Thursday, September 10, 2015

Battle Creek Adventures

We went to Battle Creek today to celebrate my birthday. First we went to Malia Mediterranean Bistro for a delicious lunch, We started with  melanzana and sausage linguini and ended with with chocolate decadence.

After a brief stop at a nearby thrift shop called St. Philipp's Tiger Room, we went to the Historic Bridge Park. We strolled around looking at the five restored metal truss bridges from the late 1800s to the early 1900s that have been restored and relocated to the park. The eventual plan is to restore a total of fifteen bridges.






The park is on the banks of the scenic Kalamazoo River. It has an accessible kayak and canoe launch called an E-Z Launch. It has an ingenious transfer system and is the first one of its kind we have seen.



We also hiked a short stretch of the North Country National Scenic Trail, which stretches from New York to North Dakota. When it's completed it will be the longest continuous hiking trail in the United States.


On our way home, we stopped at Target and found an emergency preparedness fair going on in the parking lot. Many agencies had tables and were giving away little goodies, like a whistle for your emergency preparedness kit. The Michigan State Police Aviation Unit had a drone on display, but they didn't demo it. We also saw a bomb handling robot and an autonomous submersible. It looked like a torpedo, but is used for underwater search. Its owner/handler was very happy to describe its operation to us.

This police car caught our eye. It says "Choose your ride." The taxi ride costs about $20, and the ride in the police car (after being arrested for drunk driving) costs $10,000. Something to think about.

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