Oh, Shenandoah

Last week was my birthday, this week is Brugger's birthday, and a while back, we figured we needed to celebrate these dastardly days...somewhere, somehow. She recently had fairly serious surgery, and even while recuperating, she's been working her ass off on several freelance projects; so, we decided it was only proper to collaborate with our regular traveling companions Terry & Beth and plot an outing together. We settled on Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, a few hours north of home, where the scenery is beautiful, the mood is mellow, and the wineries, distilleries, and breweries are plentiful. Our destination: a lovely VRBO at the Wintergreen Resort, which Terry located for us. Wintergreen is best known as a ski resort, but off-season, it turns out to be very affordable and hardly any less beautiful than under a coating of snow.

 

Thursday, May 8, 2025

Today, just after lunchtime, we embarked on a three-hour tour... well, okay, a drive... mostly up U.S. Highway 29. In Gretna, just north of Danville, we stopped so I could hunt a new geocache—"The Tavern Phone" (GCB2WY0)—placed by old friend Klaussinator (a.k.a. Mike), who hails from the Danville area. Mike is known for his ingenious gadget caches, and this one proved to be another winner (the photo there will give you a good idea of what I was looking for). The setting was the historic Yates Tavern, which dates back to the year 1750. A lovely spot, and a fun cache.

 

The drive up wasn't too bad, though once on the winding, two-lane mountain roads, traffic picked up, and it was pretty slow. We arrived in Wintergreen around four o'clock, very shortly after Terry & Beth. We hung out in our lodgings for a time, enjoying the scenery, a few munchies, and a spot of wine. Six-ish, we sought dinner at a nearby restaurant called The Edge, right at the top of one of the ski runs. There weren't many patrons at the place, but the service, the drinks, and the food proved top-notch across the board. I had a dirty martini and a plate of chicken wings with hot honey, which, if it came down to it, I might be willing to kill for.

 

A mellow evening back at our lodgings, though Kimberly had to fit in some more work, as her workload is overwhelming. Still, I'm pretty sure she'd rather bring some work with her on an otherwise relaxing trip than stay home and work, work, work.

On tomorrow's docket: hitting a few wineries and getting together with old friends, writer Elizabeth Massie and artist Cortney Skinner. It's been way, way too long since we've seen them.

Living room of our Wintergreen VRBO

The traditional, first-glass-of-wine toast

A view from the balcony of our Wintergreen VRBO

The smushy cache log, signed

Friday, May 9, 2025
Hey, hey, it's Brugger's birthday! I'd given her a card and a gift before we left home, so today, she got a loving pat on the head (okay, yes, and a nice kissy). I didn't sleep in this morning; instead, I got up relatively early, downed some coffee and half a bagel, and set out walking toward a couple of geocaches less than a mile away. The mountain was pretty well socked in with fog—visibility was less than a hundred feet in any direction for a while—but as I hoofed it higher up the slope, the sun began to burn away the mist. Sadly, most of the caches in the vicinity have enough did-not-find logs to suggest they're missing, but I proceeded to search anyway. The first one, not unexpectedly, was a bust. The second one had a higher difficulty rating, so I expected something a bit unusual. It lurked at an overlook along the hiking trail, which offered a helluva fine view.

 

I hunted for a good while before I finally noticed something a little out of place. And, indeed, that was the cache. The logsheet was a smushy, damp mess but I still managed to get my "Damned Rodan" signature on it (shortened to "DR" in this case, as you can see in the photo). A happy success here. Yay!

It wasn't exactly hot outside, but very humid, and by Yog, we are on a mountain! In places, a very steep mountain. So, by the time I hoofed it back to our lodgings, I looked like I'd been dumped in a dirty swimming pool. The shower that followed felt pretty heavenly.

Heading out on the misty trail

Overlooking one of the ski slopes as the fog burns away

Once everyone had fixed themselves up as much as they could be fixed, we headed out to explore the Shenandoah Valley wine country. Before any wining, though, we needed lunch, so we found a place that looked apt: the Iron & Ale tavern, just down the mountain a ways at a golf course. Decent enough food and drink, and there was a cache on the premises. Woot. After foodz, we headed to Flying Fox Winery, in nearby Afton. We all had flights so we could sample several of their available vintages, and in general, we were pleased with their offerings; Flying Fox is the only winery I've ever been to that produces vermouth (it's all sweet here rather than dry). I found it enjoyable enough.

From there, we trucked over to Hazy Mountain Vineyards & Brewery. This was an expansive facility, with a touch of Spanish decor; a little incongruous with the setting, we thought, but it was comfortable, and the views of the nearby mountains were incredible. Good, though not superlative wine.

