falling. It is, after all, mid-September.
No set of pictures of Michigan would be complete without at least one typical lake picture. This is one.
This beautiful panting hung on the wall of our motel in Howard City, Michigan.
A country road with farm.
Here in the middle of September in the middle of Michigan someone left a decorated Christmas tree to amuse us.
Kansas, Iowa, and Illinois don't have a monopoly on large corn fields. They're here in Michigan too.
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A deer comes down to the water to drink, watches us, decides we are safely across the river, and then drinks.
The sky the day we left Frankenmuth, Michigan.
Newly bailed hay.
Angie, Laurie, and Petra stand at the Pleasant Soul Café in Attica, Michigan.
Petra stands with the flowers again, this time near Port Huron.
The bridge to Canada in Port Huron. Canada is across the river to the right.
Thomas Edison began working here for a railway. Later he had his shop here before moving south to the Detroit area. This statue is a tribute to his early years.
After procrastinating a couple days we finally head for the bridge and begin our encounter with Canada.