Not-So-Dire Straits

Geoff is totally convinced that he has a memory of his family traveling to Mackinaw City in Michigan, probably in 1956 when he was 7 years old, to view the Mackinac Bridge under construction. His Father was absolutely infatuated by large construction projects and, at the time, this was likely the largest one going on in Michigan. Another one which drew his attention was when I-96 between Grand Rapids and Lansing was under construction. That one had a more direct effect on his life, since they made that trip about once every two months to visit with Geoff’s Mom’s family. Geoff’s Dad even drove on the last stretch of that road to be completed prior to its actual opening while returning from Lansing one time. Geoff’s parents had a more direct connection to “The Bridge” later in their lives after their kids had left home, since they would go up on Labor Day Weekend and participate in the walk across the bridge. Five miles was probably not a big deal to them, since they did a lot of walking at home. They used to walk lots of miles in the Plainfield Township outside of Grand Rapids where they lived for 61 years. So driving the Mackinac Bridge is somewhat of a nostalgic trip for Geoff, not just because of his family, but also because he made the trip over The Bridge eight times a year during the four years he spent going to Michigan Technological University in the U.P.

Our first stop was at Straits State Park in St. Ignace for one overnight. On our way from The Soo, it rained a lot but when we got to St. Ignace, it was starting to clear up and, as the afternoon progressed, it got clearer and the sun actually came out for a while closer to sunset. Although we could see the bridge nicely from the campground, we drove to Bridge View Park on the west side and got a closer look. There they had a nice history of the bridge. They had actually planned a bridge back in the 30s but, by the time they got around to building something, WWII had started and it was called off. It wasn’t until 1955 that they got to actual building and it opened in 1957.

The next day, we headed over the bridge and stopped in Mackinaw City for lunch and a look at the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse. It had been a foggy morning on the Straits and, as we strolled the park, a black cloud worked its way across the bridge and started dropping rain on us. We left the RV there and went off in the car looking for lunch. We stopped at one place but there was a wait and we were hungry, so we went across the street to the Mackinaw Pastie and Cookie Company for, you guessed it, pasties and cookies. Then back to the RV to hook up and head 45 minutes down-state to Camp Pet-O-Se-Ga.

The forecast was for the weather on Monday at Mackinac Island to be mostly sunny and this was the best day of the week we were going to be in the area, so our plan was to go back and visit the island. This was our first visit in about 29 years, when we brought Logan and Brian here and we bicycled the island perimeter on rented bikes. This time we took our own bikes over. The weather was not as good in the morning as we had hoped it would be. It was quite heavily overcast and quite cool. The morning temp was only about 55 degrees. Not what we would be expecting for the end of July, even in Northern Michigan. We had bought a combination ticket which would also get us a guided tour in a horse drawn wagon as well as our ferry ride over. The ferry ride also took a side trip under the Mackinac Bridge before heading to the island.

When we got to the island, we had to decide whether to start touring right away or to wait for the skies to clear a bit. We decided for a little late breakfast/early lunch and shared some French Toast at one of the hotel restaurants. The clearing still had not come so we decided to go on the bike ride. The first half was pretty cold because the wind was blowing out of the north and right into our faces, but by the time we turned the corner at Point Au Pins, the sky was starting to clear and the sun was starting to warm us a bit, plus the wind was not so much a factor. By the time we got back into town, it was starting to look like a nice day.

After lunch, we did a little shopping and then got on the carriage ride. This was something we had not done with the kids and we got to see a lot of the island we had not seen before. The return trip on the ferry was a whole different thing than in the morning. On the way out, everyone wanted to be in the cabin where they didn’t have to be out in the cold. Now, we were able to sit up on the top where you could see more. It was even almost warm out. The rest of our time in the area the weather does not look so good, with a possibility of rain almost every day, but it was the end of our visits to the Straits of Mackinac and the last we would see the U.P. on this trip.

Shipping Disasters and Successes

Making our way from Houghton to Sault Saint Marie, we stopped off for one night in Munising. This was only our second overnight stop on this trip so far, and was basically to allow us to stretch out the following day to go to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Museum on Whitefish Point on our way to the Soo. We parked the motorhome at the intersection of M-28 and M-123 and drove the car up M-123 to Whitefish Point. The museum tells the tale of several shipwrecks near Whitefish Point, many as the results of collisions, and most notable, the “Edmund Fitzgerald”. Geoff was at Michigan Tech in November of 1975 when the storm blew in which caused the sinking, and he remembers that the sky was a particularly ugly color that day. He heard about the ship being lost then but it was many years later, when Gordon Lightfoot released his song that Geoff remembered just how that sky had looked and the song still gives him goose-bumps to this day.

After returning to the RV, we discovered a fifth-wheel rig sitting in the same parking area, and it turned out they had had a blowout of one of the tires on their trailer. It had made a mess of the side of the rig and they were planning to change the tire and then go get all of the tires checked out and replaced if necessary. We are thankful we have not had any incidents like this on our recent travels.

