Glen Haven
Originally uploaded by The Put-Man.
We left LATE Thursday night (totally my fault as I'd once again bit off more than I could chew!) after trying to do WAY too much to my Spider before we left. We got checked into our hotel in Milwaukee about 2am...just in time to be up at 5:30am to catch the 7am Ferry to Muskegon, Michigan.
A smooth 2.5 hours later, we got off the ferry in Muskegon, and drove to the intersection of M-37 & M-82 near Newago, to meet up with two other cars at the High Rollway State Park. Mike & Missy Bouse were in their white '78 show-car, and Tom & Cindy Walters were in his gold X. We had lunch at the Red Anchor Restaurant, and enjoyed the time chatting & catching up. From there, we drove up M-37 all the way to Traverse city - 3 hours to go 137 miles on a lovely old "blue-line" highway!
We then took M-22 up to Peshawbestown, arriving at The Lodge about 5pm. Everyone checked in, and about 6pm Al & his wife Maureen showed up in his pretty red '82 Spider. We all went down to Sutton's Bay to Boone's Pub for dinner, and predictably, the conversation kept coming back to all things Fiat!
Saturday morning we headed back down to Sutton's bay for breakfast and a morning of shopping. A few hours later we hit the road for the Leelanau State Park just north of Northport. The historic lighthouse was very pretty, and on the rocky beach we found a cool old rock-totem.
Which Missy knocked down..."accidentally"...which of course we all had to make fun of! (I named her "Princess Falling Rock")
We then went down M-22 a bit further and stopped for lunch at Fischer's "Happy Hour" Tavern, a neat little road-side place where supposedly the owner was a former Fiat owner. Sadly, he was not there, but the lunch was good anyway.
From there, we drove onto Historic Fishtown in Leeland. Much shopping was done, ice cream was had, and after a brief, sweaty hour, we all needed to hit the road again for some breeze! Apparently the old buildings there are historically correct and have no air conditioning!
Tom & Linda headed off to a winery, while Mike & missy went back to the lodge to meet two incoming couples. Bob Reigel & his wife Laura in a Subaru (his Spider is in intensive surgery at Jon Logan's shop in Ohio), and John Alberts & his wife Rachel in their nice red '78 Spider named "Folly".
Gretchen and I opted for an around-the-penninsula tour that took us from Leeland, through Port Onedia, to the old cannery at Glen Haven, through Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park & it's scenic drive (where the Fiat startled a VERY LARGE DEER than nearly ran us down!), continuing down to Empire where we enjoyed their beach & lighthouse. We then hopped onto M-72 across to Traverse city - a lovely drive through the middle! We made it back to The Lodge and had dinner with the entire group at the Casino's Buffet.
Sunday we hit the road at 10am, up North through Northport, then down the west side of the peninsula through Glen Haven, the Sleeping Bear sand dune park (where Bob split off), through Empire (where Al split off), down through Frankfort (where John broke-off) and the last three of us had lunch at the A & W. Mike & Missy went their way afterwards, and we followed Tom and Linda for a bit before we were back on our way to Muskegon where we caught the 5pm ferry.
The sun set while we were on the water, and it was pretty darn cool when we off-loaded from the ferry, so we drove with the top up until Beloit, where we had some French fries, put the top down, and cruised leisurely the last hour home.
We got back to my house about 10pm. A little over 800 miles in an antique Fiat! She performed without a hitch, and I couldn't have been happier!
