Michigan U.P. Part 2 and Minnesota

Though we continued to fight a bumper crop of mosquitos in Michigan's "Upper Peninsula", we didn't let them stop us from seeing the sights (though we DID wear lots of bug repellant, long sleeves/slacks, and kept moving!).

We continued our trek across the shore of Lake Superior and stopped about halfway in a town called Munising.  This is the perfect place to catch a boat tour to see the amazing Pictured Rocks that line the coast in those parts. It is hard to catch the beauty of this area with a camera, but hopefully the photos below will do it some justice. Apparently we just missed (by less than a week) seeing ice still floating on the lake but we could still see some hiding in the rocks on the shore.

Max in his Munising campsite on the shore of Lake Superior

The amazing colors of the Pictured Rocks

More color and a waterfall too!

Pictured Rocks as seen from the shore

A little over-exposed, but still a cute dual-selfie

We also explored nearby Marquette by car, which turned out to be the largest town in the U.P. While we enjoyed a local park and nice downtown area, we were especially impressed with the Wells Fargo bank building.  We stopped in to get a little cash and found ourselves the only customers, but the structure was impressive with its majestic ancient vault, soaring elaborate ceiling, and even two revolving doors.

From there we drove the house to Ontonagon on the west U.P. coast.  From here we could explore the Keewanaw Peninsula, drive all the way to the end into Copper Harbor, tour a former copper mine, and see the scenic views in Porcupine State Park.  While here we celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary at a very understated combo restaurant + bowling alley.  The food was surprising good, the wine was nicely inexpensive, and you ate your meal watching the big picture windows hoping to see bears come up and feed on scraps they put outside for them.  Unfortunately, even though we came two separate nights for dinner, we struck out seeing any bears.

Bundled up in the Quincy Copper Mine

Old copper car

Jeffrey getting blown away in Porcupine State Park

Maren in Porcupine State Park

Heavy rain causing waterfalls everywhere

We cut our Ontonagon visit a day short to flee some approaching storms that sported predictions of 55+ mph winds -- no thanks! We managed to escape to a campground in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, which was packed to the gills with families since it was Father's Day weekend. Thankfully we only got a bunch of rain, but we saw our first wild turkeys on the drive down!

This schedule change enabled us to arrive in Rochester, Minnesota a day early -- letting us enjoy a full 5 days of visiting and sightseeing with Jeffrey's aunts Louise and Margaret and uncle Merlyn along with their son Mike. Along with Jeffrey's mom, Evelyn, the girls grew up in nearby Burr Oak and Decorah, so it was nice to tour those areas and see plus hear the family history.

Visiting with Jeffrey's Aunt Louise, cousin Mike, Uncle Merlyn and Aunt Margaret near  Rochester

As I write this, we are sitting in Forest City, Iowa awaiting a service appointment for Max at the Winnebago factory. Life in a motorhome is just like living in a "sticks and bricks" house... stuff breaks and you need to have repairs made every once in a while -- though maybe a little more often when your house drives down the road hitting bumps along the way :-) We are pretty handy (and getting handier!) and fix what we can ourselves, but we almost always have a list of "fixes for professionals to do" or "upgrades that would be nice" or "cool stuff to buy". Fortunately we've never had anything go wrong that stranded us or prevented us from traveling!  Here is an impressive rock chip we got in Max's windshield on the way to Ontonagon (2nd chip in 7 months).  It is about 1 inch long and we had it repaired immediately so it won't crack any more.  Our insurance company sent a mobile repair guy out to us and you can't even see it now!

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Amazing Michigan

After leaving the Detroit area, we crossed over to the SW side of the state and plugged Max in at a KOA in Allendale.  This turned out to be a great central location as it let us easily explore Grand Rapids, Grand Haven, South Haven, and all parts in between. Lucky for us, with the exception of some fog that rolled in off of Lake Michigan in Grand Haven, the weather was exceptional for our entire visit (and the fog was actually kind of cool anyway -- one minute we could see the lighthouse perfectly and the next minute it was completely hidden).  Grand Haven also had a lovely walk-able downtown area that we roamed around. 

Lighthouse in Grand Haven 

Just a little drive (by car) further south along the shoreline was South Haven. Our main target there was a Maritime Museum that had a special exhibit of shipwrecks and the disappearance of NWA flight 2501 in 1950 over Lake Michigan. For being one of the smallest museums we have ever been in, we spent a lot of time there because the displays and write-ups were so fascinating (though often sad and sometimes morbid). We also enjoyed seeing yet another local lighthouse and South Haven's equally lovely downtown area. No surprise that none of the lighthouses we are seeing have a human "keeper" anymore.

Next up was a day in Grand Rapids -- in fact, we actually had to come back a 2nd day in order to see everything on the list.  The highlight was the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum and boy was it well done! Though we were young, Jeffrey and I both remember that time in history and it was so interesting to hear the more personal details about this president, the bizarre circumstances of how he became our un-elected leader, and the very difficult job he was faced with.  We also spent a bit of time at the Grand Rapids Public Museum.  Lesson learned -- museums are best seen mid to late afternoon if you want a quiet experience. The mornings and early afternoons are typically swarming with school and camp groups and rarely is the concept of "inside voices" applied by kids. 

At this point we packed up Max and relocated our home base to the Traverse City area (the "pinky" area of the state if you imagine it as a hand). This area is renown for its cherry and wine industries.  We did a tasting at Chateau Chatal on the Mission Peninsula, but there were scores of other vineyards too. It is also near Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park and it is somewhat mind boggling to see such gigantic sand dunes away from an ocean or desert -- at several points they encroach several miles inland and are almost impossible to climb up. And guess what? We saw more lighthouses up here.  They literally dot the coast all over the lake borders -- turns out Michigan has a longer coastline than any other state except Alaska.

Maren at the Sleeping Bear Dunes (Jeffrey taking picture form a higher spot)

Our next "house" relocation took us to Brimley in the "U.P" (Upper Peninsula).  To Jeffrey's delight, this took us over the 45th parallel (halfway to the North Pole) and we thankfully had an uneventful crossing of the 5-mile long suspension Mackinac Bridge.  We've been told that if the winds are too high, a vehicle like ours can't safely go over.While somewhat remote, Brimley was a good spot to park Max while we made day trips in the car to Tahquamenon Falls, the Michigan Shipwreck Museum, Sault St. Marie (where the Soo Locks are), and Mackinac Island.  This island was especially interesting because it was all bicycles and horse-drawn carriages. You take a ferry over, enjoy a lovely carriage ride tour, and even see historic Fort Mackinac. If you like fudge, this is the place to go -- there are fudge shops everywhere you look and competition is fierce!

A boat entering one of the Soo Locks

"Upper" Tahquamenon Falls

Lovely naturally formed arch on Mackinac Island (various shade depths of lake water seen through it)

One of our horse-drawn carriages on Mackinac Island

The only negative we have experienced so far in the U.P. is a horrible mosquito infestation. Apparently some disease is harming the local bat population (their biggest predator) and the late spring and high lake levels are making them a bumper crop this year.  Somehow we managed to suck in a bunch of these blood suckers into the motorhome and spent days swatting at them -- I'm talking 100 at least!  We haven't figured out yet how they got in as it was too many to sneak in the door.

On a happy note, we celebrated our 2-year anniversary of living full time in a motorhome and can't really believe it has been that long.  It is definitely true that time flies when you are having fun!

Our first "couple selfie" celebrating the anniversary

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