Luge sledding, kayaking, South Manitou Island, and I'm famous!

Luge sledding down Crystal Mountain in the summer!!!

You can see the bottom of the track on the left.

Up we go!

Pick your sled and away you go! We road 3 times (because once was not enough) by the third time we didn't even use the brakes! Cindy lost her hat and I heard some kid on the ski lift yell "Go Grandpa Go"

These Pic's are of historical Fishtown in Leland where we caught the boat to South Manitou Island, it is still a working fish port.

Our boat to and from the Island the Mishe-Mokwa. The trip over was great, smooth seas, on the trip back we were in four and five foot swells. While Cindy and I thought it was fun bobbing around like a cork, the crew were handing out garbage bags to the green faced passengers of which there were many!

The channel light between the two Islands.

The still working light house on the Island built in 1858.

The oldest tree in Michigan is on the island, it's a white cedar, over 700 years old and is in better shape than me :)

PEEK!

We hiked out to a bluff to see the wreck of the Franciso Morazan lost in a storm in November 1960. You can read about it here:
http://www.nps.gov/slbe/historyculture/shipwreckmorazan.htm

We also rented a two-man kayak and went down the Platte River all the way to Lake Michigan.

 

Clouds over Loon Lake, this was a bit of work to get though, we were bucking a head wind but we made it through and back on the river on the other side and finally to Lake Michigan. This is where the famous (well not really) part comes in. A man from the Friends Of Sleeping Bear Dune took my picture after we got out of the kayak and posted it on their website. You can see it here:
http://friendsofsleepingbear.org/2012/06/06/platte-river-point-cell-coverage-improves/

Sleeping Bear Dunes

Our new digs at Sleeping Bear. We are staying at the only National Forest campground in Michigan that has electricity, so we're only slightly roughing it :) It's been a whole bunch of years since we have been here so its like seeing it for the first time...truly beautiful! Here's some pic's we took yesterday.

The covered bridge on the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive

Large tree with the roots exposed from the shifting dunes.

500 feet above the beach. One of the two Manitou Islands in the background. We will explore them later in the week!

Sometimes Cindy and I take the scenery in Michigan for granted.
Here's the legend of Sleeping Bear Dunes.
http://www.geo.msu.edu/geogmich/bearlegend.html

On the road again!

We are on the road again :) currently at the National Forest Campground in Sleeping Bear on Lake Michigan. We plan to stay here for about 2 weeks, then continue north.

Home

Home for awhile, then heading north! :)

Almost home, and few pic's

My new favorite store, the "old fart" will sell ya something and then Nancy next door will cut your hair.

Our dinner a couple of nights ago Shrimp Pie....YUM! (last of the gulf coast food)

Our new digs at a Army Corp of Engineers camp near Nashville, with our access pass we only pay $12. per day :) each site has its own tiered patio :)

We think we'll get back home by this weekend (maybe) What a time we have had!!! A week or two shy of 3 months and we just can't believe how fast it has gone!!!

There be Manatees here, catch-up and a few pic's

We made it to the Crystal River area and found these gentle giants.

They have no fear of us and we fell in love with them! :) They are like big puppies! but sadly many show scares on their backs from thoughtless boaters.

If you look closely you'll see a baby pelican we were lucky enough to catch hatching (took about 15mins) Mom was very proud!

Sunset last night. We are currently at Top-sail State Park in Fl. getting ready to make our way back home. I've neglected our blog for a while, we have been making 1&2 night stays at some remote locations where we've had little or no phone and internet service. We will be here for 2 more nights then on to our next stop somewhere in Alabama, where they have something called a "Casino".  I have no idea what that is but Cindy says's I'll like it :)

Critters, zoo keepers, more critters + pic's

We loved our stay at Hillsborough State Park, we've had all kinds of critters visit our campsite, armadillos, owls, hawks, lizards, vultures, Cindy even had a Red Shoulder Hawk fly down and snatch up a lizard about 5ft away from her! I also had a very close encounter....

A bacon double cheese burger with two krispy kreme doughnuts as the bun!!! Not to worry, I survived, after a nap :)

We also spent two days at Busch Gardens where we paid a little extra to go behind the scenes with the zoo keepers and watch how they feed and use hand signals to get the tigers and orangutans to do some amazing things.  We were so close to the tigers we could smell their breath! Our favorites were the orangutans.

Everywhere we went we seemed to attract birds

These birds, the Ibis, are everywhere and are as pushy as a Detroit Pigeon, they'll take the food right out of your mouth!

Tomorrow we are moving camp and heading for the Crystal River area in search of Manatee's!