Back from Michigan

     Compared to many of our trips this was a short one.  Still, I am happy to be home.  The weather was just so unseasonably hot.  I was prepared for sweatshirts and wool socks, not wading in the lake to cool off.  We are now really spoiled because we have a thermostat that can be adjusted from our smartphones.  I checked the house temperature last night and found it to be 88*.  Whew.  It was great to turn on the air and have it a comfortable 75* as we unloaded the camper.
    Driving through Wisconsin is always a pleasure with the many rolling hills and pretty farms.  We saw a lot of signs to watch out for horse and buggy's which  made us remember our day on Mackinac Island.  It also made me think of the many stone farmhouses and barns we saw in Michigan - even a round stone silo.  I wish we could have stopped to take a picture, but that isn't too practical while driving a camper and towing a car behind.
    It was a great little trip with no car troubles and no illness or injury.  We learned a lot about shipping on the Great Lakes, shipwrecks, and life in the little towns along the shores.  We visited four Michigan State Parks which were beautiful and well maintained.  We stopped in a dozen Michigan highway Waysides for picnics and rests.  I wish that Wisconsin had nice little stops along the way as well, but instead we had to pause at giant truck stops.
    I hope that you will consider a vacation to some of these nearby places.  The area around Great Lakes is beautiful, varied, interesting and historical.  Just bring along your passport or Enhanced driver's license if you go across into Canada at Sault Ste Marie.  Maybe we will see you on the road!

Marathon Park, Wausau, Wisconsin

   I often use a website called rvparkreviews to find a nice campground.  This is especially handy when we are driving between two points and want to stop after four or five hours of driving.  I just search on towns near our proposed stop and look at the reviews on the available campgrounds.  I have found a lot of nice city and county campgrounds that would not be listed in a commercial directory.  Tonight we are staying in a city park in Wausau, Wisconsin.  There are 40 large sites with electricity in a stand of beautiful white pines.  On this hot weekend night there are 15 sites filled.

    We are a couple miles off the main route through town.  Near some nice restaurants and other services.  We can hear a little road noise, but we are further from the road than in a lot of KOA's.  The ground is covered with pine needles and no campfires are allowed.  Its so hot and humid though I don't miss a fire tonight.

    We certainly drove some back roads today (and several other times this trip).  We have a GPS that has a database which is aware of weight and height limitations on roads - used by truckers.  We put in the size of our camper and towed car and we shouldn't be routed anywhere we can't go.  We left that GPS at home and figured since it is a short trip we would use Google maps.  Well, we haven't had any disasters, but we have been routed on some very narrow back roads.  The driver has been patient with his navigator, but we have had some tense silences.  

     I am looking forward to  in all the nooks and crannies of the camper to pack up a summer's accumulation of snacks, toys, books, and clothes.  We almost always have to go to the storage lot and look through the winterized camper for something we are missing.  

    Then tomorrow we drive home, unload, and start thinking about where to go next summer.

Kitch-iti-kipi

    I looked at several lists of things to do in Upper Michigan and then plotted a round trip that included most of them.  An unusual point of interest was a spring called Kitch-iti-kipi.   The spring is a pool of very clear water which is 400 feet across in its largest dimension, and up to 40 feet deep.  Snow and ice melt seep through limestone, run under the bedrock and bubble up into the pool through cracks in the rock.  The temperature of the water is about 45* - not great for swimming.

