Petoskey,MI

Friday, September 9:
After we crossed the Mackinac Bridge, we took M-119 south from Cross Village. This road is called The Tunnel of Trees. A sign advises that the next twenty miles are a narrow and winding road. M-119 runs along the coast of Lake Michigan, although the lake is rarely visible. It was a very pretty drive. We imagined it would be just beautiful as the leaves were changing. In Good Hart there is the Good Hart General Store; opened in 1934. Turns out it’s now owned by a couple who got tired of twenty plus years of the Miami rat race. Can’t blame them there.
The store is a combination tourist junk store, deli and bakery. The sticky buns were good, but they had a desert made from two carrot cake “cookies” filled with cream cheese icing. On the same idea as the Amish whoopie pie. It’s good that we didn’t try these until we were quite some distance from the store or we would have bought the place out, they were that good.
They deli specialty was chicken pot pies which they have been making since 1986. They have sold over 10,000 this year, or so says the sign. They are frozen so we’ll just save it for a cold night when I don’t feel like cooking.

Saturday and Sunday:
We’re at the City of Petrosky Mangus Park campground until Wednesday. We’ve been here before on our MI travels. The campground is nothing real special but OK. $22 for a lakeview site with water and electric is quite reasonable. The great thing about the campground, is the location. It’s right on a paved multi-use trail that runs for miles both ways. We take the trail towards town where it leads to some beautiful waterfront parks, a jetty, the city marina and the quaint older downtown area. Lots of neat shops, restaurants, coffee houses, etc. It’s probably three miles round trip which is just perfect for the scooter. On both days we made the trip twice.

Ed & Gopher

Monday:
Running errands, grocery shopping and laundry day. There is a Meijers store in town. Not unlike a walMart but of a higher quality. Much better produce, seafoods, etc. Carol noticed a bakery as we were looking for the laundry place so while the cloths were washing I walked back to the bakery. What a great find. It’s Johan’s Pastry Shop at 565 W. Mitchell Street. They have perhaps the most extensive assortment of quality donuts, pastries, pies, rolls & bagels that I’ve come across in our travels. Add Johan’s to the Top Five Bakery list.

Tuesday:
The weather man was right; a cold, grey day with a little rain here and there. When Gopher and I were taking our early morning walk, we decided to add Johan’s Pastry Shop to the route. She waited patiently outside while I got a wonderful almond coffee cake for “breakfast”.
I talked about the market in Good Hart where I bought this most wonderful carrot cake cookie that Carol said was her personal all-time favorite desert; or at least close to it. We decided to make some. We bought a carrot cake mix, a 15oz can of pumpkin (not pie mix, just pumpkin), and a can of cream cheese icing. Carol simply mixed the pumpkin with the cake mix, then spooned cookie sized dollops on the baking tray and cooked them up. 350* for 15 minutes. After cooling, she put icing on them and made a sandwich. They were so good, we decided to make some for the Lazy Daze GTG we’re going to in Arkansas next month.

The Cookie Maker.

I made a fresh batch of apple stuff; another good rainy day project.

Tomorrow we head south on US 31 which runs along the west coast of MI. No particular destination in mind. We’ll stop when it seems like the thing to do.
Fall is making itself known in MI. The high for the next few days is forecast in the low 60’s with nighttime lows in the 40’s. Cold by our standards.

Last day in the UP

Yesterday we camped at the MI State Forest campground at Hog Island. There are 50 sites. When we arrived about noon time we had our choice of all 50. We had a large, sunny site with a path leading straight to the water. I scrounged up firewood and we had another campfire. Regrettably, we were out of marshmallows.
By dark there were two other campers.

From our campsite at Hog Island.

We parked along Lake Michigan during the drive to St. Ignace.


Just before we got to St. Ignace on US #2, I saw a sign for a pastie store. The sign said "In business since 1959". It was lunch time so I got one last UP pastie. We stopped in a rest area and ate lunch. Of all the pasties I've had in the UP, this was by far the best. Should have gotten some for the freezer.

