Sunday, August 7th - Day 37 On The Road

 We slept in and had a lazy morning. The overnight low was 52, good sleeping weather. Today's high was a sunny, breezy 63.

After lunch I went to the Michigan Iron Industry Museum near Negaunee, about 10 miles from the campground. I had been there on one of our earlier trips to the UP, but not recently. It was worth a "refresher" visit. When I go to a place like that I am always amazed at the toughness of our ancestors. It is also a great reminder of what a Land of Opportunity the US was, and still is, for those willing to work hard.

Kathy stayed at the coach to have some, "away from Bert time." 😀

Immigrants from over 30 nations found there way to Michigan's UP during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Irish were the first major group. They came to work the copper mines. Then came Italians and Finns. The Finns made up the largest group. They all came because jobs were available and land was cheap.

We spent time around a campfire again tonight. A problem with that is that it stays light for so long here. Today sunset was at 9:12. It was still relatively  light out at 10. From June 20th to July 1st sunset is at 9:46. From June 18th-26th sunrise is at 5:56,

We have all heard a lot about the devastating impact that inflation is having on US households. Gas/fuel prices are bad enough but it really hits home when it comes to food. When we were up  here last fall I paid $2.00 for a dozen cake donuts, at the grocery next to the campground. This trip they cost me $3.39.

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

Saturday, August 6th - Farmers Market

 It was warm again today, high of 86. We had the AC on most of the day and will probably run it during the night, even though its supposed to get down to a damp, humid 56 degrees. We had several showers during the afternoon and a light rain is falling as I write this at 9:30. The good news is that this was the last 80+ day in the 10 day forecast.

We went to Marquette this morning to check out the Farmer's Market. There were as many "crafty stuff" booths as there were food booths. We didn't buy anything. Kathy said the food item prices were really high.

I kept waiting for all the fiddles in this group to jump into a rousing Orange Blossom Special (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEoIz1G04O4 now that is some fiddling), but apparently their musical education was limited to a more classical genre. Maybe they couldn't do it without a banjo player to help them.

The morel mushroom candles were nice.

Back in Ishpeming we stopped at a roadside market. I though it was interesting that the price of straw and hay were both $8/bale. The round bales of hay were $80. We did buy some stuff at this market, including a great tasting watermelon.

Back at the campground Kathy went for a swim and I worked on finding us a campground to move to when we leave this one. I spent over 4 hours yesterday searching for campgrounds that had sites available, preferably with full hook ups, and another couple of hours this afternoon. I found none near Duluth or Two Harbors Minnesota, where I wanted to go next. I extended our reservation here so that we now aren't checking out until next Friday, then we are moving to Drummond Lake Campground Campground, near Drummond, MN, for 6 nights. Drummond is about 200 miles from Ishpeming. That gives me time to continue searching for a campground north of Duluth. The weekend of the 12th is an annual bicycle race in the area. I was told that all campgrounds in this area are booked that weekend.

The guy who worked on our water heater mentioned that one of the things he likes about this campground is that it has the best WiFi of any campground he has stayed at. He mentioned that he has been streaming movies. I got bold and decided to see if I could get our smart TV connected to the campground WiFi. We are streaming our 2nd Netflix movie of the night.

We are now planning on returning to Centertown between Sept 9th and Sept 16th.

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

Friday, August 5th - Hung Around Country Village

 The weather was great again today. Overnight low 50 and today's high was a mostly sunny 80. It was a little breezy. It was cool enough this evening to enjoy a campfire.

Yesterday evening when walking around the campground I saw a sign in front of one of the really nice 5th wheel units that advertised mobile RV service. I called the guy this morning and told him about the sporadic workings of our water heater when it was fired with gas. He said he would be down in 20 minutes, and he was. He took the burner assembly apart, cleaned the orifice and adjusted the ignition points. When it was back together it seemed to work fine. Since I had not pulled and anode to check its condition he suggested doing so. It wasn't in horrible shape but since it was out I had him replace it. He also "pressure washed" the inside of the water heater. I was a little surprised at the chunks of "calcium" that flushed out of it. He said it cleaner than the majority of those he flushed.

He and his wife are full times who are from near Amarillo, TX. The spend the summers where its cool and the winters near Tombstone, AZ. As he was putting his tools away a guy walked by and talked to him about his RV furnace. He moved over to that guys site and worked on his furnace.

I did go up to the office and check on monthly rates here, potentially for next summer. This years monthly rate is $870. I still haven't found a place to go when we leave here.

Then we went to Sherrie's for lunch. We had eaten there before and it enjoyed the food. When we were there last fall a guy walked in and Kathy said, "Did you know your brother was going to be up here?" I couldn't believe how much the guy looked like my brother, who we see infrequently, I wasn't sure it wasn't him until I went over and talked to the guy. Lunch today was good.

When we actually looked at photos of the guy and my brother they didn't look quite so much alike. https://bertdsblog.blogspot.com/2021/09/day-10-friday-september-24-ishpeming.html

Then it was on to Yooperland, even though we have been there numerous times.

