Author: daveleu

These last three days have been a whirlwind. What fun I had seeing so many old friends; people that I grew up with but had not seen during the last 50 years. Little did I know during the end of summer in 1968, when my buddy, Steve, drove me over to Ann Arbor and helped me move into my dorm room at the University of Michigan, that I would not be seeing my high school classmates for 50 years.

50 Years Ago

This weekend was the 50th reunion of our East Lansing High School 1968 graduating class and it was a hoot! The organization committee did a fantastic job in putting together 5 venues covering this three-day event.

The first event was a mixer at the Dublin Pub in the shadows of Michigan State University. Starting at 6PM, it lasted into the wee hours. I was in a daze, seeing so many old friends and catching up with their remarkable lives. I had been told that about 150 people would be attending one or more of the five scheduled events and it looked like about 100 had showed up to kick the reunion off.

I saw one old friend after another, and with most of them, was amazed how little they had changed. Oh sure, we all had put on a few pounds, and some, like myself, have put on more than just a few, but their faces had not changed a bit. It was so easy to recognize many that I had not seen for so many years.

I was in seventh heaven, listening to what my old friends had been doing over the years and learning about the families they had raised. What was so remarkable was that each person I talked with was so modest in talking about themselves and I had to poke and pry to learn about their accomplishments. I was impressed to find out that so many of my classmates had become educators, a profession that I so respect and admire. Many had gone into medicine, law, the arts, science and engineering. A few became architects or builders and others started their careers working on the line in manufacturing plants and then worked and earned their way up into management. An old friend, Joe, had earned a Bronze Star, a rare armed services award presented for heroic or meritorious achievement.

For the last three months or so, names of various school friends had randomly and unexpectedly popped up in my mind. Each time this happened, I thought: “This is the first time in 50 years I have thought of this person!” Then, a story about that person came to mind. It was great remembering these fun times. I was fortunate in that I had a wonderful childhood, growing up in a loving family and surrounded with childhood friends. We rode bikes all day during the summer, played capture the flag in backyards, kick the can in the street, played organized Kiwanis baseball and when school was in session, literally walked a mile each way to grade school. During the winter we walked to school through snow and sleet storms and did not thinking twice about it. That was just the way things were. Then, in junior high school and during our high school years, I slowly discovered girls and the magic they possessed. I was a bit shy around girls during those days but did have a few girlfriends. They prepared me for the day I was to meet my lifemate in college… and the rest is history.

The reunion’s second venue was Saturday morning. It was a tour of our high school and was led by the present-day principal. During the tour, I learned that Paula, one of our classmates who was also taking the tour, had been the principal of our high school and had that position for 11 years. She just oozed excitement and shared with me how wonderful those years were. That was pretty remarkable since I knew that being a principal is a very stressful job and most people burn out after 5 or so years of having this exalted position.

Our high school was pretty amazing during our 4 years but now was spectacular. State of the art improvements had recently been made and we were in awe of its music, science, art, theater, classroom and sports facilities. It has changed so much that we could hardly recognize the school we had gone to. Its operating budget is now about $2 million each year. This is just for maintenance and operations of the facility and does not include landscaping. The new swimming pool cost $7.8 million to build! Back in 1968, we had about 1400 students, now there are about 1100 students.

The third venue was held right after the high school tour and was at Reno’s, a grill and bar, where we had lunch. Once again, we had time to meet and catch up with old chums, toasting the great times we had during those wonder years of youth. I had a chance to sit and enjoy lunch with Jim and his wife, Robbie. Jim and I played football together for a couple of years. However, he was really good and went on to play for Bo Schembechler, the great coach of the University of Michigan football team during our college days. He has since become the voice of Michigan football, doing the play by play announcing for the Michigan Football Network. I shared with him how much I enjoyed listening to him call the football games during our sailing years, many times getting up at 3 AM due to the time changes between Ann Arbor and where we were sailing on the other side of the world. I also enjoyed talking with Robbie, Jim’s wife. She had a distinguished career as a TV news anchor in Detroit.

