Wisconsin = Cheesehead – Yes, I used to be one! and I still like the Packers – you betcha and pass the cheese! (and Lieninkugels)
Upper Peninsula of Michigan = Yooper - wannabe Cheesehead – likes the Packers and thinks Detroit is a foreign country.
Lower Peninsula of Michigan = Troll - lives below the Mackinac Bridge (south) - thinks the U.P. is in Wisconsin.
As we wound up our stay near Escanaba and said all of our goodbyes (it seems the entire population of the park came to see us off) we pointed the rig to the east and off we went for a short stay in the small town of St. Ignace, just north of the Mackinac Bridge. The U.P. surprised us again with giving us more than we had anticipated. (More is better – right?)
Just wanted to introduce Gillette – the she gull. She was busy stacking rocks on her latest carne when we decided to have lunch in her territory. She never gave any ground and had an extreme interest in our chips! Have to admit she did a real good job on building the carne!
We got settled in our new home and went for what I thought was going to be a quick tour of the town. We ended up walking for quite a distance and visiting various areas of the boardwalk, historic sites, and shops both touristy and artsy along the main street. Being in this location, which is kind of like a bit of a dangly piece of land hanging down from the UP, you have Lake Michigan on the West side, Lake Huron on the East side, and Lake Superior to the North about 50 miles or so. Lots and lots of water! Fresh cold water! Did I say Cold! Anyway it was cold. And when the wind came off of the lakes (any of the three directions) it was cold. Luckily while we were there the wind came out of the south most of the time so it was warm. St. Ignace is a very cute little town with lots of little shops, some history, the northern anchor for the Mackinac Bridge, and one of the two launching points for visiting Mackinac Island.
As we walked around we started getting accustomed to the ever present ferry boats that ran regular schedules all day long – every day - over to Mackinac Island! This is one of the jet boats that occasionally put on a bit of a show and always, with the exception of being in the harbor, throw a hundred foot rooster tail (as part of the attraction). Mackinac Island is the main attraction in the area and was highly recommended to us by many of our friends -- sooo naturally we had to go.
For those of you who don’t know, the Island does not allow any motorized vehicles on it (with the exception of emergency type vehicles). The only modes of transportation are bicycles, horses and walking on the entire island. There are many homes on the island and none of them have cars/trucks or garages – only bike racks and hitching posts - this would not be a place for brothers Bruce or Keith or any auto tech to go looking for a job! Lots of poop scooping going on though!
So after checking the ferry boat schedules and learning that we could take our bikes (rather than renting two for $20 an hour) we loaded up our bods and bikes on one of the Jet Boat Ferries and headed for the island. A couple of the sights as you approach the harbor are its light house and the Grand Hotel which is pretty impressive – they even have horse drawn limos (coaches) with an impeccably dressed coachman driving and assisting the guests. Once we got off the ferry, and retrieved our bikes we headed out to the main street to see what this place was all about. Absolutely beautiful town! Touristy, touristy, touristy! But then that is what it is there for. Multitudes of restaurants, bike rental places (lots of bike rentals), entertainment and shops selling everything that has absolutely no use possible (except the fudge!) – and doing very well at it. It was fun looking!
The downtown area on the island definitely got busy as the day wore on and actually reminded us of Sturgis during rally week – only with bicycles (thousands and thousands of them), horses and sunburnt tourists.
As we worked our way out of town and onto the island perimeter road, Linda started her geocaching marathon (she wanted to geocache the entire island!) and I started my Mackinac Island ride. Went around the entire Island twice and once over the top, about 24 miles. One interesting thing I discovered while riding the island is that if you hit a fresh horse plop at speed with mountain bike tires the side spray is quite impressive! There are a couple people on the Island I would rather not run into again, if you get my drift. Linda found most, if not all, of the caches she was looking for and had a very leisurely tour of the Island as she did so. As we rounded the Island we made a couple stops to view the sights – quite the place!
One of the stops along the road – called Devils Kitchen.
