Stephen Mark Rainey's Blog, page 13

Road Trip! Ishpeming or Bust (Part 1)

And so it begins...
Although I had sworn off driving to Michigan after the trip from hell a year or so ago, for our upcoming sojourn — to include a few days in the Upper Peninsula — Brugger and I would be joined by regular traveling companions Terry & Beth. Therefore, we decided that, since could split up driving duties and the road construction that so complicated the last road trip would be mostly done, a road trip it would be. As with my first trip to Michigan back in 2014, prior to leaving, we ran the Jeff Daniels' brilliantly nutzo Escanaba in da Moonlight (2001), this time introducing Terry & Beth to the film. We figure it went over exceedingly well because Beth had to change her pants afterward.
 
Sunday, September 22, 2024: Aaaand...We're Off!
Ms. B. and I mounted up and left Martinsville bright and early (more like foggy and early), bound for Terry & Beth's place in Kernersville, a little over an hour away. Since they have a much larger automobile than either Ms. B. or I, they offered to provide the transportation. So, at 9:00 a.m. sharp, we set out for Dayton, Ohio — Beth's old stomping grounds — where we planned to spend the night in a bed & breakfast and have dinner with some of her relatives. It was a scorching hot day, but the roughly eight-hour trip, which included a handful of rest/geocaching stops and a fair lunch at a TGI Fridays somewhere near Charleston, West Virginia, was comfortable enough in our fully loaded chariot. We pulled into our lodgings, right across from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base/Museum , at 5:00 p.m.

Soon afterward, Beth's aunt and two of her cousins, whom she hadn't seen in a long while, came to visit, and we had a big honking pizza dinner from nearby Joe's Pizzeria . It was fairly late when the party broke up, but Kim and I decided to take a late-night walk down the road about a mile and pick up a geocache — which turned out to be good, scaly fun (see the photo).

Monday, September 23, 2024: Are We There Yet?
Front yard view from our B&B
At "This Is Not an Underground Entrance"

Terry and I rose early and went out to hunt a nearby geocache — called " This Is Not an Underground Entrance " ( GC9J294 ) — hidden at the edge of Wright-Patterson Airbase. A very cool location it was: a metal stairway that led down to a heavy door set into a concrete column at the edge of the Mad River. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the damned cache, and there's every indication it's missing. Alas! Still, we enjoyed the hunt.

Again, we loaded up and hit the road. Somewhere in central Ohio, we found a Frisch's Big Boy restaurant for a late-morning breakfast. I've gotta tell you — I was damned hungry, and the scrambled eggs, bacon, & pancake combination struck me as the best cheap-ass breakfast I've had since our massively memorable IHOP outing in Seattle last year when we went to the Pacific Northwest prior to our Alaska Cruise. This one set me to hollering, I can tell you.

We drove for another while, and some of our party decided that a winery visit seemed in order. We discovered one not too far off the beaten track, which turned out to be a lovely little place, with great atmosphere and friendly service. For that reason, I'll not identify it because the wine was piss. I've only been to one winery whose product was that bad, and that was a  few years ago in North Carolina. I'm not sure that little enterprise is even around anymore. Still, today, we did have an honest-to-Yog good time. I also found a cool cache in neat little town nearby, as well as a seminary building that so resembled Lychhurst Hospital in the upcoming anthology, Hospital of Haunts , which features my story, "Insensate," that I had to stop and take pictures.

We drove, cached, and made pit stops here and there for several more hours, and we arrived at Kim's parents' place in Midland around 8:00 p.m. After introducing them to Terry & Beth and socializing for a while, our foursome headed to Meijer (a sacred Midland tradition) to pick up foodz for dinner and provisions for our stay in the UP, set to begin early the next day.

Then...bedtime!
Ms. B. having a Moment With Monet
So, the wine wasn't good, but the time we had was.
Is it Lychhurst???
Tuesday, September 24, 2024: Clare, Kitch-iti-kipi, and Ishpeming
We wasted no time in Midland this morning and hit the road fairly early.Our first stop was Clare, the town where Brugger was born, about 30 miles westof Midland. Clare is the home of Cops & Donuts , which, to my mind, has the best donuts of any donut place I've ever been.We've visited Clare numerous times, and I've found most of the caches nearby,but I did manage to snag a few stages of a newish Adventure Lab Cache in thedowntown area.

Beth wanted some food more substantial than donuts, sowe ended up at the nearby Herrick House & Mulberry Cafe , a quaint little place with decent sandwiches. I destroyed a double-bacon BLT.Once done there, we set out on the road, only to detour to a little town calledHarrison so Terry & Beth could check out a particular cannabis dispensary.Computer issues at the shop prolonged their checkout process for quite a longwhile, so we were much later than expected getting back on the road.
Herrick House & Mulberry Cafe in Clare

It was another day spent mostly in the car. Once across the Mackinac Bridge, our next destination was Kitch-iti-kipi, a picturesque spring a few hours west. Kimberly and I had visited there a couple of years ago, and I do love the location. We arrived fairly late in the day, and most of the crowd had vanished, so we were able to enjoy our raft ride out to the far end of the spring without any hustle and bustle. I'd found a physical cache there on our previous visit, and I was pleased to see that it was still in place. In addition to that, there is now an EarthCache at the location. There's no physical container to find at an EarthCache; one answers questions about the geology of a particular location to get credit for the cache.