When we arrived in St. Ignace we stayed in the Straits State Park. Once again, we found a super campsite. The picture of the bridge was taken leaning against the back of the camper. The really good campsites are right on the water but don't have any electrical hookups. That works for us but most campers just have to have that electric cord dangling from their RV. Good, let's keep it like that, saves the best for us.
We watched the freighters come and go and enjoyed a beautiful, sunny day.

Tomorrow we cross the bridge and head south following the west coast of MI.

We'll be back to the UP. Most likely for a September-October trip some year. We would like to see the leaves change and really enjoy camping after Labor Day. Our favorite part of the UP is along Lake Superior. It tends to be sparsely populated and we like the cobble stone beaches.
There is a Lake Superior Circle Tour that runs through Canada. Perhaps that.

Another 30 minute driving day

This morning we went into Manistique for gas and groceries. Jack's Fresh Market has a decent selection of salads, veggies, etc. for a small town. After shopping we drove about 30 minutes to our next campground, the Michigan State Forest campground at Milakoia Lake. There are 33 sites here. It's us and two other campers. We're on a large site with our own private beach. There was a downed cedar tree nearby that provided us with wood for a campfire just right for roasting marshmallows.

There are still wildflowers in bloom and industrious bees at work getting ready for a long winter.

The view from our campsite

Indian Lake State Park

We left the Little Bay de Noc campground on Labor Day, the 5th. The weather forecast was for record setting cold weather with possible frost. While the camper has a good gas furnace plus a Wave 3 portable heater, we thought we would treat ourselves to a campground with electrical hookups. We have a small, electric cube heater that does a great job.
First we went to the Fayette Historic Park campground near Garden. The campground wasn't much. Very heavily wooded and dark. We were looking for some sunshine, plus this SP didn't have a dump station like we needed. We continued east to the Indian Lake State Park which is located four miles west of Manistique. There are 145 campsites. Labor Day has past and today there are perhaps a dozen RV's here. For the rest of our trip, we should find prime campsites available anywhere we go. Our sight is on a low bluff with an unobstructed view of Indian Lake. We chose a site with no trees so we could enjoy the warm sunshine. The park has a nice paved multi-use trail. The three of us took a walk this morning then mostly poked around. This is a very nice campground; we'll be back in the future.

We discussed, once again, our winter travel plans. Here is todays version. Leave home in mid-December. Weather permitting visit with John & Marge in KC,KS then go to Suzanne's in Longmont, CO for Christmas. In December a trip on I-70 from KC to Denver can be complicated by winter storms. If the weather doesn't look good, we'll take the southern route to ABQ then north to Longmont. After Christmas, we'll head south to AZ & NM joining our friends at "Q" like last year. We have an invitation from John & Linda Leach to see their new house in CO as well as their new "granddaughter"; Sadie the pup. Jeanne Gaffney is planning a big get-together for the Southeast and Northeast Lazy Daze clubs at Hanna Park in Jacksonville during the first week in March. We'll return to FL for that event. That will be the sixth anniversary of the SE Lazy Daze club.

Little Bay de Noc

Since Labor Day weekend is coming up we decided to just stay put until Sunday the 5th. We have a very nice site right on the water and it’s only $6.50/night.
I called the Monarch Butterfly hot-line today. No help. They said the butterflys were still headed south but they had no idea when they would be in this area. We did see one Monarch Butterfly today. Hopefully by Sunday more will be in this area.

Our campsite

http://www.monarch-butterfly.com/

Thursday:
Drove into Escanaba to get propane, dump the tanks, fill the water tank and go grocery shopping since we would be here for four more days. Carol wants to cook hotdogs and toast marshmallows over an open fire so these items were on top of the shopping list. We’re camped on the Stonington peninsula. Right across the bay from us is the Gladstone City Campground where we stayed one night last week. The GPS says it’s 1.1 air miles away but it takes a 7.5 mile road trip to get there.

Friday:
It was supposed to rain all day but it didn’t. It was just us in this part of the campground today so, once again, Gopher has free rein. In the evening we had a campfire so Carol could do her marshmallows. Hot dogs tomorrow perhaps. Tonight Carol had leftover Chinese for dinner and I had my last pastie.
Carol & I have the most wonderful time just being together. It doesn’t matter if we’re doing something special or just poking around. We simply enjoy being with one another.
By 6:00pm the other campsites in this area were occupied so Gopher is back on her leash. Unfortunately, if she saw another dog, even at a distance, off she would go to visit. I won’t have that.
We saw one Monarch Butterfly today. Maybe tomorrow.


