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| Pure Michigan Beach / Grand Mere S.P. |
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| Paw Paw Winery |
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| Inside "The Bean" looking up!! |
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Pears Mill
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| Going Down Bear Cave |
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| "The Bean" in Chicago, Ill. |
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| New Crowley Home |
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| Inside Bear Cave |
Our travels took us to the southwest corner of Michigan to Buchanan (near Niles) Michigan. One of two membership campgrounds in Michigan was located there and we wanted to check it out. Buchanan was a cute little town and we visited there a few times to take pictures of the old Pears Grist-mill, visit an great local meat and farmer's markets, shop at the gift / pizza shops because the guys won gift certificates. The Bear Cave RV Resort campground was located on the St. Joseph River which was a pretty wide and deep. Across the way was the Red Bud Motor-cross Racetrack, but no races were schedule for the time of our visit. This campground was called Bear Cave because literally there is a cave located under the camp store. It is the only naturally formed cave in the State of Michigan. It contains many rare and bizarre rock formations, pools of water and of course many cave bats. At one time, many Indian tribes inhabited this area, lastly the Potawatomi Indians who were known to have named the cave. This Bear Cave was also used during the filming of one of the first motion pictures -- a talking film called "The Great Train Robbery". It is about 40 feet below the surface and about 150 feet long. Because the temperature stays around 58 degrees year round, the bats hibernate in this cave during the winter months (October - April). On our visit there, the bats were very active and would fly above and around us which according to our source there, became very active right before the earthquake in Virginia and the eastern states hurricane weeks earlier. They say animals can tell when a natural disaster is to occur beforehand. They did not get tangled in our hair which is how "the old untrue tale" says they do. Besides from the pool and hot tub, Labor Day weekend was filled with many activities there like an ice cream social, a delicious grilled pork chop potluck, bingo and canoe races which Mike and Jason won first place. Our main event however, was our visit to Chicago, Ill. with Darlene's brother Kevin and family, Gina, Ian, Emily and their two dogs, Molly & Kirby. We had the best time. They took us downtown via the L trains where we visited Millenium Park, the Water fountain, seen "The Bean" and caught a local magician act and the Chicago's Jazz festival was going on a beautiful day!!! We spent the night in their very nice new home and they were very good hosts which made it sad for us to leave the next day. We also visited Grand Mere S.P. in Michigan which we hiked to Lake Michigan with Buddy to swim since it was the only dog beach in the area. Nearby Niles Darlene had her eyes checked because she can't read the maps and Jason had an allergy test done. South Bend, Ind. and Dowagiac, Mi.(where the Crowley's originated) were other towns we visited. We also attended the Annual Paw Paw Wine Festival and meeting up with our daughter, Kelsey for some wine tasting and grape stomping festivities. We missed the grape stomping due to lack of teams but we had fun visiting the craft booths and riding a horse pulled cart into town and watching Mike trying for a Hole-In-One. We shall be back someday because we liked the Bear Cave RV Resort park and we were not too far from the Warren Dunes and those Pure Michigan Beaches!!!! Yes that is a Truck Tire??
