Humming Toad

Sunday, July 29, 2007 -- supposed to be our last full day at Sleepy Bear Campground near Empire, MI

After towing the toad almost 110 miles on the way to Sleepy Bear, we began noticing, while driving it normally on our excursions around here, a drive-line hum or gear noise that wasn't there before. I tapped a good resource through our son, JT, and found that this could be a pinion bearing that's in the process of self-destruction. We're advised to not tow the vehicle until it's rectified. Don't know yet if this is in some way caused by towing, or just exacerbated by it -- remember, the toad has 127,000 miles on it. It's like a 56 year old human... a few aches and pains and, occasionally, something goes wrong that needs to be fixed. But we're not ones to give up on a car just because it's got a little age or a few miles on it. Tomorrow, Monday, we're planning to drive it into Traverse City and see what can be diagnosed and/or fixed. Our move to Mackinaw City may have to be delayed as well, but in that case we'll just extend here at Sleepy Bear and readjust our plans. Anything is possible when you're not tied to a schedule.

I've been slow to keep things updated on the web the last two days mostly due to a slow internet connection. I just got tired of waiting for downloads to download and uploads to upload. We've also been trying to take full advantage of the two days we thought we had here before moving north. Tonight, however, the connection seems to be better. So here's a rundown of what we've been up to:

The move to Sleepy Bear was uneventful. The heavy rain that was forecast for the area Friday didn't happen... well, not only didn't it happen, we awoke on Friday morning to sunny clear skies. So we hooked up the car and drove the 107 miles north to the Leelanau Peninsula of Michigan, where Sleepy Bear Campground is located, and didn't experience a drop of rain the entire way. Well, so much for relying on weather forecasts.

The campground gets it's name from the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore near here. This National Park was authorized by congress in 1970 and encompasses a 35 mile stretch of Lake Michigan's eastern shoreline, as well as two nearby islands, North and South Manitou Islands. It was created "to preserve the outstanding natural features including forests, beaches, dune formations, and ancient glacial phenomena... for the benefit, inspiration, recreation, and enjoyment of the public." In other words, to keep it safe from developers and well-heeled condo buyers. I think most of us could agree it's important to preserve large areas like this in a natural state and open to everyone, not just for the privileged or lucky.

We've been doing a lot of beach-walking, hiking in the park, visiting shoreline communities (often rich in history) and winery-touring (often rich in flavor). That's right, not only are there wineries in the extreme southwest of Michigan, there's another grouping of them around the Leelanau Peninsula. Despite what you're thinking, we didn't plan our route with wineries in mind. But we feel that since we're here, and since they're here... we have a responsibility to visit as many as possible! We're also enjoying a campfire almost every night, often sharing with neighbors here in the campground.

Today, Sunday, we enjoyed Traverse City and the Old Mission Peninsula... an 18 mile long spit of land that separates the East Bay and the West Bay. Despite the gear-humming toad, we made it all the way to the northern tip of the peninsula which happens to be exactly where the 45th parallel runs through. We stood there for some time but never saw the parallel itself... I guess it runs underground. Everyone we asked looked at us like we were crazy.

Tomorrow we hope we'll learn more about where we're at with the old toad. Will it be deemed safe enough to continue on?? Will it have to be hospitalized and repaired?? Does it have something wrong that's even worse than we're thinking?... maybe even terminal?? [Gasp!]

Tune in tomorrow and find out.

Life's an adventure.

T