We stopped for dinner at a pub in the little berg of Rapid River, where I polished off some walleye, and, afterward, I found a nearby cache. Then, once again, we were off, and around 8:00 p.m. — considerably later than we had originally anticipated — we arrived at our domicile for the next few days: a comfortable bed & breakfast in the town of Ishpeming, a few miles west of Marquette. There was nothing for it but to mellow out for the rest of the evening, so we mellowed.

Tomorrow is another day. Our target: the city of Marquette.

Old Rodan with the raft in the background at Kitch-iti-kipi
The view down from the raft, with happy fish circling the bubbling spring below
A view from the deck of the raft. Many ducks in evidence.
The Usual Suspects at the Rapid River Pub

I quite appreciate the decor at our VRBO.
This happy fellow lurks just outside the
bedroom door.

 
Wednesday, September 25, 2024: Into Marquette
Our lodgings in Ishpeming are stylish and comfortable. From the outside, we weren't expecting much — Ishpeming was once a mining town, and it looks like one — but inside the house, the decor is nautical but very modern. Our proprietor set up the kitchen so we are hardly lacking for anything, supply-wise. So we're giving top marks for this VRBO.

There's a greenway near here called the Iron Ore Heritage Trail , so I set out on it bright and early to hunt a couple of geocaches. One I found, one I did not, though not unexpectedly, as the previous hunter indicated in his log that he couldn't find it either. I didn't go all that far — just about a mile — because we're heading into Marquette this morning, and my time was a little limited. But if I have a chance, I'd like to venture farther, especially since there are several more caches within hiking distance.

Mid-morning, we hit the road, target Marquette. However, beforehand, Brugger and Beth wanted to visit a nearby rock shop, where — coincidentally — there is what's known as the "Yooper Tourist Trap," the site of a virtual geocache. So, while the rest of the party went rock hunting, I wandered among the myriad, mostly humorous displays of the Yooper Tourist Trap, gathering info for the virtual cache. One of the big boulder formations (and Ground
Zero for a geocache) at Presque Isle Park

Done at last, we piled back into the vehicle and set out for Marquette, about thirty minutes down the road. Lunch was calling, so we went to Iron Bay Restaurant, which, on my first visit with Brugger to Marquette back in 2014, had been a different establishment called L'Attitude. It was good then, and maybe better now. I had some fantastic whitefish chowder and a hefty chopped salad, along with an excellent local IPA. We had a nice view of the bay and the iron ore dock located a very short distance from the restaurant. Once done with chow, our group split up; the ladies went shopping, Terry went in search of coffee, and I set out after a couple of caches. An officer of the law appeared to take some interest in my surreptitious activities, but he didn't bother to call on me, thus sparing me the chore of educating him on the joys of the cache. I finished up my deliciously clandestine endeavor and then met Terry at a nearby coffee shop. Eventually, the four of us reunited and trucked out to Presque Isle Park, an extensive natural area just north of town. Here, we went wandering (and one of us went caching) among the Black Rocks, a massive rock formation overlooking Lake Superior from the park. Brugger and I had done a some exploring and caching at Black Rocks on our first trip to Michigan in 2014, but this time, we had a bit more time and got to experience considerably more of the area. What a fantastic, scenic location it is. And, happily, my geocaching venture proved successful.

All this activity took up the better part of the afternoon, so, once done, we headed back into Marquette proper and visited a nice wine bar called Zephyr. A couple of bottles of wine, one Italian, one Spanish, forced us to drink them. We didn't mind obliging them. Then we hunted and killed dinner at the Portside Inn, which was somewhat less healthy than lunch (I had a very spicy, very large, Chicago-style Italian beef sandwich). Yummo.

By the end of dinner, we all felt fat, dumb, and happy, so we headed back to our lodgings in Ishpeming and mellowed until bedtime.

Mellow good.

Iron ore dock in Marquette
A view of Black Rocks at Presque Isle Park
Marquette Harbor Lighthouse
Thursday, September 26, 2024: Munising & Pictured Rocks
On our previous sojourns in the UP, Brugger and I have stayed in the littletown of Munising, along the shores of Lake Superior. Of all the places we'vevisited in the UP, Munising seems unique, with a significant quirk factor thatmakes me think of Twin Peaks . Today, we set out for a day trip to Munising, our first objective being aboat tour of Pictured Rocks , a line of colorful sandstone cliffs that rise above the lake. Ms. B. and Ihave visited Pictured Rocks on foot — most notably Chapel Rock , which is one of the lake's most notable features (see "Midland and More in da Moonlight," October 5, 2014 ).

Once in Munising, we went straight to the dock, and it wasn'tlong before we had boarded the double-decker catamaran, called "Spray Falls." Imight mention here that my Ameri-Scares novel, Michigan: The Dragon of Lake Superior (a signed copy of which now resides on the shelf at our Marquette bed &breakfast), opens with said dragon sinking a tour boat out of Munising. Myfriends got on the boat anyway. We were underway very shortly, and the boatproceeded northeastward at a fair clip, skirting the coastline, giving usexcellent views of the cliffs, some of which rise 200-some feet above Superior'ssurface. The series of photos below can only hint at the cliffs' awesome sizeand multi-colored rock faces. The only incident to mar a perfect outing was Bethtaking a spill on the gangway on her way off the boat. She doesn't appear to beseriously hurt, but she did take a bit of a battering.

Here's alittle gallery of photographs from Pictured Rocks. After the boat tour, we ventured over to the nearby town of Christmas, where wekilled a late lunch at The Duck Pond, a nice UP pub where you can get freshwhitefish for dinner that was still swimming in the lake that morning. Mine wasdelicious. I had a couple of local brews to accompany, one of which wasfabulous, the other not so much.

