It’s a bit on the nippy side now, just the kind if weather one might normally expect as we surge into mid October. The trees are proffering their near-peak performance as colors abound., thus even a sometimes annoying drive back to the store after having forgotten items vital to an in-progress dinner can be a feast for the eyes, so pay attention. This is an all too short display that ends with barren branches and trunks stripped down and ready to provide a bleak backdrop to the coming season when the great outdoors transitions from color to black and white reception. There’s a cornhole tourney going on at Old Iron Bar & Grill in Grant starting at noon Saturday with registration from 10-1130am. Proceeds will be going to the GR Home for Veterans so indulging in this opportunity to test your mettle against other tossers also supports those who served. In downtown Montague, a most pleasant drive these days, this Saturday’s annual Pumpkin Fest is one of those events we at N3 World Headquarters have rarely missed. Partly because the Cedar Creek Cloggers perform there each year and the landlord of N3WH is part of the group, but also because it is consistently a good time. There are vendors, seed spitting contests, and all things pumpkin culminating in the infamous pumpkin roll down Dowling Street hill a competitive event with accompanying emotions passionate enough to rival a major NASCAR race. Stuff starts at 930 and runs until 4pm and there’s a cool farmers market to boot with some outstanding goodies from a local bakery if I recall correctly. We just saw the latest Jurassic World last weekend and the end (no spoiler here) makes the compelling exhibit “Expedition: Dinosaur” arriving this weekend at the GR Public Museum even more enticing. We will be hopefully getting you an up close and personal review of the event in the coming days but this sounds like just the ticket for any of the young (or not so young) dinophiles in your posse. https://www.nearnorthnow.com/features-and-fun/all-things-dinosaur-at-grpm Steven Potter is known throughout these parts as Two Dogs and has been a friend to the residents of N3WH for a good couple of decades or so. A house fire displaced he and his family and the fine folks at the River Stop Saloon will be holding a fundraiser for the family Saturday beginning at 1pm. There will be live music including, we’re told, the rockabilly bluegrass sound of Luke Warm and the Not So Hots. There will be an auction, a pool tournament and the effervescent socialization often associated with such events. Half of the $10 admission goes to the family. These are good folks and this is a good cause. Oh and if you’re not spending a car payment or two to see Elton John Monday, two of the candidates vying to be your representative in D.C. will be holding a debate at Newaygo High School beginning at 7pm. Tickets are free but must be reserved. Info? https://www.rivercountrychamber.com/events/details/debate-u-s-rep-bill-huizenga-dr-rob-davidson-30894
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By Ken DeLaat
For nearly each of the last 46 Octobers I have had the good fortune of accompanying LSC (Lifetime Spousal Companion) Lil on a road trip. The first one was our honeymoon. Yes, on a sunny Friday in October four and a half decades ago she and I wed (though why she introduces me to people as her ‘current husband’ continues to baffle me). This year we were heading out to take in a bit of a fall tour. About a month or two ago we spoke of a time to venture forth in search of the autumn splendor of Up North country. Eschewing September dates as too soon and latter October times as already filled with obligations, we chose to depart in the first week of the month. As a public service to those who might be planning to head north for an autumn adventure here are a few impression acquired from our quest for color. Our first destination was winery country and if you’ve been anywhere in the NW part of our peninsular paradise of late you’ll have likely noticed the presence of more than a few wineries. It reminds me of the burgeoning bevy of breweries in our Metro sister to the south where if you fall down in the downtown area you are likely as not to hit one. They are everywhere with a rich variety of names that range from elegant French influenced monikers to geographic influenced titles to creative twists. Favorite title? ‘45 North’ located at the parallel signifying the halfway point between the equator and the north pole. Favorite winery? Black Star Farms. Lil remembered this place from a trip she took with friends many years ago and it did not disappoint. The young lady at the serving table was likeable, knowledgeable and possessed more than a dollop of charm along with what one might call a generous pour. The vineyard was breathtaking as were the grounds including the riding stables. Though only ever a wannabe horse person, the setting spawned an age old and familiar yearning acquired during a childhood heavily influenced by a steady diet of westerns at the movies and on the tube. It was the last after several stops and armed with a few purchases we moved on to our hotel located on the outskirts of the Beauty by the Bay. A word about Traverse City. Having visited this