Michigan: Frankfort (Day 2)

Day: 58
No Travel

Storm Clouds threatening the Marina

Rainbow seen from marina so the sun must be somewhere nearby

The pictures tell today’s story of high winds and big waves with threatening skies followed by a showing of sun followed by threatening skies..  A couple of times we saw and heard the threat of a thunderstorm today, but we never felt the effects.  In fact the overall day today was great as far as I was concerned. 

I saw Annie from Rock Me Baby mid-morning, and she invited me to join her for a trip to the bakery where I bought a donut for Clark and peanut butter cookies for me.  We came out of the store to find Corinne from Ariel looking for us to tell us that a farmer’s market was setup down the bike trail a ways, and she came back to get us and a bag.   Annie and I grabbed our bikes and bags and soon all three of us were pedaling our way down the trail to go food shopping.

The farmer’s market had multiple stalls all displaying delicious fruits, vegetables, and baked goods.  I wandered around the area first to get the lay of the land and see what was available, and then started hauling in the bounty.   I had one bag and my backpack with me.  I filled the backpack until it was so heavy I wondered if I had made a mistake because I had to bike back with it.  That thought didn’t stop me from buying Clark a Raspberry Rhubarb Pie that I had to figure out how to get back as well.

I mentioned to Annie that I was going to have a good time getting my pie back to the boat in one piece, and she generously offered that she could carry it back in her bike basket (milk crate) on the front of her bike.  Great!  Laid flat – no problem!  Unlike when I bike with Clark where I am always in the rear by a long distance trying to keep up with him, the three of us (Corinne, Annie, and me) biked at a leisurely pace and chatted as we went along.  It was amazingly pleasant to bike and chat.

After we got back to the boats, I stashed my goodies in the fridge and food pantry and made lunch. Shortly thereafter we had a visitor from a boat named Headquarters owned by a couple from New Zealand.  We had introduced ourselves yesterday, and Tony came by to say hello today.  Tony and Shirley are just completing the loop after two years of off and on cruising on the loop.  Tony filled us in on some bits of information valuable for the next legs of our trip.  Because of being from New Zealand and having to deal with visitor's visas, they have had to do the trip in segments as they could only stay in the U.S. for 6 months at a time.  They bought a boat in Holland, Michigan and started their adventure in 2012.  They will finish their journey, or cross their own wake as AGLCA terms the conclusion of the trip, shortly here in Michigan.

Later in the afternoon Clark decided we should take the boat out to fuel up to avoid that delay in the morning.  Due to the high winds even in the marina itself, we needed some extra hands to help with the lines to get the boat out of and back into our slip.   Having learned our lesson in Drummond, we had no incidents / accidents today as we pulled the fenders into the boat to get them out of the way before leaving our assigned dock.  After fueling and getting ourselves back into our slip, we decided to go up town to buy a duster of some sort to wipe up all the spider webs we have accumulated on the boat.  

We didn't get too far, however, as the moment we stepped off the boat, the owners of our neighboring boat asked us a question about twin engines and we ended up talking for almost two hours.  Before we knew it, it was after 6:00 and the hardware store closed at 5:30.  We went to the supermarket instead but didn't find what we were looking for.  We bought food for dinner and walked back to the boat to start cooking.

After dinner we went to visit Annie and Bill on Rock Me Baby as we part ways tomorrow - us to continue down Lake Michigan east side and them to cross over to Wisconsin.  We hope our paths will cross again somewhere on the river system.  

As I explained to Clark last night, I hoped to find boaters camaraderie by coming on this trip.   Today I got to enjoy time spent with new friends, and it was great!