Since Beth wasn't feeling up to amore difficult trek, we drove back to Munising to visit Wagner Falls , which isn't as huge or as spectacular as many of the waterfalls in the area,but it's still very scenic, and there was a cache along the trail, which Isnagged as we made our short hike.

Our last stop was Muldoon's Pasties & Gifts , on Highway 28 just at the western edge of town. Pasties, you must know, arethe official food of the UP, at least in our book. (You should watch JeffDaniels' quirky Escanaba in da Moonlight (2001) for a better understanding of this point.) We picked up a bunch to bringback to our VRBO for dinner. Mmm.
L) Ms. B. always did like men with a full head (and body) of hair; R:) Wagner Falls

Friday, September 26, 2024: Mackinac Island
For all her years living in Michigan, Ms. B. had never gone to Mackinac Island,in Lake Huron, a few miles east of the Mackinaw Bridge, which connectsMichigan's upper and lower peninsulas. The island isn't very large, but it has along, colorful history. To film buffs, it may be best known for having been thesetting of the film, Somewhere in Time (1980), particularly the Grand Hotel , which dominates a fair portion of the island's southern bluffs. The sprawlingFort Mackinac, built by the British in the Revolutionary War, is anotherprominent, imposing feature on the island.

The island is also loadedwith geocaches.

We left our Ishpeming lodgings much earlier than anyof our somewhat travel-weary bodies felt was at all fair, but we figured we'dbetter if we hoped to spend much quality time on the island. It was athree-and-a-half-hour drive to Mackinac City, and a twenty-minute ferry ride toour destination, so by the time we set foot on the island, we were plenty readyto have lunch. Somewhat randomly, we chose a spot called The Pink Pony , where I killed another very fine whitefish sandwich (in the UP, whitefish isTHE thing, don't you know). We decided to take a private carriage ride aroundthe island at 3:30 p.m., so that gave us a couple of hours to split up and doour own things. Terry sought drink, Beth and Brugger sought shopping, and Isought caches. And what a goldmine. There were numerous Adventure Labs,traditional caches, and virtual caches, so I availed myself of any of these thatI could find nearby. Most were nicely done, and several took me to someextra-lovely locations I might not have otherwise found, including the gazebofrom Somewhere in Time. I've always been very fond of this film, and nowMs. B. and I are going to have to work it into our already crowded Halloweenmovie line-up. Not that it's really a Halloween film, but we'd like to see itagain while our memories of Mackinac Island are still fresh.

At 3:30,we gathered near the Mackinac Island State Park Visitor Center to meet our carriage. Our driver was a loquacious character named Brett, and weenjoyed the hell out of his lively, humor-filled narration as he took us on afairly extensive, hour-long tour of some the island's most historic sites. Heeven helped me figure out a stage to a nearby Adventure Lab cache. Along with mypersonal, private tour of the island while geocaching, I found the carriage rideamong my favorite experiences on this trip thus far.

No carriage rideis complete without ice cream at the end, and there happened to be an ice creamshop nearby. So we had ice cream. Damned good ice cream. We did.

Weopted to have final drinks at a tavern called the Gate House, near the GrandHotel. The drinks were excellent, but ridiculously expensive. This we expected,given the location, but that does not mean we approved. We did not approve.

Thefinal ferry back to the Mackinac City left at 7:30, so we made tracks to getback to the dock. Once back on the mainland, we found a nearby place called Nonna Lisa's Italian Ristorante , and since we had about hit the burger-sandwich-tavern-food wall, we decidedto give it a try. The interior of the place looked more like a Yooper huntinglodge than an Italian restaurant, but it simply added character. Their wineselection was somewhat wanting, though, so most of us drank water for dinner.Both Kimberly and went with the traditional spaghetti with meatballs, which wasdecent, if not remarkable. Our server was excellent, I will say, so top marksfor him.

Our accommodations for the night were in Cheboygan, a littletown about twenty miles east of Mackinac City. We had chosen this locationmainly for its attractive price, and it was, correspondingly, a bit cramped.However, we found it clean, generally comfortable, and well-appointed, so theplace gets a solid thumbs-up from us.

Tomorrow... we return toMidland.
Fort Mackinac, which looks down on the bay from the island's highest southern bluffs
At the gazebo from Somewhere in Time
The Grand Hotel
Looking down on the bay from the island's bluffs
One of the many mansions situated along the island's highest ridge
The Mackinaw Bridge, viewed from our ferry as we returned to Mackinaw City
More to Come...

Road Trip! Ishpeming or Bust

And so it begins...
Although I had sworn off driving to Michigan after the trip from hell a year or so ago, for our upcoming sojourn — to include a few days in the Upper Peninsula — Brugger and I would be joined by regular traveling companions Terry & Beth. Therefore, we decided that, since could split up driving duties and the road construction that so complicated the last road trip would be mostly done, a road trip it would be. As with my first trip to Michigan back in 2014, prior to leaving, we ran the Jeff Daniels' brilliantly nutzo Escanaba in da Moonlight (2001), this time introducing Terry & Beth to the film. We figure it went over exceedingly well because Beth had to change her pants afterward.
 
Sunday, September 22, 2024: Aaaand...We're Off!
Ms. B. and I mounted up and left Martinsville bright and early (more like foggy and early), bound for Terry & Beth's place in Kernersville, a little over an hour away. Since they have a much larger automobile than either Ms. B. or I, they offered to provide the transportation. So, at 9:00 a.m. sharp, we set out for Dayton, Ohio — Beth's old stomping grounds — where we planned to spend the night in a bed & breakfast and have dinner with some of her relatives. It was a scorching hot day, but the roughly eight-hour trip, which included a handful of rest/geocaching stops and a fair lunch at a TGI Fridays somewhere near Charleston, West Virginia, was comfortable enough in our fully loaded chariot. We pulled into our lodgings, right across from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base/Museum , at 5:00 p.m.

