Tuesday, July 21, 2026
Well, Kimberly and I were supposed to to leave for a ten-day
trip to Michigan early this morning — Greensboro to Midland/Bay City/Saginaw
Airport by way of Detroit — but during the night, we received an alert that
our outbound flight was delayed long enough that we'd miss our connection to
MBS. Our only option was to book a 7:00 p.m. flight out of Greensboro and
arrive at MBS around 10:30 p.m. Thus, we went for it... but this flight, too,
ended up delayed, so guess what? No Michigan trip for us on this day. We
rescheduled yet again, this time for tomorrow — the 6 a.m. flight out of
Greensboro, which meant getting up at 3:15 a.m. Then, of course, just before
bedtime, Delta Airlines notified us that the 6 a.m. flight to Detroit was
delayed an hour.
So... will we make it tomorrow? Who the fook knows?
Wednesday, July 22, 2026
Given our flight delay, instead of getting up at 3:15 a.m., we slept in late
(4:15 a.m.) and hit the highway for GSO. We arrived on time, checked in,
and... wait, what?! Our plane has no crew? Correct. We have no crew. So, for
most of an hour, we're waiting for word on whether we'll actually get airborne
sometime today.
Finally, the pilot and co-pilot stumbled in off the street and mounted up.
They managed to get the engines going, but we didn't go wheels up until well
after 8:00 a.m. Our schedule originally called for a two-hour layover in
Detroit, so, given the extended delays, the chances of making our connection
now — again — appeared slim. However, to their credit, the pilots made up
incredible time in the air because, upon landing in Detroit, we deplaned, made
a beeline to our gate, and somehow ended up with a few minutes to spare before
boarding. Thankfully, the DTW to MBS flight went off without a hitch, and Ms.
B.'s friend Darren very kindly came to pick us up and transport us to her
folks' place.Yay! Thank you, Darren!
We spent some quality time with Del & Fern, who've both been through the
ringers, health-wise. Then, after a wee bite of lunch, Ms. B. went to take to
a nap, and I wandered down to find a fun, relatively new geocache in the
neighborhood.
Once Kimberly was out of bed, we hied ourselves over to
Meijer for
provisions (always a necessity upon our arriving in Midland) and stopped for a
geocache on the way (also a necessity upon arriving in Midland).
I discovered that we are (thankfully) missing out on some serious storms back
home. A friend just posted the photo below from our neighborhood. They live at
the end of a cul-de-sac, so they won't be going anywhere until that big
honking tree is removed. I'm hoping the many monster trees that surround our
house continue to hold out.
After showering and washing off the vestiges of airplanes, airports, and big
box stores, Ms. B. and I drove into downtown Midland, grabbed a couple of
geocaches, and killed some vittles at
Beatniks. It's a relatively new restaurant she'd visited on a previous visit or two,
but this was my first time. We sat at their nice outdoor terrace, and I quite
enjoyed the atmosphere and dinner— banh mi buns and an excellent gin martini
for me and veal & beef meatballs and a nice chardonnay for Ms. B. We
wandered around downtown for a spell and stopped in for a final drink at
Gratzi, a reasonably upscale Italian restaurant we've enjoyed a handful of times,
though this time just for spirits.
Since this was our first night in Midland, we wanted to spend most of the
evening with Del & Fern, so once back at Casa di Brugger, we settled
ourselves in the downstairs family room, which is a long-time tradition with
the folks, and enjoyed each other's company until it was time to retire. Since
we'd started our day well before dawn, I'm surprised Kimberly and I lasted as
long as we did. It's been over a year since I've been here, though now that
I'm back, it feels like no time at all.
I had some coffee early in the evening, but it was obviously broken because
I'm told I started snoring. So, I reckon we'll be hard at it again tomorrow.
G'night, all.
Thursday, July 23, 2026
I woke up to a pleasant chill in the air, rather than the disgusting,
tropical humidity that has become the standard summertime environment back
home. There are indeed times that Michigan's general climate suits me far
better, but then... oh, my lord... here comes winter. Hoo dogs! Maybe it is
not my environment...
