Day 36 - Tuesday, July 14 - Hot Day, as promised

 When we went in town for lunch the thermometer on our car said it was 93. I'm don't know what the "official" high was for the day, I  just know it was HOT.

The couple on one side of us pulled out this morning. The 5th wheel is a Redwood, I think Model 371, They start at $198k. I was shocked to see that they were pulling it with a 2500HD Duramax. The trailer weighs over 15,000# and has a pin weight of 3,713# before any options are added. This "3/4 ton pickup has to have a cargo capacity of over 2 tons to handle the pin weight, 5 passengers, etc, and be legal.

When we were in Ishpeming the couple next to us had a 5th wheel unit, big but smaller than this one, which they pulled with an F450 dually. At the time I mentioned to Kathy that I bet they were full timers since they had that big a truck.

We went to Big Boy for lunch. I got a breakfast and Kathy had some type of ham sandwich basket. Both were good. On the way back we stopped for a short time and watched Lake Michigan.

Below are some thoughts while I was drinking my morning coffee.

As I woke up this morning I was thinking about how often I forget to thank God for all the things going “right” in my life. Once I get my brain leaning in that direction I start recognizing that there are so many things I have to be thankful for.

I got up, in our nice cool air conditioned coach, put on the coffee and fixed myself a toast and peanut butter sandwich, just something to hold me over because we are supposed to go out for brunch today. As I was sitting at the table enjoying the morning I looked through the windshield and saw a guy on top of a travel trailer parked across from us. He had the cover off his AC unit. I think there is a Mom, Dad, 4 preteen kids and a dog at the camper. Now, 2 hours later, the frustrated guy is on the phone with someone.  You may be thinking, “How bad can it be, they are in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula?” It isn’t necessarily the actual temperature/humidity, it is what you are used to.

Yesterday the high was 86 here, at 9:30AM it is already 81. Yesterday the forecast for today’s high was 93, right now the high is forecast to be 90; average high here for this time of year is 72. There is as “Extreme Heat Warning” in effect, forecasting heat index highs of 98-105 for the area.

While I am sympathizing with this man’s plight I can’t help but grin as I think about our 2^nd experience “camping”. It was in the late 70’s, when we lived in rural Iowa. We made some great friends in the short time we lived there. Every Memorial Day weekend several of the families went camping at a lake near Albert Lea, MN, about 140 miles away. One of the families had purchased a bigger travel trailer but had not sold their old one. They, and other friends, kept up the pressure for us to use the trailer and join them for the weekend. I finally caved. This was an EVENT! We lived in Maxwell, IA. We all had Tee shirts emblazoned with Maxwell Memorial Day Melee.

After work, on several hot evenings, a couple of us guys did some rework on the wiring for the trailers tail/turn/stop lights by Friday we had everything ready to go. Travel to the campground went well. Campers were shoehorned into spots so small that you could hardly make your way between the campers. When we set up I meticulously levelled the trailer. We were ready. Friday night it POURED rain and stream of water leaked in around the roof vent. I went out in the rain and used the tongue jack to put as much slope on the roof as possible. It slowed the leak down to a drip.

As we got up Saturday morning we noticed a long line of folks at the rest room facility. We learned that the sewer was plugged on the ladies side and everyone had to take turns on the men’s side. It was HOT. The only place remotely cool was down by the lake, where it smelled like rotten fish. By Sunday morning I had enough “camping”, we packed up and headed back to Iowa.  Our weekend of fun was not yet complete. As we stopped in our driveway our youngest son, around 9 years old, leaped from the van and shot around the corner of an outbuilding to relieve himself. Soon thereafter we heard a blood curdling scream and say him come limping back to us. He was barefoot, not a problem, but the building he went around was where I split wood for our wood stove and fireplace. While back there he decided to try his hand with the splitting axe. He somehow managed to put a deep gash down the top of his foot. Blood was flowing freely. We wrapped it to staunch the flow and Kathy called the town doctor. Irene, his wife, said he would meet us at the office. We beat him to the office by a minute. As he pulled up he uncovered Drew’s foot, said “Wiggle your toes.”, When Drew did Doc Neglia said, “Its fine, there is a lot of fatty tissue on the top of our feet. He hasn’t cut anything serious.” Doc stitched him up and sent us home.

 It was a LONG time before anyone talked me into going “camping” again. Actually I never camped again, I’ve always glamped (glamour camping). Even our first travel trailer had a decent size shower, a microwave, AC, etc. Now we even have a dishwasher and stacked washer/dryer onboard.

God is good. I pray that He bless you  and yours. He has blessed me.

PS. The guy next door finally gave up on his rooftop AC. They were gone for several hours and came back and installed a window AC unit in their travel trailer.

