Blissfield MI - OLD BIDDY ESCAPES ACROSS STATE LINES - October 2010

This past week found this old biddy, not only in Cleveland, but also sneaking across the state line on a bus tour to Michigan.

A co-worker asked if I’d be interested in spending a day on this trip that was billed as a Fall Foliage Excursion. Heck, someone else driving – a day playing hooky from work – a short train ride for lunch – plus a little shopping – of course I said yes.

I took plenty of ribbing about going on a “blue-haired” bus trip, but my response is pretty much, "if it weren’t for the diligence of my Hair Dude John, I’d BE one of those blue-haired old ladies."

Boarding the 1940's
vintage restored
dining car for lunch

So on a Monday morning in October, we rendezvoused at the AAA offices in Akron and boarded a deluxe motor coach with our driver Mac, tour guide Eric, and about 50 other folks, and headed on out to Blissfield Michigan. In Blissfield we boarded the Blissfield & Adrian train for a leisurely chug through the countryside while we were served a terrific lunch of Chicken Marsala, rice pilaf and green beans. During lunch we were entertained by a troupe of actors attempting to do a Murder Mystery entitled “Pet Shop Murder”. We never really got much of a plot to this mainly because we were a little busy laughing at the actors and their characters, particularly Miss Muffin who was maybe just a little larger than life (in so very many ways). The actors kept losing their places and forgetting lines, but it was all in good fun and everyone was happy just to be having an enjoyable afternoon.

Although the train never topped a cruising speed of 7 miles per hour, we did enjoy the trip. The dining car was a nicely restored vintage 1940’s, the service was excellent, and the food was delicious.

After our rail journey, we hopped back aboard our motor coach and headed to Dundee Michigan where we stopped at Silver Bells, a Christmas shop that seemed a little out of season on this crisp, sunny day. From holiday ornaments to Fenton glassware, this shop was brimming with items begging to be taken home for the holidays.

This walkway was 10 feet under
water during the flood of 2009

We then hopped back on the bus for a short jaunt to downtown Dundee and the Swan Candle Outlet shop. I wandered a bit astray of our group and took a little walk down by the Raisin River front. Hard to believe that the entire area was flooded just a year ago and hit hard by a tornado earlier in 2010. Where I had walked underneath the bridge was covered with water by the flood, I’d guess nearly 15 feet over normal river height.

After our hour shopping at the candle outlet, we rode over to the Russell Stover chocolate outlet and the St. Julian Winery on the other side of town. Shopping for chocolate on the cheap is always a good idea and discovering a new wine or two isn’t a bad thing either.

Contrary to the opinion expressed by those that were mocking this trip (not to name names here Dan and Alan!)...there were at least 9 men in the bus besides all the women.  I was going to state that they were all older than Methuselah, but I'm getting a little to long in the tooth to make that particular remark. 

POST PHOTO TRAUMA
The young folks over at the Akron Digital Media Center have been asking me to produce videos with the stories I'm writing.... and frankly it's a difficult task for me since I'm 1) not steady with a camera and 2) not technically gifted and 3) sort of shy about that sort of thing in general.  HOWEVER, the other day they mentioned that the same effect could be had by stringing together a bunch of photos and I had an Ah-ha moment.  Photos I can (and do) do. 

So after a week of trial and error with the Microsoft Movie Maker program and a bunch of pictures I took while in Michigan I strung together my first video.  Speilberg is in no danger of being replaced anytime soon.  I image that the 2-year old at the ADMC could do better, but hey - I gave it a shot.  So...here you are....