Days 47 & 48 - Saturday & Sunday, August 10 & 11 - Country Village to Marquette Tourist Park

 Saturday was a nasty day. It rained on and off, was windy, and the high temperature was in the 60's. We never left the campground, in fact we mostly stayed in the coach. There were brief periods when the clouds would clear and the sun would shine. During one of them Kathy took a walk.

Below is an interesting tent set up. I would like to have seen them set it up and put it away. We saw them as they left the campground this morning. Everything folds up to look like a box on a luggage rack. Sorry about the quality of the photo. I took it through the windshield of our coach because I was to lazy to walk a block down the street to look at it more closely.

Sunday/today we pulled out of Country Village right at noon, and travelled 16 miles to Marquette Tourist Park. The body of water on the right is Lake Superior.

Parked at Marquette Tourist Park. This is a great campground. We have stayed here before. The problem is that it is almost impossible to get a reservation. When I called several weeks ago I asked, "What is the earliest you have a site open fo 3-5 days." This site had a 3 day window and I took it. When we leave here we will go back to Country Village and stay there until we can get in to the Houghton RV Park. 

It was cool and windy in the morning, the overnight low was 52. By the time we got set up the wind had calmed down, plus there are trees all around us to break up the wind. We walked around to see the campground sights. I think this is a camper to pull behind a motorcycle. I walked by it a couple of times but no one was around. Maybe I will see what they pull it with tomorrow. It has a conventional ball hitch. The motorcycle trailers I've seen all had a swivel pin connection, to allow the motorcycle to lean into curves. Perhaps they pull it with a Trike.

This body of water is called the Dead River. I think it flows into Lake Superior but there must be a dam between the campground and the Lake. I'm not sure if today's high hit 70, probably why there was no one at the beach.

 
It was nice enough to sit outside and enjoy the day while watching the other campers roll in.

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

Days 45 & 46 - Thursday & Friday, August 8 & 9 - Cool and Wet in Ishpeming

We haven't left the campground the past two days. While we like the cool weather when it is combined with on and off rains it makes sightseeing less fun. It makes for great sleeping weather. This morning it was cool enough in the coach that I actually turned the heat on and warmed it up to 63 inside. Between some early morning sunshine and the heat from making coffee and breakfast it was soon a toasty 70 degrees.

The high have been in the mid 60's and the lows in the low 50's. Right now, at 8:00PM it is a damp, windy 57 degrees. The temperature is supposed to drop to 51 by morning. Several times during the day the sun will come out brilliantly, then 5 minutes later it is raining. I went out for a walk earlier. The sun came out briefly but most of the time the sky looked ominous.

Our entertainment has been watching campers pack up this morning and then set up this afternoon. Some of it is quite interesting. 

The car in this photo came around 3 PM. Two adults and three kids got out of it and set up the camper. A couple of hours later another car, its hidden behind the one in the photo, pulled in and two more adults got out of it. The first car and the camper have Michigan plates, the second car has a Minnesota plate. After greeting one another all seven of they piled into the car you see and headed out. They just came back and are now all in the camper. It must be a little crowded in there.

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

Days 43 & 44 - Tuesday & Wednesday, August 6 & 7 - Moved from Christmas to Ishpeming

 Tuesday - Both of us felt a little under the weather so we just stayed at the campground all day. It was another beautiful day so sitting around reading and napping was no problem.

This coach was right behind us. A family rented it for vacation. They couldn't get the big slide to extend. Several other RV'ers, including me, went over to see if we could help, with no success. 

There is a lot of variety in campers. I've never seen a bumper pull camper with the "cab over" look. It had a "factory" look to it. Note that there are no AC units on it. 

Wednesday - Tuesday night was cool, great sleeping weather. We left bedroom windows open all night. When I got up to fix my  breakfast, around 7AM, it was 54 degrees inside. Rather than turn the furnace on I dug out my stocking cap and a hoodie.

By the time I finished eating my eggs, Smok-Y links, fried potatoes & coffee it was warm enough to removed the stocking cap and hoodie.

We were in no hurry to get out of the Pictured Rocks campground since the drive from Pictured Rocks in Christmas to Country Village in Ishpeming was only 51 miles. It is a scenic trip. The pavement is in good condition, as is most pavement in the UP and driving along Lake Superior is always a treat. There were numerous parking areas all along the lakefront. In some areas it seemed like there was an area for parking 10-15 cars every couple of miles.

I took this photo of Marquette just before M-28 jogs down away from the Lake. I think I already mentioned that Marquette is the largest city in the UP. The population of the city is a little over 20,000. The population of Marquette county is 66,000. Marquette counties land area is 1,800 square miles. For comparison Cole county Missouri has a population of 77,000 and a land area of 400 square miles.

We pulled in here about 1:30PM and got set up. I'm surprised at all the vacant sites. The $65/night is a little steep for the area, but this is the only campground we have stayed at this trip that has a heated pool and spa.

Today's high was a breezy, mostly sunny 73 degrees. I didn't see anyone in the pool or spa.