Still, it was a beautiful morning for going out geocaching. After a light
breakfast and plenty of coffee, I set out on Del's old bicycle for
Stratford Woods Park, a couple of miles down the road. A good many newer caches had been placed
there since my last trip to Midland, although even those now date back a
ways. I ended up going bust on a couple of the hunts, leading me to believe
those containers have gone missing. Happily, I found several others, a
couple of which were tricky. Although it did get warm and fairly humid out
there, It wasn't like trying to breathe the mayonnaise as it is back home,
and I didn't suffer any assaults by mosquitoes. Now, here's a thing:
Michigan mosquitoes may be the meanest, rotten, bitingest little fuckers
I've ever encountered anywhere... well, except for maybe Venice, Italy. But
Midland is the only location where I've had to give up on a geocaching
outing due to mosquitoes.Thankfully, not today.
Well, damnation. I'd had a (very mild) migraine yesterday during our flight
up, and wouldn't you know it, here comes another one. At least this one was
no worse than yesterday's, so I was able to continue caching without undue
difficulty or pain (sometimes my headaches can turn pretty monstrous). After
returning to la casa, I still needed about 3,000 steps to meet my daily
goal, as my phone doesn't count pedaling the bike. So, I went out and ran
around the neighborhood, much like I do at home, although it's considerably
easier here because the terrain is mostly flat.
Mid-afternoon, I started cooking tonight's dinner: a hamburger soup loosely
based on a recipe from
Drew Cooks, which I follow religiously. Drew is funny as hell, and some of the
recipes I've tried have turned out to be dynamite. Not necessarily healthy,
but delicious. I always customize, improvise, or otherwise fuck around with
every recipe that I attempt, and we always enjoy what I cook. It's my custom
to provide at least a dinner or two for the family when we're here, and I
think there will also be some Italian goodies in the works on this trip.
The soup turned out fantastic, by the way. It's like a delicious hamburger
in a bowl.
After dinner, Kimberly and I went out and about for a bit, first to
Clock & Candle Brewatorium, a relatively new establishment with a cool selection of their unique
brews. I tried their Bag o' Beans Coffee Brown, which is brewed with the
coffee made by
Live Oak Coffeehouse here in Midland, which we love. Twas good. Then we shifted over to
nearby
Nord Social, which, I must say, played the best mellow, evocative techno music I may
have ever heard. It was beautiful. Now, I understand that on some nights,
it gets so crowded and loud that you can't hear yourself think. That's
definitely not my thing, so I'm glad the noise level was tolerable. Ms. B.
has been going through a hell of a tough time dealing with her folks'
health situations for quite a while now, so she and I spent quite a
while talking about her life in Midland, friends, current experiences,
joys, stressors, etc. We've been together for roughly sixteen years, yet
this turned out to be some of the most meaningful sharing of history and
feelings between us, well, ever. This meant the world to me, and I think
to her as well.
Tomorrow looks busy. I sleep now.
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At Clock & Candle Brewatorium
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I woke up pretty early, had a quick breakfast, ran three miles around the
neighborhood, and cleaned out some gutters for Del. Then Kimberly and I went
in search of new phones because our current ones are going on seven years old
and have been sputtering along for a while now. We'd bought them just
before we went on our first Europe trip in 2019, so these critters feel like
they're almost as old as we are. Kimberly had gotten her dad's new phone at
the Walmartz on her previous trip here and was impressed by the gentleman
who'd helped them. Happily, he was on hand again to help us. Indeed, he set us
up with the best deals we could get, and now we now have new phones (which are
in the process of updating as I write). I hope the new ones hold out at least
as long as the old buggers. We shall see...
There — I took a photo of me with the new phone camera. Somehow, I think the
old one picked up less of the ugly.
It took a couple of hours to get the phones purchased and set up, so by the
time all was said and done, the Great Starvation had gripped us. Lunch at
Molasses sounded
good, so that's where we headed — after stopping for me to grab a quick
geocache. Molasses has long been my favorite BBQ joint anywhere... seriously,
yes, in Michigan... and the foodz today was first rate, as always.
Since we've been out and about very evening since our arrival, Ms. B.
and I opted stay home with Del & Fern, help them watch television; futz
around with the settings, apps, and updates on our phones; and other such
business. Till laters!
Up pretty early again today. Light breakfast, coffee, and then out to
Stratford Woods Park again for some more woodland geocaching. The
temperature was perfect — mid 70s with low humidity — and I found three fun
hides. Then I rode a short distance over to what is apparently a popular local
fishing spot called
Three Ponds
(maybe because there are three ponds here) to hunt a cache called "
Fishing for a Cache" (
GCBE9TX). This one was pretty challenging because it resides on a very steep bank
close to the water's edge, and you
really don't want want to lose
your footing here, especially when you have a brand new phone in your pocket.