Soon afterward, Beth's aunt and two of her cousins, whom she hadn't seen in a long while, came to visit, and we had a big honking pizza dinner from nearby Joe's Pizzeria . It was fairly late when the party broke up, but Kim and I decided to take a late-night walk down the road about a mile and pick up a geocache — which turned out to be good, scaly fun (see the photo).

Monday, September 23, 2024: Are We There Yet?
Front yard view from our B&B
At "This Is Not an Underground Entrance"

Terry and I rose early and went out to hunt a nearby geocache — called " This Is Not an Underground Entrance " ( GC9J294 ) — hidden at the edge of Wright-Patterson Airbase. A very cool location it was: a metal stairway that led down to a heavy door set into a concrete column at the edge of the Mad River. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the damned cache, and there's every indication it's missing. Alas! Still, we enjoyed the hunt.

Again, we loaded up and hit the road. Somewhere in central Ohio, we found a Frisch's Big Boy restaurant for a late-morning breakfast. I've gotta tell you — I was damned hungry, and the scrambled eggs, bacon, & pancake combination struck me as the best cheap-ass breakfast I've had since our massively memorable IHOP outing in Seattle last year when we went to the Pacific Northwest prior to our Alaska Cruise. This one set me to hollering, I can tell you.

We drove for another while, and some of our party decided that a winery visit seemed in order. We discovered one not too far off the beaten track, which turned out to be a lovely little place, with great atmosphere and friendly service. For that reason, I'll not identify it because the wine was piss. I've only been to one winery whose product was that bad, and that was a  few years ago in North Carolina. I'm not sure that little enterprise is even around anymore. Still, today, we did have an honest-to-Yog good time. I also found a cool cache in neat little town nearby, as well as a seminary building that so resembled Lychhurst Hospital in the upcoming anthology, Hospital of Haunts , which features my story, "Insensate," that I had to stop and take pictures.

We drove, cached, and made pit stops here and there for several more hours, and we arrived at Kim's parents' place in Midland around 8:00 p.m. After introducing them to Terry & Beth and socializing for a while, our foursome headed to Meijer (a sacred Midland tradition) to pick up foodz for dinner and provisions for our stay in the UP, set to begin early the next day.

Then...bedtime!
Ms. B. having a Moment With Monet
So, the wine wasn't good, but the time we had was.
Is it Lychhurst???
Tuesday, September 24, 2024: Clare, Kitch-iti-kipi, and Ishpeming
We wasted no time in Midland this morning and hit the road fairly early.Our first stop was Clare, the town where Brugger was born, about 30 miles westof Midland. Clare is the home of Cops & Donuts , which, to my mind, has the best donuts of any donut place I've ever been.We've visited Clare numerous times, and I've found most of the caches nearby,but I did manage to snag a few stages of a newish Adventure Lab Cache in thedowntown area.

Beth wanted some food more substantial than donuts, sowe ended up at the nearby Herrick House & Mulberry Cafe , a quaint little place with decent sandwiches. I destroyed a double-bacon BLT.Once done there, we set out on the road, only to detour to a little town calledHarrison so Terry & Beth could check out a particular cannabis dispensary.Computer issues at the shop prolonged their checkout process for quite a longwhile, so we were much later than expected getting back on the road.
Herrick House & Mulberry Cafe in Clare

It was another day spent mostly in the car. Once across the Mackinac Bridge, our next destination was Kitch-iti-kipi, a picturesque spring a few hours west. Kimberly and I had visited there a couple of years ago, and I do love the location. We arrived fairly late in the day, and most of the crowd had vanished, so we were able to enjoy our raft ride out to the far end of the spring without any hustle and bustle. I'd found a physical cache there on our previous visit, and I was pleased to see that it was still in place. In addition to that, there is now an EarthCache at the location. There's no physical container to find at an EarthCache; one answers questions about the geology of a particular location to get credit for the cache.

We stopped for dinner at a pub in the little berg of Rapid River, where I polished off some walleye, and, afterward, I found a nearby cache. Then, once again, we were off, and around 8:00 p.m. — considerably later than we had originally anticipated — we arrived at our domicile for the next few days: a comfortable bed & breakfast in the town of Ishpeming, a few miles west of Marquette. There was nothing for it but to mellow out for the rest of the evening, so we mellowed.

Tomorrow is another day. Our target: the city of Marquette.

Old Rodan with the raft in the background at Kitch-iti-kipi
The view down from the raft, with happy fish circling the bubbling spring below
A view from the deck of the raft. Many ducks in evidence.
The Usual Suspects at the Rapid River Pub

I quite appreciate the decor at our VRBO.
This happy fellow lurks just outside the
bedroom door.

 
Wednesday, September 25, 2024: Into Marquette
Our lodgings in Ishpeming are stylish and comfortable. From the outside, we weren't expecting much — Ishpeming was once a mining town, and it looks like one — but inside the house, the decor is nautical but very modern. Our proprietor set up the kitchen so we are hardly lacking for anything, supply-wise. So we're giving top marks for this VRBO.