The fourth venue was the reunion’s main event. A gala dinner and dance were held at the University Club. This afforded us additional time of meeting with more classmates and reminiscing about old times. Laughs, hugs and slaps on the back made this a very special event. I had a chance to go from table to table, telling stories and hearing old tales of days gone by. Vicky and I spent some time together, reminiscing about how we used to play together as kids growing up, living just a few houses from each other. Bill H. and Bill D. joined us as we all went to grade school together and the stories we shared were so great to recall.

The fifth and last venue was Sunday morning brunch at Coral Gables. I remember when my parents would take us to this restaurant for a special dinner out. The brunch started at 10 AM and by 2 PM, we were asked to move to another room since the 4 hours that were reserved for our reunion was over. Many of us spent another hour talking as we just could not bring ourselves to say goodbye. Alas, when the end finally came we all hugged and kissed with eyes wet with love and happiness.  Such a great time!

On the way out, I just had to see Bill H’s 1964 Olds Toronado!  I remember how this beast would burn rubber down the street.

As Mary Margaret and I drove back to our RV home, we just had to stop at Tasty Twist. It was known during my childhood as Tasty Freeze and where I enjoyed Brown Cows (root beer floats) and tin roofs (a chocolate sundae covered with peanuts). Mary Margaret went for a hot fudge sundae and I asked if the server knew what a tin roof was. She did and served me a large one. Ooooooh, so good!

We will be resting up for a few days before we continue our way to the Pacific Northwest. During these days, I will be driving around the old neighborhood to see the old house and recall the wonderful childhood I had in the Okemos/East Lansing area.

The official start of my 50th year high school reunion is this Friday. It will cover three days as about 150 people come together to celebrate this special event. However, for the last two days, Mary Margaret and I got a head start in getting together with a few folks that we have not seen in a long, long time.

Wednesday night we went over to Steve and Linda’s house for dinner. Steve was our best man at our wedding and is fellow who I have known since grade school. They were so kind to come up and visit us while we were staying up near Cheboygan a couple of weeks ago. They brought their 22-foot speedboat and we spent the afternoon exploring Iron River and Burnt Lake.

When we arrived, we discovered that Steve had fired up his Big Green Egg, a kamado-style ceramic charcoal barbecue cooker. As a huge beef tenderloin grilled away, he made some special margaritas with all of the fixings. He knew I am a big fan of this luscious drink but did not know if I preferred my margaritas using light, medium or dark tequila. Thus, he had gone to the local spirits store and bought handfuls of the mini airplane bottles of high end tequilas. Tucked away in his freezer, they were chilled to perfection so we decided to start with the light tequila and work our way through the medium to dark tequilas. Each drink was a work of art and we slurped them down with robust gusto. Yum!

We drank and ate our way through the evening as Linda paired the tenderloin with her homemade Caesar salad, grilled corn salad, baked smashed potatoes, sautéed mushrooms and delicious bread. This was followed with a fresh berry pie and hot coffee. OMG! Died and gone to heaven!

That wonderful night was followed up with a larger get together this evening. George and his wife Patti had invited a group of us over to their house for cocktails and then dinner at Michigan State University’s Kellogg Center. George was our class President in high school and was one of several good friends I had while going to the high school. George and Steve were part of the core group of people who have worked so long and hard setting up and coordinating the various events that cover this three-day reunion.

It was amazing seeing people that I went to school with but had not seen in 50 years. There were six couples and toward the end of dinner, one of my best buddies, Cal, (aka: Scooter), arrived. He was delayed joining us as he is an elder at a church here in East Lansing and was coming from a meeting of the elders.

It was fun listening to and sharing stories of things we did back during our high school days and learning what has happened to each of us over the years. It was pointed out that from our graduating class of 360 people, only 30 have died. This is far below the norm, which is between 20% and 30% by the time one gets to our age.

We actually had a rather remarkable graduating class with about 99% graduating and about 96% going on to college. However, after all, we were going to school in the shadows of Michigan State University and many of our parents were professional in their respective fields and a significant percentage of them worked at MSU as professors or support staff. It sounds like many of us went on to distinguish ourselves in education, medicine, law, engineering, sciences, and arts. It was pretty remarkable to learn that our class produced so many people that distinguished themselves in their respective fields.

