Please Stay Tuned (bad pun intended)

I'll be gone this weekend. We leave tomorrow and return Monday. I will have no internet while I'm gone and so you will hear nothing from me on the various social networking sites I frequent until I return. We're headed to the Corvette Crossroads Auto Show in Mackinaw City, MI. 

Corvette Crossroads Auto Show
Mackinaw City, MI
August 2009 

We go every year and while we don't enter our corvette (it's an old clunker), we enjoy walking around and looking at all the other cars as well as participating in the annual bridge crossing and parade. I did a blog post about our experiences at last year's show, from which I stole the above pic. 

For more details about the Corvette show itself, visit the Mackinaw City Chamber of Commerce website.

~Photo Friday~ Stripped

Stripped. Yeah, that's right. Just for fun, here's a stripped corvette. (Hubby's project several months ago.)

Looks fine, right?

Not so much.

And this is how it ended up.

*Third pic borrowed from the Slippedgear.com fan page. (My brother's page.)

Corvettes, Corvettes and More Corvettes

Yet another post that has nothing to do with writing, reading, or Regency England. This one would fall under the "random musing" part of this blog.

This year's Corvette Show in Mackinaw City, MI was a bit disappointing. It was cold, windy, and rainy, three things that really take the fun out of walking around outside. I did take some pics, though, and had some fun. The bridge crossing was great and I even got some videos of the 'vettes coming over.

First, here are the 'vettes we took. No, we didn't actually enter the show. We just go to look and take part in the bridge crossing. The yellow '74 Stingray belongs to our friend Jack. Next is my dad's red '80 and our black '79. My brother wasn't able to make it this year with his brown '74 Stingray; his wife is VERY pregnant. In this pic, we are parked at a rest stop off of I-75, where we stopped for lunch on our way to our motel on Friday. We parked in the truck lot, lining our 'vettes in one parking spot.

The motel we stay in every year practically deserves a post all its own. We stay at the Dune Shores Resort, located in the Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It is owned by a lovely Hungarian couple who make the best breakfasts and pasties known to man. (I am very biased, I know.) They have cabins that can be rented by the month and ordinary motel rooms if you only want a night or two. Actually, the cabins can be rented night by night, too. We usually get ordinary rooms, some of which feature kitchenettes.

Above is what typically happens right after we arrive. The 'vettes must be looked over for any odd sounds or smells. Older corvettes are a lot of work and constant babying. You have to really love them to put up with them.

Across the highway from the motel is gorgeous Lake Michigan. It was too cold to swim this year--a definite bummer. My husband, ever the rebel, went for a swim anyway. It was 64 degrees Fahrenheit outside and 69 in the water. Way too cold for me. He said it was refreshing.

The pic to the left was taken from the motel parking lot, across the sandy front yard and highway to the water beyond.

In the pic to the right, if you look close, you'll see rain in the distance. It nailed us about twenty minutes later. My dad pointed it out to us. I blame him for its eventual arrival.

If it hadn't been so cold and windy, and eventually rainy, it would have been the perfect spot for writing. What could be more conducive to fueling creativity than a scene of such peaceful glory?

Enough of that. That was Friday. Now for Saturday. The Corvette Show...

Left: We crossed the bridge early Saturday afternoon on our way back to the lower peninsula to attend the show. It was raining in a dreary, dismal way. Depressing.

The red 'vette in the picture to the left is my mom and dad. We tend to follow them a lot on trips like this.

Our destination was just on the other side in Mackinaw City, which is literally at the foot of the Mackinac Bridge.

I do not know the actual number of cars that competed. I know there were not as many as last year. And last year only boasted about half the number of the year before. The recession takes its toll yet again...

Above and below are some pics of the cars that competed. We did not. None of our cars are quite up to snuff for a competition like this. :o)

The dark blue '78 above was probably my favorite. The only thing I didn't like about it was the extra wing. Otherwise, what a beautiful car.

It was so cold and so windy that I snapped pics as we walked to the store in whose parking lot the competition was held.

Personally, I'm partial to the C3 body style, the one GM used from 1971-82. The closest white car above (second from the right) is a C3 while the other white one is a C4, post '83. (Incidentally, GM only made one corvette in '83, the very first C4. It now resides in a museum, if what I'm told is true.) While the post '83 models offer more comfort than the C3s, I don't care much for the body style. It reminds me too much of the camaros that came out at the same time. Nothing against camaros but they aren't corvettes. :o)

And last but not least, here is a video of the corvettes coming off the Mackinac Bridge. I apologize for the weird spots on the video. It was still raining.

Ever Hear of a Music Garden?

You read that correctly. I said a music garden. We discovered one on our recent trip up north. First, the reason we even went that direction...

Saturday, my family went on a little mini "Corvette Trip" as we call it. (Every year we take a "Corvette Trip" to the Upper Peninsula here in Michigan for the Corvette Show and parade across the Mackinac Bridge. See our Vettes above, belonging my brother, my dad and myself.) My sister-in-law, who is like 1000 months pregnant, won't be able to go on our usual overnight trip this year so we took a mini trip. Rain prevented us from going to Ludington as we had planned so we ended up in Boyne Falls instead.

Near there, we found the Raven Hill Discovery Center. This place is featured on 9&10 News a couple times a year for their really interesting hands-on displays.

They have some of the neatest displays I have ever seen. There is a "Periodic Room" with a Periodic Table of Elements that covers nearly an entire wall. There is an "Animal Room" where they house the animals they generously take in from people who would abandon them. No surprise, these animals are mostly reptiles and one spider.

While there are many, many other displays all worthy of mention, the display I want to focus on here is the "Music Garden."

The Music Garden is an outdoor exhibit that features several instruments. These are all playable and most are even in tune. If you know how to play, you can.

(In the back of the picture you can see the Solar House. This is an exhibit that is still being worked on. Eventually, the entire house will use solar and wind power to operate as a normal home...but that is for another post.)

Many of these I can't remember if our guide even told us a name. I know this one, to the right, makes sound when someone slides their fingers down the aluminum pipes. They have to have resin on their fingers and grip fairly hard. The sound is rather piercing.

To the left are what look a little like bells. In essence, that's what they are. When struck with the rubber mallet, they make a very similar sound. They are made from old acetylene tanks, cut down. Our guide told us that one of these tanks actually had a Nazi swastika on it.

To the right is an instrument made of PVC tubes, cut at different lengths and set in a frame. Tucked between the tubes are four flip-flops. A deep, hollow sound is produced when a flip-flop is struck against the open holes visible in front.

There is an amazing lithophone, too. It is pictured here, left. Looks like any ole xylophone, doesn't it? The difference? This instrument is stone instead of wood, hence LITHOphone instead of XYLOphone.

This is another percussion instrument on the right. When struck with two rubber mallets, the droning sound reverberated through the ground. I even have a video of this in action below. The two women playing it are not musicians, just having fun. :o)

For contact info, available activities and directions, you can visit their site at www.ravenhilldiscoverycenter.org.