Day 4-Alpaca Country Nights: Farmhand Work & Spaghetti Warmth on the First Day of Fall

September 22, 2025

Farmhand for a Night 👑🐑 TK’s living the alpaca life — the royal pad snoozing beside the goats.

After a mighty fine country breakfast at Bob Evans, the royals were back on the road, bellies full and spirits high. Next stop: Outback Alpaca Farm in Flushing, MI (a cool 333 miles away).

Ohio flew by in a blur of cornfields, barns, and endless “are we there yet?” vibes. Cleveland, Toledo, and then—bam!—Michigan. Before long we rolled into Flushing, a proper slice of the countryside about 25 minutes northwest of Flint.

First order of business? Affordable diesel (praise be), followed quickly by a detour to A&W for a frosty root beer float with a scoop of vanilla ice cream—because road trips demand sugar-fueled joy.

A winding dirt road later, we met Connie and her loyal Great Pyrenees duo, King & Rose. Connie—retired home builder, part-time farm queen, full-time badass—built her entire spread back in ’95: house, barns, shop, fencing, the works. Now she tends to a bustling homestead of 19 alpaca, 30+ chickens, 4 goats, and 3 barn cats.

I jumped into afternoon chores like a true farmhand: hauling water, tossing hay, and scooping alpaca poo while Connie regaled us with her stories. She’s rugged, welcoming, and clearly unstoppable. Between hosting school trips, birthday parties, Harvest Host RV campers, and running her alpaca product shop (yes, the kids are now the proud owners of alpaca socks), she’s got the farm humming like clockwork.

As the sun dipped, we tucked into our little van beside the alpacas and goats. Jess whipped up a hearty spaghetti-and-salad dinner, and by 10 p.m. we were cozied up in bed—another day, another adventure in the books.