Days 51-53 - Wednesday-Friday, July 29-31 - Not Much Happening

 Basically we are just Mom sitting. Thursday Kathy did a LOT of cleaning at Mom's and caught up Mom's laundry, while I took Mom for her weekly hair appointment and then out to lunch to keep her out of Kathy's hair.

Wednesday & Thursday evenings the kids were in the Fairground arena with their horses. It is always fun to watch them.

Today Nancy & Cindy, two of Kathy's sisters, and Ed, Cindy's husband, came up from NW Ohio. Kathy went with them to the "Amish grocery store" in Bronson, MI. I went out to Mom's and used her WiFi to do some car research, at Kelsey's request.

One of the two RV's that were here when we were here in early June left a couple of days ago. Today two more pulled in. Four of us  here may be the most I've seen here.

Lots of activities going on every day as workers are getting ready for the Fair, which starts August 9th.

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

Days 49 & 50 - Monday & Tuesday, July 27th & 28th - Ho Hum

Nothing exciting happening, Continuing to "Mom sit". I talked to my brother, they are having a great time at their property up near Baldwin, MI. He, and his wife, are the real campers of the family. Kathy and I are the glampers (glamour campers). They have a couple of old travel trailers up there, that my brother bought cheap and rebuilt. They took two side by sides up with them, and I'm sure other toys. I think they have 11 family members and at 2 friends of the family up there.

June 5th was the last time I was at a fitness center. There is a Planet Fitness in Coldwater so I finally went to it for an hour this morning. I will be sore tomorrow.

It's partly sunny today. The high was 77, last nights low was 66. It's supposed to get down to 59 by morning. We will like that.

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

Days 47 & 48 - Saturday & Sunday, July 25th & 26th - Watching the Horses

 Holdover from Thursday - On our way from Clare to Coldwater last Thursday I saw this huge facility in St. John, MI. I did some research and learned that it is MWC, a cheese making facility. Every year they turn over 2.9 BILLION pounds of milk into 300 MILLION pounds of block cheese. These numbers boggle my mind.

2.9 BILLION pounds of milk per year is 7.94 million pounds per day. At 40,000#/truck that is 200 trucks full of milk arriving on an average day.

FACTOID: Michigan ranks sixth in the United States for total milk production and first in the nation for milk production per cow. The state's dairy herd of over 450,000 cows produces more than 12 billion pounds of milk annually.

Screenshot from Google Maps

Saturday morning my brother stopped by so that we could discuss Mom's situation. Our 97 year old Mom still lives by herself. Physically she is is in good health (awesome health for someone 97 years old) but mentally her mind thinks she is living 40 years ago. 

Saturday afternoon I went out to Mom's, picked her up and she spent the afternoon with us. Kathy went out this morning and picked her up and she spent the day with us. Mom virtually never stops talking, asking questions. For old folks who remember vinyl records she is like a record where the needle can't get out of the track. 

Late Saturday afternoon two of Kathy's sisters, who live in northwest Ohio, came for a visit.

My brother puts drops in Mom's eyes every morning and evening and takes her the other 3 meds she takes. He plays the guitar ands sings a little. His way of stopping the endless stream of questions is to take his guitar down when he spends time with her in the evenings, and playing and singing.

Both days we have been here there has been some type of girls competitions involving horses. Mom grew up around horses. She sat in the coach drivers seat and watched the girls/horses compete.

I took these photos through our windshield. 

God is good, even when we don't understand Him. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.

Day 46 - Friday, July 24th - Clare to Coldwater

 Nothing exciting today. We arrived at the Branch County Fairgrounds at 11AM. Kathy started on multiple loads of laundry and running the dishwater, now that we have a sewer hook up to dump our tanks. I hooked up our utilities, walked down and paid for 9 nine nights, had some lunch and took a nap.

In the afternoon we out and visited with my Mom for an hour and then met my brother, his wife, one of their grandsons and Mom for dinner. The food and fellowship was good.