There's a greenway near here called the Iron Ore Heritage Trail , so I set out on it bright and early to hunt a couple of geocaches. One I found, one I did not, though not unexpectedly, as the previous hunter indicated in his log that he couldn't find it either. I didn't go all that far — just about a mile — because we're heading into Marquette this morning, and my time was a little limited. But if I have a chance, I'd like to venture farther, especially since there are several more caches within hiking distance.

Mid-morning, we hit the road, target Marquette. However, beforehand, Brugger and Beth wanted to visit a nearby rock shop, where — coincidentally — there is what's known as the "Yooper Tourist Trap," the site of a virtual geocache. So, while the rest of the party went rock hunting, I wandered among the myriad, mostly humorous displays of the Yooper Tourist Trap, gathering info for the virtual cache. One of the big boulder formations (and Ground
Zero for a geocache) at Presque Isle Park

Done at last, we piled back into the vehicle and set out for Marquette, about thirty minutes down the road. Lunch was calling, so we went to Iron Bay Restaurant, which, on my first visit with Brugger to Marquette back in 2014, had been a different establishment called L'Attitude. It was good then, and maybe better now. I had some fantastic whitefish chowder and a hefty chopped salad, along with an excellent local IPA. We had a nice view of the bay and the iron ore dock located a very short distance from the restaurant. Once done with chow, our group split up; the ladies went shopping, Terry went in search of coffee, and I set out after a couple of caches. An officer of the law appeared to take some interest in my surreptitious activities, but he didn't bother to call on me, thus sparing me the chore of educating him on the joys of the cache. I finished up my deliciously clandestine endeavor and then met Terry at a nearby coffee shop. Eventually, the four of us reunited and trucked out to Presque Isle Park, an extensive natural area just north of town. Here, we went wandering (and one of us went caching) among the Black Rocks, a massive rock formation overlooking Lake Superior from the park. Brugger and I had done a some exploring and caching at Black Rocks on our first trip to Michigan in 2014, but this time, we had a bit more time and got to experience considerably more of the area. What a fantastic, scenic location it is. And, happily, my geocaching venture proved successful.

All this activity took up the better part of the afternoon, so, once done, we headed back into Marquette proper and visited a nice wine bar called Zephyr. A couple of bottles of wine, one Italian, one Spanish, forced us to drink them. We didn't mind obliging them. Then we hunted and killed dinner at the Portside Inn, which was somewhat less healthy than lunch (I had a very spicy, very large, Chicago-style Italian beef sandwich). Yummo.

By the end of dinner, we all felt fat, dumb, and happy, so we headed back to our lodgings in Ishpeming and mellowed until bedtime.

Mellow good.

Iron ore dock in Marquette
A view of Black Rocks at Presque Isle Park
Marquette Harbor Lighthouse
Thursday, September 26, 2024: Munising & Pictured Rocks
On our previous sojourns in the UP, Brugger and I have stayed in the littletown of Munising, along the shores of Lake Superior. Of all the places we'vevisited in the UP, Munising seems unique, with a significant quirk factor thatmakes me think of Twin Peaks . Today, we set out for a day trip to Munising, our first objective being aboat tour of Pictured Rocks , a line of colorful sandstone cliffs that rise above the lake. Ms. B. and Ihave visited Pictured Rocks on foot — most notably Chapel Rock , which is one of the lake's most notable features (see "Midland and More in da Moonlight," October 5, 2014 ).

Once in Munising, we went straight to the dock, and it wasn'tlong before we had boarded the double-decker catamaran, called "Spray Falls." Imight mention here that my Ameri-Scares novel, Michigan: The Dragon of Lake Superior (a signed copy of which now resides on the shelf at our Marquette bed &breakfast), opens with said dragon sinking a tour boat out of Munising. Myfriends got on the boat anyway. We were underway very shortly, and the boatproceeded northeastward at a fair clip, skirting the coastline, giving usexcellent views of the cliffs, some of which rise 200-some feet above Superior'ssurface. The series of photos below can only hint at the cliffs' awesome sizeand multi-colored rock faces. The only incident to mar a perfect outing was Bethtaking a spill on the gangway on her way off the boat. She doesn't appear to beseriously hurt, but she did take a bit of a battering.

Here's alittle gallery of photographs from Pictured Rocks. After the boat tour, we ventured over to the nearby town of Christmas, where wekilled a late lunch at The Duck Pond, a nice UP pub where you can get freshwhitefish for dinner that was still swimming in the lake that morning. Mine wasdelicious. I had a couple of local brews to accompany, one of which wasfabulous, the other not so much.

Since Beth wasn't feeling up to amore difficult trek, we drove back to Munising to visit Wagner Falls , which isn't as huge or as spectacular as many of the waterfalls in the area,but it's still very scenic, and there was a cache along the trail, which Isnagged as we made our short hike.

Our last stop was Muldoon's Pasties & Gifts , on Highway 28 just at the western edge of town. Pasties, you must know, arethe official food of the UP, at least in our book. (You should watch JeffDaniels' quirky Escanaba in da Moonlight (2001) for a better understanding of this point.) We picked up a bunch to bringback to our VRBO for dinner. Mmm.
L) Ms. B. always did like men with a full head (and body) of hair; R:) Wagner Falls

Friday, September 26, 2024: Mackinac Island
For all her years living in Michigan, Ms. B. had never gone to Mackinac Island,in Lake Huron, a few miles east of the Mackinaw Bridge, which connectsMichigan's upper and lower peninsulas. The island isn't very large, but it has along, colorful history. To film buffs, it may be best known for having been thesetting of the film, Somewhere in Time (1980), particularly the Grand Hotel , which dominates a fair portion of the island's southern bluffs. The sprawlingFort Mackinac, built by the British in the Revolutionary War, is anotherprominent, imposing feature on the island.

