Wigwam Jones

So, it began with an innocent phone conversation. Wiggy's sister, Terlingua Bob Jones, had an eldest son, Turf War Jones, who was getting married. And would I come to be the official photographer?

Of course I said 'yes', since I knew that it would be months before the Blessed Event would come to pass, and I'd have plenty of time to manufacture an excuse not to go.

But time passes, don't it? And we forget to make up stories that get us out of doing things that don't sound like very much fun. And so, in fairly short order, the event was upon us. Mrs. Wiggy and I made preparations. This was to be a Jones family spectacular, like something out of Roller Derby meets Jerry Springer. Family members who we had not seen in several years, except for the posters in the Post Office, of course. Family members who apparently had managed to chew through the straps holding them into their rubber rooms in various parts of the country. Up from the swamps, down from the hills, from the eastern plains and the western scrublands, they came.

Mrs. Wiggy arrived in Detroit in fine fashion, and we proceeded to get drunk. No, actually we went and looked at houses, since we are planning to move here as soon as we can sell offload, er, I mean 'sell' palatial Jones Estate in North Carolina.

We looked at many houses. But before we did that, I had to take Mrs. Wiggy to Mount Clemens, where we visited the First Flappy Bank of Wowzerville. She just had to see it in person. Well, it is an inspiring edifice.

We then spent several days looking at houses. Very nice houses. We think that we'll be finding a lovely house in the Detroit area with no problem, once we get ours sold, that is.

Following that, the wedding could not be put off any longer, so we were on the road. Rather than just drive straight from Detroit to West Des Moines, Iowa, via Chicago as any sane person might, we decided to take the SS Badger from Ludington, Michigan to Manitowoc, Wisconsin. So we headed west.

On the way, we came across the shortest dog run known to man.

We did eventually make it to Ludington, Michigan. It is a wonderfully lovely little town right on the shores of Lake Michigan, and it has a great beach as well.

We had a lovely dinner at a wonderful restaurant, the "House of Flavors" in Luddington. This is a restaurant that started life long ago as a dairy. It then began to make ice cream, and today it is one of the largest makers of private-label ice cream in the world. Their ice cream factory is bolted onto the back of their restaurant - a down-home old-fashioned 'Ice Cream Parlor' style restaurant. The interior has been enlarged and modernized over the years, and they don't go for that faux "Johnny Rocket" style of decor - theirs is the real deal - all the photos on the walls are of their employees over the years. The food was fantastic, the ice cream choices were out of this world!

We'd go back to House of Flavors any time! Following our lovely dinner (and dessert), we retired to our hotel and got ready for our trip across the Big Water for the following day.

Stay tuned!

Smooches,

Wiggy