Con't from Tuesday more up north

On travels and at home we see panhandlers alongside roads with their signs  to attract donations, I admit I used to donate occasionally out of a benevolence or Christian duty, but I overcame that as I noticed the proliferation of the same compounded by the fact that when local business owners offered them a job they scattered.  Panhandlers often station themselves at  stoplight controlled intersections where there is massive traffic but this guy as a living bronzed statue in Mackinaw City outdid himself.  People could place tips in his bike basket and take their photo with him.  This attracted many tourists and children ad is either a unique way to panhandle or is an addition to the tourist draws.  Several times as we walked by I thought that is a tough way to make a living standing immobile in the warm sun; he would move ever  slowly when a donation entered the basket.  I anticipated  when he would walk away for a break but  never caught that.  I am not sure if he was an attraction from one of the shops or not but he was at the same place several days in a row, BTW the dog is a bronzed statue.

One shop where we  indulged in ice cream  had an exhibit of the local Lion's club fundraiser, a different sort of barbque grill.  .  Not my taste but Jerry got a kick out of it.  

A local woman told us about the  wonderful drive along Michigan Road M-119, known as the Tunnel of Trees 27miles between Harbor Springs and Cross Village and an alternate route to Petoskey.  We are thankful she did because it was magnificent, very much a two lane twister that treated us to sights we'd have missed.   I'd noticed the multitude of polished rocks being sold as Petoskey stones as decorative or pendants so I was curious about Petoskey.    This Heritage route is a stunning display of northern hardwoods located close alongside the roadway, with no visible light above, creating the feeling of actually travelling through a tunnel.  The route is a favorite of Northern Michigan visitors because of its rolling terrain, stunning vistas, and dramatic turns and curves; this would have been prohibitive in the motor home.  There were many great glimpses of Lake Michigan along the way but no  place to pull over to photograph safely .  Although the traffic was sparse, there were ever so many motorcyclists along the way, a bikers dream despite names like Devil"s Elbow that was a  crooked mile where the crooked man could have built the crooked footstep if I've ever seen one.    

 

Just one of the many curves on M 119



Thick hardwood trees along the road



 Our first stop was at Cross Village also recommended by the local woman
 to visit Legs Inn which was a delight. 

Turns out Legs Inn was founded by Jan Smolak, a Polish emigrant in the 1930"s collaborating with local Indians..... to be continued next blog post because I am having difficulty posting photos here now and the photos are how I will tell the rest of the story