The island is also loadedwith geocaches.

We left our Ishpeming lodgings much earlier than anyof our somewhat travel-weary bodies felt was at all fair, but we figured we'dbetter if we hoped to spend much quality time on the island. It was athree-and-a-half-hour drive to Mackinac City, and a twenty-minute ferry ride toour destination, so by the time we set foot on the island, we were plenty readyto have lunch. Somewhat randomly, we chose a spot called The Pink Pony , where I killed another very fine whitefish sandwich (in the UP, whitefish isTHE thing, don't you know). We decided to take a private carriage ride aroundthe island at 3:30 p.m., so that gave us a couple of hours to split up and doour own things. Terry sought drink, Beth and Brugger sought shopping, and Isought caches. And what a goldmine. There were numerous Adventure Labs,traditional caches, and virtual caches, so I availed myself of any of these thatI could find nearby. Most were nicely done, and several took me to someextra-lovely locations I might not have otherwise found, including the gazebofrom Somewhere in Time. I've always been very fond of this film, and nowMs. B. and I are going to have to work it into our already crowded Halloweenmovie line-up. Not that it's really a Halloween film, but we'd like to see itagain while our memories of Mackinac Island are still fresh.

At 3:30,we gathered near the Mackinac Island State Park Visitor Center to meet our carriage. Our driver was a loquacious character named Brett, and weenjoyed the hell out of his lively, humor-filled narration as he took us on afairly extensive, hour-long tour of some the island's most historic sites. Heeven helped me figure out a stage to a nearby Adventure Lab cache. Along with mypersonal, private tour of the island while geocaching, I found the carriage rideamong my favorite experiences on this trip thus far.

No carriage rideis complete without ice cream at the end, and there happened to be an ice creamshop nearby. So we had ice cream. Damned good ice cream. We did.

Weopted to have final drinks at a tavern called the Gate House, near the GrandHotel. The drinks were excellent, but ridiculously expensive. This we expected,given the location, but that does not mean we approved. We did not approve.

Thefinal ferry back to the Mackinac City left at 7:30, so we made tracks to getback to the dock. Once back on the mainland, we found a nearby place called Nonna Lisa's Italian Ristorante , and since we had about hit the burger-sandwich-tavern-food wall, we decidedto give it a try. The interior of the place looked more like a Yooper huntinglodge than an Italian restaurant, but it simply added character. Their wineselection was somewhat wanting, though, so most of us drank water for dinner.Both Kimberly and went with the traditional spaghetti with meatballs, which wasdecent, if not remarkable. Our server was excellent, I will say, so top marksfor him.

Our accommodations for the night were in Cheboygan, a littletown about twenty miles east of Mackinac City. We had chosen this locationmainly for its attractive price, and it was, correspondingly, a bit cramped.However, we found it clean, generally comfortable, and well-appointed, so theplace gets a solid thumbs-up from us.

Tomorrow... we return toMidland.
Fort Mackinac, which looks down on the bay from the island's highest southern bluffs
At the gazebo from Somewhere in Time
The Grand Hotel
Looking down on the bay from the island's bluffs
One of the many mansions situated along the island's highest ridge
The Mackinaw Bridge, viewed from our ferry as we returned to Mackinaw City
More to Come...

A Mighty Fine 3rd Annual MHC Is for Book Lovers Fall Festival

I had been cautiously optimistic about setting up space at today's 3rd Annual MHC Is for Book Lovers Fall Festival , a local book fest held at the Spencer-Penn Centre , about 20 minutes west of Martinsville. My recent booksignings have been very successful, and I was hoping this would NOT be that fateful one where no one shows up at my table. After all, Martinsville is far from a big town, and I did wonder whether everyone in the area who cared to pick up any of my books might have already done so.

Well, no worries on that count. The show was well-attended, and I sold a big bunch! In fact, I need to reorder author copies of a few titles if I want to have any for the Martinsville Oktoberfest , coming up on October 5th.

It's very gratifying how many folks come out for the local book-related events — especially when they pick up the scary ones (it's fair to say that I am pretty much the local horror-writing community). Quite a few authors attended the festival, and it looked like most did decent business. Ms. B. spent much of the time wowing folks with her artwork, and she even found herself a young protegé, who took the initiative to seek her guidance in his artistic endeavors. He even recreated the cover art from the Ameri-Scares: Michigan: The Dragon of Lake Superior, which I found rather touching.

Martinsville Oktoberfest is in a couple of weeks, and I may yet end up participating in an event or two between that and Scares That Care—AuthorCon V in Williamsburg, VA, at the end of March. I will, of course, holler about these as the times draw nigh.

That's all for now, so sayonara and peace.

L) The young artist, and R) the original cover of Ameri-Scares: Michigan: The Dragon of Lake Superior

The Lebo Coven Is in the House

Indeed, the brand-new paperback edition of The Lebo Coven has arrived. Author copies from Crossroad Press are well on their way, but whenever I have a new book come out, I always order my first copy as soon as it's available.

This release is a little different because I produced the back cover and interior pages myself. With my long experience working as a graphics guy in the educational publishing field, it seems only fitting, now that I'm retired, that I shift my graphics capabilities to something more personally meaningful. I also did the production work on The Gods of Moab paperback, which is my first fully self-published title (though rest assured that self-publishing is not a thing I intend to do habitually), and I'll be creating the cover designs and interior pages of my upcoming novel from Crossroad Press, The House at Black Tooth Pond , scheduled for release early next year.

