My Summer Vacation: Green Bay to Bruce Crossing

Thursday, June 7, 2018

Green Bay to Bruce Crossing

This morning we rented a car from Alamo. It is a Chevy Sonic; never renting this car again. The trunk space is so small we had to put the back seat down to fit both suitcases in flat. It would not be able to transport Uncle Kazu & his wheelchair.

The car has a very funky key; I thought it was one of those keyless ignitions. But Kai showed me the secret.

After we got the car we stopped at AAA to get some maps and their tour book for Wisconsin & Michigan. Then we went to brunch at Home Town Cafe & Catering. Kai had the Peaches & Cream Pancakes and I had the Italian Omelette. Then we picked up a Dutch Apple Pie to contribute to dinner at Vivian & Margaret's tonight.

You can "play" golf while you wait for your meal to be prepared.

They have several different collections around the cafe, this was the one closest to where we were.

Peached & Cream Pancakes. (Photo by Kai)

Italian Omelette. It would have been better without the American cheese on top. The homemade strawberry jam was great.

Dutch apple pie for dessert.

One of the good things about this rental car is that it has a media system that Kai could hook his tablet in to. With that and my hotspot he was selecting all kinds of music and playing audiobooks on our drive to Bruce Crossing, which took about 5 hours with our stops for breaks and local wildlife.

Listening to book 1 in the Harry Dresden series.

Somewhere north of Green Bay but not yet in Michigan.

Marinette County, Wisconsin.

A lake in Michigan, we used the facilities here.

The rental car also has good brakes. We made a couple unplanned stops; one was for a common snapping turtle that was crossing the road. I actually went zipping by it before I realized it was a turtle; because of its long tail I immediately knew it was a snapping turtle. We turned around to go back and see it, but couldn't find it on the first pass. On the next pass, we saw it just getting to the other side of the road. This is the first snapping turtle that I have seen! It's carapace was about 1 foot long.

Lucky turtle!

Common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina)

One of the things about traveling is that you get to see things that you might not see otherwise. Like the bathroom where there is a full length mirror facing the toilet. Not sure why & I didn't bother to ask the employees at the Subway in Iron Mountain, MI.

We got to Vivian and Margaret's just in time for dinner of barbecue ribs, baked beans, and salad. We met Vivian's oldest son Rob and his grandson Nathan. While we were eating we had a pleasant surprise; Vivian's grandson Brian, who used to live in Washington, now lives here! He also joined us for dinner; I had been wondering how he was doing, now I know!