Sooper dooper yooper musheen

Where do I start? I slept all the way until 7:11 AM this morning. I have been slodgy about getting up at my preferred time lately and it has worsened here at Houghton Lake. I will have to get myself back on track because Tuesday morning, I will be dragging my sorry arse to WORK! Yes. Butt in seat and back to it!

So it was around nine when we finally got hooked up with breakfast, at Mikey’s, a new place in the old Big Boy where I once endured a meal with my in-laws who ordered frog legs and then complained because they didn’t look like the picture. I was pregnant at the time and it was not a fun occasion for me although it is quite entertaining after all these years. Mikey’s is notchyer grandpa’s Big Boy. They are focusing on fresh, local foods and I do not think you can get frog legs there. We have actually met one of the folks involved in this venture (on the North Country Trail, where else?) and we have enjoyed a few breakfasts there.

I hope Mikey’s succeeds and I will patronize it whenever I can, without abandoning Little Boots. It seems like all of a sudden, unassuming but good restaurants are popping up all over in the north country. And so we schlepped up for a beer/whine snacky kind of lunch at Paddle Hard Brewing in Grayling today.

paddle1

When I think of paddles these days, I think of kayaking, not canoeing (a canoe is a fight), but it needs to be said that the AuSable River runs through Grayling and there is a looooong tradition of canoeing and canoe outfitters in that little city. Anyway, we had barely sat down at the bar when the couple next to us noticed the GG’s backpack with its North Country Trail badges and things. They were trail aficionados and so an animated conversation ensued and many phone pics were shown. Other than that, it was a wonderful place, food, drink, and our lovely bartender, an upbeat friendly multi-tasker after my own heart. I loved her. Not the best pic but here is a little “nook” that you can sit in at the brewpub assuming you have the right number of people and arrive at the right time.

paddle2

On the way back down to Hoton Lake, we hit up the Grayling Glen’s Family Fare for a few grokkeries. I had scoped the place out on way up because the Sault Ste. Siberia Family Fare is closing tomorrow (if I have it right), a victim of Walmart and the new Meijer that’s coming into town (and turned my little life upside down by changing the 3-Mile/Radar Road intersection from 3-way to 4-way. Whut?). Could the Grayling store be closing too? There were a lot of cars in the parking lot so we took a chance and I am ECSTATIC to report that THIS Family Fare is alive and thriving and advertising an upcoming in-store STARBUCKS! This is a good thing! (We’ll talk about my mixed feelings about the Soo Family Fare and Meijer some other time.)

Finally, one of our missions today was to get some NEW GAS to get the Hoton Lake snowblower going. I won’t even try to explain the backstory to that. It wouldn’t start earlier in the day and it was EVENTUALLY determined that maybe the gas was bad. I’m glad I’m married to one of the Courtois boyz because I could never figger this kinda stuff out by myself. But New Gas solved the problem as you can see in the next pic.

paddle3

By the way, I inherited that sooper dooper yooper musheen from my old coot. He decided at about the age of 75 that he was taaaarrred of shoveling the huge dumps of snow that the yooperland often gets by hand and bought a snowblower. The GG and I are sitting here kibbitzing about whether this snowblower was the one he bought way back then. If so, it would be 23 years old now. It probably is. I guess it just needs New Gas to run. It has joined the fleet of motorized tools here at Hoton Lake and it gets used and my old coot would love that!

One Response to “Sooper dooper yooper musheen”

  1. Margaret Says:

    Sbux!! Ashley calls them the Evil Empire because they are everywhere and seem to drive the independent coffee shops out of business. Still, they do make a reliably good mocha, although not as tasty as the ones I craft at home on my ancient Krups. Sounds like lots of changes up there in the Great White North.