On Tuesday, Steve took care of a final dental appointment and had a tooth pulled. Yuck! But now that all of our obligations were done for the next month or two, we decided it was time to load up this Winnebago View and take it on a road trip!
We've done some research and kind of marked out a few things we might like to see. Some of the stuff on our map is maybe:
- maybe cut through from Michigan into Canada and see Niagara Falls,
- maybe upstate New York Finger Lakes region,
- maybe go all the way to Maine?
- On the return trip maybe hop our way back through Canada again and maybe visit Algonquin provincial park.
- Following that up with looping back down through the Sault Ste Marie locks
- and back home again to Wisconsin.
Plans made in jello,
We will see where we end up.
My dear friend Judy made me this beautiful quilted journal book. I'm going to use it to keep track of our finances and trip notations along the way. It will help me to write in my blog each day too.
We set the GPS to kind of loop up around the edge of Lake Michigan and head us towards Escanaba. We weren't sure how far we were going to drive but at least we knew the general direction we wanted to go. This motorhome has a GPS built in on the dash by Rand Mcnally. I really miss my old Microsoft Streets and Trips, but it's been made obsolete. I used to carry it on a laptop with a GPS dongle. It was such a nice way to plan trips and keep records and mark points of interest and look ahead. These new app GPS's just don't do all of that. I want to keep an entire trip that I can look back on. I guess I'll just have to look back on my blog.
It was getting close to lunch time so right before Manistique, Michigan we pulled off at the Thompson Rogers wayside park on US2. We had stopped here last month when we were heading up to Lake Superior. It's so nice to just pull in right next to the beach and line up next to a picnic table.
I cooked up some grilled cheese sandwiches and we relaxed for a bit and caught the local news for noon weather. Things were looking pretty good even though it was still going to be hot and humid. There were some storms up ahead but they were scattered so we don't know if we were going to run into them or not.
Well, as luck would have it, we did!
Actually they skirted just south of us and were out into Lake Michigan. Boy oh boy, what a storm that looked like out there. I sure wouldn't want to be there in a boat.
As luck would have it, my sister and her husband were coming back from the lower peninsula of Michigan. They had been down in Ann Arbor for some medical appointments. As they were working their way North and we were working our way South, we knew we could meet somewhere in between. With the wonderful age of cell phones and text messaging, we were able to keep track of each other's progress. As we got closer and closer to each other, there happened to be another roadside Park just out of Naubinway. It was called Scenic Beach.
We arrived just a few moments before they did and walked out on this little walkway to watch the rest of the storm as it blew across Lake Michigan.
Binney was happy to get out and stretch her legs and do a little sniff sniff sniff. There was also a nice dog walking area to the far east side of the park and she took care of things over there too.
We watched the storm clouds roll over and it was like boiling and rumbling and boiling in a pan, but it was overhead. Very strange and we were just at the edge of it. To the north of us the sky was blue and white fluffy clouds.
Soon my sister pulled on in and we got in a nice hug and chatted for a bit. Isn't that amazing that out of all of the hundreds of miles we were both traveling in either direction that we were able to meet up somewhere in the middle?
We chatted and hugged and talked about everything that we could in the few short minutes we were together. Actually, we keep up a running messenger chat all day and all night long with our brother. We are in constant contact and probably don't go longer than an hour without messaging each other. But it's great to see each other in person! They hadn't seen the inside of our camper yet since we got it in April.
SEESTERS!!!!
It was time for a final hug and then they had to hop in their car and head West while we hopped into the motorhome to head East. But before she left, she gave me a gift.
She said this was something special
to "LEAF" with me...
Hahahaaa
We drove on about another 50 or 60 miles to a State Forest that we found on the map. It was first come first serve so we figured we'd be able to find a campsite there. It was called Little Brevort State Forest Campground. It was actually on Worth Road, which was a detour due to some construction from US2. So we would have had to go this way anyhow...
It is a little campground with rustic sites and no hookups.
It started drizzling a little bit as we wound our way into the campground. There were about six or seven empty sites available of the 20 total sites. We grabbed an envelope and picked site number 14.
Just as Steve walked back to the pay post to deposit our envelope, it started raining heavier. He rushed back in between the raindrops and didn't get too wet. I cooked up some Manwich sloppy joes and we settled in for a wet rainy evening. Before we knew it, the rain had stopped and the sun started peeking through the trees.
We curled up in the damp weather and decided not to make a campfire or anything. We pulled in a few TV stations but they were scattered , flickering on and off. Then we decided to pop in a DVD of Northern Exposure, one of my favorite shows to watch if we can't get a decent TV signal.
