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20th Stop - Grand Rapids (MI)

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Blog Post #27 - Written July 26, 2025 Stay: June 17-19, 2025 On our way up to Grand Rapids, we stopped in Kalamazoo to visit the the Air Zoo (free with ASTC pass). They have a bunch of little aerospace themed carnival rides that the kids loved, flight simulators, science demonstrations, plane restorations, and tons of planes and helicopters to see and climb in.  My favorites were the small 1 or 2 seater planes that people had built themselves. They had so many and they were so cool, and the stories of the men and women that built and flew them were amazing. It inspired me and so I of course had to add "Build and fly my own plane" to my list of life goals . . . they only cost like $50,000! And 1,000 hours of fun to put it together haha :) They are also home to (according to some sources) the world's largest indoor hand-painted mural! That was pretty amazing to see as well. Megan loves showing our kids Bernoulli's Principle in action, and this science station had one of...
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19th Stop - Timber Trails (Decatur, MI)

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Blog Post #26 - Written July 25, 2025 Stay: June 13-16, 2025 This was our first of many stops in Michigan. I had always seen beautiful pictures of Michigan while we lived in Ohio, but had only been to the Detroit area. So I told Megan when she was planning out our route, that I wanted to explore Michigan. And plan she did! I don't even know how many places we visited, but after we eventually left Michigan, we looked back and realized we had spent almost an entire month in just that one state! It was pretty great, so I'm not complaining, but we're not going to get all the way around the country at that pace. One thing we loved about Michigan, was how many what I'll call "family adventure" campgrounds their were. This was our first...and we loved it. Felt like the perfect place to have a future family reunion. We didn't go on any special outings or excursions, except church on Sunday. Otherwise we just played around the campground and had a grand 'ole ti...
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18th Stop - Lakeview Campground (Rochester, IN)

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Blog Post #25 - Written July 20, 2025 Stay: June 12, 2025 I almost forgot about this stop since we only stayed one night. One last stop, just  before our month in Michigan. But we saw some interesting things I wanted to shared. First, they had a fun mini-golf course the kids loved (of course). D especially liked 'riding' the trike on hole 1. Second, they had like 3 or 4 different playgrounds. They were pretty old, but kids don't care. They just love playing. In fact, the older playgrounds are often more fun, especially if they're homemade haha, they just don't build 'em like they used to! They had an old teacup carnival ride, a homemade ninja warrior course, and my personal favorite...The Swing-Teeter Totter-Spinner combo! Watch the video below, this thing was awesome! I loved it. The boys loved it. The birds loved it...until one of the baby chicks got flung out of its nest as I was spinning the boys around on it. Apparently the a robin had decided to build its...
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17th Stop - Hunter's Honey Farm (IN)

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Blog Post #24 - Written July 10, 2025 Stay: June 11, 2025 Megan found this awesome honey farm to stop at for a night on our way up to Michigan. Even though it was just a random stop along our route, we had so much fun! The boys immediately grabbed their nets to "go catch some frogs" in the pond. To our surprise, they actually did! And not just frogs. They caught water snakes and turtles too, in addition to about 20 frogs. I couldn't believe how successful they were. Especially Z; Q is still working to overcome his squeamishness, but he did catch at least one! We also found a long-tailed salamander!     Meanwhile, Megan set up our hammock for the first time this trip so she could relax... You can guess how long that lasted. The owner and beekeeper (Tracy Hunter, our Neat Person Spotlight award recipient) invited us out to watch for the Strawberry Moon. While we waited for the moon to rise, we chatted and he shared the history of his family's beekeeping. His grandfathe...
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