Travel to Sleeping Bear Dunes, MI / More Mouse

Wednesday, August 3

I woke up to find that the blasted mouse had been back!!!!! So much for the mouse-chasing, smell-disorienting sachets. Grrrrrrr. More paper towel mess, but only two pistachios this time. 

I thought that maybe he had gotten some food and then decided that he didn’t like the smell and left quickly. I checked the bathroom storage compartment – no activity.

Mouse 1.5 : Chris 0.5

We packed up and headed out of our peaceful campsite, heading northwest to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, on the west coast of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula.

Before we hit Saganaw, we saw signs for Frankenmuth – Michigan’s “Bavaria” and the home of Bronner’s, the “World’s Largest Christmas Store.” I decided to stop and poke.

First, we made it to the Christmas store. I was scared before I even entered. 

Huge. Acres of Christmas schlock on display in wings. A snack area (because god-forbid you shop without a snack). And what must have been millions of Christmas ornaments. 

The blue section, with blue monkeys. 

The Nutcracker section. 

The Halloween section (?!?). 

The sports section (I was happy to see there were martial-arts Santas J). 

The country section. But look - here’s Germany with not a single wooden, hand-carved ornament that they are known so well for. 

And then there’s this pickle ornament in the Germany section, that’ll cost you $9.99 even though it’s made in Poland. The tag notes that it is German tradition to hang the pickle ornament last on the tree and whoever finds it first in the morning gets an extra present.

To all my German friends and family – is this true??? I’d never heard this before.

When I made it to the Japan section, I saw that the Chinese lanterns and the Chinese panda ornaments were hung there. Oh jeez - it wasn’t even properly researched Christmas schlock!

I needed to leave then. Fast. Too much abject consumerism – I just couldn’t take it any more.

Back in the van with some fresh air, we headed downtown to “Bavaria.” There were some very beautiful spots that did make you feel as if you were no longer in Michigan. 

And the flowers were lovely.

But perhaps still in the wrong frame of mind from my visit to the Christmas-schlock orgasmatron, I was feeling a little overwhelmed by it all.

In the end, I found the village more than a bit “cheezy.”

Auggie and I had some quick lunch in the van and got back on the road.

Mileage note – the van hit 20,000 miles on this drive.

We finally made it to the Sleeping Bear Dunes toward late afternoon. First we stopped at the Dune Climb – 110 feet of sand dune for climbing. No dogs allowed, though. Wow – being a dog on vacation is sometimes not so much fun!

I climbed it, leaving Auggie howling at me indignantly from behind. The view from up top was spectacular. Glen Lake behind me here looks very, very pretty.

Then I bounced/jumped/bounded back down the dune, gave Auggie a rub behind the ears for being patient and we drove another two miles to Glen Haven where dogs are allowed on the beach. Lake Michigan, in its blue-green splendor, was beautiful.

For those of you who don’t know him, Auggie is not a water dog, so bounding into the lake was not his thing. He didn’t even like the (little) waves that were crashing in. We took a nice walk, picked up some rocks and then found our way over to the Stocking Scenic Drive. Another beautiful view.

After that, we were pooped. We found our way to Indigo Bluffs campground, which is a great campground! Wooded, shady, well-maintained, lots of pine trees on our site to give it character. And we were on a corner lot, so had a bit more privacy. Wished we were here for longer than just one night.

We made our dinner and then started what turned out to be an awesome campfire. (More small wood available on this campground.) 

I had my first toasted marshmallows of the trip. Wow – they were yummy! I actually fell asleep for a bit by the fire, it was that relaxing.

Before bed, I moved the front-of-the-house mouse sachet into the pantry so that there was double strength now in the pantry. Surely this will keep him out. Right?