A Breath of Fresh Road

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

August 16/17,2009

After a leisurely day on the river, with Connie struggling with the paddle, :-) we headed for Munising,MI on the Northern shore of the UP.

I had done a little checking online about Pictured Rocks National Shoreline and knew that we could check out the Park from the shore and thought it would give a little different perspective than seeing them just from the boat tour. Turns out it was a good move.

Although it took a little up and down hill walking, I managed to hike out to Miner's Castle and get a couple of decent pictures. The view from the shore is pretty cool.


Connie in Lake Superior	Miners Castle from Shore

After doing the day trip, we went into Munising to see about the boat tour. Because of the time and the length of the tour, we decided to come back the next day and do the tour. It turned out to be a great move. The next day was the UP's Summer :-) . I'm pretty sure it was the only day to reach 80 degrees in Munising all year.

Here's the view from the boat tour, with just a few comments. Enjoy.

Our Tour Boat	Miners Castle from Boat

Next will be Sault Ste Marie and the Soo Locks.

ttfn

Paul

Friday, October 16, 2009

Big Cedar Campground

August 14,2009

It seems that since we left KY, we've run into our share of rain and cool weather.

We left the campground in Three Lakes with about a 6 hour drive planned to get us into the "Upper Peninsula" (UP) of Michigan. We had made a reservation at Big Cedar Campground in Germfask, MI for a weeklong stay. (assuming we could get Internet with our aircard.)

The day was once again overcast with showers along the entire ride. We stopped at a rest area along the Northern edge of Lake Michigan and took a couple of pics of the shore. Because it was so cool and damp, Connie didn't even get her feet wet. ;-)

After our pit stop, we only had about 1 hour to Big Cedar Campground. I chose Big Cedar, because it's an SKP discount park, and about center of the UP North and South.

I had seen some information about a lighthouse on Lake Michigan that was about 45 miles away, and it also put us about an hours drive from Munising, MI, where we planned to see the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. (it didn't hurt that the campground was also a canoe livery with a landing site at the campgrounds)

We've decided that we really enjoy canoeing when we get a chance, so it's even possible that we'll look at buying a canoe somewhere down the road. (or just plan to rent periodically)

We were only at Big Cedar for a day and decided to do the canoe trip, because it was a sunny and dry day, and also about 75 degrees. Here are a few pics from the canoe trip on the Manistique River. Hope you enjoy.


	All pretense of paddling is gone :-)

Next Pictured Rocks. :-)

ttfn

Paul

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Passing Through

August 13,2009

Sorry, but no pics today.

We finally got ourselves "chilled" and left Dubuque,IA today. Because of the delay getting IDK repaired, we decided to kinda hotfoot it through Wisconsin and get to the UP of Michigan.

We found several Passport America parks that worked for our destination goals and hit the road.

After several hours of driving, and finding out that we were a little ahead of schedule, we/I checked out the PA parks again and found one a little further away and made a reservation.

We had a really nice day driving through a good share of Wisconsin and finished the day at The Harbor Campground in Three Lakes, WI. The campground is mostly seasonal sites right across the street from a Lake, with lots of shade.

The sites are pretty tight, but we had a pull-through that allowed us to leave the car attached. The owner is also a chef and has a pretty good restaurant at the front of the campground.

I think we want to return to Wisconsin at some point, as the state seems to have a LOT of pretty
areas and we want to check them out a little better. Next time.

ttfn

Paul

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

One day becomes three

August 9,2009

When we left Rick & Terry Traver, we were heading to Dubuque Iowa, and I was planning to stop in Moline,IL to see the John Deere Pavilion. Not to be. ;-)

When we got into Moline, we actually drove all the way around the Pavilion, but I didn't see a place where I could easily park the Rig without unhooking the car from the tow dolly, so we decided to just head for Dubuque.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we were threading the needle between some severe storms on our way North. We were about twenty miles from Dubuque and watching the storm clouds ahead of us when I let off on the throttle coming up on traffic.

The rig felt like the left front wheel tried to turn under when I hit the brake (very easily) so I took my foot off the throttle and gingerly drove the rig to the Miller Riverview Park we had chosen as a destination for the night. On the way there, I noticed a Truck repair place with a bunch of open bay doors and at least one Motorhome in the lot.

It was Sunday afternoon when we got there, so I called Truck Country to see what they could do for us. I knew I wasn't going anywhere without the rig being fixed. Loooooong story shortened.

We stayed on their lot the next night waiting for overnighted parts to come in and headed out of town on Thursday with a much lighter wallet, but a nice riding rig. We had to replace 10 bushings in the rear suspension arms. Apparently the old ones had dried out, hardened and crumbled.

If the rest of their facilities are as good as the one in Dubuque, I'd highly recommend them.

After hanging around Truck Country all day Tuesday (cuz we didn't feel like searching for things to do) we decided to stay at Miller Riverview Park for two more nights to de-stress.

The park has Electric sites with water at the entrance and a dump station next to it. It was fine for our needs, and we had a nice site overlooking the Mississippi River, where you could see Wisconsin and Illinois from the park. Really pretty cool.

We got to see a few tugs and barges go by, and since we were staying another day to relax, we also went to another City Park on top of a hill, looking down on the Dubuque Lock and dam. Back at the park, there was a nice walking/biking path and we walked around the park a couple of times.