"The corn is as high as an elephant's eye
And it looks like it's climbing clear up to the sky!"
~~~ Oscar Hammerstein Jr., "Oklahoma!"
Rick and I headed home for a few days -- a doc appointment for me, time for his cycling trip to Ottawa for him. It was a gloomy day when we left -- it's always easier to leave the lake on a cold, gloomy day!
We usually don't travel on a Sunday and we knew the traffic would be terrible. (One look at the freeway confirmed this.) So we decided to take the two-lane roads home, Old 27, as it is called. I bet we didn't see more than 15 cars over the close to 200 mile trip (back roads add distance!). It was heaven and it was fun.
Our lunch stop was at Harrison, Michigan. We've had bad food in Harrison before and weren't sure where to stop but when we saw a BBQ sign decided to give it a try.
Harrison Smokehouse BBQ could not be beat. Such a wonderful surprise. I had the pulled pork sandwich, Rick the chicken and both were great.
The restaurant is unprepossessing, very up north. Vinyl booths, no tablecloths or carpets. Just fabulous food, which is really what matters most! The staff was great and the prices were right. We'll go again.
Back on the road we came into corn country, I'm a big fan of sweet corn. Indeed, I grew up in a family that grew corn. My grandparents had quite a crop each year which we enjoyed throughout my youth. A Just-corn dinner was always one of the highlights each summer during my youth.
For miles, we saw field after field of corn -- very tall, beautiful corn -- and yes, it was "as high as an elephant's eye."
It's wind turbine country too. I couldn't begin to count the volume of windmills we saw doing their thing, making safe power.
Back at home Rick detailed my car (admittedly a mess!) and it looks like a brand new vehicle, save for a few mishaps that came when it arrived in my own world. Nothing to do about those and that's OK. Three cheers!
And then there are the doc, lab work, picking up stuff from the pharmacy and medical supply place, groceries. Home-again always is a bit frustrating. There are the things one didn't put away before leaving, projects too big to tackle over a few days but annoying nonetheless, lack of food in the house, spots that make you crazy!
I'll drop Rick off along the way to his Ottawa destination too bypass a few gnarly biking areas, meet a friend for lunch and head back to the lake on Thursday. Meanwhile, I leave you with our last sunset from the lake.
Not perfect, but pretty darned beautiful.
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49 comments:
I'm singing already. I loved that film back when, and will now be singing all of the songs all day - sigh - such nice memories! The restaurant looks great, too. Good food, no frills - that#'s what we need! Places like that are getting rare her, it's mostly just the chain places with plastic food and high promises. Have a great day, hugs, Valerie
Great that you took the backroads, we often do the same. Pretty sunset.
I prefer the back roads everyone is in a hurry. I hope your tests went well
Cathy
Are you already having cold days?!? We've been hitting the 90s most days.
That's great that you found a restaurant you like on the way to/from the lake. It seems like the little hole-in-the-wall places that aren't at all fancy usually do have the best food.
I hope Rick has a good bike trip and you have a good trip back to the lake.
Your country road route sounds like a world of peace and beauty. Well wishes for Rick's bike tour. Prayers for all health and happiness.
I dread reading you leave the lake because it feels too soon for packing up the lake cottage posts. Cooler temperatures here in Vermont have signaled the birds to return to the deck where bird seed is in winter. Not a good sign for me.
Apparently I'm cousin related to half of Harrison! Hope Rick has decent weather for his journey. It's sunny, warm, humid and smokey/hazy here in the Ottawa valley today.
BBQ? You're speaking my language, and the restaurant decor would fit right in down here in Memphis :)
You can't beat fresh corn.
That sunset looks pretty perfect to me :)
I like the look on Rick's face while dealing with the food on his plate.
The last picture with the sunset is spectacular!
Taking Old 27 home sounds delightful!
I made pulled pork in the crock pot not too long ago. CORN!!! Love it! Our neighbor brought us some ears recently, so good.
That is a beautiful sunset.
Safe travels to Rick on his cycling trip to Ottawa.
~Mary
The cornfield and windmills remind me of Kahuku, where we had our staycation last week. Lovely! I enjoyed "Oklahoma," the musical, when it was performed in Hawaii and often listen to the CD. Great post, Jeanie!
My corn is tall too but the cobs are only just beginning to appear so either they will be very late or not at all.