appealing town from the late 50’s through their 70’s boom era and subsequent spurts of what seems to be gargantuan growth I am still impressed by the charm it possesses for a visitor. TC gets the whole tourist thing and accommodates it with the right kind of downtown, a blend of eateries, shopping opportunities and entertainment venues including the impressive State Theater smack dab in the center of the city. Their outlying areas are, of course, riddled with strip malls and the usual franchised businesses seen on Alpine or 28th street but downtown remains retail-oriented and exudes what can be loosely described as a contemporary quaintness. The hotel. Cambria Suites proved to be an ideal stopover for several reasons. They have a shuttle that runs downtown so one is freed from both the traffic as well as the buck an hour parking meters (when you can find them). The desk guys were uber accommodating making reservations at our favorite downtown eatery (Amica. Food to die for.) and arranging the shuttle to carry us there. And then there was the shower. A huge personal factor in rating places we’ve stayed has to do with the shower. Sometimes places seem to scrimp a bit with regard to this essential amenity and to be honest I gotta say this colors my experience. This one was the bathing enclosure that will one day grace our home if found to be constructionally feasible. If not we’ll have to move. Large with an open entrance a glass half door and nicely tiled with a water source that brought a full and luxurious rush of H2O. It was exquisite. The shuttle? Well, when your LSC is browsing through the multitude of selections at the wonderful bookery that goes by the name Horizon after an appetizing array at Amica? And suddenly you are struck by the notion that the shuttle service ends at 9pm? And you relate this to her causing a most unwelcome premature break in the browsing? It doesn’t. So after delivering the warning and cutting Ms. Lil short by perhaps an hour or so in experiencing that unique and wonderful late night ambience that thrives in a truly fine bookstore I made the mistake of double checking with the driver on the way back as to how long the shuttle runs. “Midnight. We can pick up folks as late as midnight.” Yep. That all too familiar look of resignation wrought from a near half century of being wed to one with questionable thought patterns and rather severe organizational limitations. And speaking of those limitations, the next day we spent walking the downtown area and I discovered a glitch in my packing procedure. Currently in possession of my 4th pair of identical brown loafer type Merrell shoes the newer ones somehow got mixed up with a pair of the much older ones. When it comes to shoes I tend to buy infrequently and wear them until the soles have transformed into thin leather strips with no discernible tread. The difference between one of these nearly decomposed models and the newer version is pretty dramatic when doing a bit of walking and still it took nearly the first hour of wondering why I seemed to be striding with a noticeable limp to realize I was wearing one old and one new shoe. One would not think this situation should make much of a difference but I am here to testify as to the fallacy of this line of thinking. It was as if my whole equilibrium seemed shaken. We shopped several shoe stores with Lil on the hunt for a particular style and make that was not to be found in any of the plethora of places we visited on this trip. Somewhere near the halfway point of this process I found a display shoe identical to the ones I had recently purchased. Word of advice here. When asking about purchasing just the shoe off of the display rack and not its mate while tossing in the possibility of it being half price as well as marked down for being a display item? Be prepared to garner some rather quizzical looks and a request delivered to the store manager is unlikely to be granted. Thus, having been resigned to doing without the most comfortable of my non sandal footwear, I considered chucking the old one out of pure frustration. Somehow this connected to a possible reason one sees orphaned footwear along the road, a mystery that has puzzled the more inquisitive among us for years. I considered bringing this up later when we were back on the road but not long ago there was this kind of pledge of sorts made about discussing the theory behind the shoe conundrum or even making announcements of discoveries when my passenger is knitting or napping. Besides, whole shuttle thing was still fairly fresh. Beyond the whole shoe thing, the shopping, the shower and the oenophilist indulgence here’s a word about the color on our color tour. Mostly green at that point. Mostly green. Next: The Tunnel, The Bridge, and Homeward Bound Bounty Ed Note: Max Morrison continues his trek across Australia and his mother Kathy Morrison has been kind enough to chronicle this rather incredible journey for our readers. In what he has repeated hundreds of times in the past month and a half, Max Morrison threw his leg over the crossbar of his bicycle in Darwin, Australia on September 16, pumped up for what he anticipated would be 40 days on the road, bicycling some 5000 km to Perth, Australia. This