Monday, July 27, 2026
Today was the day: meeting very good friends and fellow geocachers, Skyhawk63
(a.k.a. Tom) & Punkins19 (a.k.a. Linda) for a boat trip
out to Power Island, a few miles north of Traverse City in Lake Michigan, to
hunt the oldest cache in Michigan ("Power Island" GC35, which dates back to the year 2000 and is the 35th geocache ever placed in
the world). Mr. Skyhawk had set his eye on this one some time ago, and since
he knew Ms. B. and I frequently visit Michigan, he invited us to join him and
Linda if we could work it out time-wise. Well, as it turned out, we could.
Thus, he made reservations with a gentleman named Captain Mike, who makes
regular boat runs to Power Island for geocachers. Woot!
Ms. B. and I rose relatively early, as we had to meet our party at the docks
by 8:30 a.m. A third party joined us — a nice couple named Paula and Terry —
and Captain Mike got us going a few minutes before 9:00 a.m. It's six miles
from the Traverse City docks out to the island, which took about 20 minutes.
The weather forecast called for possible thunderstorms, but thankfully, these
did not materialize. As it turned out, we had sunny, hot, muggy weather, which
felt a bit too much like being back down south, but hey, it's not like
Michigan can throw any heat and humidity at us that we Southerners don't face
every goddamned day from March to November.
Power Island is the largest uninhabited island in the Great Lakes, roughly
diamond-shaped, its coastline mostly bluffs, with very limited access for
boats. We docked on the island's easternmost side, and disembarked with about
two hours' time to hike four miles and snag as many of the fourteen
caches on the island as possible (about half of them are Earthcaches or
Virtuals, which don't feature physical containers; rather, you correctly
answer questions about a certain location to receive credit for a geocache
find). The "Power Island" cache lay on the opposite side of the island, and
while there are numerous trails through its dense woods, we needed the one
around the island's perimeter to reach all but one of the caches — and we
didn't go after it because we didn't have time to make a long, arduous climb
to the center of the island where it resides.
We went after the virtual cache and a few of the Earthcaches, but our focus
was on the traditional hides. While Ms. B. wasn't particularly interested in
the caches, she was quite taken with the island's plentiful mushrooms,
beautiful flora, small critters, and generally gorgeous scenery. We made good
time on our hike, and — sure enough — we claimed the "Power Island" cache.
Mission accomplished!
About the time we arrived back in Traverse City, a few raindrops fell on us
but then went away and stayed away for the rest of the afternoon. We found
lunch at a pub called
The Pub, which was pretty interesting — I had some decent crispy chicken tenders
with curry sauce and jalapenos. We then spent a little time roaming downtown
Traverse City hunting geocaches, and then drove out to
Mari Vineyards on the Old Mission Peninsula, just north of town. Very scenic,
and the wines were good.
After this, Ms. B. and I bid Tom & Linda addio and returned to The Vic for much-needed showers and some rest. Eventually, we ordered pizza from Firebird, which hit the spot, and then relaxed for the rest of the evening. This island-hopping stuff will make an old person tired.
After this, Ms. B. and I bid Tom & Linda addio and returned to The Vic for much-needed showers and some rest. Eventually, we ordered pizza from Firebird, which hit the spot, and then relaxed for the rest of the evening. This island-hopping stuff will make an old person tired.
G'night.
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| Power Island Coastline |
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| What the hell is that? What the HELL is that? Hey, kid, don't put your lips on that thing! |
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| It's a long way down. |
L: Ms. B. going down... R: Big honking ammo can!
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| At Mari Vineyards — Brugger, Linda, Tom, Old Dude |
Tuesday, July 28, 2026
No sleeping in this morning. I got up, sank a boatload of coffee, and set out
walking to nearby Oakwood Cemetery, where an Adventure Lab cache and a couple of traditional caches awaited me.