Hope all your appointments go well and you are soon back at the lake
Backroads are always a nice way to travel. Super sunset, it's a beauty.
Backroads are the best, peaceful, scenery and less stressful too the bbq spot looks perfect and is set up so it's easy to clean too.
am not crazy about those wind generators they kill many many birds and the parts are not recyclable (just my own opinion of course)
we have our yearly eye appt next week mine are getting really bad last year he said I have gluacoma good luck with everything
The smokehouse sounds delicious, and it looks like a clean place to eat. I love those corn fields. I think that's what I'll always remember when I visited IOWA, their corn fields! They were everywhere! I'm glad you took the back roads and had a nice drive there. Too crowded and scary on the freeways these days. So good of Rick to detail your car. A just-corn dinner sounds pretty good to me. There's nothing like fresh corn on the cob. : )
~Sheri
ps.....I hope all is well with your health appointments, Jeanie.
We always take the back roads when traveling during the summer as our traffic is very busy these days, Jeanie. I love corn as well and remember days growing up with just the fresh veggies from the market. Love the sunset at the lake. Hope all goes well with Dr appointments.
A lovely sunset.
Our roads too get so busy, we tend to take a quieter road if we can.
I do hope your tests went well.
Safe journey back to the lake.
All the best Jan
Looks like a great meal!
Backroad trips -- and backroad discoveries, like the BBQ restaurant you found -- are a rare summer treat. Looks like you had a great time! I hope all goes well with the various doctor's appointments. It's been great to hear about all the walking you've been doing, so hopefully there's some good news in at least some quarter of the health picture. Best wishes to Rick. Safe journeys to you both. Looks like a beautiful weekend coming up -- hope you have the chance to enjoy it!
We took the back roads from SW Missouri to Rochester, Minnesota last September. It was really quaint with small towns and tons of farm and pumpkin stands. We loved it. We hadn't seen wind turbines in person before. They were everywhere. Your lake sunset is gorgeous, don't blame you for hating to leave. So now I'm hungry; corn and bar-b-que sounds delicious!
Your posts are so enjoyable. I love the lyrics about the corn and your corn looks delicious. Gorgeous photos too. Hope you enjoyed your little road trip and time at home.
We used to be so excited as kids to have those all corn on the cob dinners every year, too. We had more than one when the corn was ripe. The town where my folks grew up (Cokato Minnesota) had a Green Giant corn processing factory near the town that my grandma worked at in the summer and fall--as soon as the corn was good to go--till she was near 90. Every fall they had a Corn Carnival and you could eat all the cobs you wanted! They dipped them in hot vast of butter and had saltshakers everywhere. We looked forward to that carnival--not for the kiddy type rides we outgrew pretty quickly, but for the free corn!! I doubt they have probably done that for decades--the free cobs. LOL!
Beautiful sunsets. Hope the doctor visits went well with good results. I have always preferred the road less traveled. ;) So much more relaxing to travel--and usually with much better scenery. It may take a tad longer, but so worth it. :)
Now you know why I always take the secondary or back roads. Even when I head to my friends' places on the other side of San Antonio, I go out of my way to avoid the congestion, accidents, and white-knuckle speeds of the interstate and such. There's better food to be found, plenty of friendly people, and of course a chance to stop to check out the flowers! The only thing I can't find around here on back roads is good sweet corn. It's grown here, but nothing compares to that midwestern stuff.
Hope your medical visit(s) entail nothing more than checkups. Safe travels today -- your posts always arrive in my mailbox a day late, so you're already headed back to your lakeside happy place!
That first picture made me so hungry for corn and a beautiful salad. Yes, summertime and fresh corn dinners are a treat! I remember corn and watermelon dinners.
Glad you got home and were able to take care of those not so pleasant things then return to the lake another time and enjoy a last sunset. Hoping Rick has a good bike trip.
The backroads canbe very interesting and fun. You do see things you usually don’t see. The barbecue sounds great and yummy 🌽 corn. Sometimes we have to get out to do those important things in our lives.
Looks like a wonderful day for you both...
I used to love going back and forth to our cottage by way of the back roads. And I knew them all. Thanks for bringing back those memories.
I recently took a back road drive on the panhandle of Florida - I lasted two hours of 35 miles an hour and lots of stop lights and then switched over to the interstate. Good luck to Rick on his bike ride and I hope you enjoy things back at the lake.
