Lawton, Michigan

 

"THE TERRIBLE SWEDE" John Larsson

later changed to Lawson in America

 

"The Three Swedes"  BOB, ALAN AND KEN

Bob, Debbie,Alan, Linda and Ken

Lake house and  LINDA AND ALAN BEFORE CRASH

We have enjoyed our stay at Lawton visiting Alan's cousins, Aunts and Uncle. We stayed at Uncle Earl's lake house on Cedar Lake and was entertained every night. It was fun sitting around visiting and enjoying the old stories of their childhood. Friday morning  we had the 1st annual "Terrible Swede" memorial bike race where Bob,Deb, Ken, Alan and myself started out at Grand Junction (bike path) and rode to South Haven. We had lunch at Clementines and then rode back which totaled 25 miles according to the official time and miles keeper Debbie. 

"The terrible swede"  AKA John Larsson was ALan's, Bob and Ken's great grandfather and was a professional bike racer in the USA who had emigrated from Sweden. They also had a great uncle Iver who raced and had changed his name to Lawson.

The trip was great, but I have the scars to remeber it by. Alan and I managed to get tangled up and crash , BUT I finished it even if there was pain. THere was no way I was going to wimp out on this. 

Later that night we all gathered at the Lake house along with cousins, Nancy,CHarlene, Connie and Aunt Lorraine to have pizza and rehash the day. 

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Yesterday Alan and I went to the Wolf Lake Fish Hatchery and walked the nature trail then later I fixed dinner for Ken, Judy and Uncle Earl.

This has been a great stop and boy did we have ADVENTURE! 

South Haven Michigan headed to Lawton

We arrived at South Haven after a beautiful almost FLAT cruise from Ludington . We docked at the NOrth Municipal marina because the SOuth marina was reserved. We secured the boat and Alan's cousins from Lawton, Bob and Ken drove over to pick us up. We are staying at their family lakehouse on Cedar Lake. We will all be getting together tomorrow . The Lawson's are great host and really make you feel like you are part of the family and glad to see you. We will be here for a few days and maybe catch up with everybody. It was good to see Uncle Earl and Aunt Delores. It is hard to believe that it has been 14 years since we were last here. 

I will post more later and update our great stay here along with pictures.

Winneconne, Wisconsin

The S.S. Badger

Their Boat and their house from the river

We arrived in Wisconsin by way of the "SS BADGER" a steam ship ferry from Ludington, Michigan to Manitowac, Wisconsin. My sister Debbie and brother-in-law Phil picked us up at the ferry. We enjoyed 4 nights at their house in Winneconne on the Wolf River. Friday Al and Phil explored in the area and Debbie and I enjoyed a day of SHOPPING. SAturday we went out their boat for a fun cruise and enjoyed the company of Captain Ron and Steve their friends. We enjoyed a delicious meal at the Supper club that night here in Winneconne with Ron and Jeannie, Rose and Dale, Phil, Debbie and us. Sunday Deb and I went back to the mall and Alan and Phil went to an outdoor show. We enjoyed a dinner that evening with Dan and Colleen at Debbie and Phil's house. We leave this morning back on the Badger to Michigan. We have really enjoyed our stay there and it was time off the boat which we haven't had since the 1st week of June. 

Now we will visit ALan's Michigan family in South Haven. We look forward to our visit with them and family time there.

Ludington

After two more nights in Frankfort due to the weather we left  at 6:15am this morning heading for Ludington. Alan did some trolling on the way, but finally gave up and we picked up speed. The waves were not to bad, but they were choppy and about 1-2 foot. We made it into Ludington about 10am, fueled up and got our slip at the Ludington Municipal Marina. We took a walk over to the Badger and got our tickets for tomorrow to Wisconsin. We will be there until Monday visiting my sister, so don't panic if nothing is posted for several days. This is a very nice marina and the staff is superb!

Frankfort, Michigan

We arrived in Frankfort yesterday and winds were picking up. Today some fisherman told us the waves were over 6ft on Lake Michigan. I am glad we were in port. A cold front is pushing through tonight and hopefully the Lake will settle down by tomorrow evening and we can proceed on. Last night we had one of the best meals in awhile. The local high school football program were having a benefit for the team and serving a pork loin dinner with all the fixings for $5 right here at the marina park. BOY was it GOOD!

Northport, Mi

Well we did decide to leave at 6:15am this morning and see if we could make it a little further south. This time we had the 2-4 foot seas to our bow. We only had to go about 12 miles so I toughed it out. Once we made it into Traverse Bay it eased up some and we got a slip at the marina. We walked around a bit and I did a little grocery shopping. 

Charloviox, Mi

We left Beaver Island at 6:30am heading to CHarloviox before weather conditions deteriorate. We have 2-4 foot swels to our stern for a surfing 30 mile trip. We made it there and got a slip for the night. Walked around and listened to the bluegrass music they had going on at amphitheater. There was a 74 foot hatteras that was parked right in front of us and people would walk down to the end of the dock to look at it. We would make some comment like we were their dinghy. We felt like an ant to this big monster, BUT we were both at the same marina. We also met Skip from Indiana who had recently purchased a 2008 C-Dory from Marc at Wefings in Appalachicola. The name of his boat is "Lizzie" and he winters in Orange Beach, Al. 

 We will decide in the morning if we are going to leave depending on again the weather.