By 8PM we were back home. Kathy is sitting outside, watching the sunset. The temperature is 77 degrees. It feels to cool for shorts and a tee shirt. We just watched a young lady walking a heifer down a road in the Fairgrounds. My guess is that she is getting it used to things so that it will be ready to show at the Fair that starts on August 9th.

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

Days 44 & 45 - Wednesday & Thursday, July 22nd & 23rd - Saying Goodbye to the UP

Wednesday it was mostly sunny, but ;windy and cool. It was our last full day in the UP so we got out of the campground. We went to Motown Nate's for lunch. We had driven by it numerous times but had not stopped. There never seemed to be a good place to park. After several trips around several blocks a space right next to the place opened up. You order in a small building back behind the Airstream. They give you a pager and you pick your order up at a window in the Airstream. 

We chose to sit at a table in the tepee. Note the guitar shaped, unvented "stove". The top of the tepee is open. Must be enough of a draft to carry the smoke away. It would be interesting to see it in operation.

Kathy's brisket sandwich was really good, as was my Detroit style coney dog. The fries were excellent but the best item was the homemade chips. You can see a few at the top left. We ate the chips with our sandwiches and took the fries home with us. Kathy warmed them up in the oven for a late night snack. They were even great warmed up.

During the entire day there were lots of float planes landing and taking off.

In the afternoon we walked down to the area where the cruise ships dock. It was about a half mile each way. With the wind it was a little to cool to really enjoy it but we sat on a bench and watched the action on the river for 15-20 minutes.

This area is next to some type of Fisheries group. I wonder if this "tank" was a way to transport fish.

The place was some type of State facility. I wonder if our tax dollars paid for this charging station. None of the other spaces in the parking lot even had an outlet to plug in  your car during the winter. The State didn't even think it was necessary to provide a gas pump for people who drove vehicles powered by internal combustion engines. 

Thursday - We weren't in any hurry to leave since we planned on driving only 200 miles today, and finishing up the last 160 miles to Coldwater tomorrow. We pulled up to the dump station and started emptying our tanks around 11:30. I had mapped out the rest areas along the way and we stopped at one of them for lunch. We were a little surprised when we got to the ramp into the rest area and saw the sign, NO TRUCKS. At the last minute we decided it didn't say NO RV's, so we drove in. The road was a little narrow, twisty and hilly but nothing that was an actual problem. It was a nice place for lunch and a break.

About 50 miles after the rest area we stopped and filled up with fuel. The cheapest fuel I could find, at a station where I thought we could get in and out without difficulty was $4.99/gal. We topped off the tank with 59 gallons. If we go straight home when we leave Coldwater we can probably make it to Missouri before we have to stop for fuel.

We arrived at the Clare Welcome Center around 4:30. This is where we plan on spending the night.

This "art" was here when we stopped a few years ago, but I don't remember the model of the bridge.

I sat out at a picnic table, reading, for close to an hour. Traffic through the rest area is light. As I write this there is only one semi in the truck parking lot. There is some highway noise, but not bad. It won't surprise me to wake up in the morning to a lot full of trucks.

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

Days 42 & 43 - Monday & Tuesday, July 20 & 21 - Windy, Rainy, Cool, YUCK!

 Yesterday the high didn't get out of the 60's and today I don't think it is going to make it out of the 50's. The temperatures would be okay but it is cloudy and windy, with occasional rain. Looking out at the river I see some "white caps". 

We did go to Meijer's for groceries yesterday and then went to a Chinese place for lunch. 

The price of firewood up here is almost laughable. At Meijer's

 I wonder what this works out to per cord,  about $350? Even at the small roadside stands it is $7-8 for a small bundle.

My back (kidneys?) is acting up again. Combined with the nasty weather I don't feel like doing anything. Kathy went "junking" this morning, it is cheap entertainment for her. 