Once done there, we had a little time before we were supposed to meet Cortney & Beth, and the prospect of some coffee appealed to the lot of us. On the map, we found a Trager Brothers Coffee Shop about ten minutes down the road, so we decided to go for it. Somewhat to our surprise, we found ourselves at the Rockfish Valley Community Center, and at first, we thought we must have ended up at the wrong place. But no! The building, which looked like an old school, actually has a bunch of stuff in it—a thrift store, various artisan studios, a recreation area, and...coffee! We snagged some Juan Valdez and sat outside, where we made the acquaintance of several friendly dogs who were hanging out and playing with their owners. What a cool and unexpected discovery this was.

 

Then we rode up to Blue Mountain Brewery to meet Cortney & Beth, whom I don't believe we have seen in person since the Scares That Care convention in Williamsburg in 2019. They arrived at the restaurant just before us, so we settled ourselves at a nice outside table and commenced to making mischief (and maybe a little merry). The food hit the spot—for me, a pepper jelly and bacon burger with a Full Nelson IPA to accompany. Stories aplenty flew left and right, and I think we all got on famously. Silly us, though—we were having such a good time that none of us thought to take any pictures. I guess that's what happens when you get old and your mind starts slipping....

 

That was pretty much it for the frivolities. Our gang returned to our lodgings, where Brugger buckled down to do some work and I did the requisite blogging. Here 'tis.

And so...till tomorrow.

It's Brugger's birthday! Look at that old lady!

Is not their birthdays, but they still old

The view from the terrace at Hazy Mountain Vineyards

Strangest-looking bunch of vultures ever

I think I found a little wood pecker

Saturday, May 10, 2025
Once awake, caffeinated, and dressed, I set out walking after a couple of caches in the opposite direction I went yesterday. It was a bit farther—and a hell of a lot steeper—than yesterday morning's stroll. This here IS a mountain! My caching results were basically the same as yesterday: one find and one DNF (again, the container is clearly missing). If I put this much energy into my walks every day, I'd either be healthier than a horse or dead.

Ms. Beth wasn't feeling up to the local winery tour we had originally envisioned, so we opted to go exploring...wherever. A little later...and, why, yes, we found ourselves at some interesting locations. Our first stop was at Bold Rock Cidery, not far out of Wintergreen, where Brugger and I both tried the Imperial Berry Cider, which we found right pleasing (she even bought a six-pack to bring home). For our lunch vittles, I went for some very good smoked chicken wings, and Brugger had some kind of salad thingy.

You know, since the days that I used to travel regularly between Greensboro and Waynesboro, this area has grown immensely; back when, there was little but farmland, woods, and a handful of mercantile establishments. I do typically frown on rampant commercial development, but hereabouts, the developers have largely blended the structures into the environment rather than destroyed it, and these businesses bring in considerable tourist dollars; so, to my mind, that's the best of all worlds. 

From there, we decided to venture into Waynesboro and see if we might come upon any interesting shops or bars. Not so much, at least in downtown, though I did find a cool geocache fashioned by a couple of cachers who go by the handle of Emvirginia—none other than friends Cortney & Beth. So, we decided to head over to nearby Staunton, which is home to numerous writers and artists of my acquaintance. I thought seriously about giving them a holler, but since this was such a spur-of-the-moment decision, it seemed a somewhat awkward proposition. Therefore, Ms. B. and I resolved that we should make a special trip here in the not-too-distant future, specifically to hang out with these folks who clearly need hanging out with.

We found Staunton to be a fairly hopping place. The main downtown streets were closed to traffic, and the local bars and eateries took over the spaces. I snagged a few caches, and then we plopped ourselves in a lovely little bistro called Accordia, where we sampled several spirits, followed by coffee, at least for Terry and me. Great atmosphere and service, so I recommend this place highly.

Afterward, I found a few Adventure Lab Cache stages, and then we hit the road back to Wintergreen. On this leg, we took Mount Torrey Road, which was one of the most scenic, secluded back roads I've traveled in a long time. There was a cache at Mt. Torrey Furnace, a historic location that caught my eye, so we stopped so I could hunt it. I found it quickly, and all of us really enjoyed the unexpected discovery.

By now, it was dinnertime, so we again hit The Edge at Wintergreen Resort. I did have another of their first-rate martinis, but I at least ate marginally healthier this time—a green salad with beets, red peppers, mandarin oranges, and grilled chicken, which I found delicious. Brugger had some kind of a salad thingy.

Once back at our lodgings, we settled in for the rest of the evening. Brugger had work to do, and I had blogging to do. Terry chowed on some leftover cheesecake, and I drank coffee (which might be a mistake at this hour; we shall see).

We head back home tomorrow. I'm gonna call this trip another big winner in the annals of trips with our Creeple Peoples. The lunacy was delicious from start to finish.

Creeple People at Bold Rock Cidery

L: Wonder who might have done this clever thing! R: Saturday afternoon in downtown Staunton

The remains of the old Mount Torry Iron Furnace

Foodz, Booze, Brewz, and Such

Martinsville isn't a very large town, and we don't have but so many local dining and drinking options, though Brugger and I do our best to support several exceptional establishments in town. Third Bay Café, right up the street from us, is owned by an old high school buddy of mine, and it remains one of our favorite go-to restaurants anywhere. Their big ol' cheeseburger is easily the best in town; Brugger often gets a "burger salad"—one of their excellent house salads topped by a burger! Third Bay's dinner menu isn't all that extensive, but everything on it is consistently excellent.

