Day 68 - Saturday, August 31 - Moved to Mom's

Today we moved from the Fairgrounds to Mom's, about 7 miles.

First thing I went to Camping World and Home Depot trying to find a 6' length of potable water hose to replace a damaged one. I ended up having to buy a 10' hose. I needed it for regening our water softener. 

After I returned Kathy went to Aldi's to buy some groceries. Later she went over to Bronson, MI, to the "Amish" grocery store, and bought a few more things. While she did that I regened the softener, flushed the tanks, filled the fresh water tank and got ready to move to Mom's. We were at Mom's by 1:00.

It was fairly nice here today. The high was a partly cloudy 81 degrees. The humidity was a little high to be really nice. We still had a good day sitting outside with Mom.

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

Day 67 - Friday, August 30 - DeTour Village to Coldwater Michigan

 We left Paradise Point this morning and ended up traveling the entire 370 miles to the Branch County Fairgrounds in one day. We left Paradise Point around 9:30, stopped at several rest areas to take a break (and eat lunch) and arrived at the Branch County Fairgrounds around 5:30. Southbound traffic was light but northbound traffic looked HEAVY. It started raining when we drove through Lansing but it quit before we arrived at the Fairgrounds.

Leaving the UP 😢, approaching Big Mac's main span. The two main towers stick up 554' above the water. 

On the main span. The roadway surface is about 200' above the water.

A young couple was setting up at the Fairgrounds at the same time as us. I looked over once they were set up and saw that they had five dogs with them. 

The number of people traveling with dogs absolutely boggles my mind. The people parked next to us at Paradise Point has a dog. They took it with them some of the time but two of the days they left it in their coach. The dog barked constantly, hour after hour. When they came home the first day we were outside and they asked us if the dog had barked while they were gone. I told them that it had barked non stop. They apologized but it didn't stop them from leaving it home to bark all day a 2nd day.

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

Day 66 - Thursday, August 29 - Change of Plans

 We got up this morning expecting to travel today, then we looked at the temperatures forecast for lower Michigan. Yesterday the high at Mom's was 85, it was forecast to be 84 today, 89 on Friday and 78 on Saturday. "Normal" highs in Coldwater are 81 degrees this time of year. 

Mom is 97 and is not the least bit interested in having AC. Some years ago my  brother installed a small window unit in her bedroom for the summer months. He did that a couple of years before Mom told him it wasn't worth the bother. In order to run the AC in our coach when we are there we have to run the generator. 

I called the lady who owns the campground and asked if our site was open tonight. No one is scheduled in it until Friday so I signed up for us to stay here tonight. It's 370 miles from here to Mom's, further than what we like to do in one day. The plan is to stay overnight at a rest area near the half way point, like we did on the way up to the UP. We still plan on doing that, just a day later.

It was another nice day here. Last nights low was in the upper 50's. Today's high was 70. There were a lot of clouds, but the sun peeked through some of the time. It was nice enough that we sat outside for several hours. Our kind of weather.

We did get a little bored. Kathy wanted to check out the bakery in DeTour Village. The Flex has less than a quarter tank of fuel so I figured it would be a good idea to fill it up before we headed out in the morning. Kathy didn't see anything that looked that enticing but we were getting low on bread and she saw a good looking loaf of bread. She picked it up without even looking at the price and headed for the checkout. 

I think there were 17 big slices plus the 2 heels, we had already eaten one of the slices when I took the photo. It is good bread, but at $13/loaf we won't be buying any more of it. 😀

We are going to miss the UP. I'm already thinking about next year's schedule. I'd like to be up here for the June 27 Engineers Day at the Soo Locks. The locks are open to the public that day and you get to see things up close. A guy told me that the Saint Mary's Falls Hydropower facility is also open to the public that day. Kathy and I have both commented that we would love to see the inside of that facility. It opened in 1902. It has a current rated capacity of 18MW. The Soo Locks campground, where we stay when in Sault Ste Marie, is just down the street from the plant. We drive by it almost every day when in Sault Ste Marie.

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

Days 64 & 65 - Tuesday & Wednesday, August 27 & 28 - Drummond Island

Tuesday was warm and humid, 85 degrees. It was also quite breezy. We didn't do much. For lunch we went to the Mainsail in DeTour Village. The food was okay and the prices weren't bad but getting charged 50 cents for a glass of tap water, when our bill was $32, guaranteed that I won't return.

It cooled off enough in the evening for us to sit outside and have a campfire.

Wednesday - It was 56 degrees when we got up this morning. It rained during the night. This morning we took the ferry over from DeTour Village over to Drummond Island.

It is bigger than we expected. According to Wikipedia it is 249 square miles, half of which is water. For comparison Cole County Missouri has a land area of 394 square miles. Drummond Island has a population of 973, Cole County has a population of 77,279.

The ferry ride is only about 10 minutes. 