The raft crossing the spring

    A large wooden raft running on a steel cable provides self service transportation across the spring.  As each group of visitors climb on the raft, one volunteer turns the large wheel which pulls the raft across the pool.  An open area in the center of the raft provides a great view of the bottom of the spring so that you can see water bubbling up through the sand 40 feet below and dozens of huge of large brown trout that the spring is stocked with.  The self-service raft has been in operation since the 1930's (although I'm sure modern safety rails were installed).  Everyone waits in line, takes their place on the raft, and someone steps up to turn the wheel.  It was a fun place to visit.
    We drove into the town of Manistique for lunch.  It's a pretty shopworn place without much to recommend it.  There is a nice boardwalk along Lake Michigan, but it was very hazy today and the sky sort of blended in with the water.  Too much heat and humidity.
    We spent much of the afternoon cleaning the inside of the camper.  It will be time to winterize it when we return, despite this summer-like weather we have been having.  By late afternoon we were sitting in the shade watching the lake when I could hear thunder.  A ranger stopped by to tell us that there were severe thunderstorm warnings.  We put buttoned up the camper and put our chairs and outdoor rugs away.  The wind started to blow harder and we decided to retreat.  Then it blew harder and harder very quickly.  I am, as always, so happy to have an awning that goes in and out with the push of a button.  So we brought in the awning and moved to our bedroom window to watch the storm.
    The storm shelter (bathroom) was just across the road if things looked really bad.  We watched one neighbors awning fly up and over his camper and another couple of roof vents fly open.  Luckily we had no problems.  Soon the rain came and we finally got a little relief from the heat.  By dinner time the rain was gone and the weekend campers were arriving.  We gathered on the stairs to watch the beautiful sunset.  One more night on the road and then we are home.

Indian Lake State Park

   We are still in this magic Indian Summer mode with temperatures in the low 80's.  Every day is more perfect than the last.  Our campsite tonight overlooks a large lake just  four miles from Lake Michigan.  We are camped 30 feet from the bluff overlooking the lake with a nice set of wood steps going down to the water and a bench for two at the top.  Since we are backed into the site we can see the sunset on the lake from our bed.  A bunch of ducks hang out on the shore and keep quacking at me.  I think they expect to be fed.

    The campground is about half full but will probably get busier on the weekend with such good weather.  Tonight it is quiet except for the ducks and a red squirrel who also seems to expect a handout.  There's not much to the park except for the beach and the campground, but its a beautiful place that just happened to be along the north shore of Lake Michigan on our drive back home.

    We crossed back over the Mackinac Bridge and were lucky once again to have calm, sunny weather.  Then we headed east on Michigan Highway 2 which follows the north shore of Lake Michigan along the dunes and through little towns.  There are a lot of 1950 style travel courts with tiny cabins and 1960 style motels and drive in restaurants.  I think much of it looks the same as when my family drove here in about 1958.  We camped in a tiny pop-up camper then.  I'm spoiled in my nice little Winnebago now.  

     September is great for camping when you're retired.  Fewer crowds and mosquitos, warm days, cool nights and perfect campfire weather.  

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

    The Ojibwe have a legend that says there was once a mother bear with two cubs.  They were starving and so she took her cubs and swam across Lake Michigan to find food.  They were almost to land when one by one the cubs sank and died.  The mother was so sad she swam ashore and climbed the bluff to look out over the lake where her cubs had died.  The great Spirit turned the cubs into North and South Manitou islands and mother bear into the Sleeping Bear Dunes.
   The 36 mile Manitou Passage between the islands and the Michigan mainland is a heavily used shipping route.  Unfortunately is has many dangerous shoals and sandbars so there have been many shipwrecks.  In the 1800's ships using this route stopped at small towns along the shore to purchase lumber for fuel for their steam engines.  The lumber industry thrived until the forests were depleted.  Fruit orchards were planted to replace trees. Passengers on the ships stopped in the towns to buy fruit from the orchards and eventually the beautiful area became a destination and tourism became a prime industry.

At the top of one of the highest dunes

    We spent the day stopping at the many beaches, overlooks, and little ghost towns in this park which stretches along the northeast shore.   There is so much to do for the very ambitious younger crowd.   Paved bicycle paths run along much of the seashore.  Kayaks and canoes are for rent to use on the rivers and lakes.  The really adventuresome climb the 200 foot high dunes and slide down again.  The sand is very fine and easy on the feet.  Beaches are everywhere and the water is very clear and not too cold so there were lots of swimmers.  However, on Lake Michigan beaches we saw signs everywhere warning about riptides.  I would go swimming in the Platte River where it meets the big lake instead.  The river was shallow with a slow current and a beautiful sand bottom.
    It was a good day for being in the water with temperatures in the low 80's.  We hopped in and out of the car all day to take short walks to overlooks, take photos, and read the information about the site.  By the end of the day we were both wiped out.  We turned on the air conditioner in the camper and had a short reviving nap.   We could have easily spent a couple more days in this area, but tomorrow we move on - back over that enormous bridge.  Praying for good weather!