Saturday:
Saw two Monarchs at the same time. Not exactly a major migration, but twice as many as yesterday.
It rained on and off all day. The first day like that on this trip.
We had a nice campfire, a weenie roast then marshmallows.

Toasting marshmallows. Gopher waiting for her share.

The current topic of conversation is what to do this winter. Stay at home and go to Lazy Daze and Escapee rallies and take short trips to the state parks or go to Suzanne’s for Christmas then spend the winter in the Southwest. Next summers plans all depend upon the family reunion that Carol’s family is talking about. If it comes to pass, we’ll stay East. If not, we’re going to go to California then follow the coast north to Canada. We both agree; what wonderful choices we have to make. Should we have a great time here or there or someplace else?

Sunday:
A cold, grey, rainy and blustery day. Forecast wind gusts to 30 knots. Gopher and I took a nice walk this morning in spite of the weather. Every campsite we saw was taken.
There are six campsites in our immediate area. By 3:00 three of them had packed up and headed home. Tomorrows forecast is for a high of 60* and a low of from 30* to 40*; not very nice family camping weather. If we were locals with children we’d head home as well. For two old folks and one dog it’s not a problem at all. Sure beats the weather at home.

Carol read books on her Kindle and I played with the computer. Mostly doing research on public campgrounds in the Lower 48.
Carol has really taken to the Kindle. She has almost a hundred books in her library. Before this Kindle, we had two cardboard boxes filled with Carols books. What a space and weight saver. She gets a lot of the books for from free to $.99. The most she’s paid for a book has been around $5.00 with from $2 to $3 being typical. Each day Amazon has a good selection of free books. I just “bought” an interesting sounding mystery story to read. I can download these books to our iPad via the computer then I can read a book on the iPad while Carol reads on the Kindle. Amazing stuff.

By about 5:00 it became clear that the solar panels were not going to be able to get the battery charged so I turned on the generator. Since it was running, I used the heat strip to take off the chill. It was 60* inside.

Tomorrow we move on. It’s been nice to get off the road for a few days. We will be back to this campground again.

A giant fungus of some type.

The Escanaba area

Saturday, August 27, 2011

A perfect weather day.  Blue, sunny skies, high about 75*, forecast low tonight of 50*. Carol checked the weather at home; heat (misery) index of 104*. No hurry to return to that. The three of us took a nice walk this morning to the day use area of the campground. We had the place to ourselves so I let Gopher run. The Bark River dumps into Lake Michigan in the day use area. Gopher had her usually fun time swimming and playing stick.

A game of stick in the Bark River.

We cooked on the grill again. Last night chicken and zucchini, this time sweet potatoes, one of our favorites, and hamburgers.  When we’re eating dinner, Gopher lays under the dinette. Once she senses that the meal’s about over, she crawls out and sits at the end of the table. The question on her face is perfectly clear “Did you save anything for the family dog?”.  We always do even if we could have comfortably finished everything that was cooked. Gopher’s not a picky eater; fruits, veggies, meat of course, ice cream, cookies, whatever.  If she thinks that perhaps we don’t see her sitting there, although it’s not easy ignoring a dog with her chin on the table, she’ll tap us on the leg with her snout.

Some friends of our lost their long term pet cat, Oreo, recently. We don’t like to even think about such things.

Sometimes Gopher will come up to me, sit down and just stare. I look into her eyes and would give anything to know what she’s thinking. I wonder what it must be like to be a pet dog. Spending your life with a collar around your neck, being chained up, relying on someone else for food and shelter, always being in a subservient position.  Not unlike being a slave in the old South I suppose. When I’m at a zoo, I wonder if the animals prefer the incredible boredom, but total security, of life in a zoo, or would they rather live free in the uncertainty of the wild. Be a pet dog or a coyote?  A house cat or a bobcat?  My guess is they would chose to be free. I read articles about people rescuing a sick or injured animal, tending to it then releasing it back into the wild. I don’t recall ever hearing of an animal that refused its freedom.

