Spontaneous Roadtrip!

Yesterday was the last day of the Holland, Michigan Tulip Festival. On Friday I had mentioned possibility going and Kacie and Joann thought it sounded like fun. The Muziekparade (parade of marching bands) was at 2:00 and the craft market was open 'til 6:00. The plan was to watch the parade, do a little shopping, and be home in time for dinner. The best laid plans.......
So, as we were approaching our exit from the expressway, Tom says "How about if we forget about Holland and head to Cabellas and buy that tent you want? Then we can set it up in the back yard and test it out tonight." So we drove to the Hammond, Indiana Cabellas.
But I have to tell you about our brunch stop! We started getting hungry around Benton Harbor and got off I-94 at what Tom's says he thinks was the Niles Rd exit for a Mickey D's stop. There were something like 10 cars in line for the drive-thru and the inside looked pretty busy, too, so we decided to go across the street to Sophie's Pancake House and have a sit-down meal. OMG! The food was fabulous! We could have ordered one meal and fed all four of us! I ordered blueberry pancakes and the waitress informed me that a full order was four plate sized pancakes. I asked the the shortstack and was informed that was three but I could get a "side order" of two plate size pancakes. I asked what kind of fruit was on the fruit plate and she started rattling off a long list...I stopped her and told her I was fine with anything but watermelon. I ordered the single serving fruit plate. When it arrived at the table it was on an oversized dinner plate with a bowl of cottage cheese topped with a peach half and a cherry and surrounded with fresh strawberries then arranged around the bowl were two banana halves, two huge chunks of fresh pineapple, four cantaloupe wedges, four honeydew wedges, and several orange slices. I shared it with the girls and we still couldn't finish it all. If that was the single serving, I don't want to know how much came on the larger fruit platter! Oh, and it came with raisin bread toast. Kacie ordered a cheese burger that was huge and it came with fries, coleslaw, and soup (not a choice of one of the three)! Joann ordered biscuits and gravy which came with eggs. When they brought that out it was a full plate of five biscuits covered with gravy then another plate with FOUR eggs, hashbrowns, and toast! That would be two seperate meals to me. lol Tom ordered an omlette. The omlette was nearly plate sized and included hashbrowns plus he was offered pancakes instead of toast so those filled another plate. All that food plus our beverages came to less than $10 per person. So, if you are travelling I-94 between Detroit and Chicago and find yourself getting hungry around Benton Harbor, I highly recommend Sophie's. After rolling ourselves out to the car and releasing a few burps we continued on to Cabellas.
We were very dissapointed to find that Cabellas didn't stock the tent or the "Wag Bags" that I wanted in the store so, after browsing around a bit and letting the girls photograph all of the dead animals, all we bought was a set of solar garden lights.
Back up the highway 15-20 miles was a Bass Pro shop so we stopped there to see what kind of tents they had. I had never visited a Bass Pro shop before and must say that I liked the old-time camp vignettes decorating the store much better than Cabella's stuffed dead animal displays. lol While they did have a nice assortment of nylon tents, Bass Pro Shop didn't have any canvas tents in stock, either, so I will be ordering off the Cabella's web site. I did, however, find my Wag Bags. :D Now, while I don't particularly enjoy it, I can hover and pee in a pit toilet or port-o-john but I simply cannot do a BM in one and not going for several days is not an option. I'm going to try my own private potty with the wag bags and see how that works. We also bought a camp lantern that is powered by winding and a DVD on cooking with a cast iron dutch oven in a campfire. I still have to ask Kacie if the garden lights or the Wag Bags are my Mother's Day gift from her.