is a fundraising ride and he is attempting to raise $5000 or more for three environmental protection organizations – two in here in Michigan and one in Australia. It has been 44 days now since he left Darwin, 39 of them on the road, peddling 3708 km (2,300 miles) to date, approximately the distance from Fremont to San Francisco, and he still has about 1200 km more to go. In total, the 3000 plus miles covered will be like biking from New York City to Ireland, though not as wet. The miles and calendar days have extended as he has chosen to take a longer route and make a few forays to explore areas away from the Victoria Highway, which is the only “real” main road in that area of the country. He also spent some down time here and there – a day recovering from a bout of illness, a few days’ delay due to huge brush fires which closed the roads, and a “rest” in a place called Broome. The “rest” turned out to be three days in the ocean brushing up on his swimming so that he could compete in his first triathlon, a shortened, non-Olympic length one. Max has been a distance runner since middle school, running for Fremont’s Cross County team and then at Alma College, so the running was a breeze. The biking? Well, it isn’t likely anyone else competing had spent the previous 28 days traversing nearly 1400 miles on a bike, but the swimming was a challenge. Max was one of the last out of the water. Luckily, he made up for lost time in the biking and running and took 1st place. Then it was back on the road that afternoon to continue on his way toward Perth. He has seen incredible places in some of the most spectacular and rugged landscapes on Earth, one of them being Kakadu National Park, an area rich in wildlife, including 10,000 crocodiles! Between the thought of those huge hungry fellers and the blitzkrieg of mosquitoes, he hardly had a wink of sleep camping in his little ridge tent! The entrance sign to Kakadu park reads, “Indigenous people talk about country in the same way they talk about a person; they speak to country, sing to country, visit country, worry about country, feel sorry for country, and long for country. People say that country knows, hears, smells, takes notice, takes care, is sorry or happy…country is a living entity with a yesterday, today, and tomorrow…” After spending several days in their land, Max wrote, “Perhaps we all need to think of the land a bit more like a brother, sister, father, or mother that we love...As I was leaving Kakadu, I was brought to tears. I can’t quite explain it, but as I was nearing the end of the road, I started thinking about how to describe Kakadu: to me, the land felt like a warm, friendly person — like a grandfather, and it honestly felt like saying goodbye to him. I thanked him for my special time spent there before leaving.” Biking and hiking, he went on an excursion into the Bungle Bungles, fascinating sandstone formations in the Purnululu National Park and relished his time singing a lovely Irish tune, “The Parting Glass”, in the park’s Cathedral Gorge where he said the acoustics are amazing. Max has explored areas that are rich in gorgeous Indigenous Aboriginal rock and cave paintings, some dating back 50,000 years. There have been days at a time when he is out of range of phone and internet service and quite on his own. The long, solo ride each day suits him, but a bit of loneliness and longing for home have crept in as well. However, the “Lucky Country”, as they call Australia, is crawling not only with snakes, but also with outstanding people and he has had the good fortune to meet so very many of them along the way. He has been offered food and drink by fellow travelers and locals alike, invited in for dinner with families and after a recent post his Mom put up on a Western Australian Facebook board about his fundraiser, he instantly had an offer to stay the night in a local family’s home. A few days back after arriving at a small town, he was amazed to walk into a roadhouse (their name for a restaurant/accommodation), only to have the guy at the counter said, “How ya goin’ Max?” The worker could tell Max was confused as to how he knew his name and explained, “Your reputation precedes you…do you want your beers now or later?” He then handed Max two bottles of Corona and told him that a couple that drove past had left them there for him. Max reckoned it was a nice couple he met shortly before leaving Coral Bay. One Aussie couple, Anne and Greg from Tasmania, are following much of the same travel route in their vehicle and befriended Max several weeks ago. They have been extremely kind and generous to him when their paths cross. They have fed him, gotten him water, and tended to him when he became ill from some dodgy water or perhaps dehydration. When they’ve had Internet reception and Max has not, they have been so very thoughtful to message his parents here in Fremont to let them know they have talked with him on the road and that all is well. Greg tells Max’s Mom that as a distance bicyclist himself, he knows that the trek Max has followed is one of the most challenging anywhere due to the heat, the dryness, the bugs, the snakes, the isolation, and the incredibly huge “Road Trains” as they call them, passing you on