From here, we traveled on to Sault St. Marie and close proximity to the Canadian border, which generally plays havoc with our cell phones. They seem to like to pickup the Canadian cell towers and limit our use of the internet on our phones. Fortunately the campground wi-fi here is pretty good. Shortly after arriving, We watched our first ship go past the campgrounds.

They have a very nice viewing platform right up against the locks so you can get a really up close and personal view of the ships going through. The closer lock is smaller and usually handles the tour boats and personal craft, tugs, and smaller cargo ships. The second over is for the big freighters up to 1000 feet in length. The 3rd and 4th locks are no longer in use and are being converted into a second large lock like number 2. This may take several years and the progress should be visible on Google Earth. Right now you can see the coffer dams they have created at either end of lock number 4 to facilitate the draining and excavation of the new lock.

On the second day, we took the Soo Locks Boat Tour which traveled up close to some of the ore carriers and went “up” through the Canadian lock and then back “down” through the American lock number 1. It also went over close to a Canadian steel factory. Very dirty but very necessary for an industrial society. Geoff interviewed at one while job hunting in his last year of college. It was not for him but it was interesting to see the rolling mills for the steel into the big spools you see on trucks.

On day two, we went into two of the local tourist exhibits; the Tower of History and the Valley Camp. the former is a tall, concrete tower designed originally to be a church monument, but then taken over by the city and turned into a towering view of the locks and the whole St. Mary River Valley. You can see for miles in every direction and have great views of the Cloverleaf Electric Cooperative Historic Generating Station. You can see the lock area but, trees block a direct view of ships in the locks.

The Valley Camp is an old ore freighter which has been converted into a museum. By today’s standards, it is pretty small, only about 500 feet long, whereas the large freighters now are 1000 feet. Still, it makes for a pretty impressive space and shows of the meager amenities of these large vessels. The ore space is all displays from many old lake-going vessels and one large display on the Edmund Fitzgerald. We enjoyed it a lot.

Next, to the Straits of Mackinac.

Old Home Days in Copper Country

40 years ago, Geoff was attending his first year at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan. Now, he is back for the first time in about 28 years. We came up when the kids were young and we were living in Colorado. On the first full day we traveled up the Keweenaw Peninsula, first stopping off at the Quincy Mine in Hancock. In the 1990s, they created the Keweenaw National Historical Park and included many of the old mine sites. The Quincy Mine and Hoist site provides tours of the Hoist House and a tour into level 7 of the mines, one of the few not under water since it was shutdown in the 1930s. The Hoist House is amazing because the hoist system is very well preserved. It looks like it could be run if you could just supply some steam. Then they take you down the side of the hill towards Portage Lake and into one of the mine entrances. You get to see a lot of the old mining equipment still down there and get a very nice presentation by the staff. It is a very worthwhile trip.

After lunch, we headed up the Keweenaw Peninsula to Copper Harbor out on the very tip. There we went out to Fort Wilkins State Park and saw the Copper Harbor Lighthouse across the bay. We also drove up to the start of US 41, which runs from there to Miami, Florida, a length of 1990 miles. After stopping off at a couple of interesting stores, we headed up Brockway Mountain Drive. It is, as we have seen them called before on our trip, a “rustic” road. But it climbs quickly to a very nice overlook of Copper Harbor and Lake Fanny Hooe. The next stop was Eagle Harbor and another lighthouse. On the way back to Houghton, we came across a sign which indicated snowfall amounts in the Keweenaw Peninsula from 1957 to 2011. It indicates a record snowfall in the winter of 1978-79 of 390.4 feet. That is more than 30 feet of snowfall. The average is about 20 feet. This sign is built to the height of these total snowfalls. It is quite impressive.

On our last day, Geoff finally got to return to the “scene of the crime”, his old stomping grounds, the campus at Michigan Tech. It has gone through many changes in the passed 40 years but, in many ways, it is still good old MTU. At first, it looked like we would have to settle for just outside pictures of the old dorm, Douglas Houghton Hall, because they have card coded locks on all the doors and it looked like it was not being used for any summer classes anyway. (It just dawned on me that, in the Summer of 1974, when I was here for classes, I had to move out of DHH and into Wadsworth Hall across US 41 for that quarter – Geoff).  However, when Geoff went back for the car, he noticed a door marked as Custodial Services and tried it. It was open and the head custodian was there. He showed Geoff up to the dorm and lounge area and allowed him to take some pictures. It was a wonderful nostalgia trip for him and he had promised some pictures for his college friends on Facebook that he is in communication with. We picked up some souvenirs at the Michigan Tech Book Store in the Student Union before heading out.

So that was the return to Tech, perhaps for the last time. Next, off to Munising again and then to The Soo.

Return to Michigan

From Door County we had to back-track to Green Bay before heading north towards the Michigan Upper Peninsula. We only had about 3 hours of driving to do so we decided to make a stop in Green Bay and do some laundry. We have not had very many stops lately with sewer hook ups so we have been saving most of our laundry. So we stopped at a coin laundry and Geoff stayed there while Ellyn drove to a local Costco and picked up a few things we needed. After about 3 hours of washing and shopping, we were back on the road. We arrived in Menominee Michigan to discover we had stayed at the campground, River Park, in 2011 during our trip around the country.