Mackinac Bridge

     The Mackinac Bridge is the longest suspension bridge in the Western Hemisphere and the third longest in the world.  It is nearly five miles long and connects upper and lower Michigan.  It opened in 1957 during the post World War II time when everyone took car vacations.  I remember my Dad talking about it and planning a vacation with the major goal of driving across the new bridge.
     An Internet site tracks the conditions on the bridge and the length of backups on either side.  The campground host told us that the backup was eight miles long on Memorial Day.  On days with very windy conditions campers, high profile vehicles, and trucks or cars pulling a trailer need to drive very slowly.  The Mackinac Bridge Authority has a Drivers Assistance Program that provides drivers for those with gephyrphobia (bridge phobia), or anyone who is more comfortable having someone else drive them across. More than a thousand people use this service every year.  Under really windy conditions the bridge is designed to move with the wind.  It can move up to 35 feet to one side or the other.  It doesn't sway, it just moves with the wind and when the wind subsides it moves back.  It is built to be stable in winds up to 150 MPH.  Of course that doesn't mean that your car won't blow off, just that the bridge will be fine.  Only two cars have gone off the bridge- one that was speeding and one that may have been a suiside.

     It was our luck today to have a quiet, sunny day.  I was also happy that some repair work closed the outside lane of the bridge which is usually used for trucks and campers, so we were driving the inside lane.  I read somewhere that kids who are afraid of an event can get through it by taking photos.  So I took pictures as we drove.  Rick just asked me not to hang out the window.

     We are staying at the Platte River Campground in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park.  It's the nicest non-commercial campground we have ever stayed in.  Huge trees, very little underbrush, paved parking sites all nicely spaced.  Most of the sites with electric hookups are occupied tonight.  It's so popular that I had to plan the dates of the trip around when I could get a reservation.  Its a real deal for us too as we get 50% off due to our Senior Parks pass.  Ricks card was wearing out so they gave him a new one with a picture of a goat on it.  The Ranger told him it was special for "old goats."

     It gets dark and cool fairly early so we build a campfire at nice spots like this one.  We buy wood for one or two nights at a time because wood from other areas that might contain one of the many insects tht are eating our trees can't be used.  We found a new deal at this campground for wood - a vending machine!  You put your dollars in a slot and a bundle of wood drops into a bin.  I just love it.

   We went to the meeting of the Platte River and Lake Michigan for some wading and sunshine.  Hard to believe that this is mid-September.

Mackinac Island

    Today we took a ferry ride across the Straits of Mackinac in Lake Huron to a pretty island that has been a tourist destination since the late 1800's. John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company was located on Mackinac Island after the War of 1812.  Then, in late 1800's, sport fishing became popular and the island was already a center for commercial whitefish and lake trout fishing.  Large fancy homes as well as the beautiful Grand Hotel were built to accommodate the summer visitors.

Grand Hotel shuttle

    Mackinac Island was the National Park after Yellowstone, but eventually was turned over to Michigan and now 80% of the island is a Michigan State Park.  No motorized transportation is allowed on the island except for a couple fire trucks and an ambulance.  Horses are used to pull wagons to move all the constructions materials, restaurant and hotel supplies, and tourist luggage.  Tourists are picked up at the docks and brought to hotels in horse drawn taxis.  The only Michigan State Highway that does not allow motorized traffic runs around the island.  It is used by carriages, bicycles and folks on horseback.
    Many travelers on the ferry brought their own bicycles.  We saw lots of workers using large baskets and small trailers on their bicycles to make deliveries.  Horses have the right of way.  Every road has at least one worker with a broom, shovel and wheeled cart cleaning up the horse manure.  We took a tour of some of the major sightseeing spots on a carriage pulled by several sturdy horses.  Most of the horses used are huge Belgian Draft and Percheron breeds.  They are huge, strong and very well mannered horses.  Speeding bicycles, screaming children, boat horns: nothing bothered them.  Most of the horses are bred and trained by Amish farmers and then purchased for use on the island.  Many of the horses are taken off the island during the winter and brought to farms.  I liked the information that they are brought across on the ferry in groups of 20 or so because they are calmer when they hang out together.
   The largest hotel on the island is the Grand Hotel with about 350 rooms - each one with a different decor.  The 650 foot porch is the longest in the world.  It overlooks beautiful gardens and a swimming pool designed by Esther Williams.  Non-guests are charged $10 to tour the hotel.  We passed on the tour and just took some pictures and went for lunch at an outdoor restaurant across the street.  We watched four workers meticulously remove dead blossoms from a large garden during our extended lunch.  It looked like they had hours of work ahead of them, but the gardens were amazing.  There are many other more modestly priced hotels, resorts, and B & B's for visitors.
    It was another day with just beautiful weather - a little cooler - but with lots of sun, light breeze and calm seas.  We have now been on Lake Superior, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