198 MILES TRAVELED ON WEDNESDAY AUG 2
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We woke up this morning, August 3rd, to the sounds of pitter-pat raindrops on the roof. It was really pleasant and we snuggled down in the covers and slept in even a little longer. We really are in no rush and we had nothing important to do. There's a really pleasant sound of listening to the rain tap tap tapping on the roof in an RV.
We perked up some coffee and checked the weather reports. It was still going to be up in the 80s and muggy in the general vicinity. We decided that we would look ahead and using a couple different maps we found a state park about 70 miles away in the Lower Peninsula that we could reserve a campsite with electric for two nights. That way we could run the air conditioning. Next week it's supposed to get back down in the seventies and that will be very comfortable. We can do more boondocking then.
We headed on into St Ignace and topped off the fuel tank. Diesel was 4.19 a gallon. When we fueled up back in Wisconsin last week it was only 3.59. We made 15.6 mpg nice! Then after we fueled up, we made a quick little pit stop at a grocery store. I had to pick up a special something for a special someone that we might run into on our travels.
Now it was time to head towards the bridge and cross the Mighty Mac! Known as the Mackinac Bridge.
As we came around the curve to enter the toll area this was our first view of the bridge. We had crossed it once before with our Jeep Wagoneer, but we've never come this way with our motorhome. So this was going to be a first for us.
The winds were at a minimum and we did not need to have a semi escort us across. If it's very windy they use semis as buffers and go slow and allow motorhomes to travel alongside of them. But it was a very pleasant morning. We pulled up to the toll booths and paid our $5 per axle, $10 total for recreational vehicles.
Here are a few facts about the Mackinac Bridge:
The Mackinac Bridge (/ˈmækənɔː/ MAK-ə-naw; also referred to as the Mighty Mac or Big Mac) is a suspension bridge that connects the Upper and Lower peninsulas of the U.S. state of Michigan. It spans the Straits of Mackinac, a body of water connecting Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, two of the Great Lakes. Opened in 1957, the 26,372-foot-long (4.995 mi) bridge is the world's 27th-longest main span and is the longest suspension bridge between anchorages in the Western Hemisphere.The Mackinac Bridge is part of Interstate 75 (I-75) and the Lake Michigan and Huron components of the Great Lakes Circle Tour across the straits; it is also a segment of the U.S. North Country National Scenic Trail. The bridge connects the city of St. Ignace to the north with the village of Mackinaw City to the south.
Of course I had to create a
YouTube of the experience:
Just the other day, my brother and his girlfriend were heading back to the Upper Peninsula from Ohio. They got stuck in the middle of the bridge for 2 hours. Crawling two feet at a time and stopping and two feet again and stopping. They sure were happy to get back into the U.P.
We meandered our way along on some nice State highways. We worked our way down to Cheboygan, MI. Then we turned inland and headed to the Blackwater Recreation Area. We had reservations at Onaway State Park.
Check-in was a breeze with a very friendly park attendant at the main office. He gave us a map of the park and we chat chatted a bit about other things and other places. He had just come across the U.P. from Minnesota and enjoyed some of the areas up near Superior Wisconsin.
Here's a website link to the park:
There are 85 campsites in total and two more walk-in sites so that's 87. We were lucky enough to get down in the loop by the lake. The sites are small and rather tight. But it's better than being up on the bluff I think. We managed to get site number 19.
We got all set up and rolled out the awning. Steve took out the lawn chairs before we pushed out the back slide. I got it all set up and pretty soon we crawled back inside to the coolness of the air conditioning. That was enough heat and humidity for me and Binney.
79 MILES TRAVELED ON THURSDAY AUGUST 3RD
And to finish up this blog I want to say happy birthday to our oldest grandson Jameson who turned 15 on Sunday as well as our granddaughter Whitney who turned eight on Tuesday. We had a birthday party with them all on Saturday in Oconto before we left.
.
Now we are all done with grandkid birthdays
until Claire's in October.
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Sounds like a fantastic adventure. We won't see those kind of temps until December.
ReplyDeleteVery nice to be footloose and fancy free. Good blog.
ReplyDeleteI will enjoy this trip with you, I'm along for the ride! Loved the video going across the bridge. I didn't do that when I was up that way....just looked at it from a distance. I did go to the island. It was neat!
ReplyDeletesounds like a wonderfull trip coming up. And a nice beginning. I always enjoy traveling along with you. Have a great safe and wonderful trip.
ReplyDeleteIt's wonderful that you guys can do some real RVing again! Niagara Falls is a must-see if you've never been there (the Falls themselves,,, the city is the "pits".) If you do go to the Falls, please take the time to travel a bit further north to see Old Ft. Niagara. it is 1 of the best restored forts in the U.S. and has a smashing view of Lake Ontario. On a clear day you can see Toronto on the other side of the lake. Have a great time.
ReplyDelete