This is the historic Silver Birches lodge on the north side of Mackinac Island and has been abandoned for a number of years but is getting a new life as a group of people have banded together and are in the process of updating and restoring it. As it is it would make an incredible haunted house for the Halloween season.
Way too soon it was time to head back to St. Ignace. So we got ourselves and the bikes back on the ferry and the Captain kicked it a bit as we rounded the corner of the harbor and headed home.
During the remainder of the week and weekend we happened upon the annual St. Ignace Car Show. Our RV park filled up with classic cars, hot rods, rat rods, Harleys, and a couple of Mudder Trucks (for the mud races). It wasn’t real quiet for a while and the ground kinda rumbled every once in a while as the cars, trucks and bikes went by. Oreo didn’t quite know what to do with that and took to hiding when it bothered him too much. Have to admit that they do car shows right up there – must have something to do with being close to Detroit. It was a four day event with many hundreds of show cars that were included in the cruises, parade, poker runs and show. Quite the event! Above is a couple of the more dedicated fans waiting for the parade to start, and below are a couple of the cars that we saw.
Unfortunately it rained off and on during the four day event and we got wet a couple of times as we tried to view the various events.
We heard that near the end of the week there was an International Bridge walk up by Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan starting on the American side and walking the bridge, over the locks, to the Canadian side. We had to go! It was only about 50 miles up the road.
So we got up early that morning to get our stuff together and get up to the starting point in Sault Ste. Marie and waited around for things to start. We found out after we got there that they also had a bike ride across that started earlier in the morning – if we had known that we would have done that also.
The walk really didn’t take very long and was only about 3 miles or 4.82 kilometers and took a little over an hour to walk. It was pretty cool to see locks for the big ships from a different perspective as we walked along. We ended up going through customs on the Canadian side so we could get to the buses that would bring us back to the American side so we could go through customs again -- I think that actually took longer than the walk itself. But we would gladly do it again!
Guess the Lake Contest
Guess the name of the Great Lake that Linda is playing in and win a no expenses paid vacation to come see us wherever we are!
(Hint – we have only visited three of them!)
It was time to make a move so we packed up our stuff, hooked up the truck and as we started heading south we ran into the Moose of St. Ignace. The guardian of the U.P. at the last exit before the Mackinac Bridge – quite the patriotic fellow, we waved and headed south.
We went down to the little town of Lapeer, Michigan just a few miles to the east of Flint. Here we set up in a small city park to just relax and enjoy the area.
One of the greatest benefits of being retired and full-time RVer’s is the opportunities to visit and reacquaint with friends and loved ones. Unlike our visit in Wisconsin where I ended up in a rather uncomfortable limited traveling mode, here in Michigan (once the Poison Ivy cleared up) I was good to go and had some very pleasant visits. Our dear friend, Maryann, from Grand Bend, Ontario Canada came over to Lapeer to visit with us as well as Linda going to Grand Bend. And we were able to see and reunite with a very fine young man (who we like to consider a grandson), Zach, and his mother, Stephanie. This made our entire trip east so far (including the storms, hail, rain, tornados, winds, poison ivy and ticks) worth while! Thank you!
Oreo - our 17 pound Tom Cat, who has lived and traveled with us for quite a few years, decided he likes being part of the Blog and will continue to provide a few purr-fect bits of wisdom and observations for all the blog readers out there as well as a few comments about the antics of his pride members and life on the road.
My pride members are good and obedient (most of the time) and I’m glad they decided to serve me. I’ve heard through the feral grapevine that some people aren’t as nice and say we cats are sneaky, evil and cruel – which may be true but they shouldn’t say that – just consider it another one of our fine qualities! People that spread those type of things should come back in their second life as mice – I would like that!
Oreo
I hope you enjoyed the blog and all the experiences included. Our latest bit of traveling through the upper Midwest to include Wisconsin, the U.P. and the lower part (or mitten) of Michigan provided us with exceptional experiences and memories that we will cherish for many years.
As you can probably tell, the following is one of my favorite quotes.
“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt
Home is where we park it!
Lee & Linda