St. Ignace, Michigan

     Today we were supposed to cross the Mackinac Bridge and stay in Mackinaw City.  Instead, we are on the north side of the Mackinac Bridge in St. Ignace.  There are KOA Campgrounds on both the north and south sides of the bridge.  I had it in my mind that we were staying at the north side, but when we went to check in I was told that we were at the wrong one.  We could have just driven to the other, BUT the back up to get on the bridge was very long.  There were gusts of wind which had slowed traffic on the bridge down to 20 MPH.  I must say that I am already not a fan of tall bridges and going across with gusts of wind buffeting the camper was not my idea of a good time.
    Our KOA host called the other campground, got our reservation cancelled, and found us a spot in St. Ignace.  It's not nearly as nice a campground, but it's fine and I didn't have to sit in a long line waiting to do something I don't want to do.  Now I've got two more days to think about the crossing. Blah.
   This warm weather has messed with my packing and I had to do laundry today because we are running out of shorts and t-shirts.  I hate doing laundry on the road, but today wasn't bad at all.  Now we are prepared for more warm and sunny days - a blessing really.

Mackinac Bridge in the haze

    We took a drive along the lake shore to get to a point where we could see the bridge - Bridge Park.  Somehow I thought we would be driving along a cliff looking down, but the road was right along Lake Michigan.  It appears that the lake is very high and at times was getting pretty close to the road.  I don't know how much the level is up, but based on the road and the homes right on the edge of the lake, it is much higher than usual.  There were a lot of places for sale if you want a lake shore home on Lake Michigan.
    We drove to the little downtown to see where we will catch a ferry to get to Mackinac Island tomorrow.  It's a pretty little town with many well preserved old buildings and a lot of tourist industry.  It was quiet on this nice Sunday evening and the bridge traffic was considerably diminished.  I am hoping that the calm weather will remain until we get across that bridge (and, unfortunately for me, back across it two days later).

The Soo Locks

     The last time we were in this area we were in a hurry to drive east.  Today we had the time to take a boat tour of the Soo Locks.  The first lock was built 160 years ago to help move boat traffic between Lake Huron and Lake Superior.  We have been on a boat tour of the St. Lawrence Seaway which is at the beginning of the journey ships take from the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Superior.  It was interesting to see the last part of the journey.
    Before these locks were built boats had to be portaged around the 21 foot drop on St. Mary's River.  It could take up to three months to make the portage.  In 1855 Michigan opened a set of two locks on the St. Mary River.  They were each 350 feet long.  Today the largest lock is 1200 feet long.  There are four operating locks  - three on the American side and one on the Canadian side.  The Canadian lock is used only for pleasure boats.  Our tour boat used the Canadian lock going up river and an American lock on the way back.  A couple older American locks are being dismantled and a new, still larger lock will open in a few years.  The locks are now operated by the Federal Government.  They are free to everyone.
     About 7,000 ships go through the Locks, hauling 86 million tons of cargo each year. This makes these locks the heaviest used in the world. I thought it would be the Panama locks or the Suez Canal locks, but it is a set of locks in my own back yard.     It was a perfect day to be out on the water - about 80*, sunny and with a slight breeze.  We found seats on the top deck of the tour boat under a sun shade.  It was our amazing luck that just as we got situated a demonstration of forest fire planes began.  Across the river from the tour is a Canadian Bushplane Heritage Center.  This weekend is the annual BushPlane days.  Pilots from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry flew the CL-415 water bomber and a EC-130 Helicopter with a water tank.  We watched as the plane flew close by us, landed on the river scooping up water, and then dropped the water as though it was putting out a forest fire.  The helicopter lowered its big bucket into the river and filled it, then dropped that water as well.  This demo lasted for about a half hour as the tour boat was loading.  We had absolutely front row seats.  It was just awesome.
     On our way back a
couple large boats got to the locks before our tour boat so we were delayed for about thirty minutes while they went through.  It was fairly warm on the boat as we circled around waiting for our turn and some of the kids on the tour really lost interest in the whole trip.  We found it really interesting.  As we went through the pleasure boat side we saw that each small fishing boat was documented and contacted.  On the American side a "Security" car drove along the locks.      
     Nevertheless, it wouldn't be any challenge to take a fishing boat from one shore and unload passengers on the other shore.  There are miles and miles and miles of unpatrolled coastline.  Do you think we need to build a wall to keep Americans from moving to Canada?