When in doubt, take the road less travelled.
When we go to my parent's lake home, we nearly always come back on saturday for this very reason! I'll be taking Paul up there a week from Saturday as he'll spend the week up there since his summer program end next Wednesday. I'll drive back on Sunday and it will be very trafficky but at least it will just be me and no kids! That bbq place reminds me of a place Phil and I went to in NC on our way from Charlotte to Asheville. It was a total hole in the wall unassuming kind of place but the food was AMAZING!
That sunset is gorgeous!! I'm already noticing that the sun is rising much later. :( I don't like it!
Taking the back roads often allows one to find little gems like that place where you ate..Sounds good..
I hope all your appointments went well...
Hope Rick has a safe journey..
Pretty sunset..
I love taking the longer, slower roads. When there was lots of construction on the expressway to our cottage, we always took the back roads to and from our cottage. I remember years ago, my dad took back roads to drive from our suburb in the Detroit area down to Columbus, Ohio. I loved going through all the smaller towns and seeing all the farms along the way. It came to an end when more highways were constructed. I hope everything went fine for your doctors appointment. I had a RF Ablation on my lower back yesterday morning. Fingers crossed!
Oh yum, that first photo! It is always great to get on roads with little traffic. The barbecue, the corn in the field, the sunset, all delightful photos! Coming back home to every-day life projects to catch up on is hard, but you are going back to the lake. Wonderful! Happy travels!
Old 27 is a nice country road. I do know a farmer though that has some wind turbines on his property and he also has lots of dead birds nearby. They cannot see the blades at night. Such a sad sight. Janice
Eat some BBQ for me next time. I've had to give it up and I love it. Enjoy the lake and take more photos please.
Definitely love back road traveling, far more interesting. Corn is my favorite summer vegetable and I love seeing cornfields. Wishing Rick a safe journey and wishing you both a lovely weekend!
WE've had some cool nights too, but after the humidity and rain we had in JUly, they felt great. And I love driving backroads, even if they can sometimes take longer, but not with backed up highway traffic. That is the worst. And summer is all about sweet corn too. Yum. Hope you had a good trip back to the lake. hugs-Erika
Corn in KS has been about 30% what is normal because of our extreme heat and lack of rain. Some of the fields had stalks no taller than 2 to 3 feet. Nice to see some places were getting corn to grow. And that was beautiful country, too.
That was a great price on that daily chicken special, so I suspect all the food was reasonably priced. Thanks for taking us on the back roads to your home from the lake.
Beautiful blog
Hello,
I like taking the back roads, avoiding the highways can be a good idea.
The BBQ lunch sounds yummy, you picked a great place to stop.
I love the sweet corn, we need to buy some more soon.
I hope all goes well at the doctors and Rick has a safe ride.
Take care, have a great day and happy weekend!
I haven´t had corn at all this year...
15 cars on a whole roadtrip sounds wonderful!
The lunch-place looks good (and now I am hungry ;-)...
Beautiful parting pic!
Back road trips are the best! Glad you found delicious BBQ! The sunset is beautiful~ I hope Rick has a safe ride~
Jenna
Dear Jeanie, thank you for all your wonderful photos and posts about life at the lake. It really seems to be a wonderful place to spend your summers.
Jeanie ... I'd love a big ol' plate of BBQ right about now. What a lovely stop on your way home ... and maybe again on your way back?!
I'm glad you found a good restaurant to visit on future drives to and from the lake! The drive itself sounds wonderful. Deserted back roads can be so pleasant.
We are also fans of back roads. How delightful to have found a great restaurant. I had such a fascination with corn when I was a child, being a city/suburban kid I mostly saw it from the car on country excursions. i'm curious, how many miles does Rick travel to Ottawa? That sunset, it is beautiful. I'm curious, in your opinion, Jeanie, what would make it "perfect"? (Looks pretty perfect to me...)I'm glad you are still spending time at your lake place.
Taking the back roads or the ones less traveled are what we prefer as well, Jeanie. The trip may take longer but since we’re never in a hurry, it doesn’t matter. And, by doing, so, you also found a good place to eat😋Yes, there is always stuff to do when returning home. Hope that Rick has a good trip and that you do as well returning to the lake.
I readily take the back roads over the big highways anytime. Too bad that the wonderful food was served in all that one-way plastic. That is one aspect of American food "culture" I don't get.
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