Day 4 - Kalamazoo - Argos - Belleville, MI.

After a short sleep I was on the road by about 10am after having some cereal. I quickly rang another collecting friend from Michigan, Chris Taylor who is taking me on a field trip tomorrow, to touch base and make sure everything is o.k. for the visit. I was down to the end of my balance on my Sim card so I also had to load some more $$ onto it.

I purchased an international SIM card similar to previous years and it gives me two phone numbers, one for the UK and one for the USA. It is good in so far as it is quite handy to be able to give people a cell number to ring that is their own country.

Today I am driving back into Indiana and to the township of Argos to visit Mike Beam one of my collecting friends in the BCCA. Mike and I are also members of one of the Chapters of the BCCA called the Rusty Bunch. We correspond regularly via a the Chapter message board which offers a great place to talk about beer cans and any other weird and wonderful topic. The message board and its contributors are a great help to me with my collecting and also especially when I am planning various parts of my USA travel.

It was just on a two hour drive down to Argos along many different state highways which are mainly two way roads which up drive along at the speed limit of 55 mph. On these roads you pass through the townships not bypass them like on the freeways. It gives you a good insight to the local lifestyles. There are some very pretty buildings and also some interesting sights along the way.

Being Saturday it seemed that it is yard sale day with it seemed every fourth or fifth home having a garage sale of sorts in their front yard. I am sure in these times it is a good way for people to make some extra dollars to help pay the bills. There were plenty of people stopping to look at the items for sale as well.

I arrived at Mike’s home just on 2pm and was given a tour of his collection of beer cans and brewery memorabilia. Mikes son Spencer who just turned 16 also collects beer cans. He travels to beer shows with Mike when he is not too busy playing one of the many sports he is involved in and has a good collection as well.

What is good with Mike’s collection is he also has a great collection of items of things he grew up with and some great family mementos that have been in his family for quite a long time. It was great to be able to meet up with him and was a special treat to be able to see his collection of interesting memorabilia.

I was able to stay for 2 hours and we had a great time talking about collecting, I also enjoyed hearing from Mike about the history of the town of Argos, he has a photo from around 1900 (sorry Mike I forgot what year you said it was from) of his ancestors standing in front of their business in the main street of the town.

I left Mike with a couple of mementos from Australia and a can of India Pale Ale beer from the Great Crescent Brewery that I visited two days ago. Thanks Mike for the presents you gave to me as well.

I now had to back track the way I drove for about 1 hour whilst heading back into Michigan and onto my hotel for the night in Belleville, MI. I chose this area as it is close to Detroit and also not far from the home of Chris Taylor, another collector from the Beer Can club who is taking me off on an adventure tomorrow.

The drive from Argos to Belleville was approx 4 hours but I stopped a couple of times for some rest and also stopped in the town of Coldwater for a meal at one of the local diners. I had a 16oz steak and salad for dinner, the waitress kept coming back to the table to speak to me because she liked the Aussie accent. It would be good to get a dollar for everyone that says that to you whilst you are travelling around in the USA.

Whilst driving I passed the Michigan International Speedway, which is hosting the Nascar races next weekend. It is in the town of Brooklyn MI on highway 12. It’s also a coincidence because the weekend after that I will be at the Nascar race in Bristol Tennessee.

At various times this afternoon I passed through some rain patches but they were brief and did not affect the driving. I arrived at the hotel at 10pm ready to get a good night’s sleep before tomorrow’s field trip with Chris looking for old beer cans.

I had a good day meeting up with Mike and seeing a lot more of the townships of the USA than yesterday when I spent most of my driving time on the Interstate freeways. I drove another 300 miles today.