VACATION - Looping Around Lake Superior - Day 14 -to Kleinke Park in Michigan and HOME!

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since I started blogging in 2009! 

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Thank you, kind readers, for following along!

Here is the map of day 14 travels down to the next campground... this map shows leaving Little Bay de Noc national forest campground number 22, and heading up around through Gladstone and Escanaba, down to Kleinke county park in Menominee county, Michigan, 23.

We left our campsite (and grumpy camphost) at 10 am from Little Bay de Noc.  I hadn't gotten a good pic of our campsite the day before, so here was one in the early morning.  In the background is all water from the Little Bay de Noc but it doesn't show up in the early morning picture.

  

We headed north and then west snaking around through Gladstone. It was by far the roughest stretch of highway we had traveled on all of the trip so far!  Once we got into Escanaba, it smoothed out of course. We made our stop at Dobbers Pasties that I mentioned in yesterday's blog.  We know it is right next to a big parking lot for easy access to their shop.  They carry a variety of Yooper souvenirs and delicacies from the area.

We stocked up on a dozen frozen beef pasties (with rutabega!) $4.95 each, plus 2 fresh ones to eat for lunch, a frozen unbaked Danish Kringle (caramel and nut flavor) and a bag of Trenary Toast.

If you have never had Trenary Toast, you are missing out. It's thick hard Finnish rusk bread made into toast slices, (like Zwiback) with cinnamon and sugar on them.  Good for dunking into coffee, some smear soft butter or peanut butter on them, some give them to teething babies. Any way you have them, they are great.  Made in Trenary Michigan, in the heart of the U.P.

Now it was just a hop, skip and jump down the shoreline of Lake Michigan on M 35 to some of our favorite campgrounds. If we couldn't get into the one we wanted, we know of four others we can get into.

1. First is Fuller Park in Delta County with electric and water
2. then Fox which is a rustic campground, 
3. then by Cedar River is a rustic state forest campground about 8 miles in to the west,
4.  then next on that strip of road is J W Wells state park with electric and water
5. and lastly, our favorite, Kleinke Park of Menominee County with 50 amp electric only $20 a night.

Our friends Roz and Gary were at Kleinke campground for a few days, and we were hoping to meet up with them there. By the time we reached them via phone, they had already packed up that morning and headed home.  We pulled right next to the spot they had just vacated that morning.  Gosh, we would have been neighbors!

Kleinke has always been a favorite of ours.  Many sites are right along the sandy beach and water is clean and clear, far from the mouth of the Green Bay where it's icky by late summer.

The dogs are allowed on the beach and it's got great 50 amp power.  Showers and bathrooms are nice and newer, and a dump station with potable water is on hand for the campers. If you are just traveling through, you can use their dump station for a small fee.

It was SOOO hot and humid when we got there, but it was still 15 degrees cooler than the temps back at home in Chilton.  We donned our swimsuits and plunged in the water.  Finnegan was not too happy to get dunked in a bit, but he wanted to join me in the water. Binney said NO THANKYOU when we tried to get her to come in.

After drying off and relaxing under the awning for a while, we moved on indoors at 3:30 to watch  the Packer Game on tv.  We knew being close to Escanaba we could get CBS for the game... as well as a myriad of stations from as far away as Milwaukee travel over the water and come in really well.  I scanned the tv for stations and got over 50 of them. That is more than when we lived 45 miles  further south in Oconto.

We had both roof airs going on the 50 amp service to be comfortable inside the motorhome. I whipped in a Dina Mia pizza, also made in the UP of Michigan, for our halftime snack (and supper).  Once the nail-biting game was over, with the Packers winning the Bengals in overtime... we went back outdoors. It was finally cooling down at 7 pm.  We met some nice folks as we wandered around with the dogs on leashes. Sitting out under the awning until dark brought in swarms of small lake flies or gnats, and there were zillions flocking around our patio lights and crawling on the awning.  Time for INSIDE---  and we kept all of the windows closed so they didn't find a way in through the screens.  It was an early night for us, as the heat was really taking a toll on my health. It always does.

After a quiet peaceful sleep, 

we woke up to the most AMAZING sunrise! 

I took seventy million pictures, but here are the best.  

It kept getting more brilliant as it rose, from soft pastel pinks to hot pinks to blazing golds! 

What a GREAT way to start the day---

After looking at the local weather, and knowing we were only 110 miles from home, we decided to pack it in and load up before it got too hot.  It was gonna be a scorcher with high humidity again.

We have a wifi thermostat at home that we can look into the conditions inside the house.  At 7:30 am, the inside temp was already 10 degrees hotter than the outside temp, so I electronically turned on the air conditioning and it will be cozy and comfortable by the time we get home, about noonish.  It should be about 90 when we get home.

We asked the dogs if they wanted to go home, using a few key words like "BIG BACKYARD" "FRONT PORCH"  "MAIL LADY" "UP THE STAIRS" and naming all the toys like "football" "squirrel" "bumblebee" and "hedgehog"  ... they are eager as recognition flashed in their eyes.

Binney jumped up and nabbed Finney around the neck to get his attention as if she was saying: SEE???  I TOLD YOU THEY WOULD BRING US BACK TO THAT HOUSE AGAIN, WE ARE NOT LIVING IN THIS MOVING ONE FOR EVER!"

We got road worthy in a short time, and drove over to the dump station for the final dumping before heading home.  Steve rinsed the tank with our turbo swishy thing that is built into our black tank since nobody was waiting in line. Once we get home we will wash off the layers of road grime. Now its all ready for our Halloween camping at High Cliff in late October.

I am typing this up as we roll south, just passing through Green Bay now.  I will post a recap blog tomorrow with things like costs, campgrounds, links and final expenses for our trip.

Thank you to Steveio 

for being such a good driver 

and getting us to where we wanted to go. 

(Doesn't he look relaxed?)

We are now HOME ...safe and sound.  

Thanks be to God for watching over us on our travels.  

We went 1513 miles without a single breakdown 

and no accidents.  

Temps are 85 right now at noon.  Ewwww

Glad we came home.

110 miles traveled today

1513 total miles

74283