Friday, June 16th, 2023 ~ 56* Sunny Day 🌞 Enjoyed our coffee, tea and egg & turkey sandwiches. Packed up and on the road by 11:30am. Stopped in the town of “Honor” to mail post cards, the Costco and the Beverage Store! Stopped at a Speedway for our daily Diet Coke fix 🥤 On the way we saw the Cherry Bowl which was a drive-in movie place but only open on weekends. Stopped at Friske Farm Market in Charlevoix….not your average fruit stand! 😱 Apple & Cherry Orchards all around and as we walked towards the building a big children’s play area, then the fresh produce …strawberries, rhubarb etc and free samples! 😋 As we drove through this cute town, we were amazed that on both sides of the road were lined with huge hanging baskets throughout the entire town. Absolutely beautiful. 💐 Passed the lighthouse but there was construction and we couldn’t stop at this one. Still on the drive we saw lots of big cow fields, hay fields and orchards. Stopped at Horton Bay General Store & Inn. What a cute little store that had a little of everything. I was looking throughout the store, & met the owners Greg & Molly who purchased the store in 2021. They suggested we get a glass of wine and enjoy the garden out back……so we did just that. He gave us a bit of history about the store, the Red Fox Bookstore next store, Ernest Hemingway and Horton Lake. We walked down the street to the end to look at Horton Lake & on the way back up the hill I picked a beautiful boutique of wildflowers! 4:25pm Arrived at Sun Outdoors CG. Site #32 FH, concrete pad. Got all setup, opened the windows & gave Ruby a good cleaning inside. 🧽 🪣 Happy hour as we walked around checking everything out! Found the 2 laundry rooms, big clubhouse that has a huge theater room with 16 recliner chairs, big open room with shelves of games, puzzles, cards then pool tables, air hockey, big community kitchen, huge workout room then a huge outdoor patio, heated pool, hot tub, snack shop, playground, horseshoes, basketball courts, pickle ball, and a small putt putt golf course! Went back and relaxed at our site enjoying the aroma of the lilac bushes. Wow are they fragrant! 🪻 Tonight’s dinner was a big bowl of vegetable soup with rotisserie chicken & a slice of marble pound cake 😋 Traveled 104 miles today.
Honor is a village in with a population was 337 in 2020, along the Platte River. Honor also has the only drive-in theater left in Northern Michigan. 🍒 Cherry Bowl Drive-In Theatre & Diner is a historic drive-in and a concession stand that opened on July 4, 1953. Still uses the original vacuum tube motiograph amplifiers powering speakers on speaker posts. It now has a digital HD projection. Children’s play area, putt-putt golf, beach volleyball and rest area for dogs! Longtime owner Jean Griffin ran the business after her husband’s death in 1959, and was known for working in high heels. Laura and Harry Clark purchased the property from Jean in 1996. Harry Clark died in 2012, and Laura continues to operate the theatre and concession stand.
Frisk’s Farm Market is a must-stop Northern Michigan destination. Whether you need a quick stop for lunch or snacks, or you wish to spend a pleasant afternoon browsing their General Store gift shop while the kids seek adventure in the Orchard Playland, their friendly helpful team will ensure your experience is unforgettable! 🫐🍐🍎🍓🍒🥦🫑🥬🌶️🍅
Horton Bay General Store – In 1870, Samuel Horton settled in Horton Bay (formerly Horton’s Bay) and established a homestead at this site. In 1876, Alonzo J. Stroud and William H. Ohle set up a sawmill near here and was soon employing up to 30 workers. With the influx of workers, Horton Bay quickly grew into a small community, and the need for a general store and other services became apparent. Ohle withdrew from the sawmill business and concentrated on real estate and construction in the new community. Story has it that Ohle supervised the construction of the Horton Bay General Store, as well as many other early buildings in the community, including the next-door boardinghouse, now the Red Fox Inn. The store was constructed as a typical late nineteenth-century general store. The entire first floor carried general stock of groceries, hardware, clothing, and other products, while the second floor served as living quarters for the proprietor. In 1879, the first post office opened in Horton Bay was located in the store. It’s named in two of Ernest Hemingway’s short stories, “Up in Michigan” and “The Last Good Country.” Hemingway spent a great amount of his youth on nearby Walloon Lake, but came to prefer Horton Bay. He returned after World War I and was married to Hadley Richardson in the church next door (now gone).
The store has operated more or less continuously since its construction. Alonzo Stroud owned the store from 1890 – 1894. He sold it to his clerk Conrad Schneider, who operated it for over ten years until selling it to Merton Fox in 1904. During the Great Depression, Ben and Margaret Belnap owned the store, and in 1972, Harriet Housel and her parents, George and Betty, took over ownership. Claudia and Chip Lorenger purchased the store in the early 2000s, and own it until 2021 when purchased by Molly McCoy and Greg Cummings, Jr.
Ernest Hemingway – Ernest spent less time at Windemere and more time with friends at the village of Horton Bay. To get there, Ernest rowed across Walloon Lake from Windemere and then walked through hills 4 additional miles. The little town nestled on Lake Charlevoix had been a lumbering center in the late 1800s but had faded into a small cluster of buildings including a general store, blacksmith shop, inns, and several cottages. At the bay was a warehouse where crates of locally grown vegetables were stored awaiting steamers to transport them to markets elsewhere. The pier was also a gathering spot for swimmers and young people.
When Ernest stayed at Horton Bay is was usually with his friends or at Pinehurst Inn. Owned by the local blacksmith, Jim Dilworth, and run by his wife, Elizabeth, rooms were available and the chicken dinners were very popular with tourists and locals. Ernest frequently stayed and ate here and it was the site of his wedding reception in 1921. Horton Bay would also be the setting for Ernest’s wedding on September 2, 1921. He had met and fallen in love with Hadley Richardson, a 27-year-old woman from St. Louis, Missouri, and Ernest wanted the wedding to be held in Michigan, far from the formalities of Oak Park. They were married in a now demolished Methodist Church at Horton Bay and walked across the road to the reception. A Model T Ford took them to the shore of Walloon Lake where Ernest rowed Hadley the mile across the lake to Windemere where they spent their honeymoon. Eventually Horton Bay would figure prominently in several of Ernest’s short stories, including Up in Michigan, The End of Something, and the Three Day Blow.
Petoskey – population of 5,877 in 2020 Elevation 669 ft. Petoskey is one of the northernmost cities in Michigan’s lower peninsula. Petoskey lends its name to the Petoskey stone, a fossilized coral that is the state stone of Michigan. The Little Traverse Bay area was long inhabited by indigenous peoples, including the Odawa people. The name Petoskey is said to mean “where the light shines through the clouds” in the language of the Odawa.
Follow Tim & Sandy's Adventures 