Michiana!

June 20 – July 1, 2022

It’s only fair to call this post “Michiana” as we are staying for a week in Southern Michigan and another few days in Northern Indiana.  I can’t claim the fame for making up this term, as it is an actual name used to refer to the area.  It’s based on counties that contribute to the large number of workers commuting to St. Joseph County, IN.

Our Michigan portion of the Michiana stop was at Bear Cave RV Park, located outside of Buchanan.  The magical part of this stay was that Brandon, Anne, Josh, Eva and Zoe joined us!  It was amazing having them with us for a few days!  A full picnic table, as well as a full camper, made our hearts overflow!

Brandon, Anne, Josh, Eva and Zoe crammed into their C-Max and drove from Salt Lake City to join us at Bear Cave RV Campground.  It was fun discovering the campground with them!  Located within the campground is Bear Cave, which we spent some time one morning exploring with Josh and Eva.  This cave was used to hide slaves during the Civil War as part of the Underground Railroad.  The slaves were hidden there until nightfall when local residents would help move them to the next station on their way to Canada. 

                     




Josh and Eva helped us put the Michigan sticker on our map!  This was the third state they have helped us with.  A year ago they visited us in Idaho and then this past Christmas they were in California with us.  It makes me wonder where else they will come and find us!  I’m keeping my fingers crossed in hopes of this!

The Potawatomi Zoo, in South Bend, IN, was a fun visit with Josh, Eva and Zoe.  It was the trifecta as we had been to Blank Zoo in West Des Moines with Norah in May, Minnesota Zoo a few of weeks ago with Emma and Eli and now Potawatomi Zoo with the Peterson family! 


I rode this train with these two when they were just babies!

Brandon had an amazing opportunity to co-present at the Martin Conference at the University of Notre Dame.  Having earned his Bachelor, Master and Doctorate degrees at ND, it was a thrill for him to be back on campus, presenting at this conference!  Brandon’s Doktorvater (dissertation director), Bob Krieg, opened the door for this opportunity by inviting Brandon. This wasn’t the only door Bob opened up, as he and his wife, Liz, invited us all over to their home for lunch one afternoon!  Both Bob and Liz are such hospitable and kind souls!

While Brandon was at his conference, we had our own conference under the historic Conference tree located in the campground!  Legend has it that, under this enormous Tulip tree, councils of the Potawatomi Indians would meet.  The tree is located on a high bluff above the St. Joseph River, making it easy to find for travelers.  

During our conference, it was determined that roasting marshmallows was a good idea! 

As both Brandon and Anne are ND alumni, we had a lot of fun visiting campus and going back to their favorite spots!  We were even able to slip in an afternoon, weekday mass at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.  It’s an absolutely beautiful spot for worship.  

Brandon's dormitory for his undergrad years



The Grotto, a 1/7 scale replica of the Grotto at Lourdes

"Touchdown Jesus"!

Main Building

John and Monica are good friends of Brandon and Anne from their time on the ND campus.  John and Monica continue to live in South Bend and John is currently teaching courses at ND.  A kind invitation to their home for dinner was a wonderful way to unwind after a full day of ND campus exploration.  John and Monica have been blessed with six children!  The kids all entertained themselves, having so much fun playing with each other and Nutmeg, their ten-week-old kitten!  It was such a calm and relaxing evening!

John and Brandon (Gyros for dinner - delicious!)

Saying goodbye to Brandon and family was tough, as goodbyes to loved ones always are, but our time with them was over and their journey back to Salt Lake City was inevitable.  They made that trip into a bit of an adventure in itself stopping by Waukee, IA and spending a couple of days with Maggie, Luke and Norah.  Lauren, Adam, Emma and Eli even drove down from Minneapolis so all of the cousins were able to run, splash, play and eat ice cream together.  I’m telling you, Dick had to hide the truck keys from me to keep me from crashing the party!


As a distraction, Dick invited me to stroll the grounds of Fernwood Botanical Gardens near Niles, MI with him as we celebrated our 40th Anniversary.  I really hadn’t expected much from this garden, but I was completely blown away!  This non-pretentious garden seemed to have surprises around every corner.  They had an amazing Railway Garden where the railway trestles and tracks were constructed out of natural materials.  Nestled under the train tracks were to-scale miniatures of historic buildings in the area (including ND’s Main Building – aka the golden dome).  These buildings were also entirely constructed out of natural things!  ND’s golden dome was a gourd, sliced walnuts made for decorative windows and bark and sticks made for shingles and other details.  Really, it was incredible!


Main Building, once again!

Their bird sanctuary was another favorite spot!  Here, they have an education building, filled with observation windows where I could have sat for hours watching the wide variety of birds coming and going from the plethora of feeders.  

Trails took us past the Japanese Garden, down to the St. Joseph River, past the water wheel, summer home, Boxwood Garden, Memorial Garden, Butterfly Garden…  I could go on and on!  We expected to spend maybe an hour there but, before we knew it, the afternoon had slipped away!