At a recent gathering of friends, Kimberly and I met a nice couple named Scott and Jamie, so we got together with them last weekend at what was, for me, a new discovery. Scuffle Hill Brewing, in nearby Collinsville, has been around for a pretty good while, but we'd never visited it before. The several brews I tried were all excellent, and they carry wine from Hamlet Vineyards, a very good local winery in  Fieldale, a short distance up the road. After Scuffle Hill, we had dinner at Yamato Japanese Restaurant, one of a couple of decent Asian restaurants in town. They feature a hibachi area with some exceptionally agile teppanyaki chefs, but we prefer their sushi bar; the dead fish is always superb.

Renewal Brewing in Uptown Martinsville has become one of our favorite destinations. They have several excellent brews and hard seltzer concoctions. It's located in the basement of one of the old buildings in town, and we find its speakeasy decor perfect for our tastes. The owner also runs Mountain Valley Brewing, out in the scenic boonies around Axton, not too far out of Martinsville. We've only been there once, but revisiting it is on our near-future schedule.

Our most upscale dining option can be found at TAD Tavern, Uptown. It's relatively new, and based on our first experience there a few ago, I give it top marks. You may walk out of the place speaking consoling reassurances to your wallet, but the food, service, and atmosphere could not be better. High marks all around!

Anyway, this is my shout-out to some of our favorite local spots. This is far from exhaustive, and several more deserve accolades, so I'll yak about them in a future entry. For now, g'day.

From St. Augustine to the Bahamas, Part 1

Almost exactly a year ago, circumstances looked favorable for Ms. B. and me to plan another trip to places far and wide with friends and regular travel companions, Terry & Beth. They had been hoping to go to the Caribbean for some time, so we committed to taking this trip with them. We made reservations, put money down, and decided that, since it was a relatively short cruise (four days), we would visit St. Augustine for several days beforehand.

Then Brugger got laid off from her job at The Mailbox (the company where we'd worked together for well over a decade), and, concurrently, I lost my lucrative freelance gig with them. Still, since we'd lose a prohibitive amount of money if we opted to cancel, we figured we'd carry through with our plan. So...fookin' onward it is.

The logsheet of "Knock Knock Let Me In" (GCAZNPV)

Thursday, February 6, 2025
Departure day. Brugger and I rose about dawn, tossed our stuff in the car, and drove from Martinsville to Terry & Beth's place in Kernersville. We wasted no time transferring our belongings to their vehicle and getting our asses on the road. The first part of the trip was easy enough; I found a cache at a rest area, and we stopped for a tolerable lunch at J's Corner in Columbia. Afterward, though, traffic picked up considerably, and we ran into a few snags, particularly around Jacksonville, FL, where a car had crashed and burned up real good. Still, in general, the drive wasn't intolerable, and we made decent time—for Ms. B. and me, a total of about nine hours. Once we arrived at our lodgings, a nice AirBnB in north St. Augustine, we unpacked and then set forth to find dinner, as the Great Starvation was upon us. We opted for a nice restaurant in the Spanish Quarter called Forgotten Tonic, which had great atmosphere and mostly delicious food. I had a big-ass burger with havarti cheese, bacon, pickles, and other goodies on a big old pretzel roll. Then a supply run at a nearby grocery store.

By now, we were all feeling pretty wiped, but there was a geocache only a quarter-mile from our lodgings, so I decided to walk after it. Interestingly, some fellow geocachers of our acquaintance from back home—known as The Border Reivers—had just been to the cache a couple of days ago. I signed the log beneath their entry, then returned to the AirBnB to pen this little portion of blog, and then crashed.

B-b-boom!

Feeling blue at GCAZNPV

Friday, February 7, 2025

Home away from home—our St. Augustine AirBnB

Although the AirBnB is very comfortable, particularly the bed, I unfortunately had a poor night's sleep, due to some persistent, niggling physical issues; hopefully, nothing serious. Anyhoo, once up, about, and fortified with coffee, I felt reasonably human again. After a breakfast of biscuits and cinnamon butter, which Beth had brought home from last night's restaurant dinner, we set sail for the historical district and commenced to wandering. Eventually, we settled in for lunch at a decent Italian-ish restaurant called Pizzalley's Chianti Room, where Brugger and I split a fig & prosciutto pizza, which was delicious. Then we opted to separate for a while, some of us to go shopping, some of us to go geocaching (guess who did what).