It was hazy, and the water was a little rough.

We stopped at Ester's Authentic Mexican Food for lunch. It was good.

We had plenty of leftovers for supper. We both thought the food was even a little bit better after warming it up in the microwave for supper.

While driving around we saw a sign for RV camping at a park so we drove down the dirt road to check it out. This was on the office. There were several other locations in the small campground with similar warnings about bears.

As we drove around the campground we found a place to pull off and look at the water. There are lots of small islands, some have small houses on them.

Time to get back on the ferry for the trip back. The cost of the round trip ferry ride is $20. For Seniors it is discounted down to $10. What a deal. It's only $35 for a motorhome.

Parked on the ferry.

We even got to see a couple of freighters on the trip back.

Coming back to DeTour Village.

We have noticed many apple trees in DeTour Village. No one seems to be interested in the apples, but the geese sure like them.

Today's high was a cloudy 66. Another campfire felt good.

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

Day 63 - Monday, August 26 - Relaxing Day

 It was hot here today, hot for here. The high was a humid 85 degrees, normal high/low for this time of year is 68/58. There was a nice breeze and shade from the trees, most of the morning we sat outside watching the occasional freighter steam by. The AC came on mid-afternoon and we moved inside for the late afternoon.

After supper, around 7PM, I walked down to Sweets Point to get some exercise.

Folks around here are ready for winter. This family already had their snowmobile sitting in the driveway. I took this photo while walking out to the Point. On the way back the guy in the next house over pulled into his driveway with a snowmobile in the back of his pickup.

Out on the point this guy has been working on his wood pile.

Looking back at the campground from part way out on the Point.

I turned around and took this photo looking out at the St. Mary's river.

When I got back we sat outside until around 9PM. The temperature was still 75 but it was damp enough that it was to cool to be comfortable.

After leaving here we plan on staying several days at my Mom's, near Coldwater, MI. We park by her pond and have to run our generator if we want AC. We planned on being at Mom's over Labor Day weekend. Looking at the 10 day highs forecast it makes me wonder if we should stay in the UP another week.

When we were up here in 2022 we crossed the bridge back into the lower peninsula on August 22. We spent over a week at a campground in Traverse City and got to Mom's September 2. We left Mom's Sept 9, did some sight seeing along the way and finally got back to Centertown on Sept 18.

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

Day 62 - Sunday, August 25 - Sault Ste Marie to DeTour Village

Today we moved 57 miles, from the Soo Locks Campground to Paradise Point RV Park. 

Below are some photos Kathy took during yesterday's train trip.

Curve before crossing dam.

At the dam.

Backside of dam.

Upstream of dam.

Downstream of dam.

Agawa Canyon

Waterfall 1

Waterfall 2 was way up the hill.

It was FOGGY in Sault Ste Marie this morning. There is an 800' freighter going by as I took this photo. We could hear the foghorn and we could hear the engines, but we couldn't see even a shadow of the freighters outline.

Paradise Point RV Park entrance

Looking back down the entrance road, from the gate.

View out our windshield after we were set up. Freighter traffic is further away than it was at Soo Locks but every freighter that passes through the locks passes within easy view of this campground.

Out on the pier looking back at the campground.

I think  the water is 12-15" deep at the end of the pier.

Sunset over the bay

The retired couple parked next to us have also been RV'ing full time since 2021. They have been in the UP 4 months. The first month they traveled around and the last 3 months they have been here. Their home base is Austin, TX. Sunday they start their slow trip back to Austin for the winter. This is the 2nd year they have spent several months here at Paradise Point.

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

Days 60 & 61 - Friday & Saturday, August 23 & 24 - Agawa Canyon Train Trip

 We didn't do much Friday. We can be quite content just watching the river traffic while enjoying the great weather. We did try out the West Pier Drive In. It might now be our favorite restaurant in Sault Ste Marie. They have curb service, I don't think there is any place to sit inside. We tried a sampling. Appetizers of Walleye Fish Sticks - they were good and there were a lot of them for $7. Mushrooms - they were good and there were a LOT of them for $6. Kathy's hamburger was a little overdone, but she likes them rare. Her chocolate malt was good. I just ordered a hot dog. It was good. We had enough walleye and mushrooms to make a meal for supper. The West Pier Drive IN is at the red dot on the left of the photo below. Soo Locks Campground is at the far right.

Saturday we were up early and across the International Bridge into Canada for our Agawa Canyon train trip. 4 hours up, 1.5 hours there and 4.5 hours back. We arrived at the train station at 7AM. 

We just missed sunrise at the train station.

At the canyon. We sat at this picnic table and ate the lunch Kathy packed.

The view while we ate lunch.

A common theme in the reviews of the trip was that the food was expensive so carry a sack lunch and snacks. We did buy a couple of cups of coffee during our trip back. It was good and when you consider that $4 Canadian is only $3 US, the price was reasonable. $18 Canadian ($13.32 US) for brisket on a bun and a bag of chips wasn't bad for up here, if the sandwich was good.