Fortunately, I maintained my balance and happened to spy the cache in fairly
short order (you can see it in the photo at left). A fun outing all around.
Kimberly
and I had entertained the idea of getting pasties for lunch at
Midland Pasty Company, but dang if they weren't closed today. If you don't know about pasties,
well, by Yog, you oughta. And maybe watch Jeff Daniels' screamingly
funny
Escanaba in da Moonlight (2001). We ended up grabbing chicken from
Popeye's, about which I have not one complaint. I love me some Popeye's chicken, and I got
the wings with ghost pepper rub. Not as hot as all that, but delicious
nonetheless.
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A carpet of ferns in Stratford Woods Park
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Big turtle, baby Gamera, or geocache?
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View of the pond from "Fishing for a Cache"
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Ms. B. spent a good portion of the afternoon working, running errands with her
mom, and going shopping with friend Darren, so I devoted myself to working on
the blog and some new fiction. Once she returned, I cooked up a couple of
killer burgers and mixed vegetables for dinner. We then made ourselves almost
presentable and ventured out to
Oxygen, where I found a fookin' fine dirty gin martini. Then we wandered back to
Nord Social, which we'd visited a couple of evenings ago. Here, they
have this thing they call the
Botanic Martini. I'm not sure it's really
a martini, but it's certainly botanical, and it's one of the most distinctive,
spicy libations ever to burn my lips. To say I fookin' love it is an
understatement so grotesque it's like saying Kimberly is just kinda purty.
Here's the description at the top of the menu:
At last, it was back to Casa di Brugger to spend a nice evening hanging out
with Del & Fern. In the morning, we'll be off to the next phase of this
particular Michigan Madness. And so, friends, till then.
Sunday, July 26, 2026
It wasn't planned (not by a long shot), but I woke up very early, and so
decided to tumble out of bed and get going. Coffee (lots), breakfast (a
little), running (fast and hard), and then packing. Yep, one of the primary
reasons for the timing of this trip — in addition to helping Kimberly's
parents out at every turn — was to meet longtime friends and geocaching
partners
Skyhawk63 (a.k.a. Tom) &
Punkins19 (a.k.a. Linda)
from Greensboro in Traverse City, MI, and take a boat trip out to Power Island
in Grand Traverse Bay (in the southeastern arm of Lake Michigan) to hunt
Michigan's oldest geocache, "
Power Island" (
GC35). They've been devising this plan for a while, and since Kimberly and I knew
we'd need to come to Michigan around this time, the plans to meet up here wove
together beautifully.
The only complication now is that there are potentially severe storms in
tomorrow's forecast. We'll burn that bridge when we get to it.
Anyway, Brugger and I left Midland at 11:00 a.m. sharp for a roughly
three-hour drive to Traverse City. We stopped in Clare for lunch at
Mancino's, listened to a lot of 80s music as we drove, grabbed a few caches, and
arrived at our lodgings (
The Vic Hotel) around 2:00 p.m. It's a cool place, very comfortable, with all the
necessary amenities and more. Once we'd settled in, we decided to make our way
around the town and see what we could see. The first place we found was
Left Foot Charley Wine & Hard Cider, a few miles to the west, which frankly surprised us with its high quality.
This corner of Michigan has long been known for its Reisling wines, but we
discovered some utterly delicious reds and other whites here as well. Their
Blaufrankisch stood out as particularly good.
From there, we ventured over to
Rove Winery, a few more miles out of town, which might have been even better. Here, the
tasting room and environs offered a lovely, panoramic view of the surrounding
countryside, which struck us as rather akin to our region back home
(Virginia's Piedmont). Their TrÍ red wine made me even happier than a slap in
the belly with a wet trout. Make no mistake, wine-wise, we're not talking
Europe, California, or Pacific Northwest, but compared to the up-and-coming
wine regions of North Carolina and Virginia, these vintages more than held
their own. They actually put the North Carolina stuff to shame (admittedly,
not a huge compliment).
By now, we needed some solid vittles, so we found a lovely dinner at
Harrington's by the Bay, which fulfilled all our cravings except for those of the economic variety.
Hoooey, shit is expensive around here. After that, I found a couple of more
caches, and then we settled in at The Vic to mellow out. Tomorrow promises to
be a big day... I just hope the weather doesn't deal us any nasty blows.
Till then.
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View of the countryside from Rove Winery
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Oh, look. They have wine glasses in their hands. Go figure.
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