the road. In the remote areas of Australia, semi-trucks are allowed to haul multiple trailers, weighing over a quarter of a million pounds and measuring about 170 feet long – that’s more than a half a football field long! Imagine that semi whizzing by you as you are peddling into the dry and dusty wild wind. His route on the Victoria Highway passes through some very isolated areas of Australia. On one stretch of the highway it was 380 miles between towns. The largest town after leaving Darwin was Broome, population about 15,000, but most towns have been much, much smaller. Despite the fact that it is winter time in Australia, the air temperatures have been averaging 95 to 104 and road temps 120 to 140 degrees. The searing heat, coupled with a lack of shade, snakes, and billions of flies, have at times, made for a grueling bike ride. Max often rises early, rides until the sun is too scorching to continue, rests in what shade he can find or create, and then continues in late afternoon when the worst of the day’s heat is over. He is not the only Beast of the Road. Max has met others who are doing their own fundraiser bike rides – one young man is trying to raise a quarter of a million dollars for “Beyond Blue”, an Australian depression/anxiety assistance organization. Amazingly, the fellow is pulling a bathtub on wheels behind his bicycle to stow his equipment and food and the bonus is, that it doubles as a place to sleep! With the Kimberley, the Great Sandy desert, and the Pilbara behind him now, the hottest, driest leg of the trip is over and in the past few days, as he rounded the upper northwestern corner of the country, the winds coming off the ocean have been cooler, but stronger yet, making it seem as if he were peddling through molasses. The predominantly southwesterly winds can be brutal in W.A. (Western Australia) and he has been riding into it much of the time. His Tasmanian friend, Greg, tells us that for the locals, W.A. stand for, “Windy Always”.
Greg answers the question: Why would anyone do this ride? “You get to meet the real Australians who all admire people like Max who take up a challenge.” As Max dips south now, the coastal road will give him an opportunity to see some virtually untouched, pristine beaches. He is likely about two weeks or so from reaching Perth, assuming he takes it a bit slower to explore some of the coastal wonders of the West. H is work/travel visa lasts until the end of December but he has already applied for a similar visa for New Zealand where he may or may not go decide to go. Regardless of when he returns to Michigan, this odyssey in the Land Down Under will be a life changing experience, as the best travel often is. Max is about half way to reaching his goal of $5000, thanks to the generosity of many family, friends near and far, and Newaygo County residents. If you would like to donate toward the fundraiser for the environmental groups, please see his GoFundMe page: https://www.gofundme.com/ride-for-nature039s-health or contact Kathy at 924-6924. He has a blog chronicling his journey at: https://cyclingforearthshealth.wordpress.com/2018/08/17/the-cycle-trip-darwin-to-perth/ 5K Trail Run/Walk To Raise Scholarships For Children
Newaygo- Camp Henry, Camp Roger, and Camp Geneva, three summer camps in West Michigan, are partnering in the Run for Camp 5K Trail Run/Walk to raise scholarship funds for children-in-need to attend camp. The trail run/walk, presented by Howard Miller, takes place on October 13, 2018 and costs $20 for adults, $15 for students and children. Family and group pricing are available. Volunteer opportunities are listed on the registration website. More information can be found at https://runsignup.com/runforcamp. The race will be held on the grounds of Camp Henry in Newaygo, Michigan. The course winds throughout 212 acres of scenic, natural trails. The 5K Trail Run will be timed and awards will be given. The 5K Walk can be walked at a leisurely pace. Kids are welcome to participate! Prizes will be awarded for these categories: 12 and under, 13-17, 18-39, over 40. Run for Camp T-shirt provided if registered by October 3. 100% of proceeds benefit camp scholarships. Everyone is welcome! “While we represent three different summer camps, each of us share the same desire to see all children, regardless of financial needs, attend camp. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to benefit from an amazing, positive, loving, and life-changing Christian camping experience,” shares Jake Jacobs, Executive Director, Camp Henry. Doug Vanderwell, Camp Roger’s Executive Director adds, “We’re all passionate about children growing in their self-esteem, confidence, and faith, and feel that there are few places that develop these character traits better than camp.” “While we all offer excellent summer camp programs, we don’t see ourselves as competing with one another; we simply want all kids to experience the fun and benefits of camp,” shares Kevin VanderKlok, Executive Director, Camp Geneva. Race Day Details: Location: Camp Henry, 5575 S Gordon Ave, Newaygo, MI 49337 Phone: (231) 652-6472 Registration information: https://runsignup.com/runforcamp Facebook: @runforcamp |
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