Tomorrow night the reunion formally starts with an informal gathering at Dublin’s, a local pub. Over 110 people are scheduled to attend. Sounds to me to be a fun time coming!

This morning we bundled up LeuC and drove the 2 hours south and a bit west to arrive in Lansing, Michigan. This completed our grand circle exploration of the lower peninsula of Michigan. During the last month we have visited 6 state parks and recreation areas in the lower peninsula including: Brighton Rec Area (near Ann Arbor), Van Buren State Park (near South Haven), North Higgins Lake State Park (near Roscommon), Interlochen State Park (near Traverse City), Aloha State Park (near Cheboygan), Rifle River Rec Area (near, well, nowhere as it is deep in a vast woods), and Bay City State Park (near Bay City).

We are now at Cottonwood Campground in Lansing. We are here because my 50th year high school reunion is taking place over this coming weekend and I am anxious to see school buddies that I have not seen in 50 years. That is a lot of catching up to do!

The campground we are staying at is a RV park. Ugh! We just are not RV park people.

However, instead of bending your ear, wa, wa’ing all over this page, I thought I would take the high road and simple list all of the positive things we love about staying at RV parks. Here I go:

Reasons why we love staying at RV Parks

1)….

The good news is that my back is healed and I can now play golf. The bad news is that my back is healed and I can now play golf.

After more or less being hobbled by a pulled lower back muscle this last week, I was feeling chipper enough this morning to venture to the local golf course and play 18 holes of golf. Just a couple of miles from our campground is a very nice 9-hole course with a slope rating of 127. For non-golfers, that is just a way to say that the course is moderately challenging. While only nine holes, each hole was regulation length with two of them over 500 yards. The greens were in great shape as was the rest of the course. There were enough ponds and streams on the course to make it interesting and demand accuracy. The green fees were only $25 for 18 holes and that included a cart. What a deal!

I was able to play two rounds of this course, getting in 18 holes. It was a beautiful, sunny day but a bit humid, which I really started to feel during the second nine holes.

While I did score under a 100 (not a great feat since I was playing rather liberal being a single with few others on the course), it was a bit ugly. Only one club was working, which was my driver. I was able to consistently drive between 220 and 250 yards and hitting most of the fairways. My irons, well, that was another story. My putter was not too bad but I must admit that I did three putt a couple of holes. This all resulted in a couple of pars, a fair number of bogies, more double bogies than I would like to admit and yes even a couple of triple bogies, which yielded a 98 for the day. In a word, it was ugly!

Oh well, at least I was able to get out and play, which was the first time since we were in Pennsylvania about two months ago. Plus, I know my back is now well and it can, once more, stand the riggers of golf. Yea!

Tomorrow, we bundle up LeuC and head off for Lansing, the capital of Michigan. My 50th reunion is coming up this weekend and we will be staying in a RV park just outside the capital. It is the only place we can stay at that is near East Lansing, where I graduated from high school, 50 long years ago.

If you know me well, you know that I start going stir crazy when I am stuck inside or at one place for any unreasonable length of time. With my lower back slowly recovering from an annoying pulled muscle, I have been tortured by my “itchy butt” syndrome over this last week. While the recent trip to Frankenmuth was a respite from my couch potato imitation, the “itch” was been getting worse with each passing day. Thus, this morning, after surfing the Internet for the umpteenth time, along with going up and down and then down and up, scrolling through the TV guide, I just had to get out and go for a nice, long walk.

I am so glad that I did because I ended up at the Saginaw Bay/Tibico March Visitor Center. It turned out to be a small, simple visitor center, with just a couple of rooms filled with exhibits. It presented information on how the marsh was formed and the various animals that call it home. It was fun to stroll through it, especially since I virtually had the place to itself and could take as much time as I wanted in front of each display.

I learned that the marsh formed behind a sand pit that was created along the shoreline of Saginaw Bay a few hundred years ago. As the spit developed, it slowly closed with the shore, forming a small lake isolated from the bay. Over time the fringe around the lake filled in with mud and muck and a freshwater wetland formed. The lake still remains but is significantly smaller now than when it formed. It has been altered by man over time due to logging efforts in the late 1800’s and again by the Civilian Conservation Corp back in the 1930s. It then became a private hunting club but as its membership declined, the two surviving owners donated the land containing the marsh to the State in 1957. Its guardian is now the State of Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources and is part of the Bay City Recreation Area.

