Hi Everyone,

So sorry we missed yesterday, what a day we had!!! As you will recall when we last updated we were in Grand Rapids Michigan. Well from there we went to Big Rapids Michigan. You may ask yourself “what is the difference between Grand versus Big in Michigan.” Well about 186,000 people. The point here is that Big is not that Big in Michigan.

From Big Rapids we drove to Traverse City Michigan. Quite a historical town. Not sure if you knew this or not but Traverse City was home to the Traverse City State Hospital (formerly known as the Northern Michigan Asylum) it is the last remaining asylum in Michigan, open from the mid-1880s until 1989. For you young ones this was a facility for people that needed psychiatric care. The facility is now being turned into shops, apartments and restaurants. It is set on 63 acres and is actually very lovely. However there is more to this facility than meets the eye. At this point you are probably wondering is she going to talk about a cemetery or not. Well, I do not want to disappoint!!! The grounds of the facility was so vast that it had orchards of cherries, peaches and apples, vineyards and vegetable gardens, field crops, and livestock from beef to chickens, horses to pigs. And it had its own herd of cows.

The most famous inhabitants of the entire Asylum was Traverse Colantha Walker. She was a grand champion milk cow, producing 200,114 pounds of milk and 7,525 pounds of butterfat in her long life. When she died in 1932 the hospital staff and patients held a banquet in her honor (I am not certain if she was the main course at the banquet or not). They buried her in a small, grassy knoll, under a granite tombstone, outside of the stately brick dairy barn that had been her home. I am certain you did not see that coming!

Now speaking of Big there is a little bit of a fight between Traverse City and Charlevoix. What kind of fight you ask? Well it is between who made the largest cherry pie. Charlevoix was the first into the mix. In a burst of bicentennial fervor, Charlevoix baked the World's Largest Cherry Pie as part of the town's annual cherry festival. A giant pan was built, along with an equally titanic oven. Local farmers supplied the ingredients. The result: a cherry pie weighing 17,420 pounds. It was a world record.

Further south, the town of Traverse City had its own cherry festival. It had perhaps heard one too many boasts from Charlevoix, and in 1987 it decided to do something about it. Even though it already had the World Champion cow of the Insane Grave (Yes that is what it is called) a sure-fire tourist draw was apparently not enough.

The Chef Pierre Bakeries went to work, and on July 25, 1987 it baked a cherry pie that put Charlevoix to shame: 28,350 pounds; 17 feet, 6 inches in diameter. As an added snub, the town had Guinness certify its pie as the largest ever. Charlevoix's days in the spotlight were ended after only 11 years.

Both Charlevoix and Traverse City were both shut out in 1992. Traverse City's cherry pie crown was knocked clear into Canada when the tiny town of Oliver, British Columbia, baked a cherry pie for the ages 39,683 pounds. For some unknown reason Oliver failed to preserve its pie pan and was shut out of the worlds largest by Guinness. Traverse City continues to hold the record.

The Traverse City pan stands unadorned and by its oversized certificate from the Guinness Book of World's Records, that gives the pie's particulars. It's a big pan, but its presentation is pretty ugly.

In contrast, Charlevoix's pan, though it held what is now merely the world's third largest cherry pie, has a charm that makes it a much better photo opportunity. In front, in skinny, hand-made letters, are the defiant words, "Worlds Largest Cherry Pie." The plate is tipped upward atop a circular brick pedestal (a "Medusa Made Oven" where it was baked). To the side, a hand-lettered sign lists the pie's ingredients. And inside the pan sits a giant concrete replica pie slice a definite advantage over the bigger, empty plate in Traverse City. I will let you be the judge.

Another big thing we saw yesterday was the big swan. In front of the Elk Rapids Chamber of Commerce is a 15 ft tall swan. It clearly has seen better days but originally was built in 1966 as a float to carry Miss Elk Rapids in the Cherry Festival and Harbor Days parades. You may ask why did Miss Elk City ride on a swan rather than an Elk, that is a question for the ages.

Hey you can’t make this stuff up!!!