Can we keep him?

Word to the wise: when a Motel 6 says they have "wireless internet" they don't mean in all of the rooms.







So, back to Minnesota (we're skipping St. Ignace for now)...

Look who we’ve come across! Mom and I were going to stay the night in Blue Earth, Minnesota, not knowing what wonders the town offered! And where did this landmark come from? Here’s what we found on Wikipedia…

“Created by Leo Burnett, the Giant first appeared in advertisements in 1928; the name originally came from a variety of unusually large pea called the "Green Giant" that the company canned and sold.
In 1978, the town of Blue Earth, Minnesota paid $43,000 to erect a 55-foot (16.8 m) fiberglass statue of the Jolly Green Giant to commemorate the linking of the east and west sections of Interstate 90.
The Green Giant statue arrived in Blue Earth via flat bed truck on September 21, 1978 and was actually erected on the 23rd. The Giant was hoisted in a sling by a 65 foot crane in the north roadside rest area along I-90, where he overlooked the official opening of I-90 at a point where east met west, marking I-90's completion and representing a 3,028 mile nonstop route from Boston to Seattle.
The statue was placed in its present, permanent location on July 6, 1979, a mile south of I-90 on U.S. Highway 169. It is estimated that 10,000 people a year visit the statue. The pedestal is accessible by steps, and the statue is maintained by the city, which cleans the giant at least once a year and adorns it with a red scarf around his neck during the Christmas Season.”


And as for Little Sprout…

The Sprout character was introduced in Green Giant advertising in 1973. He is an apprentice to the Green Giant who helps the Giant tend the vegetables in his valley. Curious and enthusiastic, Sprout represents the voice of the consumer and learns from the Giant’s wisdom.
(from BettyCrocker.com)

And here's me trying to fight the Giant, like David versus the Jolly Green Goliath:

John Schneider's in town & cinema francais ala Mackinac

Arrived in St Ignace just in time for their annual Car Show. This is one time during the year when this lakeside burg experiences a 1000% swell in population. And who was among the throngs this year, you ask. Yours truly, natch, oh, and the Dukes of Hazzard guy: John Schneider. I don't know which of us caused the greatest buzz but I was asked to stay 5 nights & I don't think John got more than 1 (and that was probably back across the bridge in Mackinaw City.)

Having the Hollywood connection in town definitely added a cinematic flair to our trip to the Island. When I say "Island" all those within 500 feet of Michigan will know I am speaking of the big island of Mackinac not that other so called "big" island floating somewhere in the Pacific. PmaK decided that this was the time to rent a bike for the 8 mile trip around the island. I should have suspected that the reason I got a discount coupon for the first bike rental place I saw right next to the boat docks is that anyone in their right cycling mind would know enough to keep walking on to the more respectable purveyors of spoked wheels. But, oh no, I was sucked in by the $1 off. We hopped on & pedalled off fueled by an ages old desire to master the island. (My first & last attempt to bike Mackinac was a tandem trip with my cousin Julie 40 years ago. We never made the complete circumference because Julie kept falling off. This apparently had something to do with the fact that the person sitting in the rear position (me) was to engage only the feet to stroke (called pedalling by you non-athletic types) and the front position was solely responsible for the handling or steering.)

As PmaK & I took off in a counter clockwise path around the island I could only imagine that my husband would be telling me that my front wheel was mounted backwards. It felt like my ankles were positioned behind my ears. I heard yelps from PmaK that the right side of her body was going to sleep. Did I say that we rented from the discount booth? After watching PmaK careen off the road a few times, it dawned on me that we were probably on the wrong bikes; if I was on the taller bike my ankles might not feel so deformed & PmaK might be able to dismount without getting her armpits caught on the handle bars. We continued on the next half mile. Did I say that the single gear bikes were the cheapest? We continued on the next quarter mile. We stopped & took lots of pictures. We rode a couple yards. Did I say that it's hard to coast on a single gear bike & you have to pump your legs up & down, up & down alot? Did I also say that Mackinac is 8 miles around? We gave up & road back to the bike depot. We clocked in with exactly a one hour rental which translated to (less the discount) $8 worth of entertainment.

These video montages are best viewed with some french music & a chilled glass of chardonnay.

Customs cleared (barely)

We were sorely unprepared for crossing back into the US. Yes, we were heavily armed with ids of every make & model but we forgot to pack fortitude & a mouth guard to prevent the gnashing of teeth as we were led into the "little house" by the border patrol-OUR OWN PEOPLE! I can't even tell you how long the Amish group was there before we got interviewed or how long they had to stay after we were cleared. All I know is each officer we encountered was ridiculously smug & condescending, leaving me with a different interpretation of A in the US of. If this comes with wearing a uniform I should have one bad-normous attitude after all the plaid skirts I wore in Catholic school.

Once past all this nonsense we were in Michigan on a polka-dotted highway, I kid you not. Now these garbage lid-sized dots are meant for safety as you are to stay "two dots behind the car in front" but I was too busy wondering if they meant should I be able to see two complete dots or was it OK for each car to be touching a dot with one in between. This perplexed & distracted me to no end. I also began to imagine different color scenes available in safety dotting across the nation, summer being the time when you run into all this road work.

We had lunch in Gaylord & crossed off four more state licenses on the list since the restaurant had a bushel of them nailed to the walls. Now you may think of this as cheating but no one said they had to be on a vehicle. This leaves us only with the tiny imaginary kingdom of Delaware to still locate.

Crossed into the Upper Pennisula on the Mighty Mac & since PmaK is a Mighty driver, she was not at all freaked out by driving over Lake Huron on crocheted steel lace.