Since it’s supposed to get cold tonight, Carol wanted a fire. The campground we were at on Thursday, had a big pile of free firewood so I brought some with us for future use. I was sitting around the fire in shorts and a T shirt, Carol was bundled up in jeans and a

sweat shirt and Gopher was just laying around chewing on a piece of firewood.

Alex and Jennifer live in Northern Virginia right in the path of Hurricane Irene. Carol called them just to say hello. Jennifer is without power but, so far, Alex is OK.  Alex and the children are sleeping in the basement bedroom tonight just to be extra safe. The kids think it’s a great adventure.  Carol called Suzanne as well to talk about soccer angels and such. Seems Izzy’s new travel soccer team isn’t doing very well and she needs all the extra help she can get. Carol’s saying some special soccer prayers she knows, or makes up. I’m not sure which.  Can’t imagine it matters either.

Sunday:

Drove to Escanaba to do laundry and grocery shopping. The laundry was unique in that it also housed a tanning salon. You could wash your cloths and work on your melanoma simultaneously. The waterfront of Escanaba is very nice. Mostly parks with a nice paved path all along the waterfront. Gopher and I took a nice walk. We went to the city campground in Gladstone for the night.  $22/night for a nice site with electricity right on Little Bay de Noc and another paved trail.  Gopher enjoyed swimming and playing stick with a yellow lab.  After her swim, the three of us went walking. It’s supposed to get down to 49* tonight. We have enough firewood for one more campfire but Carol thought it would be too cold to sit by a fire tonight. :-) Another time. There are still some children in the campgrounds. School starts next week so after that we’ll have our choice of prime campsites about anywhere.

Monday:

In a brochure we read about the annual migration of the Monarch Butterfly from Michigan to Mexico.  The article said this migration was the only know round trip migration of any insect. The butterfly’s congregate at an area called Peninsula Point Lighthouse Park at the end of a peninsula separating Little Bay de Noc and Big Bay de Noc.  The photo of the sign tells the story.

The road to the park is paved except for the last ¾ mile which is a one lane dirt road. The Forest Service information recommends a maximum vehicle length of 16' with a height of 8' past that point. There is no way Carol's scooter could go that distance on a dirt road and we had driven too far to turn back.
Gopher and I walked the road and decided we could make it just fine. A squeeze here and there, the odd low branch, but manageable as long as no vehicles were coming the other way. The park was well worth the drive. We got there about noon time. No Monarch’s to be found. We all walked around the park and generally enjoyed a perfect day. I climbed the lighthouse for a great view of the area. Gopher has claustrophobia so she wouldn’t even go through the entry door to the lighthouse.

 The plan was to wait as long as need be, overnight if necessary, to see the spectacle. About 5:00 a nice couple showed up and I went over to say hello. They were local. The women said the Monarch’s were running late this year because of strong winds from the south. Unlike birds, butterflies can’t fly into a headwind; they can only wait for a following wind.   Our total Monarch Butterfly count for the day was maybe four. Oh well.  Turns out there is a local “Monarch Hotline” to check on the status of the migration. Quite a big deal apparently.

Peninsula Point Lighthouse

Carol enjoying the great view

Tells the story

Monarch Butterfly

View from the lighthouse


We went to the Forest Service campground of Little Bay de Noc and got what is probably the very best campsite.  Nice and sunny with an unobstructed view of the bay. We’ll be here for the next three days. We can look across the bay and see the campground we stayed in at Gladstone last night. Tonight it was warm enough to have a campfire so we did. :-)

On the lookout for the Monarchs.

Our campsite.

A change in the purpose.

When we first started traveling we kept a daily journal in a Word document. It was an account of the small things like doing the laundry, shopping and other really trivial things, our thoughts and observations , future travel plans, etc. With time this morphed into a simple, and totally common, travelogue. We’re back to the original intention which we enjoyed more. If hearing about a stop to do laundry is a huge bore, and I can't imagine why it would not be, don't waste your time here.

