Author: Mike & Jonell Murphree

In spite of the crappy/dreary weather & a wrenched back, the Harbor Springs stop turned out to be a great stop, thanks to our friends Shannon & Scott Knight. Shannon worked with me on the re-introduction of the Fiat brand to the USA via the Fiat 500.
Shannon’s folks own a cottage in Boyne City, Shannon actively follows the blog, and called with a surprise proposal of meeting us yesterday while they were up north on a long weekend visiting their folks.
Shannon & Scott gave us our 2nd Ferris Buehler’s day off by car (1st was Doug/Sharolyn on Beaver Isl).
In one afternoon/night we were able to; 1) Have drinks aboard Getting Looped, 2) visit downtown Charlevoix, 3) see the Four Winns estate from across the bay on Lake Charlevoix, 4) run into our new Looper friends from Mackinaw Tag Team & Pharm Team, 5) have dinner on the deck of the Landing Restaurant, 6) take the Ironton cable Ferry across the south arm of Lake Charlevoix, 7) have drinks in Boyne City at Stiggs, 7) meet up with co-worker Brian Agar, and 8) end the night by picking up and safely returning to home a very drunk young female who had gotten lost from the campgrounds she was staying at. She was on the side of the road attempting to flag down a good Samaritan (Shannon to the rescue).
What a night !

Sorry – No photos of the totally intoxicated girl on the side of the road !

Oh, by the way – there were some nice homes in Bay Harbor.

Oh, by the way #2, the 1st ever visit to the chiropractor worked pretty good. 50-60% improvement yesterday. Up to 70-80% today. Thx for all the well wishes.

Quick update from yesterday.
Good News, Bad News day.

Good News
We met an awesome new couple of friends, Oat & Rosemary Whitney.
Originally from Ohio, currently live in Denver, and boat on Lake Michigan every summer.
They were a wealth of knowledge for us on our upcoming plans for the west coast of Michigan.
Oat also is a big time sailor, having completed the Chicago to Mackinac Race 2 times.

Bad News & Good News
Thursday was a planned travel day from Harbor Springs to Bay Harbor.
Our departure from Harbor Springs was delayed due to an electrical issue with one of the 50A power cords. We lost line 2 with no power after going to the beach on Wednesday and returning to no Air Conditioning. We called the Irish Boat Shop (with name like Murphree, I figured they were ok) and scheduled service. They had to order a connector which did not arrive until noon Thursday, the tech Ryan arrived about 3pm, and we were under way at 5pm. Many thanks to Harbormaster Mike Johnson at Harbor Springs, who let us stay way past the 11am checkout, even with the next customer waiting for the slip on the courtesy wall.
Irish Boat Shop repair tech Ryan was great , explaining to us what he was doing, showing us the bad ground in the 50A cable & corroded wiring in the Y-splitter. I now know how to do this boat task too.

Back under way with a late 5pm start to Bay Harbor (thanks again Ryan, he is now following the blog).
The good news is that it was just across Little Traverse Bay, 6 miles away.

Bay Harbor claims via Motor Boating magazine, that they are one of the top 10 boating destinations in the USA. First impressions don’t support that, need to do more discovery in this bay & area. I expected grand homes & mega yachts, what we have seen so far is really nice homes & boats similar/smaller than Harbor Springs.
We were assigned a very nice slip next to the fishing charter boat – but it looks like the charter guy is good at his job.

Oh by the way it’s the only marina so far with cable TV, 30 stations (we have had several marinas with no air stations & only Netflicks or radio at night).

Bad News
During our tie up at Bay Harbor, I wrenched my back badly – heading off to my first chiropractor visit in my life this morning. Dock Consultant Jerry made the appointment and will be taking me to the Doc (1st marina with a “dock consultant”) .
Joe, Michael, Kurt, Rod, Nellie – I now feel your pain, don’t know how you deal with it.
Jake – get that degree right soon, I may need you !

The travel guides say this about Harbor Springs;
Harbor Springs is a city and resort community in Emmet County Michigan. Harbor Springs is in a sheltered bay on the north shore of the Little Traverse Bay on Lake Michigan. The Little Traverse Lighthouse is a historic lighthouse on the Harbor Point peninsula, which shelters the deepest natural harbor on the Great Lakes.

For Jonell & I , Harbor Springs means ; Nice Boats & Nice Homes with lots of flowers (not mansions, but pretty homes). There is also a nice shopping/restaurant district on “of course” the streets of Main & State streets.