Sault Ste Marie

     I'm proud of myself that I typed the name of this town without looking it up again. The spelling just doesn't stick with me. Eight years ago we were in this same campground when we were on our way to Maine across Canada.  Although the campground is located right in town it is surrounded by hardwood forest and very quiet.  The maples are at their peak in this campground and it was glorious to set outside in the sun this afternoon and just enjoy the rich colors.
    It was a short drive from Tahquamenon to the bridge between the U.S. and Canada.  However, once we got to an area where there was cell coverage, I finally was able to log into my Verizon account and setup cell phone access in Canada for $5 a day.  I am totally dependent on my phone these days to find groceries, restaurants and gas while we are on the road.

    There was about a ten minute wait in line to go through Canadian customs.  The border building is being totally remodeled and there were only two open lines.  We had our passports ready and zipped through without any problems.  It would have made more sense to just stay on the U.S. side, but I remembered this nice KOA campground on the Ontario side and couldn't find anything of equal quality in the Michigan Sault Ste Marie. So here we are for a couple days, eh?
    We had a lazy afternoon catching up on emails, Facebook, and blogging.  There's a lot going on at our cabin as we replace the septic system so we have to stay in close touch with the family.  We went out for dinner - a rare occasion for us - and did a little grocery shopping.  Then we did one of our favorite things while we are on the road - watching folks back their campers into their sites.  Some folks are real experts.  Other folks are pure entertainment.  Tonight we saw the longest combination of Class A camper pulling a huge trailer.  I am guessing the whole thing was between 65' and 70' long.  Whew.  Not too many campgrounds with sites big enough to park that one.

Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum

     The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum is very logically located at Whitefish Point. This point of land is at the extreme southeastern end of Lake Superior. It is a critical turning point for ship traffic entering and leaving Lake Superior. The Whitefish Point Light Station is the oldest operating lighthouse on Lake Superior. The present light tower was built in 1861. 

Whitefish Point is the end of an 80-mile stretch of shoreline stretching west to Munising, Michigan, which is known as Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast. Of the 550 known major shipwrecks lying on the bottom of Lake Superior, at least 200 of them are in the vicinity of Whitefish Point.  the Light Statio is now a museum which documents the incredible history of the Coast Guard rescue team stationed at this hazardous point.  One of the many amazing facts that we learned today as we toured the museum was that a large number of the shipwrecks were due to collisions with other vessels rather than due to storms or running into the rocks.  The heavy storms, dark nights, and poor navigation tools created situations where boats simply were not aware of another boat nearby until it was too late.

I was very impressed with the 95% successful rescue rate of the station over the many years it has been in service.   We saw replica of the “light” weight wooden boats that were rowed out into the cold Lake Superior waters and bring stranded sailors back to shore.  Old fashioned life vests had sections of cork for buoyancy rather than the current kaypoch.  The cork is much bulkier, but as the guide pointed out, a cork vest will keep you afloat for a week, the new ones only work for a couple days.  It doesn’t matter in Lake Superior because you will die from the cold water long before you sink.