I've traded in champaign for Old Fashions!

Late afternoon took us to Dick’s next planned stop – Iron Shoe Distillery.  The name of the distillery was inspired by St. Dunstan, the patron saint of blacksmiths who, as legend has it, shod the Devil’s hooves with red hot horse shoes.  The devil then vowed never to enter a building that is protected by a horseshoe!  On our wedding day, my great-uncle Gunner provided Dick with the precise time Dick vowed to spend the rest of his life with me -- 3:35 pm on June 26, 1982!  While we were at the brewery, we couldn’t resist asking the waitress to take our photo at 3:35 pm on June 26, 2022!


Before we headed for dinner, we took a walk along the Mishawaka River walk.  Once again, we found ourselves strolling along the banks of the St. Joseph River.  Portions of this walk are so historic!  One section contains Battell Park, built in the 1860’s.  There we found a monument of Civil War battles, erected in 1884.  The WPA was also busy here during The Great Depression, creating a beautiful rock staircase that encompassed a tiered waterfall made of stones!  More currently, Master Gardeners have created stunning flower gardens.  All of this combined to make for such a delightful anniversary stroll. 

For dinner, Dick treated me to Tippecanoe’s Studebaker Brewery!  In 1889, Clement Studebaker built his four story, 40-room mansion that has 20 fireplaces, a two-lane bowling alley and even an elevator!  Clement most likely named his mansion after the Miami Indian Chief, Tippecanoe.  The land the mansion is built on was the favorite camping spot of Tippecanoe!  Clement had made his fortune building horse-drawn wagons.  In fact, Studebaker was the only horse-drawn wagon manufacturer that survived the transition to automobiles!  Today, the mansion houses both an upscale restaurant on the first level and the brewery on the second level.  Over the years, the mansion has served the community as a school for handicapped children, a Red Cross headquarters and a historical museum.  They have done a wonderful job of preserving the house and making a delicious dinner there quite the experience!  Bottom line, we had a delightful day celebrating our 40 years of life together!

During the Indiana portion of our Michiana stay, we camped at Johnny Appleseed Campground in Fort Wayne.  Before reaching the campground, we really hadn’t thought much about the campground’s name.  Upon arriving, we quickly learned the appropriateness of its name.  Each September, the campground is completely emptied out as this is the location for the annual Johnny Appleseed Festival.  Venders fill the campsites and thousands of visitors spend the weekend taking in all of the reenactments and festivities.  It all sounds like so much fun!



One end of the Johnny Appleseed Park has the gravesite of Johnny “Appleseed” Chapman who lived from 1774-1845.  We couldn’t help but pause when we learned, upon seeing his headstone, that Johnny’s surname was Chapman.  Brandon’s roommate during his undergraduate years was Lance Chapman who is from Woodburn, which is near Fort Wayne.  Lance’s parents are Jenny and Bill (“Chappy”) whom we have kept in touch with and were hoping to get together with while we were in the area.  It did work out for us to spend an evening with Jenny and Chappy, as they picked us up and took us to one of their favorite restaurants, Nine Mile.  We couldn’t wait to ask them if there happened to be any connection and the answer was “YES”!  What are the odds of that one happening??  Johnny was Chappy’s fourth great uncle.  Johnny had married, but was grief struck when his wife died of pneumonia on their wedding day.  That’s when Johnny struck out, scattering apple seeds throughout Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.  Such random things we run into on this grand adventure!

Fort Wayne has an amazing bike trail around the town, so we spend the better part of a day meandering around on the trails.  Dick had no sooner mentioned that his handlebar tape was pretty much disintegrating, before we came across a historic train depot that now functions as a bike shop.  Now that’s cool right?  Needless to say, Dick’s handlebar tape has never looked better!

We also came across the actual “Fort Wayne”.  While the original buildings are long gone, the city had access to the original plans and did an amazing job of rebuilding the fort.  Interestingly, the reverse angle of the roofs was designed to keep flaming arrows from being able to catch the buildings on fire.

Fort Wayne is designed around the confluence of three rivers.  The St. Joseph River and the St. Mary River meet here to form the Maumee River.  That being said, the bike trails follow the rivers around town, making for such beautiful scenery!

As we were riding down one section of the trail, Dick noticed a sign directing passers-by down a side street to the site of the first major league baseball game.  What??  That sign made us do a double-take and we actually turned around to take the short detour!  Sure enough, in what is now a playground, the beginning of major league baseball happened right there on May 4, 1871.  Who knew?

By this time, we had worked up a bit of an appetite, so we stopped at one of the many breweries in town for a bite to eat and a nice, cold beer.  Junk Ditch Brewery has quite the gourmet menu as well as my new favorite beer – Café Miel (French for honey) Stout.  Absolutely wonderful!

Fort Wayne seems to be a wonderful city.  We have it in mind to come back some September, two or three years from now, and check out that festival!  And yes, we will bring our bikes again!


Next up:  Jefferson, Ohio


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