2010-11 Carrboro, NC

In November 2010, we traveled to Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC for a second opinion to verify Monique’s diagnosis.  Monique had a thorough exam by Dr. Joseph Moore and his staff.  Dr. Moore did confirm that Monique has a type of Lymphoma Cancer called SLL/CLL and that “Watch and Wait” or  his preferred description of “Active Monitoring” was the appropriate course of action.

We found a very nice campground near Carborro, NC.  This small town adjoins Chapel, Hill, and it is hard to know when you have crossed from one town to the other.   The campground was Spring Hill Mobile Home Park.  As the name implies it was once a mobile home park, but is slowly converting to a RV campground.  We had a large site with huge beautiful oaks overhead.  We hope to return sometime in the future.

We stayed a few extra days to tour the area.  We always love touring gardens and found two very nice ones.  First we visited the NC Botanical Gardens near Chapel Hill.  It was a beautiful fall day and we enjoyed walking the woodlands trails.

(The photo of the pitcher plant at the top of the page is from another part of this garden.)

Another day we visited the Sarah P Duke Gardens at Duke University.  This is an especially nice garden.  There were not as many things in bloom as you would see in the spring or summer, but the gardens were still very lovely.  A few roses were still blooming.

Here is a pretty gazebo overlooking a small pond.

Another area has an oriental design with a lovely little red bridge crossing one end of a lake.

A third day we visited the historic town of Hillsborough, NC.  It was established in 1754 and has more than 100 historic homes and buildings dating from the 18th and 19th century.  Most of these are well marked with a sign showing the home or building name and date built.  We enjoyed a nice stroll around several neighborhoods using a walking guide we picked up at the town museum.   This town is well worth a visit if you are  in this area.  On the way back to the campground we stopped in Carborro and shopped in some nice craft shops.  We love seeing the craft work of local artists.

We definitely want to return to the “Research Triangle” area of NC to see the gardens in a different season and to tour more of the historic towns.

2010-07 Soo Locks

From 2010-07 Soo Locks

(Aerial photo of Soo Locks seen in the Visitor Center)

Our son Ward drove up to Mackinaw City from Chicago and stayed almost a week. It was great to spend time with him. We primarily stayed around the campground, but did take a day trip to Sault Ste. Marie, MI to tour the Soo Locks.

It was just over an hour’s drive across the Mackinaw Bridge and up through the Upper Peninsula. This is a sparsely populated area of forests and some farmland until you reach Sault Ste. Marie, which is pronounce “Soo Saint Marie” and comes from a French translation that means “the falls of St Mary’s (river)".

We had a very enjoyable stay two years ago at Aune Osborne campground which sits right on the bank of the St Mary’s river just south of the Soo Locks. Our campsite was next to the river, and I was frequently stepping out to take close-up pictures of the Great Lakes freighters (“Lakers”) as they passed. Here is one of those photos:

From 08-08 Sault Ste Marie

Looking at the Soo Locks visitor center web site I learned that freighters passed through the locks on average every 1 1/2 hours.  So based upon that information and our prior experience, we assumed we would be able to watch a ship pass through. Well we were wrong. Six ships had passed through that morning, but none were in the St Mary’s river channel from the south or in Lake Superior from the north. The visitor center has a computer display that shows the location of ships in those areas, but no incoming ships were visible. We learned that traffic had been way down in 2009 due to the economy, but had picked back up so far this year. However a recent visitor came in from Duluth, Minnesota who works at the huge grain elevators on Lake Superior. He said their elevators were empty because there had been too much rain and the crops had failed (I assume winter wheat.) So he said no international ships nor “Lakers” would be coming through the locks with grain anytime soon.  I imagine that is a key reason we did not see any ships.

We did watch a tour boat go through the locks.

From 2010-07 Soo Locks

And just enjoyed looking at the locks and entrance way.

From 2010-07 Soo Locks

2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petoskey, MI

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

Tuesday July 13th we headed on a day trip toward Petoskey, Michigan.   On the way we took a short detour after we saw a sign for the McGulpins Point Lighthouse. 

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

This lighthouse went into service in 1869, but was only used for 37 years.  It became redundant when a lighthouse was built in Mackinaw City that provided a better light for both the west and east entrances to the Straits of Mackinac.  The local county bought the property a few years back and began restoration.  The iron top was rebuilt and installed just a year again in April 2009.  I read that many lighthouses still owned by the Federal Government are being decommissioned and will be sold over the next few years.  Wouldn’t it be neat to buy and live in one?  (But perhaps not that far north)

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

Before we had left, we had chosen a route that was marked scenic.  Since this road is along Lake Michigan, we thought we would have great views of the lake.

The route is known as “The Tunnel of Trees”,  It is a beautiful drive through a heavy canopy of trees. 

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

The road is winding, narrow and a bit of a challenge to drive.  We only had some occasional views of the lake.

Along the way, we spotted this group of people practicing polo.  Wish it had been a real match.  We would have stopped to watch having never seen one before.

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

We also drove past a golf course that is quite a distance from anywhere.  It was appropriately named The Wilderness Golf Course. 

The lovely town of Harbor Springs was our next stop.  We enjoyed lunch, a stroll through the town, and going into some of the shops.

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

The town was very clean and all the buildings were so well maintained.  We asked one shop keeper if there was a town ordinance about how frequently they needed to paint.  She said no it was just the pride of the town and shop owners.

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

Almost all shops had beautiful window boxes of flowers.

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

There were lovely homes

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

and this one is the town museum.

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

In Petoskey, we stopped at a park and enjoyed the beautiful view.

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

After a short drive through Petoskey, we headed back to the RV.  This time by a more direct route