The museum participated in recovering the ship’s bell from the sunken Edmund Fitzgerald.  We watched a video that reinacted the sinking of the largest ship on Lake Superior.  I remember very well the news stories at the time of the sinking and thinking how terrible the storms on the big lake could be.

"The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down, Of the big lake they called 'gitche gumee'
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead, When the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more, Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and crew was a bone to be chewed, When the gales of November came early"  Gordon Lightfoot

We have virtually no cell phone service at this campground.  We are trying to plan our route to our next stop at Sault Ste. Marie in Canada.  This creates a number of problems.  I can’t look at the route on my smartphone – no phone service.  I won’t be able to use the smartphone in Canada until I agree to additional charges on my Verizon account, but I can’t get to the account with no WIFI and no cell service.  We stopped and had lunch in a little town, Paradise, that had some cell phone service.   We could see the route, but I couldn’t get the route to download so I can see it when we are in Canada.

At the end of the day we hiked out to the top of the Upper Falls on Tequamanon River which is one of the largest waterfalls east of the Mississippi.  We really

enjoyed the perfect weather.   Once we returned to the camper we dug through cabinets and found paper maps.  We may have to do our navigating the “old” way tomorrow.  The campground is pretty full tonight as the weekend nears.  The fall colors and the perfect weather are drawing everyone outside.

Tahquamenon Falls State Park

I love the sounds of a campground settling down for the night.  We are near the Lower Falls on the Tahquamenon River and I can hear the rumble of the falls.  Although it was warm earlier, this is September and the air is cool so we built a campfire.  I like the snap and crackle of good dry wood.  Most of our fellow campers are grey haired folks like us, but I can hear a few tired kids laughing and playing.  There’s a little breeze rustling high in the tops of the pines.  Our fellow campers are talking quietly.  This is September camping.  The sun sets earlier and everyone gathers around their camp for the warmth and light of a fire.

It has been a quiet day.  We continued our drive across the UP (Upper Peninsula of Michigan) on State Highway 28.  It’s pretty much the main East / West route.  We have been blessed with another beautiful fall day with temperatures in the upper 70’s.  Each day we see more color in the trees.  Parts of our drive was through forests of hardwoods that were about 25% cloaked in their fall garb.

The campground is in a State Park with no WIFI, no TV reception or much cell phone service.  It’s a place for quiet conversation, good books, long walks, and relaxation.  The Tahquamenon River winds its way through much of the park.  The upper falls are huge in both volume of water and overall size.  The lower falls (near our campsite) consist of five smaller falls formed as the river winds its way around an island.  I thought that it was clever of the park folks to put walking paths on the island and have rowboats available to row across to the island so it’s possible to see all five of the waterfalls.

This park and the falls was on almost every “must see” list of places to go in Michigan.  Despite the fact that it is mid-week in September, the campground is pretty full.  As we walked around the lower falls area a bus load of tourists from another country (speaking a Slavic language I think) arrived to tour the falls.  Another large group of non-English speakers were setting up for a big picnic dinner.  This is a popular place that I never heard of before.  Who knew??

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

      Lake Superior has always been one of our favorite playgrounds.  I can remember many camping trips to the "North Shore" with my parents, then with my friends, husband, children and grandchildren.  So how have I missed visiting Pictured Rocks?
      The southeast shore of Lake Superior is very different from the frigid, rocky shores of the north.  There are miles of beautiful, soft sand beaches and clear blue bays.   All along Highway 28 there are public Wayside parks which give access to these beaches.  On this sunny 75* day we saw dozens of swimmers and kayakers enjoying the water.
      As we stopped at a couple wayside beaches the clear green water really called my name, but this IS Lake Superior.  I've been lured into thinking a swim would be nice before and waded in only to have my feet go numb almost immediately.   I'm sure my boys remember swimming in the frigid waters at Temperance River and at Big Bay State Park on Madeline Island. Today I admired it from a distance.

