See Lincoln's death chair at Henry Ford Museum

This is the actual chair that President Abraham Lincoln sat in when he was assassinated in Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC on April 14, 1865. 

The chair is displayed today at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. As Lincoln watched the play “Our American Cousin" from the Presidential Box, well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth approached from behind and put a bullet through his head with a small deringer pistol.

Interestingly, Lincoln was familiar with Booth, having seen him in numerous plays including one called "Marble Heart" at Ford's Theatre in 1863. Lincoln enjoyed Booth's performance so much that he sent a note backstage inviting him to the White House. But Booth, a rebel sympathizer and Confederate spy, did not respond. Booth later told his friends "I would rather have the applause of a Negro to that of the President!"

According to Wikipedia, shortly before his death, Lincoln dreamed of his assassination. He told the following to his friend and biographer Ward Hill Lamon and others:.

“About ten days ago, I retired very late. I had been up waiting for important dispatches from the front. I could not have been long in bed when I fell into a slumber, for I was weary.

“I soon began to dream. There seemed to be a death-like stillness about me. Then I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I thought I left my bed and wandered downstairs. There the silence was broken by the same pitiful sobbing, but the mourners were invisible. I went from room to room; no living person was in sight, but the same mournful sounds of distress met me as I passed along.

“I saw light in all the rooms; every object was familiar to me; but where were all the people who were grieving as if their hearts would break? I was puzzled and alarmed. What could be the meaning of all this?

“Determined to find the cause of a state of things so mysterious and so shocking, I kept on until I arrived at the East Room, which I entered. There I met with a sickening surprise. Before me was a catafalque, on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and there was a throng of people, gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully. 'Who is dead in the White House?' I demanded of one of the soldiers, 'The President,' was his answer; 'he was killed by an assassin.' Then came a loud burst of grief from the crowd, which woke me from my dream. I slept no more that night; and although it was only a dream, I have been strangely annoyed by it ever since."

Cheesy lights in the campground

It's 9:30 p.m. and dark. A fifth wheel trailer a few campsites from me is glowing various colors. A string of small LED lights hangs below the awning up against the RV. They change colors, one color turning into another. They are blue, then green, then yellow, orange, red and back to blue. 

From my RV, you can't actually see the lights, just the glow. From inside the fifth wheel it must resemble the interior of a cheap motel room with the blinking lights of its sign interrupting the dark.

Why do people do this? I am in a beautiful New York State Park along Lake Ontario. Why does the owner of this RV feel the need to light up his RV in such a cheesy way?

I don't get it. It looks stupid.

It's frustrating to be unable to visit people who invite me

A lot of people invite me to stop by their homes when I am in their area. Some offer me a guest room or an RV hookup in their yards.  Others write to tell me how disappointed they are when they learn I was near them but did not call or visit.

I feel bad about not stopping. I would really like to. It's just that I don't have enough time to see everything as is (trying to go from coast to coast and back in four months). If I visit someone, I feel I really do need to VISIT and not just stop by for an hour and then fly out the door. That would be rude.

Maybe it would be better for me to just pick out one state, tour for a couple of months, and visit everyone there who would like me to stop. That would be a lot more manageable, although being an introvert and needing ample quiet time to "recharge," I would still probably need five or six months.

On this trip, with about four months to work with and about 10,000 miles to cover, there isn't much time to socialize. In between driving and the places I visit, I need to write and attend to business chores. That takes a lot of time.

I know by not visiting the people who invite me that I miss a lot of wonderful experiences and opportunities to make new friends. If only we could somehow extend our days from 24 hours to 34 hours. That would help a lot!

Sunset over Lake Michigan

Here's what it looked like this evening — Friday, August 14, 2015 at about 8:30 — from the shores of Lake Michigan at St. Ignace. I used a strong telephoto lens which made the sun look huge.

Charming Mackinac Island. No, it's not Disneyland!

Downtown. Lots of shops

At first glace of downtown Mackinac Island, Michigan, you might think Walt Disney had a hand in creating it. It looks a whole lot like Main Street, Disneyland.

But, no, this is a real town that came long before Disney.

The ferry takes 15 minutes each way.

