Bookworm wine.....and then comes Michigan!

Monday, 3 June 2013.  Before continuing the blog with an entry about our trip north, I need to mention a little side trip we took on our way home from the Pro Football Hall of Fame (HOF).  On our way to Canton that morning Lynette had spotted a sign on I-77 advertising a couple wineries.  On the drive back to our campground we decided to try our luck and check out the School House Winery, which is located in the Ruslin Hills area, a couple miles off the interstate near Dover, Ohio.  And I think we discovered a nice little gem!  This 127-year old school house has been renovated into a nice little boutique winery.  We sampled several of their wines and they were all quite good.  Since we hadn't eaten lunch today before going to the HOF, we decided to order something to nibble on while we drank a bottle of their Bookworm -- an apple flavored Riesling.  We opted for a meat-and-cheese platter and something described as "meat balls in a bread bowl with sauce and melted cheese."  This latter dish turned out to be very good and we were pleasantly surprised.  We spent a quiet afternoon on their outside deck, eating what turns out to be "dinner" and sipping some surprisingly good wine!  We also took with us another bottle of Bookworm (it really was quite tasty) and a sweet red raspberry wine that we'll use in making spritzers with 7-Up or Sprite.

The first of June saw us continuing our journey into unknown territory (well, at least for us) as we left Ohio and headed west on I-70 toward Columbus, used the bypass to skirt that big city, and then picked up US Route 23 to head north into Michigan.  Route 23 turned out to be a fairly well maintained, four-lane divided highway. Not interstate, but we made good time.   Today's route took us past Toledo (I didn't know this city was located on Lake Erie; learning all sorts of geography as we travel around this great country) and fairly straight north on US 23 toward Ann Arbor -- home of the Fighting Wolverines of Michigan.  And I also did not know Ann Arbor is very close to Detroit; almost like a suburb.  We did run into lots of heavy traffic as we approached the Ann Arbor area.  Our destination for this day was a country campground, KC Campground, near Milan, Michigan, about 30 minutes south of Ann Arbor.  Nice little campground, very friendly, but the exit off US 23 to get to the campground, Plank Road, is just plain terrible. Especially for big rigs like ours.  No shoulder to speak of and when there was it was so patched and re-patched it became quite a game to find solid road to drive on.  I mean, this was one terrible road.  When I mentioned this to the camp hosts at check-in we were told it has been that way for 15 years.  I couldn't believe it!  And other side roads in and around Milan were just gravel or packed dirt.  Strange set of roadways, to be sure.  But all in all we spent our overnight stay without any other hitches.  Even managed to drive into town (I skipped Plank Road and found a longer route but with better roads) and find a nice place to eat at the Milan Grill.  We hit the jackpot since the special this night was prime rib -- which we both promptly ordered and enjoyed.

Here's a couple pics of our campsite and also of the beautiful evening sky and sunset.  The cloud did turn out to be an omen of bad weather, since we had t-storms that evening with some pretty good rains!

Tomorrow we continue our journey north, eventually picking up I-75 at Flint, Michigan, and hopefully end up in Mackinaw City by late afternoon.  We'll be there for four nights / three days, and hope to do some serious sightseeing in the U.P. -- as the locals call Michigan's Upper Peninsula.  Cheers!