An eight hour ride on Greyhound Bus took us on a scenic journey through wilderness and lake-filled Michigan, from industrial Detroit to Great Lakes hub Traverse City. Though still pretty small, Traverse is the biggest city in the area, and the last stop for Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart, Sam's Club, Starbucks or any other chain store or mall before you drive into small town USA. Driving between towns, we pass by old miniature golf courses, a drive-in movie theater, and several pick-your-own blueberry fields. Our small town destination was Frankfort, which we immediately fell in love with. The business district of Frankfort, and for that matter most of the towns in this area, consists of one main street offering mom-and-pop shops, a few cafes, a motel or B&B, hardware store, bakery, pharmacy, post office, fudge shop, ice cream stand, and a one theater cinema. The clapboard homes on the tree lined streets in town all have porches, rocking chairs, lawns and American flags, and the surrounding homes are spread widely for miles through the forest and around the lakes. At the end of town, Lake Michigan is so huge that it looks like an ocean, and its beaches are just as beautiful.

Many families have been spending their summers in Frankfort for generations, and the Kirkwood family is no exception. Ginny and Charlie Kirkwood have created a warm home in the forest for their 5 married children and 8 grandchildren (so far) to share each summer. We were invited by one of their sons and daughter-in-law, Tim and Julie, who were personal training clients of Brad's in Tokyo, and over the month most of the main and extended family enjoyed some training with Brad, as a makeshift basement gym was created and Frankfort served as an outdoor haven for running, hiking, bicycling, swimming and tennis. The family's ten bedroom home and three bedroom 'court house' (guest house next to the tennis courts) filled up over the month with siblings, spouses, children, grandchildren, cousins, aunts, nephews, in-laws, family friends and more, and we quickly fell in love with the children and became fast friends with this loving clan, all the way up to 94-year-old great-grandma Ruth.

The Kirkwoods were wonderful and the summer was awesome, with perfect weather and long days, with the sun setting around 9:45 pm. At the local community center, we accompanied the kids to sports lessons and activities, played at the beach at Crystal Lake, and attended the children's operetta show. We surely got a bit of practice for having children someday and Bex even made some extra money babysitting for a few local families. At the homestead we lounged on the deck, hit the tennis courts almost daily, often sat down to dinner for 30 people, played board games, picnicked on the lawn and celebrated a second birthday. 'Old Baldy' was another favorite activity, the giant sand dunes behind the house, which we climbed up and slid down to Lake Michigan's secluded stretches of beach, then a couple nights we drove to Point Betsie Lighthouse to sing and toast marshmallows for smores around a beach bonfire as the sun went down. Around town we got to know many families and ran into them at the street sale, an art fair, a blueberry festival and at the Rotary Club's chicken BBQ in the park. Then just short drives away, we could spend an afternoon at Crystal Mountain Ski Resort waterpark or in Glen Arbor browsing tiny art galleries and sampling cherry treats, salsas, wines and more products of the cherry capital of the world, Northern Michigan. To finish off the summer, Brad joined Tim and three family friends to run in the annual team marathon around Crystal Lake and their team placed third for their age group. On top of all this, we also had two nights of a 'romantic getaway' at the cabin resort of Chimney Corners and joined their BBQ where we met even more welcoming families whose roots go very deep in Frankfort.

We now, too, have a connection to Northwest Michigan and have had more than a glimpse into this wonderful place where families and friends can enjoy the simple things in life together. It was great for us to have a break from traveling for awhile, spend a month in one place, make some extra money while spending very little, and get to know some very special people.

Traveler Tips:
**From Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, SMART city buses go to Downtown Detroit and pass near the Greyhound Bus Terminal. Bus fare is $1.50 exact change. A taxi runs about $30.

**Greyhound Bus is a cheap and comfortable way to get around the USA. Thousands of routes are available to all corners of the country and tickets purchased in advance online are heavily discounted. See www.greyhound.com.