Lighthouse on Grand Island

     Over forty miles of this lakeshore is protected by the National Park Service - Pictured Rocks.  Along the shoreline are about 15 miles of colorful sandstone cliffs, 12 miles of  beaches, and nearly five miles of enormous sand dunes. There are also multiple waterfalls, lighthouses, lakes, and campgrounds.
     The feature that gives the park its name are the colorful sandstone cliffs which can mostly be seen from the water.  The National Park Service runs tour boats - which we enjoyed today.  But we saw folks on kayaks, canoes, pontoons, paddle boards, and a glass bottom boat.  The colors on the sandstone are created by minerals leaching out into the soft cliffs and drying: Iron (red),  manganese (black-white),  limonite (yellow-brown), copper (pink-green), and other minerals.
    It was a perfect calm and sunny day for a boat ride.  Lots of other folks thought so too and the boat was fairly full for a weekday in September.  We left from the harbor at Munising past Grand Island and headed east along the shoreline. The cliffs are up to 200 feet high over the water.  Our shallow draft catamaran took us quite close to caves, waterfalls, and colorful rock formations.  The sun wasn't on the cliffs enough for great pictures, but the view from the boat was spectacular.  You should put this on your bucket list.  It's not really very far away.
   

Marquette, Michigan

     I'm tired. We started our day by driving through downtown Marquette.  It is a really pretty town with some well maintained, big, old homes. In the late 19th century, during the height of iron mining, Marquette was nationally known as a summer haven. Great Lakes Steamships brought visitors who filled the city's hotels and resorts.  Downtown Marquette still has many of these beautiful old buildings.  I especially liked a whole series of homes that had fancy scalloped siding on the gables - just perfectly preserved.
   In looking for things to do in Michigan, I read about an overlook called Sugarloaf Mountain just outside Marquette.  It is 470 feet above Lake Superior with a 350* view.  There were two routes to the top  - Easy and Difficult.  Ha.  For an old lady with a bad knee there was no "easy" way up.  The path was actually pretty smooth for the first third - gravel with a gentle up slope.  Then the path became steeper, rougher sections interspersed with flights of stairs.  The final section was stairs, stairs, and.... more stairs.  But I made it.  Wow, the view was just spectacular and I have a picture to prove I was there.
     We sat for a while and chatted with folks who were also enjoying the view.  Folks with toddlers strapped to their backs, a guy recovering from a triple bypass, a a little kid who kept running away from his grandparents.  Yikes - we were high and this kid is just running around.
    After we staggered back to the car - going past a group of 20ish folks at the half-way point who wondered if they should keep going because they were tired.  I looked for a place for lunch and found a nearby spot called Jean Kay's Pasties which turned out to be one of the "don't miss" sites in Upper Michigan.  We had a traditional pastie which was a wonderful mix of beef, potato and onion baked into a flaky crust.  Delicious.
     After lunch we drove around Presque Isle Park which is on a peninsula in Lake Superior.  Lots of pretty beaches and overlooks.  We could see the ore docks with train cars unloading ore.  Our drive back took us along the Marquette lakefront where lots of new condos have been built.  The city has really taken advantage of this scenic area with many small parks and beaches.
    We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the sunshine and icing my knee.  It is just perfect weather for spending the day outdoors.
 

By the Shores of Gitche Gumee

"By the shores of Gitche Gumee,  By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis, Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.

Dark behind it rose the forest, Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees,
Rose the firs with cones upon them; Bright before it beat the water,
Beat the clear and sunny water, Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water."  

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - "Song of Hiawatha"

Nokomis is the grandmother of Hiawatha.  Gitche Gumee is Lake Superior.  So here I am, Grandma Nokomis, staying at the Gitche Gumee Campground just outside Marquette, Michigan on the south shore of Lake Superior.

We drove two lane state highways across northern Wisconsin and Michigan.  The roads were good, but hilly and winding and went through dozens of small towns.  We didn't try to hurry and just lollygagged along.  As we drove out of pine forests into the hardwood covered bluffs near Lake Superior, fall colors just jumped out at us.  I have never seen the maples so brilliantly red.  I have been using a fall color tracking map at smokeymountains.com to see where the best of the color will be.  This area is between 25 and 50% towards peak color.  Usually this time of year the sky is deep blue against the colors, but I think we are seeing some forest fire haze.