The other common theme was take some cards, games, etc. to keep the kids occupied on the trip back, because they were going to be BORED.

After 4 hours of trees and beautiful lakes I was starting to get bored on the way up. Most of the trip is going through a tunnel of trees, at 40 mph. 

The seats faced one another so that two couples could face one another and visit. The train wasn't crowed and Kathy and I had both seats to ourselves. Two couples from near Bay City, Michigan were in the seats across from us. They seemed like nice folks but the one woman talked CONSTANTLY for 8.5 hours! I tried to listen to a book on tape on the way back, playing it through my hearing aid, via Bluetooth. The only way I could hear it was to wad my jacket up and put my  head against it, like I was taking a nap and using it as a pillow.

There are two waterfalls you can walk to when you are up there, we saw one of them as the train neared the station. We did not walk to either one of them. The one we saw was okay, but certainly not breathtaking. If you come up here I would not recommend you spend an entire day on this trip. 

It was cloudy most of the day, with a high of 68. It rained a little on the train ride up but no rain during the 90 minutes we were off the train. Once we crossed the bridge back into the US we noticed that the streets were wet and there were lots of puddles.

All in all it was a good day, thank you Lord.

The countdown has begun, only 5 more days in the UP. We head south back across the bridge on Thursday, August 29th.

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

Days 58 & 59 - Wednesday & Thursday, August 21 & 22 - Hancock to Sault Ste Marie - Happy Birthday Kathy

Yesterday and today we travelled from the Houghton City RV Park to Soo Locks Campground in Sault Ste Marie, 265 miles. Both the weather and the traffic were good, plus Michigan state highways and US highways are generally in very good condition. The overnight low our last night in Houghton was 45 degrees.

On the way to Houghton we noticed a station in Baraga with some of the best fuel prices we have seen in Michigan. Yesterday when we filled up fuel was $3.39/gallon. The other times we bought fuel since leaving Missouri the fuel was $3.80-3.90/gallon. I think the station was on the L'Anse Indian Reservation, maybe that's why fuel was less expensive. 

Below is a photo of a typical log hauler up here. They are loaded with 8' long logs stacked perpendicular to the direction of travel. Lots of axles. 

Then it was on down the road to Tioga Creek Roadside Park, still in Baraga County, where we stopped for lunch. Kathy has purchased a dozen ears of sweet corn from a roadside stand the previous day. I husked four ears and we had sweet corn and some of the smoked whitefish we bought in Hancock.

We walked around the park a little and Kathy pointed out a path to the "Falls". It looked to rough for her but she talked me into walking down the path to the Falls.

This was the beginning of the path.

Then it turned into an obstacle course. Around the root balls of fallen trees.

There is actually a path off to the left.

Through wash out gullies.

And finally the "Falls"

Is that a beaver dam upstream of the Falls?

Later, when we were once again close to Lake Superior, we pulled off at another Roadside Park to enjoy the beauty. I think we were near Au Train.

Parked along the Scenic Overlook road.

Kathy enjoying the beauty.

Looking up and down the beach. There were a few people out on the beach. Kathy walked down and did some wading.

Then it was on to a Rest Area near Seney, MI where we pent the night. The overnight low was 42 degrees. We didn't put the slides out and I slept on one of the couches so that I didn't have to crawl back and forth across the bed. I woke up about 3AM and thought, "It is really cold in here." I turned on one of our gas furnaces and just snuggled a little deeper under the blanket. When I got up I realized that I had left a window and a vent open overnight. The furnace runs a lot when you leave a window and vent open.

We only had another 90 miles to get to Soo Locks Campground so we took our time getting around this morning. When we got close to Sault Ste Marie we were still to early to check in so we stopped at a Rest Area south of Sault Ste Marie and relaxed for awhile. 

About 4:00PM we were finally set up at Soo Locks. It is a lot more crowded here that it appears.

While we were sitting outside we saw the Ojibwe, the small white boat, going to to a freighter headed downstream. It was unusual because she has always come along side them almost as soon as the come out of the locks. By the time they get this far from the locks she has normally pulled away from the freighter and is heading back to where she docks, next door.

Then we saw the Edgar Speer, one of the 1,000' Lakers, headed toward the locks. The Ojibwe was going to meet her. This was the first time we have ever seen her meet a ship going to the locks.

She normally sets an object or a pallet of objects on the freighters deck. As I watched it became apparent that she didn't have enough boom to land something on the deck. That's when I noticed the door open in the side of the Edgar Speer.

I couldn't see well enough to see if she was putting something through the door, or taking something out of the door.

The door has to be close to the water line when the freighter is full of ore. Maybe one of the reasons that the Ojibwe services freighters on their way downstream is because they set much lower in the water.

Today is Kathy's birthday, she turned 77.

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