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.

Day 28 - Monday, July 6 - Hancock to Houghton

 We left Hancock just before noon, drove across the river/lake and checked in to the Houghton RV Park.

Our site.

When we were sitting in our lawn chairs in the grassy area, watching the boats (none in this photo but there were a lot of folks out boating on a Monday afternoon.), Kathy described it as heavenly.

Top center in the photo below is the Quincy Mine Shafthouse.

There were already a few folks out enjoying the beach around 2PM.. A little later there were a lot more down there. Today's high was 79.

The two trusslike tower sticking up are for a vertical lift bridge that carries US 41 over the river.

Not sure what the Kingdom of Wonders is. This same tent was in Sault Ste Marie when we were there.

We had intended to go to Copper Harbor this afternoon but it was so nice sitting out, relaxing, watching the traffic on the river, etc; we decided to put the trip off until tomorrow.

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