At 10:30PM a light rain is falling and the temperature is 64. The overnight low is forecast to be 58. The grass at Pictured Rocks and here looks dry so the rain is a positive.

When we were up here two years ago I wanted to spend time in Houghton, and the Keweenaw Peninsula, and then go on west to explore the Duluth area. I could not find campgrounds with vacancies so this was a far west as we got. This year I managed to find a Houghton campground with a few consecutive open days. Lord willing we will stay in Houghton the nights of  August 18 - 20. We will be hanging around the Ishpeming/Marquette area until then. Since we need to go through Coldwater, and stay at Mom's a few days on our way home, we will head back east after Houghton, although we don't plan on getting back to Mom's until Labor Day weekend. Maybe next year we will go back south through Wisconsin and Minnesota.

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

Day 42 - Monday, August 5 - Grand Marais to Christmas

Today we traveled from Woodland Park in Grand Marais to Pictured Rocks RV Park in Christmas, 66 miles. It was another beautiful day in the Upper Peninsula. The overnight low was 59, today's high was a mostly sunny, slightly breezy 73.

Parked at Pictured Rocks.

These are typical spaces here.

But there are some really nice spaces along one side. Several campers are almost hidden by the trees.

This afternoon we did take a 20 mile drive around the area. Lake Superior is as beautiful here as it is in other places. Munising is an interesting town. They have glass bottom boat tours where you can look through the bottom of the boat and see old wrecks, the water is amazingly clear. A different place offers 3 hour boat tours of the shoreline, especially the Pictured Rocks area. We have done both tours twice over the past 13 years and will probably pass on them this year.

Time to put on my hoodie, grab a cup of coffee and join Kathy outside.

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

Day 41 - Sunday, August 4 - Brimley to Grand Marias

 Today we traveled 98 miles from Bay Mills Casino in Brimley to Woodland Park in Grand Marias.

Parked at Woodland Park.

The sites are reasonably sized but they sure pack a lot of people into this city park.

As soon as we got set up Kathy walked over to sit and look at Lake Superior.

We have no idea what these structures, flying a US flag, represented.

We didn't walk out to the shore. It was a long walk through loose sand. Lots of  people were at the beach. There were kids in the water but we didn't see any adults in the water.

A guy down a couple of campsites was roasting sweet corn over a campfire. 

I made the reservation for here several weeks ago. I could only get a site for one night. It is out of the way for a one night stay but I wanted to check it out to see if we might want to try for a longer stay next summer. There are no sewer connections at the sites. There are 50/30/20 amp electrical receptacles at most sites. Water is available, if you have 50-75' of hose and a wye splitter. In our area there is one hose connection for 6 campsites. One of the comments I read about the place said to take a lot of hose. I have 75' of hose but rather than get it out I filled our fresh water tank about 3/4 full before leaving Bay Mills this morning. We have enough water to take regular length showers and to get us through until we leave in the morning. I dumped our tanks before leaving Bay Mills so we won't even have to bother with stopping at the dump station. Its an okay place but I'd rather spend time in time at Soo Locks campground in Sault Ste Marie.

This place does remind me of Grady, the fictional town in the movie Doc Hollywood. We sit here with windows open and hear kids going by on scooters and bikes, having a great time. 

Some UP trivia. The total area of the UP is 36,139 square miles. Of that 16,378 sq mi is land and the remaining 19,761 sq mi is water. The 2020 population was 301,609. 66,013 of those people live in the Marquette micropolitan statistical area, another 36,783 in the Sault Ste Marie area and 36,903 in the Escanaba area.

For reference, the total land area of Missouri is 69,715 sq mi; which includes 68,886 sq mi of land. The population is 6,160,281. Missouri has 4.2 times the land area of the UP and 20.4 times as many people.

Its 10:40PM we just came back from walking over to bluff over looking the Lake, to see if we could see the northern lights. Kathy thinks she could see them, I couldn't. It is cloudy enough that stars aren't visible above us but on the horizon it does look like there is a small back that is cloudless, but its a long was away. 

Todays high was a mostly sunny 74. The overnight low is forecast to be 60. It is 64 right now with a breeze. We had hoodies on when walking to the Lake. It didn't take me long to get cold.

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

Day 40 - Saturday, August 3 - Canada

 Today we headed to Canada to experience the Saturday Farmers Market in Sault Ste Marie Ontario and to visit the Bushplane Museum. From the Bay Mills Casino Campground it is about a 20 mile, 25 minute, drive to get to the bridge into Canada.

The channel on the right goes to the Poe & MacArthur locks, both of which are active. The channel on the left goes to the construction site for the new lock that is supposed to open in 2030.

The MacArthur lock, opened in 1943, is on the right. it is 800' long, 80' wide and 29.5' deep. A freighter is exiting the Poe lock, on the left. The Poe lock, rebuilt in 1968, is 1,200' long, 110' wide and 32' deep. 

On the left is the "hole" for the new lock.