The marsh is approximately 2000 acres in size and because it was formed being a long spit that enclosed with the shore, it parallels the bay shoreline. Deer, beaver, mink, muskrat, a dozen different species of song, shore, and marsh birds call it home. In the spring, and again in the fall, it is visited by thousands of migratory waterfowl since it is located along a major fly zone.

My exploration of the wetlands, the beach and the adjoining wooded uplands was very enjoyable. I will let the various photos I took present to you with what I saw.

Approaching Saginaw Bay By Going Over The March

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Walking Along The Beach

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Returning To The Marsh Via A Boardwalk

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Walking Along the Marsh To The Garden By The Visitors Center

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We have been taking it a bit easy these last few days as my lower back muscles recover.  Each day is an improvement and I am hoping that I will be able to get a round of golf this coming Monday.  I am keeping my fingers crossed.

While we have been taking it easy, we have not been complete couch potatoes.  Yesterday day we took a drive over to Frankenmuth, a town that that takes pride in its Bavarian heritage.  While many people must like it, because it is a famous little town, it was just a tourist trap to us.  The store fronts are all faux architecture, the stores broadcast their wares as fudge, ice cream and local nick-knacks, and the sidewalks are filled with overweight old fogies, wearing tee shirts and baggies shorts, gawking at the merchandise on display in the windows.  Yech!

Sooooo, here we were, two overweight old fogies, wearing baggie shorts and tee shirts and what do we do… we go to Bronner’s.  Bronner’s is the largest Christmas store in the US.  It covers the area of 6 football fields and is stuffed with every kind of Christmas ornaments and do-dads one could ever imagine.  Even though it is August and Christmas is over 4 months away, the store was doing a very good business.

It was a little bizarre shopping for Christmas ornaments in August but what we discovered was whatever you could ever dream up for an ornament, they had.  Plus, included in the price of the ornament was their service to personalize it.  Thus, after 90 or so minutes, we left armed with all kinds of beautiful Christmas ornaments that we had personalized for our kids and grandkids. It was pretty neat!

We then drove over to the Bavarian Inn for a late lunch/early dinner.  We had hopes of an authentic Bavarian meal.  Unfortunately, our hopes were dashed as the traditional Bavarian food we ordered was pretty bad.  Sigh.  However, after our meal, we did stumble into its bakery on our way out and there spied some wonderful strudels that we just had to get.  Under Mary Margaret’s good eye, we selected a large apple, a large cherry and a large blueberry strudel to go.  We complimented the strudels with a chocolate/peanut butter brownie and a chocolate éclair.  As it turned out, Mary Margaret selected well as each item was a taste-treat that more than made up for the poor food in the restaurant.

On our way back to our campsite we stopped at a roadside stand that was selling fresh, farm-grown vegetables and fruits from the farm that was behind it.  We loaded up with what turned out to be the sweetest corn on the cob we have ever tasted, a huge, tasty cantaloupe, and a few other bags filled with assorted fresh veggies.  Yum!

 

 

 

 

 

As my lower back pulled muscle continues to slowly heal, we bundled up LeuC and, once again, headed down the road.  Our destination this time was the Bay City State Park.  It sits along the shoreline of the Saginaw Bay.  If you are not familiar with Michigan and the 5 great lakes that surround it, Saginaw Bay is a massive bay which is part of Lake Huron on the eastern side of the Lower Peninsula.  The Lower Peninsula of Michigan can be viewed as a left-hand mitten with the space between the thumb and the rest of the hand being Saginaw Bay.

The park is famous for Tobico Marsh, one of the largest coastal wetlands on the Great Lakes.  Our campground is situated next to the marsh and one needs to walk across a boardwalk that transverses part of the marsh to get to the beach and swimming area.  This part of the marsh is a thin sliver that rests between the uplands forest and the sandy beach of Saginaw Bay.  We are looking forward to exploring this area and going to the Visitors’ Center which presents a series of displays and exhibits on the marsh and the wildlife that it provides a habitat for.