St. Augustine Basilica

I hunted and found quite a few caches; in fact, I just about cleaned up the entire historical district. (There really aren't that many here, so this wasn't a particularly impressive feat.) They were all fun, though, and I added seven or eight finds to my Florida cache count. We regrouped at a nice wine bar called Bin 39, but because it's pretty hot and muggy here, I felt more in the cold, refreshing beer mode. Found a Hibiscus Wheat Ale that really hit the spot. From there, we headed for an art gallery/wine bar called The Bart on Aviles (Bar plus Art equals Bart) and split a bottle of very good California GSM.

Again, some wandering. After a time, for dinner, we settled on Prohibition Kitchen, right next to Pazzalley's. At first, we were a little leery because their live music, though mellow in character, was really, REALLY loud. However, the very kind staff there seated us in the balcony at the far back of the restaurant, which was perfect, as far as acoustics and intimacy go. Since I've not consumed a healthy morsel since we got here, I ordered a veggie sandwich (corned beets and spicy datil pepper slaw), though it came with yet more fries, which have accompanied every meal so far. I love me some fries, but I think I've hit the wall. Exceptionally high marks for this restaurant—very good food and service that couldn't be beat.

The Usual Suspects at Bin 39

Given that this is my first visit to St. Augustine, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I must say, in general, I love the city's character. Lots of history and culture, blended with the best of contemporary food, drink, shops, and other attractions; touristy in places, but not overwhelming (at least at this time of year; at peak season, the crowds are probably oppressive). Our lodgings are as comfortable as any we've had anywhere we've traveled—convenient to everything, but situated on a quiet, picturesque avenue, with plenty of amenities. Terry and Beth have been here several times, and I understand what draws them back for repeated visits. I expect that we'll return at some point in the future.

Sadly, unless the local geocachers add some caches to the landscape, any future caching here is likely to be disappointing.

My only real caveat about the place is the prevalence, at least in certain areas, of right-wing exhibitions of outright hatred, particularly from local businesses. The most egregious I saw was a sign on a restaurant that read "Dimmycrats are the evil within!" This kind of shit is why we can't have the proverbial nice things. So often, I hear that liberals are the ones who spread lies and hatred; but in my experience, all evidence points to precisely the opposite—in the real world as well as the virtual. I've never, ever seen public displays anywhere as vile and hate-filled from the left, whereas it's become more and more commonplace to see it from the right. So don't ever, EVER tell me that the right is not spreading hatred and division because that is absolutely verifiable bullshit.

And that's my closing for today. More tomorrow.

Haunted Inn in the historic quarter

Bustling St. George Street

A troupe of dastardly, evil, murderous sociopaths running loose in the streets of St. Augustine

Saturday, February 8, 2025

What IS that? (GCAAEC)

A virtual cache lurked about a half mile up the road from our place, so once I was up and had downed a jumbo-sized coffee, I set out on foot to see if I might find what I needed to claim the cache. GZ looked like a pump station for the city water system, but amid it all, there was monument to an individual who had apparently died while saving a child from some industrial accident at that site back in the 1980s. Not something one might expect to see at that particular location. Anyhoo, success! I recorded the necessary information to log the find and hoofed back to the house.

Old Rodan and the Old Senator

After we were all sufficiently caffeinated and felt up to the task, we ventured down to the historical quarter, circled the same block several times looking for parking (which we finally managed), and sought lunch at a nice little joint near Flagler College called The Floridian, recommended to us by an old friend from our days working at The Mailbox, as she'd gone to school at Flagler. I found their brisket tacos quite good, if not quite up to the standard of Catrina's (in Mebane, NC).

The rest of the gang needed to do some shopping and drinking, so Terry drove us a little ways north of town and I set out on foot for a half-dozen geocaches within about a mile radius of our drop-off point. I hoofed it to several very fun caches, including one at the Fountain of Youth Archaeology Park, another at the Old Jail Museum, and another at "Old Senator," a roughly 600-year old live oak tree. I knocked out a few others nearby and then headed back to meet up with the rest of the gang at Carrera Wine Cellar on San Marco St. This turned out to be a colorful, enjoyable place, and I ended up having a lengthy conversation with one of the local folks who was apparently something of a horror fan. She was particularly taken with the fact that I'd written some Dark Shadows books and audio drama scripts, since she'd been a huge DS fan back in the dark ages. Fun shit.

The St. Augustine Lighthouse at sunset

At last, we headed out to the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum, where I hunted yet another fun cache and the other folks went shopping (again). Right at sunset, the lighthouse lit up, which made for a lovely early evening sight. By the time we headed back toward town, the evening tourist/dinner rush was well under way, so it was a slow ride across the bridge over the Matanzas River.

For dinner, we chose Casa Reina Taqueria, which turned out to be one hell of a popular place. We had over an hour wait, but once in, they seated us on a second-floor balcony with a scenic view of the city. Since I'd had tacos at lunch, I opted for chicken with rice, beans, guacamole, pico de gallo, and tomatillo salsa, which was delicious—particularly once I added some of their homemade hot sauce, which was satisfying, though not that hot.