More Yooperland photos at https://bertdsblog.blogspot.com/2018/08/friday-day-8.html

There is a Camping World next to the campground. We are looking for a better set of camping chairs. We checked it out they had nothing we wanted. As we drove by the pool on our way into the campground we noticed that there was only one senior couple at the pool. By the time we got our suits on and made it to the pool there were 8 people, 2 adults and 6 kids, heading in right in front of us. The water was nice but the pool was fairly crowed. Within 10 minutes here came another adult and 4 more kids. It was enough pool time for me, I returned to the coach and took a nap. Kathy stayed longer.

We spent some time in the evening enjoying sitting at a campfire, until the mosquitos found me. When sitting at the campfire we watched the Camping World flag blowing in the breeze, with the setting sun shining on it. It was quite pretty.

Some kids were enjoying the bounce pad.

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

Thursday, August 4th - Moving Day

This morning we moved from the Marquette Tourist Park to the Country Village RV park in Ishpeming, MI. The Tourist Park was fine, other than only having 30 amp electrical service, but it is a busy place. I was surprised that we were able to make a reservation for as many days in a row as we did. The distance between the two parks is less than 20 miles.

We have previously stayed at the Country Village 3 or 4 times. Last year we checked in on Sept 20 and out on Sept 25.

https://bertdsblog.blogspot.com/2021/09/day-6-monday-september-20.html 

It has a heated pool and hot tub, which is open this time of year but wasn't open last Sept. It also has a "Bounce Pad" for kids.

I have been searching trying to find a couple of campgrounds in MI's UP where we might stay for a month at each next year. We love the Soo Locks campground but not having a sewer hookup is inconvenient. We stayed there for a week earlier this trip. I took showers in the shower house and Kathy was conservative with her water use when showering (turn the water on, get wet, turn it off, soap yourself, turn the water back on and rinse off). Our holding tank level sensors don't work properly so we never knew how close the tanks are to being full. Actually I knew we could go at least a week without filling the black tank because I only dumped it weekly when we were at Kelsey's. When we were ready to leave Soo Locks I ran water into the grey tank for 5 minutes and didn't fill it. Kathy could have taken longer showers, but we would still have to unhook utilities, drive to the on site dump stations, dump tanks and drive back down to the campsite on a weekly basis. 

This campground, in Ishpeming, might be a possibility, It isn't on water, which we would love and there are no grand views from the campground. It is just a well maintained, campground with full hook ups, good WiFi, a heated pool and hot tub and several nice size sites that back up to wooded areas. The 2022 monthly rate is $870. Last January we paid $395 plus $75 for electricity for a month at Rainbow Plantation in Summerdale, AL last January,  but I know that was CHEAP, especially because it is such a nice place. 

Temperature will be a requirement. No single day with a daily high temp above 90 and no 3 days in a row with highs above 85. These requirements mean that we need to leave MO mid June and not return until mid September.

Yesterday's high here was 70, Wednesday's overnight low was 45. Great weather.

Sitting outside enjoying a book at Country Village.

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

Wednesday, August 3rd - It was a dark and stormy night

 Last night (Tuesday night) was exciting. We had the TV on the only channel we can receive. Every couple of minutes the weather guy would interrupt programming to warn us hail and high winds in the approaching storm. The weather radar on our phone app did look like the storm might be rough. We had some rain and some wind, but nothing bad. By midnight it had blown through the area.

Around 5 or 6 AM another storm woke me up, and I'm a sound sleeper. Kathy was already up. We got rain and some real wind. We pulled in the slides because we were concerned that the wind might damage the slide toppers.

The down tree limb in the photos below was across the playground from where we are parked. The ends of the branches may have hit the power lines as the limb fell.

Wind debris on the campground street in front of us.

Canopy on the trailer behind us.

I climbed up on the roof of the coach and swept off the small branches and the pine cones that had fallen on it during the night. The ladder on our coach is not full height. It starts about 7' above the ground. The coach had a collapsible "step ladder" in one of the storage bays so I didn't bother including my good folding step ladder...mistake. The collapsible ladder is not tall enough for this old fat guy to get from it onto the lowest rung of the fixed ladder with any  degree of comfort/ease. I managed it, but only because I had Kathy  come hold the ladder while got a knee on the lowest fixed ladder rung and pulled myself up. Up wasn't bad but I didn't care for this method when coming back down. The collapsible ladder will be replaced by my folding step ladder when we get back in MO.

As I walked around the campground I was impressed by the sturdiness of todays tents. I didn't see any tents that had been torn up by the wind.

There are quite a few of the tear drop camper trailers in the park. Some have some interesting attachments.

We only have 30 amp electrical service at the campground so our use of AC is somewhat limited. It was hot (87 degrees, hot for us and our preferred temps) during the day so we went to one of the many beaches to enjoy the cool breeze. 