The cemetery is huge and quite lovely — one of those that's so scenic that you
feel like it might mitigate some of the disappointment about being dead and
buried. I made my way through the stages of the AL and then sought the two
physical caches hidden deep within the graves and vaults. Success on all
counts (although my pen gave up the ghost, so I had to use alternative means
to sign the logsheets). A few views of Oakwood Cemetery below:
With my targets acquired and obliterated, I returned to our lodgings to
collect Kimberly, and we hit the road for the little community of Leland and
"Fishtown," about 40 minutes up in the Leelanau Peninsula, northwest of
Traverse City. As a former Michigander, she's been many places in the
state, but never to this area, so she had a craving — both for the locale in
general and the many, many wineries that have sprung up in the region over
the past couple of decades. Fishtown is a small, historic district in the
heart of Leland, with a harbor, numerous shops & restaurants, and a fair
number of geocaches. After snagging a couple of the latter, our next target
was lunch, which we found at Rick's Cafe, right on the Leland River waterfront. Their smoked fish pate is die for
(or to kill someone else for if they have it and you want it).
Since it was such a beautiful afternoon, the next order of business was to
wander around Fishtown, seeing the sights and grabbing more geocaches.
Naturally, the seeking of spirited spirits held some allure for us (and
there are literally dozens and dozens of wineries, breweries, and
distilleries along the Leelanau peninsula), so we ventured out to the more
rural reaches of the county, where we found Good Harbor Vineyards. Ms. B. went with white wine, but because it had gotten pretty warm
and I wanted something refreshing, I decided to try their peach cider. I'm
not really a cider enthusiast, but this stuff was excellent.
From there, we found a nice graveyard cache, and then moved on to
Three Trees Vineyards, a little farther out in the middle of nowhere. Here, the vineyard
facilities were a bit more primitive, not well marked, and... well...
almost disconcerting in their isolation. It brought to mind my horror story,
"When Jarly Calls" (available in
Fugue Devil: Resurgence) in which bizarre, cosmic events happen at a remote winery. The proprietor
was affable and generous with his pours, although the prices for the wine
were even higher than most of the already high-priced local fare. I have to
say, the product was unfortunately mediocre, but we made the best of it, as
we typically do and still had a mighty fine time.
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| The Leland River and little dam in the heart of Fishtown |
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| What?! It's these people again! |
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| View of the river and Fishtown from the top of the dam |
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| Fishtown boardwalk |
For dinner we opted for Asian —
Red Ginger in
downtown Traverse City. There was an hour wait time when we arrived, so we
wandered across the street and found drinks in the very nice bar at
Sorellina Restaurant. Back at Red Ginger, Ms. B. ordered spicy tuna, and I had
the Ginger Tuna roll — lump crab, spicy mayonnaise, avocado, tempura crispies,
topped with ahi, carrot-ginger puree, and scallions — and I've got to say,
it's one of the best damned sushi rolls I've ever tasted. As with everything
in this area, we paid a fortune for it, but lord have mercy... we sure enjoyed
it.
Eventually, we retired for the evening. Tomorrow is our last day in Traverse
City, then another day in Midland before we fly back to the southland.
For tonight, peace out.
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| Oh, good lord. Look who it is. |
Wednesday, July 29, 2026
Once up and caffeinated this morning, I hoofed it into the neighboring environs to hunt a geocache. Found it, I did! Then I hoofed it back to The Vic, we packed up all our shit, and off we went (The Vic gets top marks for amenities, comfort, and cleanliness, so yes, we recommend it highly). Naturally, we stopped for a handful of caches along the way and settled for lunch at Jersey Mike's in Cadillac.
We arrived back in Midland about 2:00 p.m. Ms. B.s cousin Jeanie had stopped
by the house to check on Del & Fern, so we visited for a while; then the other
half of my traveling party went into her bedroom and fell over. It's tired out
there, don't you know!
She decided to make meatloaf for her parents tonight, which was all kinds of
delicious. Now, during the evening vittles, her parents usually watch the
network evening news, which is not something I've done in years upon years (I
read almost all my news from various sources). Jesus Yog Almighty. Thirty
seconds to one minute of "news," and then interminable back-to-back
commercials for countless minutes at a time. Talk about an utter waste of time. Hey,
ABC-TV News, fuck you and everything about you. There is no excuse. None. Talk
about disrespecting one's audience. I have no doubt the other networks are
equally egregious offenders. No wonder broadcast media can't even buy respect anymore. You fuckers did it to yourselves, so once again, fuck you and everything about you.