Day 35 - Monday, July 13 - Looking around Manistique

 We hung around the coach until late morning. Apparently I'm still not rid of the kidney stone. As long as I stay on the pain meds (naproxen and acetaminophen, PTL I haven't had to take any of the hydrocodone) I'm okay. If I miss a dose I pay for it. By late morning I got caught up on the meds and was doing okay.

We headed out to look around Manistique. Manistique is the only city in, and the county seat of Schoolcraft County. It's population is 2,900. Schoolcraft County covers 1,884 sq miles (1,171 land, 713 water) and has a population of 8,100. For comparison Moniteau County covers 419 sq miles and has a population of 16,000. Cole County covers 402 sq miles and has a population of 77,000.

We drove through Manistique and on the east side of town stopped to look at Lake Michigan. Note the milkweed in the bottom of the photo. It was growing all over this area.

Kathy pointed out a Monarch butterfly caterpillar.

For a short time we didn't see any butterflies but then we began seeing them. They really love this milkweed. I could blame it on the camera on my phone but in reality I don't have the reflexes to track them and photograph them. They are beautiful to watch fly around.

On the other side of town we saw this little harbor and stopped to check it out. We also checked out a nice (waterfront sites $85/night) RV campground that had sites next to the water on one side of this harbor. I talked to a lady in the office. She told that they were booked solid through early October. She said that if we wanted to stay there next summer we needed to get a site reserved no later than April.

We did feel the need to stop at one of the local ice cream shops while in town. I had a boring vanilla/chocolate twist and Kathy had an adventurous berry flavored cone. She let me taste hers, it was pretty good.

Today's high was a mostly sunny 86, 14 degrees above the average high this time of year. PTL for AC! We turned ours on yesterday and at least one of the units has been running constantly. By late afternoon it was cool enough to walk down to the little campground beach and check out Indian Lake. Several kids were in the water getting cooled off. Back at the coach I sat outside reading until near sundown (9:33P today). Kathy stayed down at the beach and visited with one of the Mom's who was watching the swimmers.

God is good. I pray that He bless you and yours. He has blessed me.

Day 34 - Sunday, July 12 - Ishpeming to Indian Lake

 We left Country Village RV park in Ishpeming at noon. We had a 100 mile drive to make to get to Indian Lake RV Campground, near Manistique, and checkin time started at 3PM. It rained some before we left but we were ready to go, except for unhooking from shore power, before the rain hit. It had stopped raining by the time we were actually wanting to leave.

Roads were good, traffic was light. Some rain along the way but not enough to leave the wipers on continually.

About 2 miles east of Isabella, MI we saw a parking area for a DNR boat launch. We pulled in to have lunch and kill a little time. We were there for 45-60 minutes and saw only 3 other vehicles, none with boats, pass through.

I took the photo below through the wooded area on the passenger side of the coach. The water you  see is Big Bay De Noc

The red icon in the photo below locates the DNR boat launch. For those not familiar with Michigan's boundaries note the dashed white line running through Lake Michigan. It shows the line between Michigan and Wisconsin. Not how how far it goes into what you think would be Wisconsin. The solid while line across the right, Lake Huron, and top, Lake Superior, is the line between Michigan and Canada. 

Parked at Indian Lake. You can see a sliver of the lake midway up the left side of the photo. The photo doesn't show the campers on the left side of the road. It is a tight area. The campground's website says that it is an old campground and people with larger rigs need to be sure to read about the size of the sites before reserving them. Our site is 17'x40', it is actually a little bigger than that, especially longer. As I walked down to look at the beach a couple in 5th wheel unit hollered over to tell me to let the "lady" know that they were impressed with her ability to get into the site on the first try. In the evening a guy with a big 5th wheel tried to get into a site down 2 from us. He finally gave up and went to another site.

I walked down to the small beach to check it out.

Indian Lake is over 8,600 acres. It is the 4th largest inland lake in Michigan's UP.

I'm feeling a lot better today. We are looking forward to doing some exploring in this area. It is the first time we have "camped" on the Lake Michigan side of the UP.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.

Day 33 - Saturday, July 11 - No Museum Today

 I had a miserable morning, and most of the afternoon. By late afternoon I was doing much better. I didn't do much today but lay around and sleep.

Kathy went out and found some "treasures" at a big thrift shop. 

It was much warmer today, we had the AC running all day. She still sat outside a lot, and watched the bird in the tree.

Tomorrow we move to Indian Lake near Manistique. It will be a first for us. We have not spent any time on the Lake Michigan side of the UP.

God is good. I pray that he blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.

