We arrived in the US via the rainbow bridge. It was a Sunday August 18th 2019. We got there early to beat the traffic going through customs. We arrived at customs at 9:00 a.m. and waited a half hour. We went right through without an issue. Which made me think about border crossings it seems like the slower quieter ones have more time perhaps to look through RVs and such. Or perhaps they’re thinking is if you’re sneaking something through go through the quiet areas. But whatever the reason it always seems that going through customs at a high tourist area like Niagara falls even though we wait longer in line we don’t have our rig searched. In the past I had enjoyed seeing Niagara falls from the New York side where it’s quiet and more like a state park. Whilw we were in Canada we planned on walking across the bridge to the NY park from Canada but we saw the line of people standing and waiting to go through customs and decided it wasn’t worth it.

We arrived in Erie pa and stayed at another boondockers welcome location. We had never been to Erie before. We learned that the city has a lot of concerts and live music in the summer. Our hosts invited us to join them at a huge street fair. This was a part of their 3 day celebration which happens every year in August. They had three stages food art and a beer garden. But no wine. This year Sister Sledge and Scotty McCreery performed. The next day we paddled kayaks with them and their friendly neighbors at Presque Isle State Park for almost 3 hours. Halfway through the panel we stopped at a small Beach and had snacks and a glass of wine. The name got me wondering so I googled what a Presque is and it is a peninsula that is almost an island. Now you know lol.

The two of us then visited some covered bridges and wineries in Rome Ohio. We drove past Kent State University so of course we had to listen to The Crosby stills Nash & Young song. From there we went to Ashtabula which had a small main Street with a drawbridge and a great chocolate shop. From there we went over to Geneva on the lake well how do I explain this town? Think of the New Jersey shore without the crowds. A lot of shops food and arcades. It was August 20th it was a Tuesday. And it was empty! Many people say it’s packed earlier in the season and on the weekends. We had visited two wineries in the area one was South River winery which was a beautiful old church. Here’s a link to it http://southrivervineyard.com/ We really enjoyed that winery. And the other one was a ferrante winery. This one was an experience. They had two menus a dinner menu and a light self-serve menu. We got the muscles they were $14 and they were delicious but we got no forks or napkins. So he asked to waiter for some and he handed his silverware and cloth napkins and then he saw that we were not dinner guests but only self-serve guests so he took them away from us and gave us plastic wear and paper napkins. Unreal.

The next day we left that host and went to another boondockers welcome host location. As we’re backing into the site the host was guided me back on his hard pack driveway. I explained to him I don’t want to leave the hard pack because of all the rain lately we had gotten stuck in the mud in the past and I don’t want to get stuck again. Unfortunately I trusted him and not myself and he backed us off of the driveway and sank up to the rear axle in mud in the rig.

He said that his neighbor will be home the next day with the tractor and composed out. I shook my head the back of the rig was 2 to 3 ft lower than the front of the rig. And we were not going to be sleeping like that tonight. So I took out the tow strap hooked it to the front axle of the rig in the back of the Jeep Wrangler toad. I got in the rig Trish got in the Jeep we put it in 4 low. I told Trish hit the gas and keep going until I beep the horn on the rig. She did the rig pull immediately out of the mud and I beeped the horn. Yay trish. The next day August 23rd 2019 we were off to Nelson Kennedy ledges State Park in garrettsville Ohio. We figured to be there about an hour to hike the 3 miles of trails. We were there for four and a half hours. What fun. There’s waterfalls crevasses trails cliffs etc. It is probably the most unique State Park we have ever been to. It’s not long hikes but it is beautiful. The next day we visited Cleveland which we found to be a segmented City the New York City you can easily walk from one neighborhood to another like Little Italy to Chinatown. In Cleveland he really need to drive from one area to another. So that was a drag however there was no traffic at all. We visited the West side market. And then we saw that the house where the movie The Christmas story was filmed, was open as a museum. https://www.achristmasstoryhouse.com/

Now we both knew the movie and loved it. We figured we would stay about a half hour and look at the museum stuff. Well it turned out that they do a tour of the house and we were there for just over 2 hours. It was amazing of all the movie props that they had on display. And you can actually walk through the rooms freely to see them. From there we went over to the flats the flats are wrenched right on the Cayahoga River on both sides the east side and the west side. To get from one side of the river to the other side was not easy unless you had a boat. So we pulled out Google maps and we decided which side to walk down. From there we went over to the Mill stream run reservation which is a single track bike trail. Certain days of the weeks it’s only for walkers and we were there one of those days which was really nice. We stopped at Gibbs butcher block and got some free samples and bought some of their excellent sausages

http://www.gibbsbutcherblock.com/

The next day we headed out of Ohio and into Michigan. Last year we saw very little of “Troll, below the bridge” part of Michigan. The main part of Michigan is referred to that way because it is south of Mackinac bridge which takes you to the U.P.

So this time we wanted to see more of Michigan. In the lower East side of Michigan we stayed in another boondock was welcome location. Our hosts were a couple from switzerland. Very nice people. The next day we took our toad into Kerrrytown in Ann arbor Michigan. Really nice town. We saw a farmer’s market that has been going on every Saturday for over 100 years. We really liked Kerrytown.

From there we went off to Manchester. Another cute town. They had a farmer’s market there and met the organizer. They take a portion of the profits and they print $1 coupons. You take those coupons and you can buy things from vendors that are run by kids selling their crafts and such. The organizer gave us $5 certificates to help encourage the kids. We spent those $5 and a bunch more by the end of the day. At the end of the day the kids can take their coupons and cash them in for money. When we were in Provincetown I bought a sweater from the Marine store and it had a hole in it so one of the things we bought it this market was yawn and Trish mended it for me. The next day we left this area and we’re heading over towards Grayling Michigan to yet another boondockers welcome host location. We had stayed at this location last year and really enjoyed their company. They offered 15 amp which was enough for us.

We figured they would be busy with Labor Day coming but they said absolutely come by you know where to park and our son will help you with the electric. Grayling is an interesting town this is where the annual au sable canoe marathon is held. Which is touted as the world’s toughest spectator race. It’s 120 mi of paneling it runs from one day at 9:00 p.m. to the next afternoon. Very interesting but not for us. We did a more relaxed paddle on the ausable River. We hired a livery and grayling. We dropped our car at Stephen bridge they met us there. Drove us back to grayling. We then peddled our kayak 4 hours over 13 miles back to our car and they charged us 20 bucks not bad. The previous year we did almost The identical paddle but on a different River and our host shuttled us one way to the put in.

You would have to go back and listen to that episode to hear about that. The next day was a laundry day. And then we went over to North Higgins lake State Park. It’s clear that Michigan is a water-based state in the summer and in the winter. The park had a boat launch a beach and a campground we rode our tandem bike for about 10 miles to Roscommon. Not much there today but apparently a hundred years ago it was the destination spot. In fact Groucho Marx has been time there at a hotel. That night we had dinner with our hosts and their grandson. And when we were leaving they gave us some homemade apple pie moonshine which was delicious. The next day we headed over towards traverse City. And we stayed at Hawkins farm cellers winery via Harvest hosts. We sampled a few of their wines and then bought a bottle and we enjoyed a glass sitting there. That afternoon we went over to suttons Bay and Northport. Half of the stores were closed and this was Labor Day weekend unbelievable. Although there were a lot of shoppers walking streets. The next day we drove to another Harvest host winery called Brengman Brothers winery and we visited traverse City. We weren’t impressed by traverse City. Expensive shops and the such.