For the rest of the evening, we hung out and enjoyed the company. Then we
crashed. Nighty night.
Thursday, July 30, 2026
I woke up fairly early, so I had a little coffee and breakfast, then hopped on the bicycle and set out after some local geocaches. I found a few fun ones, including one hidden inside a Little Critter Swap box (more or less like the Little Library boxes one can find all over the place, only here, you have little critter figures); an ammo can in a tree (placed by the Girl Scouts); and a log entry (in the Girl Scout cache) that read ""Plese get of my terf and if you cume bake agen I will kill you all." And the fine response from someone else was "OK, Dingus." This gave me a pretty good laugh.
I put in quite a few miles of pedaling, though as has happened in the past, the chain on that old bike decided to get finicky, and it popped off a couple of times, requiring me to make reparations on the fly. A tool kit would have helped a lot, but alas, I was without. And while I was futzing with the bike, I lost my damned pen — again — necessitating an "alternative" signature on the log sheets; in this case, I poked three holes in the log and took a photo of it, which I attached to my online logs. Oy.
Once back at Casa di Brugger, I took a much-needed shower and tore
into some leftover meatloaf for lunch. Then I set to work on some writing for
most of the afternoon. Ms. B. took a long walk/run through the neighborhood,
which helps her stress level while she's dealing with her folks' finances and other business. It's a tough time when your
parents begin to fail, as I well know.
For dinner, Kimberly's friend, Lisa, joined us at D'Alessandro's, which we've enjoyed numerous times over the years. It's the first time I'd
met her, and I think it's safe to say we all enjoyed the food, drink, and
conversation immensely. I had a superb Ravioli Formaggio with mushroom sauce
with a Nebbiolo (actually more than one) that complemented it perfectly. There
wasn't a big crowd, and I can only hope the restaurant is doing okay because it truly is a long-time favorite of ours. I enjoyed Lisa's company, and I
hope we'll have plenty more opportunities to get together on my future visits.
The rest of the evening was mellow — the usual hanging out with the folks.
Tomorrow, we're heading out about midday, and I hope to Yog we don't run
into any flight issues this go-round. Don't want 'em, don't need 'em.
Niters.
Friday, July 31, 2026
Again, I woke up early, so I went straight out for my regular three-mile run. Oh, yeah, it got pretty danged hot out there for Michigan. And yes, at last, it was time for us to pack up, and then for Darren to pick up our asses and deliver them to Delta Air Lines.
Again, I woke up early, so I went straight out for my regular three-mile run. Oh, yeah, it got pretty danged hot out there for Michigan. And yes, at last, it was time for us to pack up, and then for Darren to pick up our asses and deliver them to Delta Air Lines.
Happily, we suffered no significant delays. The MBS to DTW leg went
off with a hitch, and we had time in Detroit to have an early (expensive)
dinner and a couple of (very expensive) drinks. Things were a bit slow getting started for the DTW to GSO leg, but once airborne, we ended up golden and landed
almost on time, at 10:15 p.m. Wonder of wonders, just before we left Midland,
a new cache had published in Martinsville, barely off of our route home. So,
once we arrived back in town, we made a slight detour and I managed to
claim the almost-coveted first-to-find honors.
As I've mentioned, dealing with her parents' declining has
been incredibly stressful for Kimberly, so this visit was hardly all fun and
games — though we did manage to work in some fantastic quality time; some of the best in Michigan I can remember, actually. She'll still be going back
and forth on an all-too-regular basis, and I'll join her periodically;
it's too costly for both of us to go so frequently. Thankfully, Del & Fern
have a good senior support system in Midland, and we hope they can stay in
their house as long as possible. Time will tell.
These times, they are bittersweet. For now, addio.
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| Darren and Ms. have come and gone from MBS so frequently, they probably know every crack in the sidewalk (not to mention flight schedules). |
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| And so, once more, we bid Michigan arrivederci. |
