Not So “Queenly” August 3, 2015

We woke up in the morning and the power was still out.  No shower, no blow dryer, no curling iron, no coffee, no morning news and we had to throw out the food in the freezer.    Jim tried to call the office and power company and got nowhere fast.  He found some other residents who indicated the damage was severe and it could be several days before the electricity could be restored.  UGH!

One of the many things I love about Jim is he does not merely live life; he experiences it to its fullest.  He was not going to let a little power outage stop him and we left to find an adventure for the day.  In the Grand Traverse Bay there is the second larger peninsula called the Leelanau Peninsula and that was our destination for today including Sleeping Bear Dunes.   We didn’t have to go too far to realize this storm had done a great deal of damage and we had been very fortunate not to have been hurt or sustained damage.  The local radio station said that the officials were trying to have the storm declared a national emergency to get help with the clean-up and damage.  The power was still out all over the city and large trees were being removed from some of the major streets.  It reminded me of when Frances hit Ocala after so many years of no direct hits by a hurricane.  All those trees that needed attention but didn’t get it were now getting lots of attention.

Undaunted, we headed north on the peninsula seeing debris and fallen trees everywhere.  The further north we drove the less the damage seemed to be and we were finally in an area that had minimal effects from the storm.  We stopped for coffee and gas and found many others doing the same thing.  The jiffy store employee told me they have been hard pressed to keep up with the coffee demand this morning because of all the folks who had no power.  We experienced the same thing when we stopped for lunch.  This little shop we chose was overwhelmed with more people to serve than they had experienced before and it took a very long time.

We drove on to Leelanau State Park and Grand Traverse Lighthouse.

Charming and much like the other lighthouses in the area.

In the gift shop, we found out that half of the lighthouse building is converted into living quarters with a modernized kitchen and bath and they accept people for one or two week intervals to live there and work on the property as volunteers.  Now who does that sound like might be interested in doing that?

Grand Traverse Lighthouse

View from top of lighthouse

We drove down the west coast of the peninsula and stopped at Leland to a small section that connects N. Lake Leelanau and Lake Michigan called Fishtown and Jim got some really good pictures.

Leland, MI

We were headed to Sleeping Bear Dunes when suddenly we were stopped by someone in the road telling us that the road was closed.  As we were driving south, you could tell the damage was getting more severe and concentrated.  It looked more like a tornado or two had touched down and there were huge trees with tops torn off or major branches  twisted and ripped off.  Every direction we went we ran into roads blocked off waiting for crews to remove trees and replace hanging wires.

Trees downed from storm in Traverse City

Time to give up and get back to Traverse City.

One of the things we were told we had to do was to experience the Grand Traverse Pie Company.  Even our waitress at the Peninsula Grill the first night had said to go there for cherry pie with crumb topping.  What a perfect afternoon snack; homemade cherry pie with crumb topping and black cherry coffee!

Traverse City was slowly recuperating but it was going to be a while before they were up to normal.  We ran some errands and decided we were still too full from our snack to care about dinner.  We would just eat some cereal later if we got hungry back at the RV.  What a glorious sight awaited us back at the RV park.  As we drove in, we first noticed the fountains were running again and then we heard someone running an air conditioner.  We had power.

Break out the crown; the queen is back!