And that was pretty much our day's adventure. Tomorrow, we're heading for Fort Lauderdale, and the day following, onto Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas for a four-day cruise to the Caribbean (specifically, CocoCay and Nassau). Hopefully, we'll avoid any unpleasant snags.

Till tomorrow!

Heading for Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth

On the balcony at Casa Reina

A couple of old folks at Longboards in Melbourne, FL

Sunday, February 9, 2025
Terry and I rose almost with the sun so we could venture out for an early breakfast. We had settled on a little breakfast joint less than half a mile from our lodgings, but to our dismay, we found it was closed. So, we wandered most of another mile down the road to the local Denny's, where we indulged in a couple of cardiac-attack breakfasts—eggs, bacon, hash browns, and pancakes (cinnamon swirl slapjacks for me; quite delicious). Then we waddled back to our place.

Alas, it was time to bid adios to St. Augustine. We particularly enjoyed our AirBnB lodgings; very clean, spacious, attractive, comfortable, and very reasonably priced. Top marks to our hosts. From St. Augustine to Fort Lauderdale is a couple of hundred miles and some change, but we took a few turns for vittles, gas, and geocaches. We went into Melbourne for lunch on the beachfront at a place called Longboards, which had a most appealing ambiance, though the service was slower than a salted slug trying to run uphill. The food, though, was delicious. I had a platter of the biggest and best steamed shrimp I've ever tasted.

We ran into very heavy traffic on our approach to Fort Lauderdale, but eventually we made it to our lodgings: a nicely priced, reasonably comfortable inn close to the interstate, airport, and cruise port. Once checked in, we set out in search of dinner. We'd found what looked like a very nice bistro not far from our inn—a hotel restaurant, it turned out—but when we arrived, the menu barely resembled the one posted online, they were out of cheese, and hopelessly understaffed. After waiting at our table for twenty minutes without acknowledgment, we decided to ride over to a nearby Outback Steakhouse, the very act of which went against our long-held tradition of avoiding chains in favor of local establishments, but by this time, it was getting very late, and the Great Starvation had settled upon us. The food and service turned out to be very good.

The need for additional wine for our upcoming adventure was strong, so we found a nearby Total Wine—the biggest Total Wine I've ever seen, actually—and commenced to shopping. A cache lurked on the premises, so I snagged it for good measure. Once back at our hotel, I decided to hoof it after a couple of caches less than a mile away. As I made my way toward one of the caches, I noticed a laser-like spotlight aimed into the sky, no doubt from the airport, which is less than a mile from our hotel. Not sure of its significance, but I found it very cool looking. I managed to turn up both caches without undue difficulty, and then trucked back to our room for a goodnight glass of wine.

And tomorrow, lord willing, it'll be off to the Caribbean.

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Go to From St. Augustine to the Bahamas, Part 2

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A Slightly Belated Parkway Picnic

Traditionally, Brugger and I visit the Blue Ridge Parkway in October, as a gear-up to Halloween. Last month, the Parkway was closed after damage caused by Hurricane Helene, but at least in the area nearest us, the closing was brief. Still, our schedules were pretty hectic this past month, so we missed going prior to All Hallows. However, more or less on the spur of the moment, to decided to drive up yesterday to Villa Appalaccia and Chateau Morrisette, our two favorite BRP destinations. Sadly, the restaurant at Mabry Mill closed a while back — having breakfast there has been an autumn tradition since my childhood — and there are no definite plans as yet for it to reopen. I certainly hope it will.

The weather turned out perfect for the outing, and though the fall foliage is a bit past its peak, some beautiful color lingered in various areas. At Villa Appalaccia, we did our customary wine tasting, grabbed a bottle of their San Giovese, and had an excellent picnic lunch in the walled terrace a short distance away from the main building (which we always think of as "ours" because, well, it's usually empty except for us, which makes it ours). Then we made the very short truck over to Chateau Morrisette, did the customary tasting, and drank a single glass each of Red Mountain Laurel, which is one of their sweet wines — something we almost never do — but since we'd already had our lunch and some dry red, we figured the Mountain Laurel would make a good dessert. It did.

There were several Adventure Lab stages in some very familiar haunts along the BRP, so on our way back home, we stopped off to grab the stages and take photos at some of the overlooks. We hit them at a lovely time, as the setting sun painted lovely colors out in the valley.

I do hope we'll have a chance to get back up there before winter weather sets in. And for the love of God, for all our sakes, please vote Blue tomorrow.

Road Trip! Ishpeming or Bust! (Part 1)

And so it begins...

Although I had sworn off driving to Michigan after the trip from hell a year or so ago, for our upcoming sojourn — to include a few days in the Upper Peninsula — Brugger and I would be joined by regular traveling companions Terry & Beth. Therefore, we decided that, since could split up driving duties and the road construction that so complicated the last road trip would be mostly done, a road trip it would be. As with my first trip to Michigan back in 2014, prior to leaving, we ran the Jeff Daniels' brilliantly nutzo Escanaba in da Moonlight (2001), this time introducing Terry & Beth to the film. We figure it went over exceedingly well because Beth had to change her pants afterward.

