Mackinac Day Five

 
August 22, 2025

Beach at the dunes

After breakfast at The Shack we said goodbye to the most idyllic setting of our trip and headed to Silver Lake Sand Dunes in Mears, Michigan.  The dunes consist of 2936 acres, over 1800 of which are public lands. This national park is all sand with scattered patches of wispy grass and a few scrubby trees. We piled onto a large dune buggy and Delphe, our driver, told us the grasses we see sticking out a foot or so above the surface have roots that run twelve feet deep. The small trees also have deep roots that suck the nutrients and moisture from far below the surface.  Dead wood sculptures were plentiful and we learned from Delphe that these are the remains of a fire in the 1800s that took out the many trees that once grew there.  Years of wind, sun, and weather sculpted the charred stumps into interesting shapes and some have been given names.  There’s a Statue of Liberty and a Michigan State replica – or so she told us.  I couldn’t see it myself.

By the shores of Silver Lake the sand is reclaiming territory, taking back a few feet each year. This is not the Silver Lake from the Laura Ingalls Wilder book of the same name.  That one was in the Dakota Territory.  We passed a sign that had been on the beach but is now almost completely buried, only inches of its top showing above the sand. What had once been close to the shoreline and rising high above the ground was now a hundred feet or more inland and almost completely buried.  Delphe pointed to a far distant dune and told us there are up to nine houses completely buried under the surface.  The owner of one house being threatened with complete destruction and burial has received permission from the park authorities (since he is situated in a state park) to sell the sand he removes from his property each year.  He is hoping to recoup some of the hefty expense he incurs trying to save his home from the ever-encroaching sand.

I wanted to ask Delphe where the sand comes from but never managed it.  So I Googled it.  The internet says the massive amounts of sand and quartz were deposited by glaciers that are believed to have once covered Michigan.  After the glaciers melted, strong winds from Lake Michigan blew the accumulated sand from the glacial deposits onto shore which formed towering dunes over thousands of years.  And you know if the internet says it, it must be true.

Delphe took us on a fun ride over the dunes and down a few very steep hills, a sharp curve or two, and up to the beaches along the shoreline.  It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny, perfect for what we were doing.

Our next stop was Russ Restaurant in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  The food was down home cooking and delicious, conducive to naps all around on the bus.  Hopefully our driver doesn’t need one.  We passed the mic around on the bus, sharing our favorite things and places on this trip and disussing options for next year’s plans.  Lori, our tour escort, handed out promotional things like key chains, toiletry bags, and mini first aid kits.  She pulled names out for door prizes.  Since I almost never win anything I barely paid attention but then to my surprise and delight I won a stuffed elk that makes a bugling sound when squeezed just right.  This is guaranteed to provide me with hours of fun annoying other people.

A short time later we dropped off Shirl who lives nearby. She left us some of her delicious home-made cookies to pass around later this afternoon.  Paul played his guitar and most of the bus was singing along while we  continued on  southward.  And now nothing remains of this year’s travel except a rest stop or two and a supper stop close to home.

Following the military procession home

As I indicated when I wrote the above paragraph, I thought nothing noteworthy was left to write about.  Turns out that was not true.  In Wooster which is located about half an hour from home we were stopped at a red light when fire trucks and police cars, probably about twenty of them, all with lights flashing, turned onto route 83, the same way we would be going.  About three cars in we saw a hearse and speculation began about its occupant.  Was it a policeman or fireman who drew such honor from law enforcement?   Was someone killed in the line of duty? I went back to Google and found the answer.

On December 1^st, 1950, over seven years before I was born, United States Army 1^st Lt Hott, from Holmesville, Ohio was killed in action in North Korea.  In 2018 fifty-five boxes of remains were turned over by North Korea for identification.  1^st Lt Hott is the one hundredth service member identified and returned home for burial. He was a highly decorated veteran who also fought in WWII.  What stories he could have told us!

We followed the procession all the way to Holmesville were we turned off for the last five miles to home.  What a reminder that we are walking free because of 1st Lt Hott and countless others like him, men from small town america who gave everything so we could.  Thank-you Lt Hott.

Saying our goodbyes and unloading luggage