Day 10 - Friday, September 24 - Ishpeming

 The weather today was absolutely gorgeous! I could think of nothing that would have made for nicer weather than what we had today. 

Mid-morning we went into Ishpeming, parked and walked around the downtown. The "birth" of Ishpeming occurred in 1854 when iron mining got under way. 3,000 tons of ore were shipped that year. Its population peaked at a little over 13,000 in the year 1900, the current population is less than 6,500. Sadly there are lots of vacant stores along the main street. Iron mining provided jobs in the area since the 1850's, but the mines are almost all shut down now.

Over the past 10 years the population of the UP has dropped by a lot. I don't know why businesses are relocating up here, and why people aren't buying property up here. With global warming this will be prime farm country in 50 years. Buying up some property next to Lake Superior seems like a no brainer. Global warming people project that the water level in Lake Superior is going to go down over the next 100 years.

Ishpeming's City Hall is interesting. I should have checked out the inside but didn't.

Another interesting downtown landmark is the Eggbeater. It is a 162' tall vertical axis wind turbine that was built in 2010. It was supposed to provide power for a multistory housing complex. It has never generated a kwh of electricity. The Town Council has been trying to get the owner to remove is since 2013. From what I can tell he admits that this one will never generate electricity, but he has a new, improved model almost ready for production and he will replace this one with the new model. The new improved one just never seems to make it into production.

We then went out to visit Da Yoopers Tourist Trap again. We thought we should check to see is it had changed much from previous years. It hadn't. Look at photos from around August 17, 2018 if you are interested.

Back at the camper we sat outside reading and enjoying the fantastic weather. Mid-afternoon we headed to Sheri's restaurant, a few miles west of the campground. Kathy had read about their Friday fish specials. It was the best meal we have had in the UP this trip.

We did have an interesting experience while at Sheri's. Kathy was facing the door and shortly after we ordered she said, "Is your brother (David) up here?" I said no. She told me to turn around and sure enough the guy looked like my brother. She said, "Hey David." and he came over to the table with a puzzled look on his face. His name is David, and he sure looks like my brother, but he is not.

My brother sent me a selfie to show that he was restoring one his stampcrete surfaces in Coldwater. Together they don't look so much alike, but I did really think he was my brother.

Then it was back to the campground for a nap, more reading and just plain enjoying the day.

Late this afternoon the bottom started dropping out of the thermometer. Today's high was 73. Now, at 10:30 it is 50 and has been raining for a couple of hours.

Tomorrow the plan is to move to a campground in Brimley, MI, about 170 miles from here and about 15 miles west of Sault Ste. Marie.

God is good, may He bless you and yours.