This little girl was cute as a button. Grandpa was keeping a close eye on her. She was not afraid to walk out into the water.

Grandma, Mom and the Beach Bunny. She was well covered to protect her from the sun; hat, dress & tights.

While at the beach we sat on a park bench, in the shade. It was still to hot to be enjoyable, so we only stayed for maybe a half hour. Then it was on to some interesting stuff. Below is a photo of the active ore loading facility in Marquette. The huge hoppers are fed from above by rail cars. They discharge into freighters using large drop down chutes. There are at least two sets of tracks running the length of the facility. I counted 49 rail cars lined up above the hoppers on just this side.

I hope you can make out the rail cars in the photo below. Also note the "tower" on the right and the enclosed conveyor going up  to the left.

Self unloading freighters must unload material into the bin in the above photo and the conveyor moves the material to the piles shown in the  photo below. I didn't see any signs to indicate the name of the facility receiving the material.

Then it was back home for lunch and the remainder of the afternoon. It was quite windy all afternoon but around 8 PM the wind dropped somewhat and the temperature had dropped to the low 70's so we started a campfire, fueled with the dead branches that had fallen on our campsite during the previous nights storm.

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

Tuesday, August 2nd - Munising & Picture Rocks

 First, remember a couple of days ago when I was so proud of myself for washing our  car? After pulling it through 140 miles of drizzle yesterday it ended up  dirtier than it was before I washed it. We hardly got to drive it when it was clean.

Weather was beautiful today. It was sunny, breezy and the highs were in the mid 70's. The low last night was 45. 

Today we went to Munising and did the boat trip to see Picture Rocks. The drive to Munising takes about an hour. The boat trip takes a little over 2 1/2 hours. We did the same trip when we were up here in 2011. I didn't take many photos this year, only one of the kayakers. (The boat trip was nice, and Picture Rocks was interesting, but the hoodoos of Bryce Canyon are more interesting rock formations.) 

"Picture Rocks" is caused by stains that leech through the sandstone. As I understand it, creative people can see "things" in the stains, sort of like cloud watching and seeing a cloud that looks like a dragon. I see stains on sandstone and some beautiful rock formations. If you come up here, and if you are in reasonable physical shape, please take one of the tours where they take people out to the area, put them in kayaks and let them get up close and personal to really see things. We saw over 100 people in kayaks. There are sections of sandy beaches where kayakers pull in to rest on the sand, or climb some of the formations. Another option might be to rent a pontoon and take the family along the coast, again, so that you can get closer. The captain said the water on the surface was around 67 degrees this time of year, cold but the kayakers looked like they were having a great time.

One of the reasons I didn't take pictures was because I thought I could refer you to blog posts from our visit here in June/July 2011 which would have had a bunch of photos. I can't access any posts before Sept 2011, maybe I erased them.

When we got back to the campground there was a sign out front that the campground was full. Below is a campground map. It isn't a small place and it isn't somewhere people just drive by and decide to stay here.

I wanted to go up to Copper Harbor, at the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula, this trip but don't know if we are going to make it. I've been trying to find campgrounds that can handle our 40' coach and that have vacancies. So far I have had no success. We have to be out of here Thursday morning and the only place I've found to use as a base is in Ishpeming. We have stayed there before and its fine, but it  135 miles from the campground to Copper Harbor, a LONG day trip for us old people 😀. Maybe I will have to wait until next summer to see Copper Harbor, and get reservations made much earlier.

It is storming here now. TV weather people keep interrupting programming to tell about hail and 60 mph winds that are very close to us. We are getting rain and some wind, but nothing bad. On or way to our coach this afternoon we saw people setting up camp with just a tarp for shelter. The surface under the tarped area looked like it was just dirt. My guess is that they aren't having much fun right now In a few years it might be a fond memory, but I can't imagine it being much fun right now.

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

Monday, August 1st - Brimley to Marquette

After several days of glorious weather today was windy, cool and rainy. The high temperature was in the mid 60's. It rained on and off most of the day. The rain was spotty enough that I didn't get to wet as I finished getting things around to leave.

We traveled from Bay Mills Casino campground in Brimley, MI to Marquette Tourist Park in Marquette, MI, 155 miles. We have now driven the coach 1,720 miles since leaving Centertown. Kathy has driven about 1,400 of those miles. We left Centertown July 1st so today is our one month anniversary of being gone.

The trip over was windy. Lake Superior had some good sized waves.

Every year we have come to the UP I have tried to get into this campground, this is the first year I was able to reserve a site. They have a lot of sites, but not a lot that can handle 40' Class A's.

Shoe horned in between trees.

Lots of trees

The site we are in only has 30 amp electrical, but it does have water and sewer connections, if you have plenty of hose, sewer pipe and a long electrical cord. I  used three lengths of sewer hose, two lengths of water hose and I had to use the 50 amp extension cord (let all my 30 amp extension cords go when we sold the travel trailer) I had put together for the coach.

Thank you Lord for save travels this day.

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