Boats

Hey, how did that last one get in the marina ???

Homes
Not really mega-mansions, but darn nice houses.
Lots of flowers

Front Yard Waterfalls
Several of the houses on the bay had stone lined waterfalls in their front yards.
Water pulled from the bay with a pump & drains back to the bay via 1 ft round pipe which passes from the front yard under the sidewalk & street, back to the bay.

We went to Beaver Island to meet up with Doug Edgar & 1st mate Sharolyn.
Doug Edgar is the father of one of my former co-workers at FCA (Ashley Edgar).
Doug is also the Police Chief of Beaver Island.

Although Beaver Island is known today for its beaches, forests, recreational harbor, and seclusion, at one time it was the site of a unique Mormon kingdom. The kingdom led by the one of the founders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints James J. Strang, along with  the Latter Day Saint movement led by Brigham Young.

Doug & Sharolyn treated us to a Ferris Buehler’s day off tour of Beaver Island !
We saw the following ;
* The house & Tombstone of Protar, beloved acting doctor on Beaver Island in the 1800’s
* The Big Rock
* The Big Tree – Largest Birch tree in Michigan ??
* The new Airport
* Doug’s new 1970’s vintage Jeep J10 (fully operational, any bidders ? )
* The Marsh
* The Beach
* The 1800’s Jail
* A wonderful piece of property called the Boathouse, on a finely manicured garden piece of land with thousands of variety of Hosta plants. We also learned the owner of the property lives in Royal oak at 13-1/2 & Main, just south of Clawson. The house has been moved 2 times since it’s build in the 1800’s.
* The Circle-M restaurant, another 1800’s vintage house converted into a restaurant.
* There were more stops, I just did not take good enough notes

The night ended with Michael going to bed & Nellie seeing a beautiful Full Moon shining off of the water (how romantic) !

 

 

 

Great ride under the Mackinaw Bridge ; the Big Mac, the Ole Lady, Ole Man River (copy right, Clark Griswald  – 1997) !
Calm seas & a short 40 mile ride to Beaver Island.

Ride along with us, we have video entering & exiting the bridge (click on links below).
Entering the bridge = https://youtu.be/uK70aQQEqW8
Exiting the bridge = https://youtu.be/UPJfPhgrvQU

We would have taken more video, But we were interrupted by a Coast Guard vessel who did not like our initial route under the bridge. He did not hail us on the radio, but did turn on his lights. We later over heard on the radio that there were men working on the base of one of the pillars of the bridge. the CG was keeping boats clear of the work area.

Next stop = Beaver Island

Friday Aug 4th
Highlights of the day included;
1. Taking a taxi to St Ignace & spending 4 hrs in a medical clinic for Nellie to get some drugs for an infection (nothing urgent).
2. Biking around Mackinaw City looking at expensive houses & the Mac Bridge (we will go under it tomorrow ! )
3. Watching the Sheppler’s, Mackinac Island ferry boat negociate tight turns at their dock (my dream job).
3. Biking to & walking thru a local outdoor indian fair with lots of Furs & Wooden hade made items.
4. Dinner at a unique bar – The Keyhole Bar & Grill.

Mackinaw City Bike Ride

Mackinac Island Ferry Video =  https://youtu.be/R3tz2Sf7-Kg

Outdoor Indian Fair

Keyhole Bar & Grill

Saturday August 5th (Mike’s Birthday !)
Highlights of the day included;
1. I received about 25 birthday wishes via, Facebook, Texts, and Calls (thanks a bunch everyone). Some from FCA folks I had not spoken to in 2 years, some from ole family I had not spoken to even longer (Mississippi cuz Judy Murphree Brackeen). I am not a frequent Facebook user, but it sure is good for birthdays !
2. We spent the day with new friends, and current Loopers “Tom & SueAnn Rushing” from Galveston Texas. They began their Loop last November out of Mobile Alabama. We also learned that they were very close Looping friends with the people we bought our boat from, Dave & Michele Sylver. We spent the day on Mackinac Island with Tom & Sue Ann. We all took our bikes on the ferry and went on a nice Mackinac ride seeing sites such as the Arch Rock, Fort Mackinac, and the Grand Hotel. We experienced the Grand Buffet Lunch at the Grand Hotel and had drinks in the rocking chairs on the balcony of the Grand Hotel. About 3 pubs later, we were on the ferry ride back to Mackinaw City when we received a video call from family attending the wedding of our cuz Jayme Cicchelli to Mr. Don Blevens. We understand that we missed a grand party, Congrats Jayme & Don !