The long and short of this is that there will be no passing of the buck if these books turn out ugly! But I don't think The Lebo Coven came out ugly at all. The front cover is the same one that Crossroad Press produced for the book's original release in 2010, and I've always quite liked it. For the interior, I fancied up the text and graphics on each initial chapter page, similar to Fugue Devil: Resurgence and Deathrealm: Spirits .

My author copies of The Lebo Coven should be here in a matter of days, at which time I'll offer autographed copies for sale on my webpage. C'mon, it'll be fun!

“Stephen Mark Rainey gives his horrors an original cosmic twist...with a well-executed climax.”
—Publishers Weekly
Order The Lebo Coven in paperback
from Amazon.com

The Soul of Wes Craven by Joe Maddrey

It's safe to say that Joe Maddrey'sThe Soul of Wes Craven (Harker Press, June 2024) may be the mostcomprehensive and thoughtful biography of any human being I've ever read. Thephysical book is in the 500-page neighborhood (I read the Kindle edition), andthere's not a word of padding to be found.

Author Maddrey conductedyears of research, including 80-some interviews with many of those closest toCraven. From the legendary movie-maker's fundamentalist upbringing; to hisstints as a musician, college lit-mag editor, and producer of porn flicks; tothe inspirations behind his literary and cinematic concepts; to the stories and anecdotesabout Craven's most obscure films to his blockbusters, Maddrey exploresevery aspect in depth, with both objectivity and sensitivity.

No doubt, the chronicles of Craven's milestone films — Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, Nightmare on Elm Street, The People Under the Stairs, and so many others — are of deep and specific interest to the multitudes of Wes Craven fans. But perhapsmost revealing are the myriad insights into Craven's personal life, attitudes, andphilosophies, fleshed out by way of his own writings as well as first-handaccounts by his friends, family, and fellow professionals. Also fascinating arethe accounts of Craven's many unmade or unfinished cinematic projects — not to mention those that morphed into entirely differentanimals along their paths to completion.

That Joe Maddrey took on the daunting task of creating such an in-depth, thoroughly rounded picture of a public figure whose private side ran very deep indicates that undertaking The Soul of Wes Craven was not just a labor of love but a deep, passionate drive.

Five out of five Damned Rodan's Dirty Firetinis.

The Soul of Wes Craven at Amazon.com

This Saturday: 3rd Annual MHC Is for Book Lovers Festival

This Saturday, September 21, I'll be participating in the 3rd Annual MHC Is for Book Lovers Festival, a multi-author event, hosted by Martinsville/Henry County Is for Book Lovers at the Spencer-Penn Centre , in Spencer, VA, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. EDT. There will food and craft vendors as well, so there's plenty of fun even for folks who might be too scared to visit with the scary author. Ha-HA!

I'll have copies of the brand-new paperback edition of The Lebo Coven , which is set in Aiken Mill, VA, my fictional version of Martinsville, as well as The Gods of Moab (also set in the same fictional region), Fugue Devil: Resurgence , Deathrealm: Spirits , West Virginia: Lair of the Mothman , and others.

If you're in traveling distance, please come visit!

The Weird Library: Listen in the Dark — "Maybe the Stars" by Samantha Henderson

Artist/musician/producer Bridgette Brenmark is now the official Librarian at The Weird Library: Listen in the Dark , originally created by Mike Davis of the Lovecraft eZine . The newest installment is "Maybe the Stars," a short story by Samantha Henderson, narrated by Sheryl Hartman. It's an atmospheric, eerie tale, and you may check it out right here: "Maybe the Stars" by Samantha Henderson at The Weird Library: Listen in the Dark

The Lebo Coven Now Available in Paperback

The Lebo Coven , my second novel, was originally published in hardcover by Thomson Gale/Five Star Books in 2004, and as an ebook and audiobook by Crossroad Press in 2010. Crossroad Press will be publishing my newest novel, The House at Black Tooth Pond in the near future and, to gear up for that event, is re-releasing The Lebo Coven as a paperback. The House at Black Tooth Pond is not a direct sequel to Lebo , but it is set in the same continuity, featuring common characters, references, and setting (Sylvan County, a fictional location in southwestern Virginia, which has been the setting for many of my works, including "Fugue Devil" and its sequel, "The Devil's Eye").

About The Lebo Coven:
After a ten-year absence, Barry Riggs returns to his hometown of Aiken Mill, Virginia, in search of his brother, Matt, who has mysteriously disappeared. Not only is the younger Riggs missing, but his house has been ransacked and branded with a strange word—LEBO—painted in blood on the living room wall. Barry meets a number of locals he had known in his youth, including a young woman named Jennifer Brand. Their friendship rekindled, they join forces to solve the mystery of Matt’s disappearance. They soon encounter an enigmatic character who goes by the name of Ren—a reputed Satan worshiper. As Barry and Jennifer unravel a series of arcane clues, they learn that nothing and no one are quite what they appear—and that deadly, inhuman forces are at work in this world.

 “Stephen Mark Rainey gives his horrors an original cosmic twist...with a well-executed climax.”
—Publishers Weekly
Order The Lebo Coven in paperback
from Amazon.com

Coming Soon: Hospital of Haunts

Coming in October from Watertower Hill Publishing: Hospital of Haunts , edited by Heather Daughrity. This brand-new anthology features my tale of terror called "Insensate."

From the Publisher:
For 150 years, the diseased, the deranged, and the dying came to Lychhurst Hospital for comfort and healing. What they found there was something far more sinister.