Tomorrow is supposed to be cool but sunny, a day we can enjoy. It will be our last full day in the UP. Thursday we head back down to Coldwater to "Momsit" for a week while my brother and his family take a vacation.

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

Day 41 - Sunday, July 19th - Float Planes & Pesticides

 Not long after I got up I heard the roar of a float plane. The first couple of times we were here they were a common sight. The past few times it was rare to see one land or take off. Today probably 8-10 of them were in and out. Perhaps there was some type of special event at the Bush Plane Museum across the river.

Then we began noticing strange looking small boats making passes up an down the river. There were at least three of them, and maybe four. They kept going up and down in a pattern like they were spraying or seeding. Kathy noticed spray arms on one of them. I asked one of the campground maintenance guys. He told me that it was the Fish & Wildlife guys killing off sea lamprey eels (they aren't actually eels, they just look similar  to one), an invasive species that feeds lake trout and whitefish. The Fish & Wildlife people treat the water by spraying a pesticide and also by "broadcasting" a pelletized version. The pelletized version settles into the mud on the bottom and kills the sea lamprey larvae.  The guy told me that this is the Canadians year to do the treatment.

We sat outside quite a bit today. We also got to see the Ojibway make a run out with supplies for one of the freighters.  Soo Marine Supply is right next to the campground.

https://soomarinesupply.com/home-page 

Mid afternoon we saw the unit below pull in. Anyone else think the truck may be overloaded? I think the travel trailer is a Salem Hemisphere 310BHI. Hitch weight 1,245#, GVWR 11,445#, OAL 38'1".

They got in and set up. Now it will be interesting to watch the people in the 5th wheel, behind the small travel trailer, get out, if they leave first.

A new couple pulled in next door to us. They are from the Bay City, MI area. They spend time up here in the summer and spend a lot of time in Mississippis and Florida in the winter. It was nice visiting with them.

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

Day 40 - Saturday, July 18th - Cool and a little Smokey

It rained last more last night. The wind blew some, but nothing bad. The overnight low was 55. Today's high was a mostly cloudy, breezy 71. 

We didn't leave the campground today. Kathy had me get out our little table so that she could work on puzzles.

I did walk around the campground a little and gained some insights.

The nice "sidewalk" area I saw during yesterdays walk is actually a place for river cruise ship passengers to get on and off. Yesterdays photo was taken down where the furthest ship is docked.

Took the photo below as one of them went by the campground on its way downriver.

Immediately after the cruise ship passed the American Century came by going the other way. She is one of the thirteen "thousand footers" operating on the Great Lakes. She is actually 1,004' long. The cruise ship looks fairly big until you measure it against a laker. 

Somehow I didn't realize that the campground had a dock where campers could tie up boats, there is no launch. The red dock was here our first time here, in 2011. It has signs to Keep Off. It looks unsafe. The old broken piling have also always been here. I don't remember seeing the dock on the right side of the slip. There is a fishing boat tied up to it. As you look across to Canada you can see that it looks a little hazy. At times today we couldn't see the shore on the other side, because of the smoke, but for the most part is hasn't been bad. We sat outside for several hours.

Good noise. There are a bunch of preteen kids in several campgrounds. A lot of them know one another. They are having a great time and it is nice to hear them out  having fun.

Terrible noise. The must be a group of insane people having a huge party across the river, in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. The noise from their bands has been annoyingly loud most of the day, and still is at 9PM. 

PTL for the kids.

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

Day 39, Friday, July 17 - Some Rain

 We had some on and off light rain today. The grass in the campground looked like some rain was a good thing.

We went to Zorba's for lunch. We have went there for a meal every time we have been in the UP, the first time was the fall of 2011. It's a "Greek" restaurant that has pizza. We get the same thing every time, a big salad that we share and one of their pizzas. (Sure hope their lettuce supplier isn't the same one Taco Bell uses.) The salads have always been good. The last two times the pizzas don't seem as good. We decided that the next time we are up here we will go in for a salad and then go pick up a Lil Caesars pizza when we leave. We could get 4 Lil Caesars pizzas for the same price as the one we had for lunch.

