Having a long week end and no special plans the crew needed a “mini vacation” AKA “Road Trip”. The activities chairman found a “Ironjack Lumberjack Competition – As Seen on TV” that was putting on a competition nearby, so Saturday morning the vehicle was loaded with a glass of ice and some cookies and the trip was underway. Frankenmuth Michigan is only about an hour drive from Ann Arbor, so we got there quickly and spent time touring the town. We had been to Frankenmuth a few years back, but it must have been during the off season since the town was quite deserted during that visit. We had carefully reviewed the Ironjack competition schedule and decided with the temperature approaching 90 and crystal clear skies that if we sat through both the afternoon and evening sessions there would be an excellent chance of going home mimicking “crispy critters”. Therefore we did what any sane person would do… went shopping and eating. We toured the shops enjoying specialties such as “chocolate and peanut butter cheese” (actually it was quite good, not sure how good for you though) a variety of sausages (samples abounded in the stores) and spent time reviewing a great variety of imported beers. Some all time favorites are labeled with Elvis Presley… apparently a good percentage of people that visit here are also Elvis fans with James Dean pulling a close second. (Purse’s, postcards, street signs, movies, wine, beer, about anything you can put an Elvis or James picture on…)
Having worked up quite the appetite from walking about town, and not having seen any foot long hot dogs, corn dogs or even an Elephant Ear stand in sight when we checked out the competition area we decided on going to an early supper prior to the competition.
Would you believe over 2 MILLION chicken dinners a year!
The specialty of the town is the chicken dinners with “Over two Million served yearly” according to the literature, so we opted for the veggie burger…. not really, we may have been escorted out of town for such blasphemy, so we stuffed fried chicken into our faces until we couldn’t squeeze in one more small wing. (Family style, all you can eat dinners).
Note the bright red medical alert wristband they provide when you order the all you can eat chicken dinner. (Actual uncropped photo taken only minutes into the feeding frenzy.)
We successfully waddled back through town to the competition arena, and found a seat in time to watch the activities. There are a few pictures, and maybe some day I will add a quick movie I took of one of the events. The competition was not huge, but still pretty cool to see up close, and the smell of fresh cut wood added a great atmosphere so we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. World’s largest Christmas oriented store.
We did not have time before the event to visit Bronners, so after leaving the arena we drove down the road to the store. Well, don’t you just know they close at 6 PM until June! So we missed visiting the store, but had time to get a couple great photos around the building before the security team came and tried to taser Paul for feeding the penguins which was strictly prohibited.
Finally we packed up, taking our tired legs and feet, sunburned faces and overly full stomachs back to Ann Arbor.
Until all “the chips that fell where they may” are cleaned up,
George
