On the Road with Tin Shrimp: My odyssey in an airstream

Things I knew about Michigan.  My Dad lived there as a kid, cars were made there at some point in history, and boasts a Big-10 college where a lot of college football is played.  What I took in was acres of farmland, miles of oceanfront and the largest Santa Claus in the largest Christmas Village in the US.  Driving straight up Michigan, there were many curiosity stops along the way.  I spent a night on a working farm herbal farm, I shopped at the largest Christmas store in a VERY German-like town called Frankenmuth, drove alongside an antique tractor crossing parade (over the historic 5 mile-long Mackinaw Bridge), and ate picnic lunches along side all the great lakes Huron, Superior and Michigan.  I didn't even realize that by the time I get over the bridge and reach the Upper Peninsula, I will have traversed all of the Great Lakes.  That is something I will have bragging rights that I didn't realize with where I was going.  Wanderlust is pretty cool...

When you are traveling solo you have no plans and the destination is where ever you want it to be.  Thanks to a tip from a friend's son,  Harvest Hosts/Boondockers Welcome  has made it it so easy for me to just stop anywhere overnight; with more to explore after I have finished a day of driving.   It's a neat little app that you can select from farms, museums, vineyards, breweries, etc. At this point, I know I am good for about 350 miles a day.  I get up and hitch the airstream up, break down any of the solar cords or electri, plumbing I have attached, raise the jacks,  go through my own personal checklists, and off I go.  This all takes between 30-45 minutes.  I'm on the road after rush hour around 9am and go until about 4.  That gives me a stop or two for lunch and a gas fill.   I took a long stroll through Chautauqua Institute , an artists colony in NY.  It was and still is a very cool artist community that boasts a sum...

I bought a big ole' Rand MacNally Atlas at Barnes and Noble the day I decided to buy Tin Shrimp.  If I was ever without my GPS in the car, my 6th grade education in map making would certainly come in handy.  I bought it for the middle pages, where all the big national parks were pictured and listed. Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Zion.  What it also had in the maps of each state were all of the smaller national park sites in green.   While plotting my way across the states, I found other, more interesting stops.  Which brought me to the Women's Rights National Park .   (Pardon the finger in photo) During the unprecedented times of the political climate we are all facing in the US, I was drawn to stop at the birthplace of the 19th amendment.  It was here that The Declaration of Sentiments , written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was signed.  Simply, it proposed the right for women to have equal rights as men.  What was incredible was th...