Friday morning we left St. Ignace, Michigan and traveled south a little more than 200 miles to the”Bavarian” town of Frankenmuth, Michigan. Larry, Tom and I had been to Frankenmuth before but Joanne had never been here. We arrived there about noon in time for lunch. After checking in and setting up the motorhome we went into the town to Zehnder’s Restaurant, famous for their chicken dinners served family style. We all ate the chicken dinners- appetizers of cottage cheese, pickles, creamy cole slaw, small rounds of toast with cheese spread and pate, then the main course of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, noodles, dressing, gravy and mixed vegetables, homemade breads, and then ice cream for dessert. Yummy!!! After eating we walked about the huge gift /bakery shop in the lower level of the restaurant. In the evening, after catching a nap in the afternoon, we stopped by a sausage store that had almost any kind of sausage desired. Then we stopped at a General Store that had a little of everything it seemed including a tee shirt with a moose on it that Joanne’s daughter had requested late in our trip. Bronner’s Christmas store, probably the largest Christmas store, was our next stop. Bronner’s has just about anything imaginable for Christmas – ornaments of every description. After all that shopping we ended the evening by going to the outdoor beer garden at the Bavarian Inn Restaurant. A woman accordion player/singer along with a man playing the fiddle and also singing provided the entertainment. Several folks danced to the mainly polka music. It was hot and humid this day and looked threatening off and on during the day.
Saturday morning was a little rainy as we left Frankenmuth. The weather forecast was for heavy rain and wind in this area but we only had light rain in our travels south through Michigan into Ohio- apparently we were ahead of the bad weather. From Ohio we traveled east on the turnpike into Pennsylvania where we stopped at Beaver Falls for the night- 330 plus miles. Harts Content Campground is about the only available campground in this area, luckily there was 2 sites available. This campground is about 12 miles off the turnpike. We are considering going a route other than the turnpike from here. The turnpike has increased the tolls to more than it is worth to travel through construction and bad roads. It is hot and humid here but we are hearing that the weather at home is extremely hot with health advisories. I think we should have stayed in the north area longer but we also feel that we are ready to get home. A thunderstorm moved through the campground about 9pm this evening.