The drive to this state park was pretty short, taking only about an hour and a half.  The signage pointing to the campground was not very good and we made a wrong turn that ended at a dead end.  We had to unhook our little Fiat from LeuC in order to turn LeuC around at the end of the road.  From there, Mary Margaret drove the Fiat as our little caravan finally found the campground and we checked in.

Unlike our previous two campgrounds, this one is very nice with spacious campsites, a reasonable distance between each site and lots of trees creating shade and a wonderful ambience that we have been missing.  The photos I have posted below says it all.

Tomorrow, we will be taking a side trip to Frankenmuth which is about 20 miles to the south of us.  We grew up in Michigan hearing a lot about Frankenmuth but never going there.  It is a village which embraces its Bavarian heritage with German architecture, food and beer.  We love German food and beer and are looking forward to having lunch here.

 

The town is also famous for the worlds’ largest Christmas store.  I read that it is as large as 6 football fields.  While we are not so much into shopping, it may present an opportunity to pick up a few unique tree ornaments for our grandkids.  We shall have to just wait to see…

 

Yesterday I pulled a lower back muscle improperly lifting the heavy box of firewood we store in one of LeuC’s “basement” compartments.  It is not a big deal but the stiffness that resulted laid me up for the day.  Mary Margaret and I had hoped to go play golf but instead, it was decided that it would be smarter to just keep to the campsite and do back and stomach exercises to loosen the sore muscles and strength my stomach muscles.

That strategy seemed to work as this morning as I was feeling much better and could get around pain free.  The regime of exercises will continue for a week or so but I will no longer be hindered by my back.  Yea!

To celebrate my recovery, and to scratch the itch to get out and around, I decided to use our little Fiat and explore the large recreation area we are in.  Mary Margaret was in the middle of a good book so she decided to stay home and “nest”.

I had been told about an observational tower nearby from which you could see the five lakes that dominate this part of the rec area so that was my goal for today.  As it turned out, it was “a’fur a piece” down a narrow, one lane bumpy dirt road that cut a path through the thick forests which dominate this rec area.

In my last blog, I was rather critical of the poor job that Michigan’s Dept of Natural Resources had done in creating the campground we are staying in.  Instead of merging the campground into the natural habitat of the dense woods, they simply bulldozed a clearing, plopped down some picnic tables and fire rings, ran a 30 Amp power line, paved a narrow lane to loop around the campground and squeezed in, a lot of sites.  The result is a crowded RV park-like setting instead of a beautiful campground that it could have been.  Sigh.

In contrast to our ugly campground, the photos I took today shows the beauty of the area we are surrounded by and the potential of creating a beautiful campground which the numskulls from the Dept. of Natural Resources missed.  I will augment each photo with a little explanation of what it shows but, for the main part, will let the photos do the talking.

View Of The Lakes

 

After climbing up the 40-foot tall observational tower, I was presented with a 360-degree view of the 5 lakes that surrounded me.  Two of the lakes are really just large ponds but all combined, they are the source waters of the Rifle River.  With these two photos, you can see how beautiful the woods are.  Also, you can see in the lower right corner of each photo the narrow dirt lane that I followed.

A Fishing Dock On One Of The Lakes

All of the lakes here are relatively shallow.  These two photos are of one of the lakes and their how beautiful but shallow it is.

Woods and River

These two photos present how thick and wonderful the woodlands are and what the Rifle River looks like as it runs free from its source waters.  Throughout its 60-mile course to Lake Huron, it is fairly narrow and shallow, with depths of only 18 to 48 inches deep.  Nevertheless, it is a wild river and offers great wild trout fishing.

 

Today we explored our campground here on Grousehaven Lake, within the Rifle River Recreation Area.  It is one of several campgrounds within the recreational area.  This particular campground is composed of two loops, each separated by a bit of woods.  Both are just a short walk from the lake, which has a nice little beach.  Rifle River flows from Grousehaven Lake and is augmented by several springs in the area.  It is a slow-moving river that meanders for 60 miles before emptying into Lake Huron.  While I am not sure of its actual designation, I do know that the State has applied to the federal government for making it a wild and scenic river since no dams or other man-made impedances restricts its flow.  Wild trout fishing, canoeing and tubing makes the river very popular during the summer months.

