A Northern Scoot

My weekend digs below and the old schoolhouse above.

The "guest house"an airstream perched on the edge of the bluff was booked.

The view from my tent.

Dinner the first night - 2 white fish fillets smoked on top of a bed of brown rice and black beans with fresh asparagus on the side. Like I explain below I was really roughing it this trip.

This is the home of Epicure catering owned by Andy and Cammie who built the meal for my good friends birthday party. Your looking at the kitchen which used to be the chicken coup. Their corporate HQ was this old farm they restored. A lot of the food we ended up eating was grown right there.

Just like at Davenport or Wauseon...

The barn was awesome. Massive, straight, clean and dry with plenty of space for motorcycles er -I mean weddings.

Kyle's friends getting the lowdown on the pending food prep.

Of course there were toasts - plenty of toasts, a LOT of toasts.

There were 6 courses at dinner and for some reason this was the only one I shot.

Later that night...

Monday morning I had breakfast in Leland before heading south.

Dave, thanks for the bagger! I mangaged to put it to good use.

A civil war era cemetery near sleeping bear was where I chose to say thanks.

Borrowed a way too comfortable modern bagger from a good friend and rolled up to the Northwestern part of the big mitten for a long Memorial day/Birthday celebration. Camped on a commanding bluff overlooking lake Michigan for a couple warm nights next to my friends 100+ year old cabin. The cabin was originally a school house for the local native Americans at the turn of the century that called this beatiful place home. This road trip was different then most of mine because of the posh-ness of the whole affair which I tried to embrace. Thanks to the size of my friends hearts I was treated like a high paying guest with unbelievable locally grown food and wine, open air lunches and a 6-course birthday dinner for my friend Kyle prepared by all the guests and then cooked by two artisan chefs in an 120 year ex-old chicken coup. The hospitality of their entire crew of friends was overwhelming. The bone fire parties each night went past 3am and always finished with a short happy stumble to my tiny tent verses a long ride home on the super slab which was a welcome change. Early Monday morning (memorial day) I got up before the rest of the crew, quietly broke down my camp and slipped out of site under the massive tree canopies that lined the ancient beach two track. I ate a big breakfast in nearby Leland at the Early Bird and then pointed the big twin south down M22 (my favorite Michigan road) towards the sleeping bear sand dunes. Stopped at a very peaceful civil war era cemetery in a shallow valley near the dunes and paid my respects to the fallen soldier before finding the black top home. Thanks again to everyone I met and especially to Chet, Kyle, Patti and Jeff for making me feel so at home during my stay at "Chetonka". Cheers!