Detroit Indie Stage

This past weekend, 24 friends and I headed up to Gaylord, MI for a long weekend of golf at the Loon. Our package included three days worth of golf at two different courses, lunch, dinner and 3 nights at a brand new condo at the resort. The resort is very clean, friendly staff and great place to stay and golf for the weekend. The first course we played on the way up was the Sawmill in Saginaw, MI. This was your average 18 hole 6,500 yard course. Cost was $25 for twilight which included the cart. Again, this place was on the way to Gaylord and nothing that special. The other concern I had with the Sawmill was how long it took to get through 16 holes of golf. Unfortunately, we were unable to finish all 18 holes this night.

The Loon was a pleasant place to start our first round of golf in morning. Long par 3 and long par 5’s. Exactly what I was looking for. I started out playing par golf but ended up shooting in the high 90’s. My biggest problem this past weekend, were my clubs not truly fitting me. They are standard clubs which are rated for people under 5’10”. I am 6’4” which would explain why I was sooo inconsistent wiht my golf. At any rate, I got fitted at Carl’s Golfland this week and ordered new customized clubs which needed to be 1.5” longer than standard clubs. The best shot I had all weekend was on hole 13 (Par 3) when I landed on the green less than 5 inches from the cup!

Next day we played the Lakes which is a part of the Oshtego Club Resort. Great layout, greens were in excellent condition. I had a better round here, but not by many strokes compared to my first round at the Loon.

Overall, The Loon and The Lakes of Gaylord are great course to check out for your average golfer.

Interesting take on what Social Media has become, where it is heading and what to expect from SM in the near future.  By Author Erik Qualman of Socialnomics. 

My first time here…

Small interior with only 3 booths and “diner counter” seating.  Very friendly waitress which started things off on a very positive note.  She took our order and promptly brought our drinks.

I ordered the avocado BLT wrap with a cup of cream of mushroom soup.  Soup was homemade and pretty tasty.  The wrap was on the smaller side but was also fresh and good.   My wife ordered the southwest chicken wrap with cole slaw.  Both were good but nothing too amazing.  Basically, it was one of those places that you would not rush back to but you might also return to when in the area.  It was slightly above average for a coney/diner. 

However, while waiting for the check we saw one of the cooks (you can see the kitchen from the booths) take a huge bite off of a spatula of what looked like cole slaw.  REALLY!  Pretty gross that the cooks are in the back casually eating the food that they are serving using the serving utensils!  I can’t get the sight of dripping cole slaw being stuffed into his mouth right in the middle of the kitchen.  BLAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

This sealed the deal that I will not be making it back to the Hilton Road Cafe anytime soon.

The other thing that boggles my mind are all of the positive reviews for this place on yelp.  They have 45 reviews with an average of 4.5 out of 5 stars.  The owners must have “juiced” the reviews!

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Map of a great day trip along Lake Michigan.  Started in Petoskey, made my way to Mackinac.  Will be back very soon!