I walked out of the campground and down the street this afternoon, down toward the powerhouse. Kathy and I wished they had tours, we would love to see the inside.

On the way down I recognized this docked construction barge. When we were here in June we often saw a pusher tug move it over to near the locks early in the morning. One time it had a ready mix truck on it. Another time it had what we thought was a fuel truck on it. Some times it was only over there for a hour or so and sometimes it was there all day. 

The back of the barge and the pusher tug.

I was surprised to find this nice sidewalk along the river. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Marys_Falls_Hydropower_Plant 

The only time we had seen the "back side" of the powerhouse was when we were on a boat tour. I had no idea fisherman congregated on the backside. 

God is good. I pray the He blesses you  and your. He has blessed me.

Day 38 - Thursday, July 16 - Moving and More Smoke

 Today we moved from Manistique to Soo Locks Campground in Sault Ste Marie, 131 miles.

As I was unhooking the utilities Kathy suggested that I take a photo of the walk path that was directly behind us, it is actually a power line right of way.

Below are a couple of photos to give you an idea of how much smoke is up here.

We thought it was supposed to be worse in Sault Ste Marie, but it doesn't seem to be.

Parked at Soo Locks.

Our view when sitting in lawn chairs in front of our coach.

It feels cool here, especially with the breeze. It is 65, on its way down to an overnight low of 59.

Thank you Lord for a good day.

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

Day 37 - Wednesday, July 15 - SMOKEY

 Air quality warnings are out for a lot of Michigan. caused by smoke from wildfires in Minnesota and Canada. Today's online Detroit News ran a photo, taken at 10 AM, of the ramp leading up to the Mackinac Bridge. You can't even see as far as the first tower.

Below are three photos I took at the campground. The first I took a couple of days ago. The other two I took this afternoon.

From the front of the coach.

From the top of the ramp leading down to the beach. 

We braved the smoke this morning and went to Palms Book State Park, only a few miles from us, to see Kitch-iti-kipi, Michigan's largest natural freshwater spring. 10,000 gallons per minute surge up through small clouds of sand. The springs 45 degree water temperature is fairly constant, it rarely ices over.

We were surprised at the number of visitors.

There were a few folks wearing some type of mask, because of the smoke. The wait wasn't nearly as long as you would think from seeing all these folks. The people coming toward me just got off the raft. The folks going away are waiting to get on. Almost all of those in line make in on to the next raft.

The center of the "raft" is "glass bottomed". 

On one side of the raft is a 4' diameter vertical spoked wheel that visitors rotate to "pull" the raft along the cables. The rim/perimeter of the wheel is similar to a 1" diameter pipe made into a 4' diameter loop. I took a turn on it. If I had been the only guy on it we would still be out there. A lot of the time 2 people worked the wheel at the same time.

The water is crystal clear but there is a greenish cast to it. The trout is the photo are probably 18". The next two photos are through the glass bottom. The water si 40' deep.

There are numerous areas where the water "boils up" through fine sand(?) on the bottom. 

The outflow of the spring. Makes even an old guy like me want to grab a canoe to paddle down and see what is around the bend. We saw a bunch of ducks swimming around. Kathy saw a river otter.

I copied the image below from the State's website.

Kathy had noticed some construction activity down by the restroom/shower/laundry facility. This afternoon when we walked by it looked like they old clay sewer pipe must have broken and had to replaced. It looked like they replaced at least 30' of pipe. We seldom use the campgrounds facilities when we have a sewer connection, so it didn't bother us. I suspect that the facility was shut down for an uncomfortable amount of time while they did this work. Actually I think I saw a tanker truck in here yesterday. Maybe they used a pump and the tank on the truck to keep things operational.

It has finally cooled back down. PTL! Last nights low was 59 and todays high was in the high 60's. AT 11:30P it is 59 degrees.

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