Petoskey,MI

Friday, September 9:
After we crossed the Mackinac Bridge, we took M-119 south from Cross Village. This road is called The Tunnel of Trees. A sign advises that the next twenty miles are a narrow and winding road. M-119 runs along the coast of Lake Michigan, although the lake is rarely visible. It was a very pretty drive. We imagined it would be just beautiful as the leaves were changing. In Good Hart there is the Good Hart General Store; opened in 1934. Turns out it’s now owned by a couple who got tired of twenty plus years of the Miami rat race. Can’t blame them there.
The store is a combination tourist junk store, deli and bakery. The sticky buns were good, but they had a desert made from two carrot cake “cookies” filled with cream cheese icing. On the same idea as the Amish whoopie pie. It’s good that we didn’t try these until we were quite some distance from the store or we would have bought the place out, they were that good.
They deli specialty was chicken pot pies which they have been making since 1986. They have sold over 10,000 this year, or so says the sign. They are frozen so we’ll just save it for a cold night when I don’t feel like cooking.

Saturday and Sunday:
We’re at the City of Petrosky Mangus Park campground until Wednesday. We’ve been here before on our MI travels. The campground is nothing real special but OK. $22 for a lakeview site with water and electric is quite reasonable. The great thing about the campground, is the location. It’s right on a paved multi-use trail that runs for miles both ways. We take the trail towards town where it leads to some beautiful waterfront parks, a jetty, the city marina and the quaint older downtown area. Lots of neat shops, restaurants, coffee houses, etc. It’s probably three miles round trip which is just perfect for the scooter. On both days we made the trip twice.

Ed & Gopher

Monday:
Running errands, grocery shopping and laundry day. There is a Meijers store in town. Not unlike a walMart but of a higher quality. Much better produce, seafoods, etc. Carol noticed a bakery as we were looking for the laundry place so while the cloths were washing I walked back to the bakery. What a great find. It’s Johan’s Pastry Shop at 565 W. Mitchell Street. They have perhaps the most extensive assortment of quality donuts, pastries, pies, rolls & bagels that I’ve come across in our travels. Add Johan’s to the Top Five Bakery list.

Tuesday:
The weather man was right; a cold, grey day with a little rain here and there. When Gopher and I were taking our early morning walk, we decided to add Johan’s Pastry Shop to the route. She waited patiently outside while I got a wonderful almond coffee cake for “breakfast”.
I talked about the market in Good Hart where I bought this most wonderful carrot cake cookie that Carol said was her personal all-time favorite desert; or at least close to it. We decided to make some. We bought a carrot cake mix, a 15oz can of pumpkin (not pie mix, just pumpkin), and a can of cream cheese icing. Carol simply mixed the pumpkin with the cake mix, then spooned cookie sized dollops on the baking tray and cooked them up. 350* for 15 minutes. After cooling, she put icing on them and made a sandwich. They were so good, we decided to make some for the Lazy Daze GTG we’re going to in Arkansas next month.

The Cookie Maker.

I made a fresh batch of apple stuff; another good rainy day project.

Tomorrow we head south on US 31 which runs along the west coast of MI. No particular destination in mind. We’ll stop when it seems like the thing to do.
Fall is making itself known in MI. The high for the next few days is forecast in the low 60’s with nighttime lows in the 40’s. Cold by our standards.