Days 31 & 32 - Thursday & Friday, July 9 & 10 - Made it to Ishpeming

Wednesday was a brutal day for me. I did manage to walk the trash down to the dumpster but that was it for the day, even with the pain meds I stayed in bed most of Wednesday PM and Wednesday night. Thursday was moving day. It was a struggle but we managed to get packed up, the car hooked up and headed for Ishpeming. Kathy drove and I was on the coach the entire 90 miles. We arrived and were set up by 1:30PM and I spent the rest of the day in bed. 

This morning I finally think I'm coming around. I've managed to eat some solid food and took a short walk around the campground this afternoon. I'm hoping to make it back to the Michigan Iron Industry Museum tomorrow. I've been there several times and have enjoyed each time.

Parked at Country Living in Ishpeming. We have stayed here multiple times during past trips. One of their attractions is a heated pool and hot tub. Kathy has already taken advantage of the pool. 

Below is a photo of the tree in the above photo, taken while sitting in one of the lawn chairs. We noticed a bird fly up to and hang on the side go the tree. I thought it was going after bugs. Kathy thought there were baby birds in the hollow tree.

Below is a blow up of the tree. I hope you can make out the "baby" birds head as it peeked out.

We haven't talked to the folks across the street. A lady drove the loaded flat bed in pulling the trailer. She had it set up when a guy came in with the pickup on the right. The front plates on both trucks say AGTAK. I did some internet snooping. The company is out of Alabama and does crop spraying with drones. The drones they use can handle 10 gallons of spraying payload or 110# of spreading payload. They can spray over 50 acres per hour. The company is out of Alabama. We have only seen them out as they walked from their trucks to the camper. 

Weather was beautiful again today. Last nights low was in the low 50's and todays high was in the high 70's. The low humidity and slight breeze made sitting outside very pleasant.

God is good. I pray the He bless you and yours. He has blessed me.

Day 30 - Wednesday, July 8 - Last Day on the Keweenaw Peninsula

It rained last night and some this morning. I'm still not up to snuff so we postponed going to Copper Harbord until next year. We were up there two years ago.

Kathy went to Walgreen's and picked up some pain meds for me and while she was out she bought a pasty for our lunch. People talked about how great they are and we tried them 4 or 5 years ago. The ones we had were NASTY. So many people keep talking about how good they are so we decided to give them another try, glad we did. This one was good.

We just hung around the campground the remainder of the day. Kathy sat outside for hours. I was out for an hour or so in the evening.

I walked the trash down to the dumpster and walked around so that I could take a photo of the Chutes and Ladders playground down at the beach.

Kathy knew I was interested in seeing the bridge go up and let me know that it was being raised. The photo below shows the bridge in it's normal summer position. Prior to 1982 when there was still rail traffic across the bridge it was lowered so that the blue truss sections lined up. Vehicle traffic went across the top and rail traffic went across the bottom. In that position there was only 4' of clearance between the bottom of the bridge and the water. That is still the winter position and snowmobiles use the bottom.

This is the partially raised position, enough to get the current boat under it. In the fully raised position there is 100' of clearance under it.

Still maybe an hour until sundown when I took this photo. It was cool enough that we headed back into the coach. 

This is the boat in the photo above. I'm not sure why we didn't investigate a dinner cruise on the river. I'm glad we weren't on one this evening. It would have been cold out on the water.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.

Day 29 - Tuesday, July 7 - A Different Type of Day

 Last night was not a good night, nor was most of today. I had stomach issues. The short story version is that by 4PM I convinced myself that I had some type of bowel blockage. Kathy took me to the local Emergency Room. By the time I got done talking to the people at the ER they were also concerned about some type of bowel blockage. They did a contrast CT scan. The scan showed that I am passing a kidney stone. I, and my Urologist, knew that I had a kidney stone. I though his lack of concern was because it was to big to pass and wasn't causing any problems.

I passed a kidney stone back in the late 70's, it is indelibly etched in my memories. I think it was the most painful experience of my life. While today's experience has been painful it hasn't been nearly the level of the other time. Previously the pain was in my back and I felt like I needed to urinate, but couldn't. This time the pain was in my abdomen and I felt like my bowels needed to move, but couldn't. 

Bottom line. Blood and urine tests showed no infection issues. The stone seems to be passing on its own. A morphine and later a tramadol shot has the pain at a very manageable level. After 4 hours in the ER we are now back home in the coach, with prescriptions for pain pills. Hopefully the stone will finish its trip out and that will be the end of it.

All the folks I encountered during my time in the ER came across as wanting to do everything they could to make my stay as pleasant as possible.

I sure spoiled today's planned trip to Copper Harbor.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.