Saturday, October 14, 2017

2017 MinnWisMi - Jackson to Ann Arbor

Thursday, October 12 - Jackson to Ann Arbor
It is dry with only a slight breeze....hurray!
The first state prison completed in 1841.
The "Inside"

It looks like a castle but this massive wall is part of the prison.
You can always tell it is October because there are pumpkins everywhere. The end of a tour is always an interesting time to talk to people. The first week of a tour the total mileage is pretty modest but on the next to last day when the answers is "about 1,300 miles" people look at you with incredulity. When we went in this market to use the restroom after talking to a couple of guys outside, our story had preceded us and we were treated like minor celebrities.
The Michigan train museum. We didn't really have time to stop as we wanted to get to Ann Arbor early in the afternoon and were just a little spoiled by the one in Green Bay.
Our lunch stop in Chelsea. We spent the night in Chelsea on our bike trip 5 years ago and have very fond memories of the Jiffy Mix, Teddy Bears, and fancy flamingos.
There we go! Donna just happened to look at her odometer while we were stopped at a red light.
The dryness lasted until the outskirts of Ann Arbor.

Just a little farther down the road we found a little dryness and cuteness in a local quilt store.
We wanted to revisit the Fairy Doors in downtown Ann Arbor but were first distracted by this hat which is at the other end of the scale!
The view outside Sweetwaters Coffee and Tea 5 years ago.
The view today.
The fairy door inside Sweetwaters Coffee and Tea 5 years ago.
Inside the coffee shop today....  a little new construction here too!
One of our favorites from 5 years ago.
A whole fairy homestead has been added next door.


Do you see them?


It was a whole store of "Life Is Good" shirts. Only have to carry it one more day....but we have so many t-shirts already........but these are so nice....probably won't see another one like it.............maybe a picture is enough. Well....I (Donna) didn't get this one but ....
....I did find another one that I just couldn't resist 😊
Sadly, this was the case at a couple of former fairy door locations.



The site of our last fairy door for the day, or so we thought at the time.


Notice the tiny chairs inside the door.
There was a Penny Stamp Art Lecture starting in a bit so the entrance was a really busy place even though our pictures don't quite show it. Ingrid chatted with us while waiting for a friend to arrive. She guessed that we were on a fairy door quest. She also told us that most of the older retail stores downtown have gone out of business due to the Amazon effect which is why some of the fairy doors have disappeared.
Our route to the motel took us right past the University of Michigan campus at 5:00. There were pedestrians EVERYWHERE! It was hard for us to get past this crosswalk on our bikes so you can imagine how long the cars were waiting.
Look what we found waiting for us when we checked in!

1 comment:

said...

In case you are wondering, the very first fairy door was on the outside of Sweetwater's. The fairy's were encouraged to move indoors by the landlords after a few months, so the location remains the first, but not the original.

The second door, was The Peaceable Kingdom door. Although the business closed on May 20th, the fairies have remained in place which is unusual. In the past when business has closed the fairies have left with the business. We suspect this was such a special place that they just can't leave yet.

Best, Ingrid Ault (friends with the fariologist)