ON
THE
ROAD
AGAIN
2017
On
the road again,
Just
can’t wait to get on the road again.
Goin’
places that I’ve never been…
Another great winter at the Virginia Beach oceanfront was
coming to an end on April 31st.
It was time to reunite with Lazy W
in Muskegon, MI. But wait – there was
still much to accomplish during that last week. . .
Our plan to keep Lazy W
on Lake Michigan for the next few summers means that we have no place of our
own to call home once boating season is over.
Spending winter at the oceanfront, while an awesome experience, is
getting old. Before leaving for Michigan we signed the paperwork to secure an
apartment in Norfolk’s Bank of America building which is being transformed into
the ICON Apartments. Hopefully, the apartment
will be ready for occupancy by November and hopefully the apartment meets our
expectations – we only had floor plans at our disposal for making our decision
to live there. C’est la vie!
After much deliberation, Frank decided to part ways with his
1997 Nissan Maxima with just 165,000 miles on the odometer. Despite the lack of TLC given to her, the
Nissan had been a very reliable car over the 14 years we owned her. She was still equipped with her original
exhaust system; she readily started up each morning powered by her trusty
nine-year-old battery; she had just aced her state safety inspection. It would be hard to say goodbye. But within three hours of posting her on
craigslist, to our surprise, she was sold!!
In fact, Frank came very close to refereeing a bidding war in the
parking lot of Dolphin Run!!
Cramming all the new gear – cooler, charts, zincs, lines,
linens, screens, wine and a case of Cocobon – that we had acquired for Lazy W into the trunk of our Toyota
Camry proved to be a bit of a challenge. Luckily that trunk holds much more
than we ever imagined it would - but not our clothes and personal items. Let’s fill up that back seat!
May 1st – time to hit the road. First stop – Wikanders Boat Yard on
Maryland’s Eastern Shore where Stu and Carol welcomed us for our first night on
the road. Then on to Rahway, New Jersey
where we hopped on the train to New York City for a sobering visit to the
National 9/11 Memorial and Museum.
Next stop – East Lyme, Connecticut and the home of Rich and
Terry Wills. We celebrated Cinco de Mayo
at Mohegan Sun Casino where the girls blew $5 each on the slots before getting
overwhelmed by the annoying noise and lights surrounding us. In our defense, we did play for almost thirty
minutes on that $5.
Then on to New Windsor, New York where we spent a few days
with my 92-year-old mom. She still lives
independently in a four-level townhouse.
Amazing! While there, we enjoyed
dinner with my sister Marian and her husband Jim and then took a short side trip
to Saugerties to reminisce with friends from college days – Bob and Lee.
The remainder of our route west to Muskegon, Michigan would
take us through Niagara Falls. I was
pleasantly surprised to see the temperature rising as we headed north on the New
York State Thruway - it had been so windy and chilly since we left Virginia. We
stayed in a hotel on the New York side within walking distance of the falls and
Savor, the restaurant run by the students of the Niagara Falls Culinary
Institute. YUMMY!
We crossed into Canada over the Rainbow Bridge without having
to answer any of the questions that are asked of boaters crossing the
border. No questions about the amount of
alcohol we were carrying? (Phew!) No questions about any
beef/chicken/fruits/vegetables? Only
questions about weapons we might be smuggling into Canada. We were waved through customs in a matter of
minutes. A few hours later we had driven
across Ontario and were crossing back to the U.S. over the Blue Water Bridge
linking Sarnia, Ontario and Port Huron, Michigan. And again, the only question asked of us concerned
the transporting of weapons.
Next stop – Grand Rapids, Michigan where we toured the Gerald
R. Ford Presidential Museum dedicated to all things concerning the life and
times of the 38th president.
Ford, often called the ‘accidental’ president, governed with personal
integrity and unbending adherence to the truth at a time in U.S. history when
the office of the president had been tainted with scandal. The walls and exhibits are filled with quotes
from Ford and with praise from historians extolling his “art of intelligent
compromise with low-key Midwestern habits of fairness, civility and
truthtelling.” One columnist, Mort Kondracke,
noted “Gerald Ford represented the best in American politics. . .and a style
that I’m afraid we are never going to see again.” A visitor cannot help but contrast such style
with that of today’s politicians from either political party.
 |
| Ford was a center on the University of Michigan football team and was MVP in 1034. This sculpture sits outside the Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids. |
By Friday, May 12th we had finally arrived in
Muskegon. We had turned what could have
been an 800-mile road trip from Virginia to Lazy
W into a 1,600-mile road trip! And
we would do it all again. . .
Since Lazy W wasn’t
scheduled for her splashdown until Monday, May 15th and the dry
storage building at Great Lakes Marina wasn’t open on Sunday, the Captain could
only do his pre-splashdown prep on Saturday.
That left Sunday as a play day.
It was a beautiful sunny day so we hit the road and drove south on US-31
to Holland for the last day of the Tulip Festival.
Holland was settled by the Dutch in 1847. Dutch heritage is evident throughout the town
especially in early May when the millions of tulips are in bloom everywhere –
on the city streets, in the parks, outside municipal buildings, in the shopping
centers and gas stations, and Windmill Island Gardens, home to 100,000 tulips! May 14th was the last day of the
Tulip Festival and most of the tulips were past their prime viewing time. However, some varieties were still pretty
spectacular.
Also on site is a working Amsterdam street organ. Built in 1928 by the famous Dutch organ maker
Carl Frei, De Vier Kolommen (The Four Columns) was presented to the city of
Holland in 1947 by the city of Amsterdam “in gratitude for the role of the
United States in liberating the Netherlands in World War II.” During a short demonstration, the organ
cranked out a medley of Beach Boys tunes!
 |
| De Viet Kolommen |
Then the moment we had been anxiously waiting for finally
arrived. As scheduled on May 15th,
Lazy W was loaded on a big trailer,
towed out of her winter home, transferred to the cradle of the travel lift, and
plopped into the water. Her engines
started right up, all systems were given the okay by the captain and Lazy W was released from the sling. We cruised about 100 feet to our slip, docked
and began the cleanup process. After
fourteen days of ‘couch-surfing’ and bunking in hotels, it feels great to be
‘home’ again. . .
 |
| Lazy W being towed to the travel lift |
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