Off to Michigan

This past week has been family week for me. My sister came to visit last Wednesday (a week ago). After hanging out on the farm for a day picking strawberries and instructing Wyatt what he needed to do while we were away, we got in her rental car (along with Eugene) and drove north on US 127 to Michigan. It was a coolish overcast day and the road was clear for the most part. We made good time through Ohio. We stopped for lunch at Lester's Diner (serving the Midwest since 1964) in Bryan, OH. I had a bowl of potato soup and split a Reuben with Maggie.

We did hit a detour south of Van Wert. We assumed because of the flooding in September (or was it August?). This took us many miles out of our way and into new areas of northwest Ohio none of us had ever seen before. Eventually, on the north side of Van Wert we were reunited with US 127
In Paulding we passed the Apache Dairy bar which has a way cool sign drawn/designed by Milton Caniff (he did Steve Canyon and Terry and the Pirates). I have always assumed Mr Caniff was from Paulding but I just looked him up on wapikidia and it turns out he is from Hillsboro, OH, in the SW part of the state. So now I have no idea why the Apache dairy bar has a Caniff sign. Don't really care, either. I just appreciate on my drive up north if I take 127 it is there in Paulding. I have loved his drawing since I was a small child reading the comics.

Got through Ohio and into southern Michigan where we noted a mighty pricing war on shrink wrapping boats. The highest price we saw was $6.95 a square foot. the lowest price was $4.00 a sq foot. Shrink wrapping seems to be the newest way to winterize items. Awfully wasteful if you ask me. This is a waste of money and resources. A tarp would serve folks far better as it is cheaper and can be reused. With some care a tarp can be just as water tight as a shrink wrapped plastic. Sadly, on my travels I saw very few tarped boats. Shrink wrapping seems to be THE way to winterize. Oh when will people learn?

In Ohio I saw no shrink wrapped boats but did see a lot of shrink wrapped hay. At least I think it was hay. Couldn't really tell due to the opaque plastic stretched around the piles. There may have been manure shrink wrapped as well.


Our goal was to make it to Grosse Pointe Woods by 4pm to see our cousins, Lucy and Jack