In 1887 the Grand Hotel opened in Mackinac, Michigan. It will celebrate its 134th anniversary in July of 2021. We will arrive shortly after the candles are lit, following our drive up from Florida into Indianapolis and into Michigan. It’s Road Trip 2022! Looking back through recent years, 2021 was the second Portland to Venice cross-country drive interrupted by a kidney stone. 2020 was Glacier National Park and the initial southern haul to Venice via Tucson, Marfa, and Austin. 2019’s car adventures were to Vancouver, BC and Walla Walla. Going back to 2018, we drove to Crater Lake and Bend, while in 2017, my first year of retirement most all of our travel was by plane, train, or cruise ship – not automobile. 

The Grand Hotel is best known for having the world’s largest porch, some 660 feet (200 m) in length, overlooking a vast Tea Garden and the resort-scale Esther Williams swimming pool. The only other notable porch in my memory is the wrap-around veranda at French Lick Springs that was loaded with rocking chairs. I remember sitting there and thinking about the gangster days when classic, luxury  automobiles dropped off guests on the circular driveway. I’m hoping for an equally memorable vision when I relax on the massive Grand Hotel porch that I’ve heard so much about. Often the greatest excitement about traveling somewhere new is the anticipation and research that goes into the visit. We’re still 236 days away!

What to do in the meantime? Well, there’s Disneyworld, daughter, friends, and brother visits; a day trip up to see my sister and her new place in Leesburg; Spring Training, movies, and TV; two weeks in Singer Island; beach-nics, blogs to write, and touristy sights to see. The time will pass by quickly on the new Trivia calendar that we received from our financial/broker advisor. Last year it was “Word of the Day,” that wasn’t quite as well received in comparison to previous travel/nature versions. Every year my 401k gets a little lighter to the point where eventually we won’t be on their mailing list any longer. 

The point is well taken that our home is still filled with ancient relics like wall/desk calendars, file cabinets, DVD’s, cassette & VHS tapes, calculators, etc. Even the written word is somewhat antiquated. We watched Yellowstone last night with one last episode remaining, followed by the highly anticipated prequel 1883. I forgot to mention this in blog post #1883. A spin-off of Tiger King called Doc Antle is also now available. should I get desperate. “Matinee Monday” has been replaced with bridge club this afternoon, so I may not have anything better to do. Plus, to add to my sports frustration, the Bears lost again to the Packers and in the process gave up enough points to the wrong players to soundly knock our Fantasy Team out of the playoffs. Maybe I’ll get out of this sports funk by the time we get to the Grand Hotel?