Thirteen bulk freighters that operate on the Great Lakes are 1,000' long, or slightly longer. At 1013.5' long the Paul R Tregurtha is the longest of them. All of them are 105' wide. The Poe lock can handle freighters carrying 70,000 tons of cargo. During the 2001 shipping season the Paul R Tregurtha carried over 3 million tons of cargo through the Soo Locks.

It took us maybe 15 minutes to get through the line for paying the $4.20 toll to cross the bridge and another 20 minutes in line at the Canadian check point. We showed our passports and said we were going to the Market and the Bush Plane Museum. On the way back the wait at the US checkpoint and toll station were about the same.

Just past the Canadian customs checkpoint, on the way in, there is a currency exchange place. We treaded $60 (US) for $76.70 (Canadian).

The Market was disappointing. I took the photo below from a mezzanine area that had some tables on it, maybe an eating area. There just wasn't much there.

There were some food stands just outside the main entrance. This seemed like an odd combination of offerings.

Then it was on to the Bushplane Museum.

The back side, facing the river. I was sure that there used to be a ramp that allowed planes to taxi up out of the water onto this concrete parking area, but it isn't there now.

Looking across the river to the US.

Below is a blow up of a section of the above photo. This is the Soo Locks campground where we love to stay.

Just inside the door is this "campsite".

There were lots of float planes on display. This is one of the few that was set up for landing on snow.

I guess it was worth the $16 ticket price for a senior, and I'm glad I finally went, but I sure didn't find it interesting enough to ever go back.

We looked for restaurants on the Google Maps app and didn't see anything appealing, so once we were back in the US we stopped for lunch at the Chinese buffet where we had eaten earlier this week. We left the campground around 10AM and were back by 2PM.

Back at the campground I did a walkabout.

Some creative "tent work" added a lot of usable space around this camper.

A matching pair of Dot cars, at a non-matching set of Class C campers.

We did manage to fit in getting a pizza from the ice cream & pizza place down the street. It was as good as we remembered.

Tomorrow we head west.

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

Days 38 & 39 - Thursday & Friday, August 1 & 2 - Slow Days

Thursday - We had planned on going to Brown Fisheries Fish House in Paradise, MI. Eating whitefish at Brown's and then driving out to Whitefish Point and walking along the shore of Lake Superior is a highlight of our trips to the UP. I checked on the web to find out Brown's hours and to my surprise the restaurant is closed, and has been for about 2 years. It must have closed shortly after we last ate there.

https://bertdsblog.blogspot.com/2022/07/saturday-july-23rd-whitefish-point.html 

Their Facebook page says they were hoping to reopen in July. Lord willing, we will be coming back through Sault Ste Marie during the 3rd week of August. Hopefully they will be open by then and we can get some of their excellent fish.

Friday - We didn't do anything in the morning. Well, I tried, unsuccessfully, to figure out why the drivers side captain's chair back is not reclining properly. Kathy did several loads of laundry. For lunch we drove a couple of miles down to the Cozy Inn and had their whitefish. It was good but not as good as Browns. After lunch we drove another mile to the local ice cream and pizza place, for ice cream cones. They have good hand dipped ice cream, and great pizza. Then it was on into Sault Ste Marie to take another stab at finding a new light bulb for our refrigerator. I tried a big Ace hardware, an electrical supply house (named Everything Electrical) and a NAPA store. Still no success.

Then it was back home where I  flushed the black tank and Kathy did another load of laundry. She took a short nap while I got in a 2 hour one. After supper I walked the trash up to the trash barrels and noted several of the units in the campground.

The color of our coach is far to dark to suit us. The black really makes it hot so that it is necessary to run the AC more than we did with our Dutch Star coach, which was more of a light brown. The AC units must work overtime with the coach shown below. In "real life" it looks darker than it does in the photo.

This is the kind of rig that my cousin Jeff originally planned on getting, and living in full time, we he is released from prison, a Lance truck camper and truck enough to pull a big bass boat. I stopped and visited with this couple for quite some time. They are well in their 80's. They had recently moved over to Bay Mills from a campground on the river in Sault Ste. Marie. We both like to watch the freighters do up and down the river. They don't live full time in the truck camper, they have a home. They do travel a lot. Their 350 Powerstroke Ford truck has 280,000 miles on it. They also have a Chevy Duramax with over 200,000 miles on it.

This guy has spent a LOT of hours doing this school bus conversion. As I was walking by he was standing out by the hose connection. Water was spraying everywhere. I asked him if he wanted to borrow a hose for the night but he said he had another one. He mentioned that it might just need a new washer in the hose end. I have a box with several different styles so I took him a couple different ones to try. I didn't stay to visit because he was in the middle of taking supper off a grill. 

Tomorrow we plan on crossing into Canada to check out the Saturday Farmer's Market and go to the Bush Plane Museum. It will be our first visit to Sault Ste Marie Ontario Canada.

The weather was warm and humid yesterday. Today was warm but the humidity seemed lower. Both days the high was reported to be 84 degrees. As it cooled off the humidity shot back up this evening. At 10:30PM the temperature is 66 and the humidity is 100%. Tomorrows high is supposed to be a sunny 78 degrees.

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