 
Sunday, September 22, 2024: Aaaand...We're Off!
Ms. B. and I mounted up and left Martinsville bright and early (more like foggy and early), bound for Terry & Beth's place in Kernersville, a little over an hour away. Since they have a much larger automobile than either Ms. B. or I, they offered to provide the transportation. So, at 9:00 a.m. sharp, we set out for Dayton, Ohio — Beth's old stomping grounds — where we planned to spend the night in a bed & breakfast and have dinner with some of her relatives. It was a scorching hot day, but the roughly eight-hour trip, which included a handful of rest/geocaching stops and a fair lunch at a TGI Fridays somewhere near Charleston, West Virginia, was comfortable enough in our fully loaded chariot. We pulled into our lodgings, right across from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base/Museum, at 5:00 p.m.

Soon afterward, Beth's aunt and two of her cousins, whom she hadn't seen in a long while, came to visit, and we had a big honking pizza dinner from nearby Joe's Pizzeria. It was fairly late when the party broke up, but Kim and I decided to take a late-night walk down the road about a mile and pick up a geocache — which turned out to be good, scaly fun (see the photo).

Monday, September 23, 2024: Are We There Yet?

Front yard view from our B&B

At "This Is Not an Underground Entrance"

Terry and I rose early and went out to hunt a nearby geocache — called "This Is Not an Underground Entrance" (GC9J294) — hidden at the edge of Wright-Patterson Airbase. A very cool location it was: a metal stairway that led down to a heavy door set into a concrete column at the edge of the Mad River. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the damned cache, and there's every indication it's missing. Alas! Still, we enjoyed the hunt.

Again, we loaded up and hit the road. Somewhere in central Ohio, we found a Frisch's Big Boy restaurant for a late-morning breakfast. I've gotta tell you — I was damned hungry, and the scrambled eggs, bacon, & pancake combination struck me as the best cheap-ass breakfast I've had since our massively memorable IHOP outing in Seattle last year when we went to the Pacific Northwest prior to our Alaska Cruise. This one set me to hollering, I can tell you.

We drove for another while, and some of our party decided that a winery visit seemed in order. We discovered one not too far off the beaten track, which turned out to be a lovely little place, with great atmosphere and friendly service. For that reason, I'll not identify it because the wine was piss. I've only been to one winery whose product was that bad, and that was a  few years ago in North Carolina. I'm not sure that little enterprise is even around anymore. Still, today, we did have an honest-to-Yog good time. I also found a cool cache in neat little town nearby, as well as a seminary building that so resembled Lychhurst Hospital in the upcoming anthology, Hospital of Haunts, which features my story, "Insensate," that I had to stop and take pictures.

We drove, cached, and made pit stops here and there for several more hours, and we arrived at Kim's parents' place in Midland around 8:00 p.m. After introducing them to Terry & Beth and socializing for a while, our foursome headed to Meijer (a sacred Midland tradition) to pick up foodz for dinner and provisions for our stay in the UP, set to begin early the next day.

Then...bedtime!

Ms. B. having a Moment With Monet

So, the wine wasn't good, but the time we had was.

Is it Lychhurst???

Tuesday, September 24, 2024: Clare, Kitch-iti-kipi, and Ishpeming
We wasted no time in Midland this morning and hit the road fairly early. Our first stop was Clare, the town where Brugger was born, about 30 miles west of Midland. Clare is the home of Cops & Donuts, which, to my mind, has the best donuts of any donut place I've ever been. We've visited Clare numerous times, and I've found most of the caches nearby, but I did manage to snag a few stages of a newish Adventure Lab Cache in the downtown area.

Beth wanted some food more substantial than donuts, so we ended up at the nearby Herrick House & Mulberry Cafe, a quaint little place with decent sandwiches. I destroyed a double-bacon BLT. Once done there, we set out on the road, only to detour to a little town called Harrison so Terry & Beth could check out a particular cannabis dispensary. Computer issues at the shop prolonged their checkout process for quite a long while, so we were much later than expected getting back on the road.

Herrick House & Mulberry Cafe in Clare

It was another day spent mostly in the car. Once across the Mackinac Bridge, our next destination was Kitch-iti-kipi, a picturesque spring a few hours west. Kimberly and I had visited there a couple of years ago, and I do love the location. We arrived fairly late in the day, and most of the crowd had vanished, so we were able to enjoy our raft ride out to the far end of the spring without any hustle and bustle. I'd found a physical cache there on our previous visit, and I was pleased to see that it was still in place. In addition to that, there is now an EarthCache at the location. There's no physical container to find at an EarthCache; one answers questions about the geology of a particular location to get credit for the cache.

We stopped for dinner at a pub in the little berg of Rapid River, where I polished off some walleye, and, afterward, I found a nearby cache. Then, once again, we were off, and around 8:00 p.m. — considerably later than we had originally anticipated — we arrived at our domicile for the next few days: a comfortable bed & breakfast in the town of Ishpeming, a few miles west of Marquette. There was nothing for it but to mellow out for the rest of the evening, so we mellowed.