Our campground is odd.  The owner? calls himself Ranger Jeffrey.  He has made the entrance look like an entry to a national park.  There are unfinished projects everywhere - a fudge shop. a theater, and a clubhouse.  For the most part there are just some decent campsites on very sandy soil with a lot of nice pines providing shade.  Jeffrey is an older gentleman who is quite eager to chat and be helpful. I think he has many good ideas and not enough time or energy to complete the work.  The photo is the "office."

The campground is conveniently located between Marquette and Munising - just across the highway from a beautiful Wayside Park with a beach on Lake Superior.  We won't be swimming, but it is very pretty.  We found a lot of nice little Wayside parks along Highway 2 which is great for us as we like to stop and have lunch at a picnic table.

Tonight we are able to get a couple channels on our TV so that we can catch up on the news of hurricane Irma.  I'm so happy not to have to deal with that sort of wind and water and major damage. Although Minnesota blizzards are annoying, now that we are retired we just stay home and wait for the plow to come.  I'm a Minnesotan to the core, I guess.

 

Iron Lake, WI

     Here we are, just the two of us, at Top O' the Morn campground on Iron Lake, just outside Iron River, Wisconsin.  It has been a beautiful day for traveling with perfectly blue skies.  I have thought all day about all the Floridians on the road escaping Hurricane Irma.  Our traveling was much more fun.
   This was the first time this summer that we have traveled in the RV without one or two kids joining us.  I kept looking back to the bench seats to see how they were doing, but no one was there.  We really enjoyed our time with our grandchildren this summer.  However, it was easier to stock up with food for our two week trip when I am just planning for the two of us.
    Our campground has many seasonal campers.  It has lots of big pines and overlooks a pretty lake.  When we stopped at the office to check in I remembered being here before in the winter on a snowmobile.  The office is also a small bar and grill.  I remember stopping to warm up with some hot coffee during a long day of snowmobiling.  We also remembered staying at a nearby motel with such saggy old beds that I had to hook my leg over the side to keep from sliding to the canyon in the middle.  We were young and more able to sleep in terrible beds, I guess.  My camper bed is much more comfortable.
    We had a leisurely drive - just three and a half hours.  This let us have a slow start in the morning and plenty of time to sit in the sun and read this afternoon.  It has been a busy month of working on the cabin, so this is our "vacation" from our vacation cabin.  I have been plagued with a flare up of knee pain since working at the cabin.  Today my knee is fine, yeah!
   I want to treasure this experience of traveling together in our camper.  We both enjoy it so much and have so much fun exploring new places.  Two neighbors  - one at home and one at the cabin - unexpectedly lost their long time partners in August.  We never know which trip will be the last, so I want to savor each one and be thankful.
     One of our favorite Minnesota authors, William Kent Krueger, uses a town called "Iron Lake" in many of his books.  His Iron Lake is on the Minnesota Iron Range, however.  Or not - maybe there will be a mystery happening tonight!!!!

Autumn Leaving

It has been a very busy summer.  I can hardly believe that the kids are back in school and we are back to our quieter schedule.  We have a lot going on at our lake cabins - some maintenance projects, new sewer systems, and work on rehabbing the "Road's End" cabin. We haven't taken a longer RV trip in two years so we decided to cram in a short one to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

We drove across the huge Mackinac Bridge eight years ago when coming back from Maine.  The scenery was amazing and I added the Upper Michigan area to my very long list of places to visit.  It just happens that a shorter trip this year will work out well, so Michigan is calling to us.

There is much to see along the south shore of Lake Superior and the west shore of Lake Michigan.  The leaves are turning early this year and it looks like we will be lucky enough to hit the area at near peak of color.  I made reservations for all our nights of camping to be sure that we have a place to stay if the campgrounds become full of leaf peepers.  The weather looks like it will be perfect.  My only worry is my arthritic knee which seems to have flared up more than usual with the cooler weather.  I may be doing less sightseeing on foot than I would like.

Our last camping trip in the RV was to Kamp Dells in Waterville, MN.  The campsite was very muddy and our last day was all rain.  We have cleaned all the rugs and linens.  Today we need to work on scrubbing the RV floors to finally get rid of all the mud.  It is always nice to start out with a clean rig.

I look forward to sharing this beautiful part of our country with you all.