favorite present from x-mas past

Forget the toy train, the talking teddy bear, Hot Wheels, the Erector Set and the Lincoln Logs, one my favorite gifts from xmas past is pictured. Each time I wear these boots, someone will glance at them and ask "What is that shiny thing on your left boot?"

At the time of receiving said gift, my vacations were comprised of researching an area in the country that was mentioned as a mountain bike destination. As I have a problem waiting for people and enjoy going at my own pace, I went to said destinations solo. It's my vacation and one should enjoy it. 

After posting some post riding pictures involving some falls (and a bit of blood), my mom being a mom bought me a dog tag that more or less says to the world, if you find my son on the trails out cold, give me a call. 

Happy holidays.

Trail Head

Aqua Santa

While the kids on Santa's list who have been good this year get their presents when he shimmies down the chimney and throws the goods around the tree and grabs a few cookies along the way, what to do for those kids who reside on the water? Not to worry kids, I got a glimpse this weekend of Santa replacing the sleigh with...a surfboard.

While Lake Michigan probably doesn't compare to the Pacific Ocean in terms of wave intensity, some whitecaps (and some beautiful dune views) still the same.

Trail Head

Triptik - pre-cell phone GPS

The way back machine takes us back to the 1970's today when the Reeves' family made the decision (wise decision?) to drive cross country from Michigan down to Arkansas to see my aunt/uncle/cousins and west from there into Arizona to see my grandparents with a few 'giant ball of string' attractions along the way. 

Two parents and three kids ages roughly 10, 12 and 14; not exactly the age where kids can be patient for an extended time, especially yours truly with ADD so strong, any shiny object would throw any attention out the door. My dad worked at AAA insurance who also had a travel agency. This was pre-internet and pre-cell phone so travel agencies were ideal in getting there and AAA took care of their travelers, specifically with the invention of the Triptik!

The Triptik was GPS before there was GPS. You told the representative where you were going and they had people designated to create your trip via a flip booklet with maps that were highlighted with roads to take and potential construction obstacles/detours to make your trip smooth. For this whiny 10 year old, it probably saved my parents from hearing me cry that my brother was bothering me as I was the Triptik navigator! It was pretty much all known interstate the whole way but it was a big deal when we got to turn a page of the booklet into another step of the journey. 

While the Triptik was great, I can't say the same for AAA recommended hotels as we stayed at a few that had me questioning who the individuals were that put the seal of recommendation on them. Had to be some under the table payoffs going on there.

Trail Head

National Days

There are so many "national" days (www.daysoftheyear.com), I can't keep track; or choose not to keep track.  National pizza day, national taco day, national sandwich day, blah, blah, blah. And who is the person that dubs them? 

In celebration of another national day, this one I believe made up by a local establishment here in town, last weekend was dubbed National Turducken Day. 

A duck inside a chicken inside a turkey.

It was quite delicious.

Don't get too excited but tomorrow is National Turtle Adoption Day (no lie, looked it up).

Trail Head

La La Land, and a Lion victory

get some new tires and a smog check

The tour headed west this past weekend to absorb some of the cleanest air on earth (insert sarcasm) and attempt to witness a Lion road victory in person. My Lion road trip count is now in the teens but rarely have I left the game with the road team getting the victory. A great feeling it was and didn't have to do the "we suck less" chant as the visitors are a legitimate team this year. 

Michiganders showed their presence well as I'm guessing there was probably a 30/70 Lion/Charger mix with the 30% making quite a stir. Funny that I wouldn't give these strangers the time of day back home if I passed them on the street but Sunday afternoon, anyone in a Lion jersey was family.

The football game experience these days can take a chunk out of your wallet as adult beverages hit close to $20/per with a personal pizza (piece of cardboard with pepperoni) about the same. It reminds me of the Seinfeld bit on airport prices. They have you and there is nothing you can do about it.

Trail Head

the house that Magic built right behind the football stadium

big head in front of big stadium

Sign Stealer

A local establishment had a Halloween party last night so I decided to give U-M some needed exposure as they seemed to not be in the press much lately...

A fun party with some great music; about half of the people got my costume, which is about right.

Trail Head

Golden Bachelor...yeah, no

It brings me great regret that I didn't make the cut for the latest bachelor series....

Yeah right, I want my previous acquaintances to tell the world what went wrong, from their perspective.

I can hear it all now (queue the dream sequence):

- "So, we're at this party with friends and he wanted to leave early and not formally say goodbye to the group. Who does that?"

- "All he eats is chicken."

- "What's with that laugh?"

- "We went on a few dates, things got intimate, I thought things were going well and then he stopped calling. Who does that?"

- "He didn't acknowledge/like my posts so I knew it wouldn't work."

- "He was just a rebound lay."

- "I need to talk about more than the time he ran into Wayne Fontes."

- "He broke things off with me so he must have a fear of commitment."

- "Enough with the 'do you know how great I was in kickball?' talk"

- "His friend's wives just didn't accept me I think."

- "His e-mail address is correct. He literally has a large melon"

- "ghosted"

- "Do we really need to ride our bicycles everywhere?" 

Thankfully there is no comment area for this entry as I'm sure the masses could add a bunch more. 

Trail Head

Mutt Parade

The 'F' in Frankfort is for festival as we had the beer week festival last week (every week is a beer festival), a fall festival this week and the Garden Theater film festival next week. I give you a glimpse of the fall festival, specifically the Mutt Parade. My first place vote went to spider dog.

Trail Head

Welcome Farrah

A shout out/thank you to my visitors last week for the housewarming gifts in the form of good downstate pizza, Irish booze and last, but certainly not least. an addition to my garage puberty hall of fame when Raquel welcomed Farrah to the hall.

Trail Head

Salmon Camp

The down-staters headed north earlier this week for my first experience at hosting salmon camp. With two rivers, the Betsie and Platte, minutes from my home with an abundance of salmon running, the conditions were ideal. We saw many and witnessed others catching their share, however, we have some work to do in pulling in those finicky runners as only a few were brought home.

Besides watching many large fish laugh at us while swimming by, some good hanging (and eats) with friends, which is what it's all about.

Trail Head

Ironman

This Sunday, the Ironman triathlon comes to town with thousands of competitors flocking to Benzie County to swim 1.2 miles, pedal 56 and run 13. I can do the pedal and run but don't think doggie paddling will cut it on the swim portion. I would need some arm floaties and don't think they'll allow those.

A gold star to the organizers of the event as all local residents received the attached pamphlet in the mail a few weeks back outlining where runners/bikers would be during the race. Locals tell me before Frankfort took over the race a few years back, the larger city to the east attempted to stage it and all hell broke loose with traffic as not enough locals were notified ahead of time. 

Three cheers for the small town and good communication.

Trail Head

deer vs blue tarp

My neighbor recently laid out a large blue tarp on his additional property in attempting to kill the grass in a general area. The local deer took exception to said tarp. Below is video of it from last night.

Trail Head

Bridge Walk, Benzie style

Labor Day brings about the tradition of a bunch of people walking across the Mackinac Bridge. 

Benzie County, at 321 square miles, the smallest of the 83 counties in Michigan in terms of land area, has its own bridge walk (no lie, look it up). 

I'm sure the local crowd doesn't impact Big Gretchen's walk but pride still the same. Instead of roughly a five mile walk on the Mackinac, it will be a grueling 23 feet on the Cold Creek Bridge...

I've seen the locals, 23 feet is good.

Happy Labor Day.

Trail Head