We pulled in right behind our friends, Ken and Martha, in their new Dutch Star rig. We parked next to each other and set up camp. There were a bunch of other Newmar rigs there, heading up to the rally in Escanaba the next day. We stayed for two days before going. We figured we would be arriving way ahead of Ken and Martha, so we offered to make dinner for the bunch of us the first night. It was a night evening and we had a nice picnic dinner off the grill. Ken spent most of the evening setting up his satellite dish on his new coach and Geoff had to set up the ground dish, since we had a tree between us and the sky.

The next day we didn’t have anything planned so we went to a movie. “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” was playing in Martinette, WI and it had really good ratings so we went to see it. It was really good. Nice to see Andy Serkis getting top billing as Caesar.

From Menominee, we drove north for an hour to Escanaba for the Newmar Kountry Klub Rally at the Upper Peninsula State Fairgrounds. With Ken and Martha leading the way, we felt like we were back in Alaska again. We spent a lot of time following their lead up there.

The Rally was a complete success. 368 motor homes, nearly all of the Newmar brand (we saw one Tiffin on site) were in attendance. We had two dinners and three breakfasts served to us in the 5 days of the rally and the food was terrific. There were many informational sessions held and all the big manufacturers were here. We got some service from Spartan and Newmar and got some advice on a couple of other things. We may stop at the Spartan shop in Charlotte, Michigan later in August for a chassis inspection. We got a new decal for the front of our rig to replace the one which was removed when the Diamond Shield was removed last year. Now it doesn’t look so naked in the front any more. We tried to get the dashboard A/C fixed but apparently it is leaking coolant in the lines which run the full length of the motorhome. Replacing those would be an expensive and nearly impossible task. We have a work-around which we will continue using for now. We toured some new models and it might be nice to have something more up-to-date than our 11 year old rig, but they are way out of our price range. Besides, buying new is not always the best idea. Better to have something a little broken in.

We also got to do a little touring around the area. We went to Fayette, the historic site of an iron smelting plant where there are many buildings still standing from 100 years ago. Then we went to Manistique for lunch and then to Palms-Book State Park to see Kitch-iti-kipi, a beautiful, clear spring, teaming with fish, and with a floating raft from which you can view the spring activity. It was a great day for sight-seeing and road-tripping around the U. P. of Michigan.

Next. we are off to Munising, Houghton, and Sault Saint Marie.

Door County

This was what we heard from lots of people when they heard we were going to be in Wisconsin this summer. Door County is about the top 2/3rds of the peninsula which sticks out into Lake Michigan and forms Green Bay on its western side. We had been told this area reminds people of Maine or Cape Cod as it is covered with little towns rich in artistic appeal and surrounded on all coasts by lighthouses. The weather there was cooler and more rainy than we have so far experienced on our journeys this summer. However, this did not stop us from getting around and seeing the sites. Our first day, we went to downtown Bailey’s Harbor for lunch and then walked out on the marina. Then we took in the Ridges, an area just north of Bailey’s Harbor where the ancient shoreline of Lake Michigan formed ridges along the landscape as it retreated. This are has a lot of lush vegetation, but mostly mosquitoes. They were attacking in swarms as were walking along the paths. The Bailey’s Harbor guide lights are also in this area.

Then we drove up to Sister Bay and down the coast of Green Bay to Egg Harbor. We stopped in various towns along the way and each had their own particular charm. For instance, in Fish Creek, the main street is lined with flowers, and Sister Bay has many signs in the shape of goats. In Egg Harbor, there were three foot high eggs all over town done up in different art motifs.

On the second day, we drove to Northport at the end of the Door County peninsula and took the Washington Island Ferry to, you guessed it, Washington Island. Here we boarded the Cherry Train tour, which was really a couple of tram cars pulled behind a pickup truck. It had some nice tour commentary and we stopped at a few of the attractions on the island. One was School House Beach, where there is no school house, but is one of only five beaches in the world covered with round stones. They have a town law which prohibits removing any of the stones from the beach. The stones were apparently formed by a glacier.

On our last day in beautiful Door County, we went looking for the last of the lighthouses we would be able to look at. We went to the Cana Island Lighthouse just north of Bailey’s Harbor. You are able to climb the stairs to the top of the tower for a fee, but we opted out of that. Then we drove to Peninsula State Park on the west coast to see the Eagle Bluff Lighthouse. It was a very nice day for photography as there was hardly a cloud in the sky all day. It was another addition to the record number of days on this trip which have been gorgeous for us. Next we are off to the U.P. of Michigan. We hope our luck holds.

The Lighthouses of Door County

Cana Island Light	Eagle Bluff Light	Plum Island Light
Bailey’s Harbor	Ranging Lights	Pilot Island Light