Saturday, August 20.
We moved across the Portage Canal to Houghten on Saturday. Got lucky once again as the campground was full. We’re back to our $10/night grassy spot by the park. The three of us took a nice walk downtown then just poked around the campground. It was a busy day in the park we’re camped on. We watched a wedding take place , some kids flying kites and a few picnics and a kids birthday party. The beach is mostly empty It’s too chilly today for swimming.

The headline in today’s local paper was about tornados on Thursday. I asked the campground host about it and he said they had a major storm here, hail included, as well. I guess leaving our campsite on the Gratiot River was the prudent thing to do.

"If the traveler expects the highway to be safe and well graded, he might as well stay at home." Charles Kuralt

We should have stayed put. That was perhaps the most perfect campsite ever.


Sunday;
It turns out the local WalMart has a hair cutting place so this morning at 10am we were at the WalMart getting a WalMart special haircut. After that we started the trek to the south side of the UP. We went to the Bond Falls Recreation Area which is located between Bruce Crossing and Watersmeet mostly because access to the falls is handicap accessible. The local electric utility company (UPPCO) has a large campground surrounding the Bond Falls Flowage. Never heard a lake or dam enpoundment called a flowage before. That’s where we stayed. It’s very nice and it’s free.

Bond Falls

Monday:
We continued east on US #2 towards Iron River. Drove through the Imp Lake, Golden Lake and Lake Ottawa NF campgrounds. I'm working with my friend Ted on his project of identifying every public campground in the Lower 48. When I'm near a campsite in the database, I drive through to verify the information.  All three of these campgrounds were OK but nothing special. We spent the night in the Iron River City RV Park. I’m afraid we’ve become terribly spoiled by some of the amazing camping areas we’re found over the years. We were talking about that earlier and wondered if we should  lower our expectations, continue the search for more "10's"  or start going back to our favorites?

Tuesday:
First stop was the Sunset Lake campground; a Bates Township Park. The sites were so unlevel that after trying three different sites I ran out of patience so we just gave up and left. Crystal Falls has the Runkle Lake Recreation Complex which includes a campground. It was 2:00 so we stayed the night. Nothing real special but decent &  clean and reasonably level.

Wednesday:
We set a new personal record for travel time between campsites. Per the Garmin, it was a 7 minute and 37 second trip from Runkle Lale to Glidden Lake SF campground. We are the only ones here so we’re in the best campsite. Right on the shore of the lake. The water is very clear and there are lots of very pretty white water lilies. This is a campground worth returning to in the future.
It’s supposed to get into the low 50’s tonight. I found a good sized log and split it for firewood. In the morning it was us and one young couple tenting.

Thursday:
Continued east. We drove through the Dawson Lake campground, a Mansfield Township park, just to take a look for future use. It’s just a series of closely spaced sites on a hill overlooking Dawson Lake. Nothing special. Continued on to Iron Mountain for some much needed grocery shopping, and a bakery fix of course,  then continued to a campground just north of Powers. It’s a Spalding Township Park called Veterans Memorial. A very nice community park and campground on a little river. There is a water faucet here. Locals come with their water jugs to fill them up. Generally this is a sign of poor quality well water at home.

Friday:
Moved on, once again, but not very far. We’re spending the weekend at the O.B Fuller County Park on a site with an unobstructed view of Lake Michigan. Got lucky as this was the only lake view site not reserved for the weekend. We enjoy the interior of the UP but prefer camping along the Great Lakes with Lake Superior being our favorite. On the next trip up this way, we might do the Lake Superior circle tour which includes the Canada part of the lake.
The remainder of our trip through MI will be along the shore of Lake Michigan with a goal of a maximum travel time of 30 minutes between campsites. We’ll be searching for more of those special places that most others don’t bother with. In search of some more 10's.

Copper Harbor south to Calumet

Thursday:
We left the campground and headed south on Hwy 26. The stretch of road between Copper Harbor and Eagle River is the most beautiful we’ve ever seen in MI. I noted the coordinates for two great boondocking sites on the map for our next trip. The picture of the rocky coast could have been taken in Maine. In another area there were sand dunes and a wonderful wide sandy beach. Just beautiful.

