Giant Grasshopper: Real Art, Fake Lore

Personalized Properties, pg 167
Players: Erin & Mallery





Not far from the Kaleva Bottle House, hidden away in Kaleva's Centennial Park, we found the Giant Grasshopper. A local welder and 2,000 Lutheran Brethren High School students created the masterpiece along with several other projects that were intended to renovate the small town. The sculpture was built to commemorate the town's Finnish heritage, but as it turns out, the legend behind the grasshopper turns out to be fake!

The grasshopper was actually hard to find as it is camouflaged in tall weeds along the tree line. If you are in the area and looking for the grasshopper, good luck! If you live near Kaleva and own a weed whacker, it would be greatly appreciated if you helped eliminate the weeds!

On a side note, if you are traveling through Kaleva and have the privilege of visiting the Kaleva Bottle House and the Giant Grasshopper, you might as well head up the road to see this train. As you can see, I had an extremely hard time catching the train, but Erin is in great shape and had no problem!

Kaleva's Bottle House

Personalized Properties, pg 129
Players: Erin & Mallery


Built of 60,000 glass bottles, the Kaleva Bottle House was finished in 1941 by a former bottle company owner, John J. Makinen. Makinen's family lived in the house for many years before the Kaleva Historical Society purchased it in 1980, but Makinen died before ever spending one night in his eccentric creation.

Kampvilla RV Park's Big Yellow Dinosaur

Added Competition
Players: Erin & Mallery

On Sunday, June 20th, Erin and I completed eight challenges (six from the book and two that we added), starting with a picture of the Big Yellow Dinosaur at Kampvilla RV Park in Bear Lake. Now we are still trying to figure out why the dinosaur didn't make it into the Weird Michigan book, but I'm sure after the letter I wrote to the editor that it will appear in the next edition.

Of course I am partial to the dinosaur considering I woke up to him in my front yard for more than 10 years, but locals and tourist alike always look for the dinosaur when heading north on US 31, 4 miles north of Bear Lake. Many people stop to take pictures with it every week, and its glowing red eyes spook them when driving by at night.

By far the coolest roadside oddity if you ask me!

The Legend of the Petoskey Stones

Ancient Mysteries, pg 27
Players: Beth & Mallery



Petoskey stones are a type of fossilized coral and appear to be covered with hundreds of tiny, radiating suns. The unique stone is Michigan's state stone and can only be found in the northern part of the state.

While visiting Beth in Petoskey, she took me to a secret beach where we hit the jackpot of Petoskey stones! Unfortunately, we didn't take a bag to carry the stones and Beth had to carry them in her shirt...see the pictures!

The Competition...

The ‘Weird (Arizona/Michigan) Challenge’ started when Beth moved across the county and discovered the ‘Weird Arizona’ book. She decided to try and visit every place mentioned in the book, and when she told me about her idea, I decided to join in and challenge her. While Beth has a head start on the competition, I am not afraid because I now have a strategic plan in place. Along the way, both Beth and I will take pictures at each place listed in our book and then blog about the adventures. With over 170 adventures listed in the ‘Weird Michigan’ book, plus the additional adventures we add in along the way, it is sure to provide exciting pictures, entertaining stories and lots of fun.

Here's how it works:
1. Buy the book "Weird Arizona" or "Weird Michigan."
2. Create a blog.
3. Hit the ground running folks. Go to all the weird places in the book and take a picture at the sight.
4. Blog about your travels and post pictures so everyone can get jealous about how cool your life really is.
5. Whoever goes to all the places in their book first (with complete blog postings and pictures to accompany EVERY sight) wins.

AND THE GRAND PRIZE IS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Winner picks the destination of the next friend trip from the places in the "Weird USA" book.