The halls still echo with the footsteps of doctors long dead. The rooms resound with the cries of patients long silenced. The tunnels still thrum with the castoff energy of lives long abandoned.

Visiting hours have started. The doors are open, and you are expected.

Come tour the most haunted hospital in the world. Come visit our Hospital of Haunts ...

23 Wards. 23 Ghosts. 23 Stories.
At Lychhurst Hospital, we’ve got the cure for what ails you.

Featuring stories from:
Christy Aldridge, Simon Bleaken, Bridget D. Brave, Brooklyn Ann Butler, Lexx Christian, Rebecca Cuthbert, Blaine Daigle, Heather Daughrity, Jason Daughrity, Joe DeRouen, John Durgin, Stephanie Ellis, Joshua Loyd Fox, Jennifer Anne Gordon, Gage Greenwood, Caleb Jones, Marie Lanza, Stephen Mark Rainey, Jeani Rector, Susan H. Roddey, Cat Scully, Westley Smith, and Mer Whinery

Foreword by Clay McLeod Chapman
Edited by Heather Daughrity

The ebook and hardcover editions are now available for pre-order; the paperback comes out on release day — October 1, 2024.
Hospital of Haunts ebook at Amazon.com Hospital of Haunts hardcover at Watertower Hill Publishing
But wait! There's more... Watertower Hill Publishing presents the
Hospital of Haunts Limited Edition Swag Box
What comes in the box? A hardcover limited edition version of the book itself. This version contains a special front page stating that it is one of the exclusive, numbered editions, signed by the editor, Heather Daughrity, and a page digitally signed by each of the contributing authors. A special, super-secret extra story featuring the transcript of the last known recording ever made at Lychhurst Hospital. A vintage Lychhurst travel postcard magnet. A signed photograph of Lychhurst's favorite nurse. A Lychhurst Hospital mug filled with a variety of body parts--er, goodies. Only 100 Swag Boxes available—Order Now!

Cost is $75, US shipping included. The Hospital of Haunts Swag Box can ONLY be purchased direct from the publisher at the link below: Hospital of Haunts Limited Edition Swag Box

Seven Sounds Success & a Sojourn at Stately Wilson Manor

I'm so pleased that the group booksigning at Seven Sounds Brewing Company in Elizabeth City, NC, which I've been hollering about for quite a while, far exceeded my expectations. I sold quite a few books, as did friends David Niall Wilson and Patricia Lee Macomber (a.k.a. Trish). For me, some of these "non-traditional" book venues have really paid off.

Friday, September 6: Brugger and I hit the road early, drove most of the day, stopping only for lunch and a handful of geocaches. We arrived in Elizabeth City a tad early for setting up at Seven Sounds Brewing Company, so Ms. B. and I went walking and snagged the five stages of a very nice Adventure Lab Cache along the downtown waterfront. Once we completed that, we made our way back to the brewery, set up the book table, sank some pints (well, I did; Ms. B. opted for vino), and spewed all kinds of gross welcoming remarks to Dave and Trish when they arrived a short time later. Trish Wilson (Patricia Lee Macomber) plotting
devious demises for unsuspecting victims

Author Elizabeth Broadbent had intended to participate in the event, but circumstances apparently conspired against her. Alas!

Come dinnertime, we picked up burgers from the Shipwrecked food truck, which was on hand for the event. I must tell you, their Hickory Gouda burger is an exquisite thing, and it was apparently their most popular of the evening. One of the owners told Brugger that it could been their only offering on the menu and still made a killing.

Near the end of the evening, friends Mike & Bridgette Brenmark, whom I'd met in person for the first time last month at NecronomiCon–Providence , came by, since they live in reasonable proximity. We shared a couple of drinks, and then Brugger and I headed over to Stately Wilson Manner just a few miles down the road. Spent a couple of joyous hours hooting, hollering, and drinking some of Dave's outstanding bourbon.
I've no idea what time it was, but at some point, we went to bed.
Saturday, September 7: We hung about for most of the morning, socializing with several of the 13 household house cats and drinking vats of coffee. Eventually, we headed out for brunch at nearby IHOP, which wasn't bad, although the service was painfully slow — apparently, not for the folks around us, but I wonder if our server recognized Dave; if so, I understand everything. We had talked about having Thai food for dinner, so I decided to offer my services and make Thai basil chicken, which is one of my staples. Brugger and I went shopping, picked up the goods, and I fixed the dinner. It were good.

Afterward, we watched Longlegs , which I found wonderfully weird, atmospheric as hell, and ultimately unsettling. It's one of Nicholas Cage's most intense, memorable performances ever.

Again, the evening ran pretty late. I zonked out for a bit on the couch, a condition that Dave termed "Markolepsy." I'll go with it.
Bridgette & Mike Brenmark with the scary folk
Brother Tomás
Sunday, September 8: Brugger and I didn't have a lot of time to hang around this morning, but Dave and I did manage to hash out some ideas for several upcoming projects we hope to pursue. No moss growing on old stones, and all that. Brugger and I hit the road about 10:30 a.m., stopped outside of Elizabeth City for some nibbles and coffee for breakfast, and then headed westward. A few geocaches, a so-so lunch at Cracker Barrel, which was not our first choice, but it was open, and we arrived home around 4:30 p.m. I'd missed out on my daily walk this morning, so, before I could collapse in a weary heap, I walked a couple of miles around nearby Lake Lanier.

Now I am ready to collapse in a weary heap. So, that's all for now, sayonara, and peace. Ms. B. wrangling cats
Coupla scary old writers