Tomorrow is another day. Our target: the city of Marquette.

Old Rodan with the raft in the background at Kitch-iti-kipi

The view down from the raft, with happy fish circling the bubbling spring below

A view from the deck of the raft. Many ducks in evidence.

The Usual Suspects at the Rapid River Pub

I quite appreciate the decor at our VRBO.
This happy fellow lurks just outside the
bedroom door.

 
Wednesday, September 25, 2024: Into Marquette
Our lodgings in Ishpeming are stylish and comfortable. From the outside, we weren't expecting much — Ishpeming was once a mining town, and it looks like one — but inside the house, the decor is nautical but very modern. Our proprietor set up the kitchen so we are hardly lacking for anything, supply-wise. So we're giving top marks for this VRBO.

There's a greenway near here called the Iron Ore Heritage Trail, so I set out on it bright and early to hunt a couple of geocaches. One I found, one I did not, though not unexpectedly, as the previous hunter indicated in his log that he couldn't find it either. I didn't go all that far — just about a mile — because we're heading into Marquette this morning, and my time was a little limited. But if I have a chance, I'd like to venture farther, especially since there are several more caches within hiking distance.

Mid-morning, we hit the road, target Marquette. However, beforehand, Brugger and Beth wanted to visit a nearby rock shop, where — coincidentally — there is what's known as the "Yooper Tourist Trap," the site of a virtual geocache. So, while the rest of the party went rock hunting, I wandered among the myriad, mostly humorous displays of the Yooper Tourist Trap, gathering info for the virtual cache.

One of the big boulder formations (and Ground
Zero for a geocache) at Presque Isle Park

Done at last, we piled back into the vehicle and set out for Marquette, about thirty minutes down the road. Lunch was calling, so we went to Iron Bay Restaurant, which, on my first visit with Brugger to Marquette back in 2014, had been a different establishment called L'Attitude. It was good then, and maybe better now. I had some fantastic whitefish chowder and a hefty chopped salad, along with an excellent local IPA. We had a nice view of the bay and the iron ore dock located a very short distance from the restaurant. Once done with chow, our group split up; the ladies went shopping, Terry went in search of coffee, and I set out after a couple of caches. An officer of the law appeared to take some interest in my surreptitious activities, but he didn't bother to call on me, thus sparing me the chore of educating him on the joys of the cache. I finished up my deliciously clandestine endeavor and then met Terry at a nearby coffee shop. Eventually, the four of us reunited and trucked out to Presque Isle Park, an extensive natural area just north of town. Here, we went wandering (and one of us went caching) among the Black Rocks, a massive rock formation overlooking Lake Superior from the park. Brugger and I had done a some exploring and caching at Black Rocks on our first trip to Michigan in 2014, but this time, we had a bit more time and got to experience considerably more of the area. What a fantastic, scenic location it is. And, happily, my geocaching venture proved successful.

All this activity took up the better part of the afternoon, so, once done, we headed back into Marquette proper and visited a nice wine bar called Zephyr. A couple of bottles of wine, one Italian, one Spanish, forced us to drink them. We didn't mind obliging them. Then we hunted and killed dinner at the Portside Inn, which was somewhat less healthy than lunch (I had a very spicy, very large, Chicago-style Italian beef sandwich). Yummo.

By the end of dinner, we all felt fat, dumb, and happy, so we headed back to our lodgings in Ishpeming and mellowed until bedtime.

Mellow good.

Iron ore dock in Marquette

A view of Black Rocks at Presque Isle Park

Marquette Harbor Lighthouse

Thursday, September 26, 2024: Munising & Pictured Rocks
On our previous sojourns in the UP, Brugger and I have stayed in the little town of Munising, along the shores of Lake Superior. Of all the places we've visited in the UP, Munising seems unique, with a significant quirk factor that makes me think of Twin Peaks. Today, we set out for a day trip to Munising, our first objective being a boat tour of Pictured Rocks, a line of colorful sandstone cliffs that rise above the lake. Ms. B. and I have visited Pictured Rocks on foot — most notably Chapel Rock, which is one of the lake's most notable features (see "Midland and More in da Moonlight," October 5, 2014).

Once in Munising, we went straight to the dock, and it wasn't long before we had boarded the double-decker catamaran, called "Spray Falls." I might mention here that my Ameri-Scares novel, Michigan: The Dragon of Lake Superior (a signed copy of which now resides on the shelf at our Marquette bed & breakfast), opens with said dragon sinking a tour boat out of Munising. My friends got on the boat anyway. We were underway very shortly, and the boat proceeded northeastward at a fair clip, skirting the coastline, giving us excellent views of the cliffs, some of which rise 200-some feet above Superior's surface. The series of photos below can only hint at the cliffs' awesome size and multi-colored rock faces. The only incident to mar a perfect outing was Beth taking a spill on the gangway on her way off the boat. She doesn't appear to be seriously hurt, but she did take a bit of a battering.

