Today, we transitioned to the Holiday Park Campground few miles south of Traverse City, MI.  Just as we left the truck stop in St. Ignace, the skies opened up and the winds picked up.  The winds stayed with us all day and until that evening, but the rain finally stopped about an hour out of the campground.  Once we got set up, I washed the coach and the Jeep to get the road film off them.  We have been fortunate in that it has not rained on us while moving from campground to campground since we left home in June.  We have followed some rain or been in front of it, but have not had to drive in it so we have been lucky.

Our new "home" is a very nice park that has three venues to pick from - an island with waterfront sites, lots of sites in and among the trees, or sites with a few trees and lots of grass between sites.  As you can guess, the seasonal folks occupy all of the island and almost all of the "forest" sites, as well as some of the remaining sites where we are.  We have a nice long level gravel pull-thru with FHUs and 50 amp power, and lots of grass for Molly to enjoy.  

Wednesday, we ran a few errands and did the obligatory visit to Wally World killing time for Mike and Lorraine Lynch to arrive so we can spend a couple of days with them.  They arrived mid day so we visited for awhile and the four of us drove into Traverse City for dinner.  We parked on Front Street and walked around a little before we decided to go into the Mackinaw Brewing Company to eat.  We had a great waitress, and when we asked her to take a picture of the four of us, she told us that we had just given her one of her "bingo" numbers for that evening, and went on to say that their boss started this fun game to liven up their shifts.  Other "bingo" numbers they can get is if someone leaves them less than a 10 percent tip, or if a customer stiffs them on the bill.  When the bill came, I asked her again what was the percentage and we all had a great laugh.  Shirley had their raspberry chicken, and I had their bangers and sauerkraut.  Good food and great friends!

Thursday morning the four of us, and Mauer and Molly jumped in the Jeep and drove up one of the two peninsulas in the area (Old Mission Peninsula) to the Old Mission Lighthouse on the point where the West and East Bays that make up the Grand Traverse Bay join.   From there we headed back south taking the back roads. As we were driving along the eastern shoreline, we stumbled upon the Old Mission General Store (the only commercial building in the area) and stopped to see what they had.  Come to find out they had just about anything you needed for a meal.  What caught our eye was a huge block of cheese that was aged 12 years, a Horseradish Cheddar made from the same cheese, and a store brand "Cherry Sweet Fire" jelly (bread and butter pickles and jalapeno peppers, and cherries).  Needless to say we bought some of each.

From there we drove over to the western shoreline and found the Mission Table Tasting Room and Jolly Pumpkin Restaurant.  In the front building is the Mission Table Tasting Room that offers tastings of their North Peak and Old Mission beers, and distilled spirits, as well as glasses of wine from the local wineries and vineyards. In the middle building is the Jolly Pumpkin Restaurant that is finished with reclaimed barn lumber.  After tasting some of their beers we had lunch at the restaurant.   Shirley and I ordered their cherry, pecan, and chicken salad.  Very tasty and just right for lunch!

We then drove a short ways back up the road to the Bowers Harbor Vineyards to try some of their wines.  Shirley sampled some of their whites and reds while I only tried their reds.  Unfortunately, most of their reds were from California fruit as they had had issues with their crops of red varietals.

After that we drove a few miles south to the Mari Vineyards.  Their tasting room is in a beautiful Tuscan-style building that sits up on a hill overlooking the bay.  The first thing that captures your eye is a mosaic behind the bar that first looks like it is made from pennies, but on second look it is made from thousands wine corks.  Also, the ceiling has several huge beams that are from old barns and buildings that were previously on the grounds where the winery and vineyards are today.  A beautiful building!  One very good wine they poured was called Row 7.  The story is that as they were planting the vineyard, they had put several cuttings into a large vat to soak them before planting.  As they were planting them, they discovered that they had no idea what varietals or how many of each they had planted.  When they harvested those rows, they bottled the wine not knowing what it would taste like, but found that the "natural" vs "forced" blending worked and they continue to produce it.  That's their story and they are sticking to it.

We then returned to the campground and grilled steaks for dinner with the Lynches.