The coast of Maine?

In Eagle Harbor we visited the Holy Redeemer Church which was built in 1854. In the church, there is a guest book. Look at the note a recent visitor left. His great-grandfather was baptized in this church.

Our camping destination for today was the Gratiot River County Campground. It’s not a campground in the conventional sense. A four mile graded, not recently I assure you, dirt road simply stops at a cul-de-sac on the shore of Lake Superior. A few paths lead off here & there. You find a spot you like and there you are. There is a pit toilet but that’s it. The access road is a bit of an adventure. It starts out as two lanes of washboard. After the first mile the quality of the road improves somewhat but it begins to get narrower. The last mile, or so, the road is barely a full lane wide. You just hope no one is coming the other way.
But when you get to the lake. Wow!! We cannot recall staying in a more beautiful setting. We’re parked under a canopy of aromatic cedar trees but with enough open space to let the sunshine in. Behind us is a combination sandy & rocky beach and then Lake Superior. This is one of the few places where Carol can actually get an unobstructed view of the lake from the campsite. This is as good as things get. Between the great site, and the adventuresome access road, we’re going to just stay put for a while. This morning I topped off the water tank before we left the campground and we just dumped the tanks yesterday. We’re all set.
The County Park is a very popular day-use area. There were perhaps a dozen cars here at any given time. Some people came in search of pretty rocks, some brought their dogs and let them run, a few came to pick thimbleberries and some to just enjoy a perfect, sunny, summer day. One guy came with his diving dog. A first for me. The dog was a male German Shorthair Pointer. Stood perhaps 30" at the back. He would rush out into the water until it was almost over his head, dive down until all you could see was his tail sticking out of the water, and come up with a large rock which he deposited on the beach !! He did this time after time for a couple of hours. Amazing.

Tonight we have the place all to ourselves. The cost? It's free!!

The mouth of the Gratiot River


Friday:
Change of plans. About 3am we were awakened by thunder. The lightning display over Lake Superior was spectacular. It rained for perhaps an hour but nothing bad. In the morning the sky looked very dark. We turned on the weather radio and there was a severe thunderstorm warning in effect for our area. Torrential rain, damaging hail and 60mph plus winds!! were in the forecast. The last place we wanted to be if this came to pass was at the end of a four mile long dirt road that was in marginal condition to begin with so we packed up and headed into Calumet. It rained most of the way and all morning, but nothing nasty. Took advantage of a gloomy day by doing the laundry. Later on I looked at some of the historic copper mining exhibits in the area. Copper mining is certainly interesting, but I’m about maxed out.
Tonight we’re at the City of Hancock Recreation Area campground. It’s us and 50 other RV’s jammed side by side. Turned out to be a beautiful sunny day. Bummer. We could have been all alone on the shore of Lake Superior.

Tonight's view. The check-in station for the campground. Only cost us $22!!

Tuesday:
The day started with a trip to Roy’s Pasties and Bakery. Locally, Roy’s is touted as being the very best place for pasties. I stocked up on chicken/broccoli. Plus a few goodies, of course. The ginger/molasses cookies were the best we’ve ever tasted. Years ago during a trip to Prince Edwards Island, we were exposed to this great French origin cookie. Been baking them at home ever since ever since.

This morning we drove to Lake Linden which is only about ten miles from where we were. Per the GPS, a 17 minute drive. Our kind of day.

During the copper boom, Lake Linden was home to a number of stamping mills. When the copper bearing ore was mined, it then had to be “stamped” to a finer consistency before the copper could be extracted. Lake Linden has water access to Lake Superior so it became the main stamping and smelting area in this region. Copper bearing ore generally only contains from 1% to 4% copper. As refining practices became more advanced, it was discovered that the stamp sand contained a good amount of copper even after being processed once. The dredge in the picture was used to recover the stamp sand that was routinely disposed of by dumping into Torch Lake. The entire area is now a designated Superfund Site. One article I read, said the stamp sand is so hostile an environment that not even weeds can grow. And the House of Representatives wants to clamp down on the EPA because they make it much more difficult to repeat this sort of thing.