Here's a little gallery of photographs from Pictured Rocks.

After the boat tour, we ventured over to the nearby town of Christmas, where we killed a late lunch at The Duck Pond, a nice UP pub where you can get fresh whitefish for dinner that was still swimming in the lake that morning. Mine was delicious. I had a couple of local brews to accompany, one of which was fabulous, the other not so much.

Since Beth wasn't feeling up to a more difficult trek, we drove back to Munising to visit Wagner Falls, which isn't as huge or as spectacular as many of the waterfalls in the area, but it's still very scenic, and there was a cache along the trail, which I snagged as we made our short hike.

Our last stop was Muldoon's Pasties & Gifts, on Highway 28 just at the western edge of town. Pasties, you must know, are the official food of the UP, at least in our book. (You should watch Jeff Daniels' quirky Escanaba in da Moonlight (2001) for a better understanding of this point.) We picked up a bunch to bring back to our VRBO for dinner. Mmm.

L) Ms. B. always did like men with a full head (and body) of hair; R:) Wagner Falls

Friday, September 26, 2024: Mackinac Island

For all her years living in Michigan, Ms. B. had never gone to Mackinac Island, in Lake Huron, a few miles east of the Mackinaw Bridge, which connects Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas. The island isn't very large, but it has a long, colorful history. To film buffs, it may be best known for having been the setting of the film, Somewhere in Time (1980), particularly the Grand Hotel, which dominates a fair portion of the island's southern bluffs. The sprawling Fort Mackinac, built by the British in the Revolutionary War, is another prominent, imposing feature on the island.

The island is also loaded with geocaches.

We left our Ishpeming lodgings much earlier than any of our somewhat travel-weary bodies felt was at all fair, but we figured we'd better if we hoped to spend much quality time on the island. It was a three-and-a-half-hour drive to Mackinac City, and a twenty-minute ferry ride to our destination, so by the time we set foot on the island, we were plenty ready to have lunch. Somewhat randomly, we chose a spot called The Pink Pony, where I killed another very fine whitefish sandwich (in the UP, whitefish is THE thing, don't you know). We decided to take a private carriage ride around the island at 3:30 p.m., so that gave us a couple of hours to split up and do our own things. Terry sought drink, Beth and Brugger sought shopping, and I sought caches. And what a goldmine. There were numerous Adventure Labs, traditional caches, and virtual caches, so I availed myself of any of these that I could find nearby. Most were nicely done, and several took me to some extra-lovely locations I might not have otherwise found, including the gazebo from Somewhere in Time. I've always been very fond of this film, and now Ms. B. and I are going to have to work it into our already crowded Halloween movie line-up. Not that it's really a Halloween film, but we'd like to see it again while our memories of Mackinac Island are still fresh.

At 3:30, we gathered near the Mackinac Island State Park Visitor Center to meet our carriage. Our driver was a loquacious character named Brett, and we enjoyed the hell out of his lively, humor-filled narration as he took us on a fairly extensive, hour-long tour of some the island's most historic sites. He even helped me figure out a stage to a nearby Adventure Lab cache. Along with my personal, private tour of the island while geocaching, I found the carriage ride among my favorite experiences on this trip thus far.

No carriage ride is complete without ice cream at the end, and there happened to be an ice cream shop nearby. So we had ice cream. Damned good ice cream. We did.

We opted to have final drinks at a tavern called the Gate House, near the Grand Hotel. The drinks were excellent, but ridiculously expensive. This we expected, given the location, but that does not mean we approved. We did not approve.

The final ferry back to the Mackinac City left at 7:30, so we made tracks to get back to the dock. Once back on the mainland, we found a nearby place called Nonna Lisa's Italian Ristorante, and since we had about hit the burger-sandwich-tavern-food wall, we decided to give it a try. The interior of the place looked more like a Yooper hunting lodge than an Italian restaurant, but it simply added character. Their wine selection was somewhat wanting, though, so most of us drank water for dinner. Both Kimberly and went with the traditional spaghetti with meatballs, which was decent, if not remarkable. Our server was excellent, I will say, so top marks for him.

Our accommodations for the night were in Cheboygan, a little town about twenty miles east of Mackinac City. We had chosen this location mainly for its attractive price, and it was, correspondingly, a bit cramped. However, we found it clean, generally comfortable, and well-appointed, so the place gets a solid thumbs-up from us.

Tomorrow... we return to Midland.

Fort Mackinac, which looks down on the bay from the island's highest southern bluffs

At the gazebo from Somewhere in Time

The Grand Hotel

Looking down on the bay from the island's bluffs

One of the many mansions situated along the island's highest ridge

The Mackinaw Bridge, viewed from our ferry as we returned to Mackinaw City

"Road Trip! Ishpeming or Bust! (Part 2)"