Hanging out in Frank’s Fort

Hanging out in Frank’s Fort

According to my guidebook, the story goes that Frank built a big fence around his house at this lovely spot to keep the snow out. His ironic friends called it Frank’s Fort which was then shortened to the town name – Frankfort. No idea if it is true and since we didn’t see anything    but sand we have our doubts.  Nonetheless, this is a jolly little town with a safe and convenient harbor plus all the amenities needed by cruisers immediately on shore.  The town leaders kindly provide services like a new dock for our dinghies and free WiFi. There is a Laundromat with signage large enough to read from the middle of the harbor across the street from the dock and a 24 hr. Glen’s Market a short half block away. In addition, we arrived before the weekly Farmer’s Market closed which was easy to see since it takes place on the waterfront park. Best of all the smoke and scents informed us we were in time to grab a chicken BBQ dinner from the annual Rotary Club Summer Festival scholarship fundraiser.  We could smell the BBQ before we even could see the laundry sign! The dinners lived up to their aroma, too.  We wandered the main drag and visited the local hardware and old-timey variety store. Everything is neat and spruce on this main street with crowds enjoying the sunshine and good eats.

 

 

 In the evening we came back for the live taping of the local area NPR radio show “Round Up”. This featured three acoustic groups picking through some fun music along with free gourmet pizza snacks – all for a small donation and the fun of watching them tape a radio show in a restored art deco movie theater. Oh yes, we also won their contest called the “longest drive” – they kindly bent the rules since we didn’t actually drive up here. The winnings were an embarrassing bounty of beer, chicken dinners, fudge and other local treats. Thank goodness I carry those reusable grocery sacks everywhere so we could haul it all back to the boat. 

 

 

For some exercise we hiked the beach 3+ miles to the Point Betsie Lighthouse giving us a chance to hunt for our very own Petoskey stones. This lighthouse was critical to early navigation on the lake as four major routes from the south converged at this point to head north through the Manitou channel.  We know that the shoals on either side could be deadly from our visit to the Leland history museum display about the many shipwrecks in this area, so using this lighthouse mariners would line up and proceed safely toward the Straits of Mackinac. Safely through those shoals, Erben Renewal is heading south, back out on Lake Michigan toward Manistee.