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Published: July 14th 2008
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Hop Cat Brewery with friends
Having drinks with Michelle and Bryan at the Hop Cat Brewery in downtown Grand Rapids, Mi Monday, June 30-Sunday, July 6, 2008 We immediately located our campground in Petoskey and were excited to find it sitting on the shore of Little Traverse Bay, literally right on the water. Unfortunately, between our tent and the water were 5 giant bulldozers there to build a bike path. The bulldozers went to work pretty early in the morning, so our peaceful campground didn't end up being so peaceful after all.
After setting up camp, we went to lunch at the Mitchell St. Pub on Main St and stuffed our bellies full with the daily lunch special, then found the local library. We each bought a book to read (yes, even Rob found a book - The DaVinci code) then we headed off to the beach to lay out and read. In the evening we went on a 4 mile run on the path along the bay, made a delicious salad to eat at the park, and went to sleep.
Another day, nothing to do...so we drove over to Harbor Springs to lay on the beach and read. Gotta change up those beaches so you don't tire of the same scenery. It was a hot day so we only
Rob at Bell's Brewery
a quick stop at Bell's Brewery in Kalamazoo, MI lasted a few hours. We found what else, Subway, for dinner, and went to bed. Wish we had more to say, but we didn't do much.
Still two more days before we head up to Glen Arbor, so we drove down to Kalamazoo Wednesday night. Just our luck- we hit a HUGE rainstorm in Grand Rapids. It was downpouring so hard that we pulled over to wait it out. Eventually we found a Red Roof Inn that made a deal with us for $50. It was after midnight by then, so we didn't hesitate to take it. The following day, Rob enjoyed a day trip to Bell's Brewery after a brief scare of losing Jen's wallet. Fortunately, we found the wallet back at the Red Roof Inn about an hour after checking out.
The plan for the evening was to head back to Grand Rapids to meet up with Rob's friend Bryan and his girlfriend, Michelle. Bryan happened to be passing through town with the band he's touring with, Widespread Panic. We really don't know who they are, but everyone else seems to. They're headlining a giant 4-day music festival called Rothbury (town population 414...festival population 35,000) along
with Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer, Snoop Dog, Colbie Callet, 311 and about 40 more bands, and he generously gave us tickets for the weekend. We all went to an authentic Mexican restaurant downtown where we ate quite a bit of food and enjoyed some tequila shots, then lastly we went to a bar called Hop Cat. By midnight we had no idea where we were going to spend the night, but we had $250 Rothbury Festival tickets in our hands, so we decided to drive an hour to the festival, camp there, and meet up with Bryan at the festival in the morning.
It was about 3am when we finally made it to Rothbury; that's when things began to look not so good. They confiscated Rob's 6-pack of beer he bought at Bell's, because it was glass, and it took us about 30 minutes to find the "guest" camping lot - no one who was working seemed to know anything at all, but we eventually made camp in the back corner of the volunteer/vendor lot, we pumped up our ailing airmatress, and finally, we fell asleep.
After breaking camp in the morning, we went for a walk
in the festival and met up with Bryan. It was pretty cool, he took us backstage and we hung out in the tour bus for a while too. Although it probably gets old, we think touring with the band has some great perks! The shows for the day were Snoop Dog, 311, and Widespread Panic, but we already had made plans to meet Rob's family 2 hours north in Glen Arbor. So before even getting to watch any performances, we packed up and headed out.
We were excited to join Rob's parents and his sister, brother-in-law, and nephew at The Homestead, a retreat on the west coast of Michigan. We arrived in time to sit at the pool for a while before all heading out to dinner. After dinner, we all went down to the beach and sat around the campfire; we made s'mores and watched the fireworks around us. It was a great 4th of July.
We started our second day at The Homestead with a much needed workout, then joined the family down at the pool. We spent our day relaxing and reading at the beach, then stayed in and made tacos for dinner to eat
Petoskey Sunset
Beautiful sunset over Traverse Bay at about 10pm in Petoskey, Mi on the patio and watch the beautiful sunset. The next morning it was time to pack up the car again and hit the road. At this point, the car kinda smells...but what do we expect after being on the road in it for over a month? Before leaving, Rob's parents took us out for lunch; one last treat before being back on our own. It had been a nice few weeks in Michigan, but it was time to move westward.
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Jen Burcham
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You've returned!!
I missed you guys!!! I think I have mentioned more then once that you are my summer entertainment. Rob, what a pretty travel companion you have. Jen, you look beautiful in every picture. Maybe this road trip and sleeping outside agrees with you and might consider ditching your teaching career for modeling! I am not sure where you are headed next, but I can't wait to hear where you will be sleeping next. The porch has got to be my favorite story so far. You mentioned Dave Matthews - are you going in August?? I will sign off, but don't wait so long to update your blog! Drive safely... One more thought...why isn't there a spell check on this blog? I have to read and re-read. Please excuse any spelling errors or type-o's!!