May 19th - Mt Ranier

The low was in the 50’s last night. Today’s high was in the low 80’s with around 35% humidity. I’m sitting outside typing this and, with the gentle breeze blowing, it is really pleasant.

A batch of weekend “guests/campers” came in yesterday from Goshen, IN, after the weekday ones left. They appear to be middle school age. We arrived early for breakfast and we were about finished when we saw them “marching” towards the dining hall, between 50 and 100 of them. They were lined up outside and given “orders.” After they were inside and seated I heard one of their chaperones tell them that they would be walking to the buffet lines. He told them the consequences for running but I didn’t hear what he said. While we were there they were a very well behaved group.

After breakfast Kathy did a load of laundry and I did some odds and ends around the RV then we headed out. First we stopped at the Farmers Market, at the Evart airport. We only bought a pepper, for salsa, and a loaf of spelt bread from an Amish stand. I don’t think I have ever had any spelt (sometimes called speltz) bread so that should be interesting. There are apparently quite a few Amish in the area.

After the Farmers Market we headed for Baldwin and the Manistee National Forest. We found the Rangers station in Baldwin and got our America the Beautiful Senior Passes ($10 each). They don’t expire and will allow us, and up to 3 visitors each, into all National parks. They will also get us discounts on camp fees and many of the park campgrounds, although it is my understanding that there are not many National parks that can accommodate our RV.

After getting the passes we stopped for lunch at a restaurant on main street in Baldwin. After we ordered drinks we started looking around and wondered if we should leave. Calling it a “greasy spoon” would have been a compliment. Our toothless, well tattooed waitress was very pleasant so we stayed and order. My beef manhattan and Kathy’s fish sandwich were both great!

After lunch we drove into the Park, parked and hiked back to Bowman Lake. Maybe hiked is to strong a work. It was only 0.4 miles from the parking area back to the lake but it was on just a path through the woods. It was a nice little lake.

In the photo below Kathy is putting her shoes back on after going wading.

On the way to Baldwin we had seen a sign for a music festival in Idlewild. On the way back we decided to check it out. We were surprised to see two groups of black people as we drove down the side road toward the festival. Once we arrived the festival appeared to be over. On the way out we stopped and I read the historic marker at the turn-off. In 1915 some developers from Chicago started a resort for blacks, apparently that was the beginning of Idlewild. Up through the mid 60’s it was apparently a roaring summer hot spot for middle and upper class blacks. Idlewild is about 260 miles from Chicago and 220 miles from Detroit. According to the roadside sign the Civil Rights movement, integration, killed Idlewild. After the md 60’s blacks could go to other resorts and Idlewild just dried up. All that is left are some junky houses and a “Cultural Museum”. The building that houses the Cultural Museum appears to be nice, we didn’t go in. No doubt it was a pork barrel project.

When we had previously gone to Reed City we had seen a dome structure on a ridge, way off in the distance. On our way through this time we decided to find it. After a couple of false starts we finally ran across it. The domes are part of a potash and salt solution mining facility. I think I read that it ships out around 100,000 tons of potash a year and 300,000 tons of salt. There were colored bags of palletized salt all over the place. They looked just like the colored bags you see for water softeners.

I’ve just decided that I’m not doing a very good job of pacing myself on my day off. It is almost time to go eat supper and I haven’t had time to take a nap yet. Maybe if we go eat early I can get one in before bedtime.