The night before, we'd arrived at the rest stop as it was raining, which did cool down the temperatures overnight, thanks goodness! However, it was back to hot weather early the next morning.
What we like about rest stops is that they not only have restrooms, dog park areas, and soda vending machines, but also can serve as visitor centers with lots of info on places to go and things to do around the area. We found a booklet about the town of Holland, for example, adding some sights to visit for when we're there in a few days' time (refer to our post for day 179).
This rest stop has a Michigan Transportation Employees Memorial to commemorate the state transportation employees who have lost their lives while working on state highways. We spent some time getting some errands done in the morning (fixing the side door to make it easier to open/close, and defrosting the fridge that builds up a lot of ice over time), before heading out. Fortunately in a small space we have to be very intentional about what we have and it doesn't take as long to clean!
The Santa House
In the town of Midland in Michigan is the Santa House, where Christmas festivities are held every year. There are volunteers who play the role of elves, guiding visits to see Santa and the Northern Star Train , as well as check out the house decked out with holiday decorations.
The house is also apparently a Santa Claus school, established by a former Macy's department store Santa, Charles W. Howard, who wanted to make sure that the role of Santa was upheld to a high standard. The school continues to run this day, and has been called "the Harvard of Santa schools", providing students with an intensive, 3-day course. Santa House was closed when we were there, but we peeked inside the house to see nutcrackers, and what looked like an incredible workshop of toys, getting ready for what will undoubtedly be a lot of fun and festivities in a few months' time!
Next door to the Santa House is also one of the prettiest county courthouse buildings we've seen: the Midland County Courthouse. Rather than the usual dull and grey concrete buildings that we've seen for courthouses, this one has bright red roofs, intricate stonework, and stucco murals featuring Native American tribespeople. It actually looks very inviting!
Colorful Silos
Speaking of colorful, we next stopped in the town of Saginaw to see the Shine Bright Saginaw Mural Project, the second-largest mural in the US (the first one is in Toledo, Ohio), painted on top of abandoned silos. There was a crowdfunding campaign for this initiative that met its goal, which brought world-renowned muralist Okuda San Miguel, a Spanish painter and sculptor, to the town to beautify the grey and industrial silos.
Today, the silos are incredibly vibrant against the skyline, with images of birds, trees, and other patterns in all the colors of the rainbow on each silo. We walked around both sides of the silo to see the extensive work that was done to create such a bright and welcoming work of art, spanning over 6,000 square meters (65,000 square feet).
Frankenmuth (Little Bavaria)
When we were in Washington state, we'd visited the town of Leavenworth, a Bavarian-style town that was designed to boost tourism to the area. Unlike Leavenworth, however, Frankenmuth does have a German heritage, with the first German settlers arriving in 1845, with plans to start a mission among the Native American population.
The town is quaint and charming, with the signs in Bavarian font, and the look and feel of the architecture, signs, and decorations does seem like we've stepped into Germany. We were surprised at how packed the parking lot was on another scorching hot day like today, but we guess that lots of folks were interested in visiting this little Bavarian town on the weekend!
Near the parking lot we explored the Bavarian Inn Lodge, a very German-styled hotel with a number of shops and restaurants, and a warm "Willkommen" sign at the front for guests. Close by, there's Zehnder's Holzbrücke (German for wooden bridge), built in a style similar to bridges in the Black Forest region, connecting to the rest of the town, and as we crossed, we could see a boat taking visitors on a cruise down the river. While the bridge looks old, it was only completed in 1979, allowing cars and pedestrians to wander across.
On the other side of the bridge there are more shops, and the Bavarian Inn, which has a glockenspiel with a 35-bell carillon, an illuminated clock and a figurine movement at the top, all imported from Germany. The glockenspiel plays several times a day, and we luckily arrived 5 minutes before the 3pm show, with the carillon bells playing a few songs before the little doors opened underneath, for a figurine show about the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
It's a pleasant stroll along Main Street, which has more cute shops, pretty gardens, Bavarian-style murals, and even a kaleidoscope to look at the shapes being formed by the flower garden below! It was stinking hot, and we made sure Sheila walked in the shade rather than the hot tarmac or pavement, and had a quick rest in the shade on some grass, where she was happy to cool off and roll around.
Across from here is the Frankenmuth Fish Passage Rock Ramp, with rows of rocks designed to help guide fish upstream and spawn. There's a nice walk along the rock ramp as well, so we ambled along here briefly ahead of making our way back to the RV, where we passed more Bavarian-styled shops, ice cream parlors and restaurants before hopping back in.
Christmas All Year Round
One last stop in Frankenmuth was Bronner's Christmas Wonderland, which promotes itself as the "World's Largest Christmas Store." It's open all year-round (well, 361 days a year), and even ahead of parking at the massive lot, there's big statues of Santa, Frosty the Snowman, and other Christmas decorations outside of the building.
When we entered, we were astounded by the sheer volume of Christmas STUFF that we saw! There were baubles galore for every possible celebration or personality type--for babies, single parents, military personnel, as well as themed baubles for pets, US states, sports, and so much more. We saw Christmas lights, trees, cards, stockings, and other decorations. There were also some other holiday decorations that snuck into the store--like Halloween, which is coming up--but overall the focus was very much on Christmas. In addition to the store, there's a small gallery that has over 550 Nativity scenes from all over the world and other collections that aren't for sale, and even a small restaurant (selling foods like pizza--missed opportunity to not being serving Christmas ham and other holiday foods year-round)!
As we walked around the store, however, we realized that it seemed that two-thirds of it sold baubles, which meant that there were a lot of things that we felt were missing, or they didn't have much of an assortment. Only a small section for Christmas cards. Not enough outdoor decorations. Where are the Santa, Mrs. Claus and elf outfits? But maybe that's just us, and everyone who shops there (and there were a lot of people browsing and looking to purchase items in August!), is most interested in baubles!
While it is still hot in the early evening, fortunately once the sun sets the temperatures start to cool, so we are now relying less on RV parks to stop and sleep at for the night. Tonight, after refilling on propane, we parked next to a Planet Fitness Gym--these tend to be open 24 hours a day, and we stayed on the outskirts of Detroit, in a nice, quiet and apparently rather bougie neighborhood. Tomorrow, we'll be heading into Detroit!
Route Map