Wind, Wind, Wind & Rain !
Based on our warnings from wind APPS “Windy & Sailflow”, we left Cheboygan early in the morning yesterday. The short ride (15 miles) was not fun. 25mph winds, kicking up 4-5ft waves hitting us in the starboard/rear.
Arrival at Mackinaw City was fairly un-eventful thanks to 4 dockhands ready to receive us. The staff at the Mackinaw City Marina is awesome.

https://youtu.be/ozMw6dEsVLw

We left early because the Wind APPs said the high winds in Thursday morning would only get worse as the day went on, and over the weekend, not calming until late Sunday night.
The APPs were again correct, by 2pm the wind had picked up to about 35-40mph, and from about 4pm to 8pm it rained very hard with high winds. I believe downstate had similar weather.

Before the rains kicked in at 4pm, we did get to see a little of the city. Same ole Mac City – Gift shops & Fudge.

Weather forecast for today is also crappy, but a nice start to today with a beautiful rainbow.

After all the fun & action with my family on Sunday in Presque Isle / Alpena area, we departed for Cheboygan on Monday.

It was a nice easy 55 miles.
Cheboygan is a nice little town with it’s history in the 1800’s being a lumbering town.
The downtown area has many restaurants, pubs, small shops, parks along the river, and intermittent art in the park areas.
The shopping/eating area covers anywhere between a 5 to 30 min bike ride, we have taken the bikes out twice for dinner (Mulligans is recommended by most in the area).
The beach is right next to the county marina where we are staying.

Overall another nice small northern Michigan town.
Looking forward to the west side of the state

Next stops = Mackinaw City, Beaver Isle, Harbor Springs

Our last day at Presque Isle was a very special day.

As planned, we went to cousin Kathy & Dan Serre’s  house for a BBQ dinner with them and Aunt Angie.

At about 2pm, we had a very special surprise – my father, brother, sister, brother-in-law, son, and son’s girlfriend (and dogs Jack & Olive) showed up at Kathy & Dan’s house . They drove all the way from metro Detroit to Alpena to celebrate my 59th birthday which will occur next week on August 5th. Next week, most of my family will be attending the wedding of  our cousin Jayme Cicchelli  in metro Detroit. My family drove to Alpena, celebrated with birthday dinner & cake, and drove home the same day for work on Monday (10 hours of driving, ugh). The visit was a surprise for me, Jonell, Kathy, Dan, and Aunt Angie. It was a very special day.

But WAIT, OMG , that’s not all !

During the visit, and before dinner/cake – our son Daniel asked me to take a photo of him and his girlfriend Megan. You might be able to guess what happened while I was snapping the photos.

Dan & Megan met about 18 months ago on christianmingle.com
Megan has been an awesomely positive addition into Dan’s life, his happiness is very evident. Dan asked Mr. Durrant for his blessing to propose about a month ago.
Megan & Dan will get a very nice trial period for marriage over the next year, while Jonell & I are traveling – Dan moved in with Megan just before we left.
Congrats “Dan & Megan”

Awesome/Fun/Adventure day.
We unloaded the dinghy for the 1st time on the trip.

When we arrived at the Presque Isle Marina on Thursday, they gave us a guide book of activities in the area (like the light houses in the previous post on Friday). In the guide book there was a section about 7 sunken ships in the various waters between Presque Isle & Alpena. One of the ship wrecks was in Albany Bay, the next bay over from Presque Isle Harbor Bay – where the marina is located.
We ventured out of Presque Isle Harbor Bay to the neighboring Albany Bay , and took the dinghy about 3-4 miles to look for the sunken remains of the Steamer Ship “Albany”. We used the GPS coordinates from the magazine article below & the Garmin Blue Charts on the IPAD to find the Ship Wreck.
See the history below

It was pretty hard to see it, in spite of the clear water.
You could make out dark shapes showing the outline of the vessel.

We then took a slow ride back to the marina, following the shoreline of Albany Bay & then Presque Isle Bay. About 2/3 of the way back, we discovered a nice sandy beach to ; pull over and have a couple soda pops, a few hours of sun bathing, and a wonderful 30 minute nap laying on the dinghy tube .


The water was so clear, It did not seem like Northern Michigan.
It felt more like Cancun, Cozumel, or Bahamas – rather than northern Michigan.

Northern Michigan Corona moment = https://youtu.be/xZW2SuA7CiE

 

Next stop tomorrow = Cheboygan Michigan (60 miles)