Native American's occupied the island from about 1000 BC to 1650 A.D. Europeans appeared in 1670 when Father Claude Dablon established a Christian mission. The British showed up in 1870 to build a fort which was eventually turned over to the Americans. Today, it's a state historic park. Perched above the island's highest hill, it overlooks the picture-postcard main street and its harbor. The fort is open to the public and a busy place on summer days.

About 500 people live year round on Mackinac Island (see location on Google Earth). But on a summer day, tourists swarm the place — thousands a day. If you've ever taken a cruise, you know what a small port looks like when a monster cruise ship shows up. Hold that image because that's Mackinac Island on a typical summer day. High-speed passenger ferries travel to and from the island one after another.

Tour carriage provides a good introduction to the town.

Motor vehicles were banned in 1901. The only ones there today are two fire trucks and an ambulance. The police have one car for emergencies, but primarily ride bicycles.

The main transportation is horse and buggy. Taxis are horse-powered. Tour carriages transport visitors around the town and the surrounding area. Rent your own buggy for $66 an hour.

Five hundred horses live on the island in the summer to pull the hundreds of buggies, carts and freight wagons.  It's wonderful to hear only hoof beats, not engines.

Bikes everywhere and bike racks everywhere.

On any given summer day bicycles outnumber horse and buggies by a long shot— there must have been a thousand (maybe two thousand?) yesterday when I visited. Several companies rent them. Figure $5 to $9 an hour, better deals for longer use.

The Grand Hotel

Michigan State Highway 185 hugs the island's eight-mile shoreline. It's the only Michigan highway that does not allow motor vehicles. It's a great place to bike. Just watch for horses, they have the right of way.

The main drag (see photo at top) is comprised of specialty tourist shops (most selling tee-shirts and souvenir trinkets), restaurants, bars and a dozen "Candy Kitchens" selling fudge. A lot of the stores sell the same stuff.

Horse and cart hauling hay.

The most famous attraction is the Grand Hotel, an easy ten minute walk from downtown. Stay a night if you have money to spare (about $800 a night for two in a lake view room). Or pay $10 and walk around the place and its beautiful grounds. Read what I wrote about the hotel here.

There's a lot more to this island beauty spot. If you should visit, buy a two-day ferry pass. My advice: on the first day, take the carriage tour, then explore the pretty downtown and its shops, visit the Grand Hotel, see the fort, and have lunch or dinner. The next day, bring your bike or rent one and explore the rest of the island.

Don't come here in winter. Most of the businesses close. Only a few restaurants and the grocery store remain open. When the lake freezes over, snowmobiles provide access to and from the mainland.

If you should visit, just remember, how to pronounce the island's name. It's not "Mac-in-ack" but "Mac-in-aw."

Mackinac Island's Grand Hotel is grand in many ways

Aboard the ferry, heading toward Michigan's Mackinac Island, you see it: the magnificent Grand Hotel! It's a sight to behold — so beautiful, so big! The hotel has 390 rooms, no two the same. More than 130,000 guests stay each season. At 660 feet, the hotel's front porch is the world’s largest.

The beautiful lobby.

It takes a half million gallons of water to fill the hotel's swimming pool, named for actress Esther Williams who starred in the 1947 movie This Time for Keeps, shot at the Grand.

The 1980 film Somewhere in Time, starring Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour and Christopher Plummer, was filmed on location at the hotel. The movie has a huge following, with a fan club that meets at the hotel each October. This year's gathering will be October 16-18. Jane Seymour will attend.

The hotel's kitchen staff of more than 100 prepares and serves as many as 4,000 meals per day. In 2014, more than 83,000 pounds of prime rib, 23,500 pounds of ham, 83,500 pounds of potatoes, 23,000 pounds of carrots, 14,000 pounds of strawberries, and 6,500 pounds of pecans are served.


The Grand’s famous front porch flowers include 2,500 geraniums — the hotel’s trademark flower — in 260 planting boxes with seven tons of potting soil. More than 5,200 geraniums can be seen in all the hotel's flower beds combined.

World's largest front porch.

More than 50,000 Grand Pecan Balls, the hotel’s most popular dessert, are served each season.

Don't expect Motel 6 prices, not even close. A double room with a lake view will cost you about $800 a night, which includes meals. Specials deals are offered which cut the price dramatically. Learn more at the hotel's website.

Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Beautiful, with friendly people

AUGUST 14, 2015

I'm still in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. If you look at a map, the U.P. is the part of the state on the very top — north and northwest of the state below. 

I am writing you now from St. Ignace, which is right at the bottom of the U.P. along Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

The folks in the U.P. refer to themselves at Yoopers and are very proud of it. They should be. It's a beautiful land.

So far, Gail and I have spent time on Lake Superior, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. The people around here are the friendliest in America, although maybe you say that for most of the rural Midwest. They will talk your ear off. They are just plain nice.

To someone who lives along the Pacific Ocean, the size and appearance of these lakes are impressive. Lake Superior is the largest. All the water in the other four Great Lakes — Michigan, Huron, Ontario and Erie — do not equal the volume of Lake Superior. The lake is so huge that once you sail 20 miles from land you see only water — no land. It would be easy to forget you were on a big lake, not the ocean. Lake Superior is about the size of Maine or South Carolina.

Being a ship captain is different on these lakes than in the ocean. The waves are closer together, making them more dangerous in stormy seas. That may have been a factor when the 728-foot SS. Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior in 1975.

I love the slogan I found on tee-shirts in tourist shops along Lake Superior: "No salt. No sharks. No problem." Another version is "Unsalted. Shark Free." With all the shark attacks recently in the ocean, this seems like a timely — and very appealing — message.

Small town crime: August 2, 2015

Crime marches on in rural America, this time as reported in The Connection in Iron River, Wisconsin. 

Here are a few reports from the July 28 issue:

•"Report received of a scruffy looking creepy farmer who approached her and her friends and wanted them to come with him to see a 'cute baby calf.' When they got to the farm, it appeared abandoned and there was a tractor blocking part of the road. She and her friends became nervous and when they went to leave the farmer ran up to them and was loud and creepy."

•"Deputy checked cabin on Tar Paper Alley, Port Wing and found the main door secured, and the rest of the building appeared secure. A total 360 view wasn't possible due to a territorial skunk."

•"Caller reported he has a 'retarded' dog at his house. He states he brought her in the house and she bit him an scratched him. States it's his neighbor's chocolate lab and it has been at his house for an hour. He tried to call the neighbors to get her but they won't answer. Would not give the neighbor's name to dispatch."

•"Caller reports he was assaulted last night. He said he was sleeping when the subject came home and she threw a phone at him, jumped on him and then threw a landline phone at him. He states he then got up, met friends at the end of the driveway and they drove him and his vehicle to Milwaukee."

•"Received a call stating she, along with others, have been poisoned. She states the other person is running down the road and she is going to die. The phone line was disconnected. She thinks she has been poisoned due to the fact that they were drinking non-alcoholic drinks and then started to feel weird. She thinks she was knocked out for a couple of hours. The other female that was with her was wearing white shorts, blue shirt, and the female that ran is the one that poisoned her. Caller states her husband and her had an argument last night about him beating her up a couple of nights ago. She states he talked to someone about this but did not report it. Now the caller wants officers to tell her husband to not treat his wife so mean. Caller is now denying anyone else was there this evening. Per officer, this appears to be alcohol related and possible alcohol withdrawals going on."

Yet another "World's Largest Thing!"

What's with the Midwest? It seems like every time you turn a corner there's another big thing. . . as in "World's Largest."

It happened again yesterday in Frazee, Minnesota, home of the "World's Largest Turkey." Yes, it's big all right — 20 feet tall! It's along the business route of U.S. 10 on the east side of town in Lion's Park, with an entry archway that reads "Best Lions Park by a Dam Site."

There's a smaller "big" turkey right downtown, maybe one-third the size.

A good part of Frazee's economy is based on turkey farming. So the big turkey makes sense. As you drive out of town in the east you will see huge turkey sheds — each one maybe 70 yards long. You can see thousands of turkeys inside, all crammed together like people in a stuffed elevator. A bunch of them are pressed up at the screened open end of the building looking out. If they had brains I'd say they were dreaming of freedom. But they don't, which is a good thing.

Still, seeing them made me feel sad. I wanted to bust 'em all out.

But then I eat a turkey every Thanksgiving, so I better not feel too guilty or sad because I'm the reason the birds are there.

The "World's Largest Turkey" isn't very old. It's a replacement for one before that burned. But maybe it was for the better because the new big bird is mighty handsome.