All of the above makes the area and the campground sound like an RVer’s dream: set in a wildness like setting, situated on a beautiful lake, wild trout fishing, scenic canoeing and a wild and scenic river, wow!

There is only one problem, the State in its infinite wisdom of creating a campground that can hold as many campers as possible, set it up so that each camper is packed close to one another, stripping privacy from everyone.  Sigh.  I really do not understand it.  We are smack dab in the middle of a large dense forest, with miles upon miles of woods.  Instead of planning and building a campground with each site screened from the next by trees and shrubs like what most other states do, instead Michigan’s Dept. of Natural Resources cleared out an area, paved a narrow lane around it, installed some picnic tables and fire rings such that tents, trailers and motorhomes are packed next to each other.  I feel sorry for those who are tent camping because the trailers and motorhomes carry air conditioning units on their roofs which cycle on and off 24 hours a day.

Plus, the lack of space and privacy forced a group of kids to play kickball on the narrow, paved lane, right in front of our bus. So much for the good life…

Mary Margaret and I tripped over tent stakes, boat trailers, pickup trucks, cars, trailers and motorhomes as we walked over to Grousehaven Lake to check out the beach.  It was a nice sandy beach and the water was nice and warm.

There were a few kayakers but, for the most part, the lake was not crowded.  It is mystery to me as to where everyone in the campground goes for the day.  Maybe they rent a canoe or a tube and float down the Rifle River which flows from our lake.

As you can tell, we both are rather disappointed in our campground here.  This type of camping just is not fun and I am at a loss to explain why this campground is so full.  I talked with the campground host this evening who spoke in glowing terms about how beautiful this campground is.  Really?  I was polite and bit my tongue a lot during our conversation.  It is sited in a beautiful location but the campground itself is just terrible.  Oh well, chalk it up to a learning experience.

Yesterday we did our “slug” imitation and just rested the day away.  Actually, we worked on evaluating insurance policies for our RV and Fiat.  Our current set of policies are up for renewal shortly and we were not pleased with the renewal costs going up.  This is especially true since we were not involved in any accidents and no claims were made.  The increases motivated us to research other companies that specialize in RV insurance.

 

Both our Fiat and LeuC are covered under policies issued by National General that are offered through the Good Sam’s Club.  The Good Sam’s Club is an organization for RV’ers that we belong to.  We also belong to the Family Motor Coach Association, another organization for RV’ers.  They have chosen Progressive to offer insurance policies to their members.

 

It took me awhile to read once again our existing policies and then compare it to the policies offered by Progressive to see where the differences were, especially with exclusions and limitations.  What I learned is that the Progressive policies were a bit more comprehensive and significantly less expensive.  Thus, I had an extensive discussion with their agency over the phone to get a better understanding of the coverages I would be buying and the quotes they gave us.

 

I also inspected the ratings and reviews on each agency and discovered that National General was rated 5 stars while Progressive is rated 4.5 stars.  The negative reviews I read about both companies appeared to be mostly from people who had bought used RVs and were mad that their respective insurance company was claiming that damage occurred prior to ownership and coverage.  Relying on ratings and reviews can be somewhat problematic at times since you really don’t know how the ratings are created nor do you know the details of what lead up to the reviews.  However, we have met a local FMCA Chapter President and she did say some nice things about the insurance carrier (Progressive) that FMCA works with.

 

As it turned out, after discussions with Mary Margaret, we opted to switch providers and go with Progressive. The two policies, one for our Fiat and one for our RV, came in over $600 less than our current policy with broader coverages and with significantly lower deductibles.  The wisdom of our selection will only be born out if we ever make a claim.  Hopefully, the service they provide will meet our expectations.

 

Today, we bundled up LeuC and drove a couple of hours south to the Rifle River Recreational Area.  Our campground is on Grousehaven Lake, near Lupton, Michigan.  Like the Aloha State Park campground, it also reminds us of a RV park, with campers packed in close to each other.  Tomorrow, I will write a bit about this campground and offer pictures so you can see what I mean.