Exploring the Thumb

Before this afternoon's predicted storms, we decided to explore the coastline north of the Park this morning. We headed up to Michigan's "thumb" along Highway 25, stopping along the way to investigate any roads that took us over to the shores of Lake Huron. There weren't many as the entire coast is lined with houses, mostly sitting empty. We stopped to look at another RV park which was filled with rigs left by their owners which we assume will be full this coming weekend. Today, there was no one around. The few glances we did get of the shore were disappointing as there is literally no beach to speak of. This side of Lake Huron is known as Blue Water Country because of the dark blue of the Lake. I have to say, so far, the Great Lakes are not that great looking.

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We passed through several tiny townships but everything was closed up. We always call these places vampire towns. A detour took us off the coast highway inland where we could see huge farms but very few cattle and no horses. It appears that these farms grow feed crops, not people food. The scenery is beautiful as the fields are green and there are lots of trees just leafing out. It is very peaceful; in fact, it is beyond peaceful - it is dead here.

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We finally reached to town of Harbor Beach which is located not quite to the tip of the thumb. It boasts having the world's largest man-made harbor which we saw but there were no boats out and about. We stopped to eat at Al's Restaurant only because the wonderful cookies we bought yesterday at IGA came from Al's. Our meal was just ok but the women working there were interesting to talk to. Our waitress was 21 and had lived there all her life. She said there is nothing going on any time and it is very boring - typical of what you would expect from a 21 year old. Another woman was the sister of the owner. They had both lived in Harbor Beach all of their lives and their parents originally started Al's many years ago. We bought some more of the monster cookies that we have fallen in love with. The owner gave us some free pizza for dinner later which was very nice. All of their food is hand made and without preservatives she said. If the pizza is as good as the cookies, it will be amazing.

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We saw a couple of stores down the street that looked interesting but one of them was closed down. The gal at Al's said the town was slowly dying as many of the businesses had closed. There are many houses for sale along the coast. The second store we went into advertised that they sold "stuff". It was basically an old hardware store that looked like it sold mostly left overs. The whole atmosphere of the town was a tired sadness of days gone by. We had thought about coming for the Memorial Day parade but the waitress said there will not be one this year.

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We got back to the rig before it started to rain; just in time for nice naps. We haven't been able to watch Oprah's last shows because the storm the other day knocked out some of the cable, which is a bummer. Our WiFi has been poor too, but we will take what we can get.

May 25, 2011

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