Free Gas When You Stay in Traverse City

Now through Labor Day a four-night stay at any of Traverse City's 43 hotels, motels, and resorts will get you a $25 gas card. The gas card comes courtesy of the Traverse City Convention and Visitors Bureau in order to counter any damage the high gas prices might cause to tourism this summer. You must make your reservations through the following toll-free number set up specifically for this promotion - 1-800-714-0051.

No word yet on if Traverse City restaurants will join the free gas promotion with an "Eat here and get Gas" campaign. ;)

Read the full article in the Traverse City Record Eagle.

Gas Prices Week of 5/1/2006

Our statewide average for this week sits at $2.848. Not quite $3 per gallon just yet. Gas was $2.635 one month ago and $2.239 one year ago. Prices courtesy of www.fuelgaugereport.com.

Michigan's Upper Peninsula Top 10 Vacation Destination

Michigan's Upper Peninsula has joined the likes of the Greek Islands, London, Russia, and Scandanavia as a Top 10 summer vacation destination according to ShermansTravel.com. The website touts itself as "your unbiased guide to top deals and destinations." How cool is it to have the spotlight on the U.P.? We could certainly use the good stories about our state to help our tourism industry.

Here is what ShermansTravel.com has to say about our beloved Upper Peninsula:

"If city-living gets too hot, pack up some marshmallows, hot dogs, and camping gear and head to the refreshing Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where majestic wildlife, unspoiled rivers, waterfalls, and dense forests abound. Blessed with some 1700 miles of shoreline along three of the Great Lakes – Superior, Michigan and Huron – it should come as no surprise that fishing, canoeing, and camping are prime activities here, with moose, bears, and beavers as common companions. The region’s strong Native American and French Canadian heritage are experienced everywhere as well; enclaves with names like Sault Ste-Marie and bridges like the Mackinac hearken back to the days of the earliest settlers. You’ll probably feel like one of North America’s earliest explorers yourself as you paddle the waterways here and set up camp in the woods."

Thanks to an article in The Mining Journal that pointed this great news out.

Detroit Free Press Turns 175 on May 5, 2006

As Cliff Clavin (from the popular Cheers television show) might say - it's a little known fact that the Detroit Free Press will celebrate it's 175th year of existence on May 5, 2006. All week long the Free Press will be featuring bits of trivia from its history. A quick piece of trivia from today's article -

"the Detroit Free Press has outlasted nearly all its peers, becoming the second-oldest continuously operated business in Michigan."

Plant a Tree For Arbor Day

Thanks to the Detroit Free Press I found out that today, April 28, is Arbor Day. The article in the Free Press has a handful of stories about people and their thoughts about trees and why they planted them. I remember when I was in elementary school and we had a field trip in the spring to the covered bridge in Centreville. They had all sorts of outdoor activities and information about the environment. We learned about planting trees to protect areas from erosion and received a White Pine seedling to take home and plant.

Looking back, I can't believe how excited I was to have a tree for a present. I planted and watered that little seedling and before you knew it that little pine was really growing.

Unfortunately, my little pine tree didn't make it too many years. I cannot remember the exact cause of its demise. It was either as a result of some free-range chickens roosting in it at night or the time our calves got out and one of them chomped the top of the tree clean off.

We had a few little pine trees at the time, so I don't remember which event killed my tree. I know that my tree was one of the two that were finished off by farm animals.

I wish we had more room to plant trees where we live. If we did, we would definitely be planting a tree today.