Welcome to Michigan

 6-11-2021 - Friday

We are ready to be done with Wisconsin.  It got warm here, and lots of bugs.  We headed out about 8:30.  We drove Hwy 141 south to Hwy 64 (I was hoping to see my belted cows, but they must have been closer to Green Bay), then east across 64 for 18 miles.  We made all the correct left turns and right turns, and didn't get lost even once.  We crossed the Michigan state line at 10:15.  The last town in Wisconsin, Marinette, had some cute pots of flowers decorating the boulevard.  

Across the river, in Menominee, Michigan, there was a "statue" of a pair of Clysdales pulling a wagon, but I didn't get that picture.  These towns are all nice and clean, pretty, lots of flowers, houses in good condition, yards mowed.  We changed time zones again along in here, so we now are on Eastern Daylight Time. 

Our highway went right beside Lake Michigan, and we had lots of glimpses.  We saw campgrounds along here too, but you have to know they are there.

 And we are continuing on the lilac trail, they are still blooming in Michigan!

We are at a very nice campground in Garden, Michigan, on the east side of Big Bay de Noc, on the southern shore of the Upper Peninsula. But the Verizon phone signal is very week, as is the internet.  We did get TV though, so that was good. We got here about 1:30, so that was a pretty short day for us.

We think there are some places in the campground with better phone signal and internet than our site, so Joe is checking that out.  So far tonight, though, we have been able to get on the internet in the RV, although it is sometimes very slow.

 I'm hoping to find some rocks here, but we may have to drive up to the north shore, which I think is about 50 miles along in here.  The temperature is a balmy 65 degrees, very windy, but sunny.  When we got here, we opened the windows instead of turning on the A/C, but now we've closed them because it got too cold!

There were two food trucks just south of town, one with fish, the other with mini donuts.  Both were very good.  I didn't see a restaurant in town that was still in business, so that might be the only thing going here.  The campground we are in is only open from May to October.  

We had a pretty easy day today, drove 167 miles.  We are booked in here for 2 nights, but may extend if I can find a rocky beach to rockhound.  We will probably drive this peninsula tomorrow until we run out of road.  The town of Manistique is the next town of any size back on Hwy 2, so we might drive over there.  We went through there once before, in 2015, but I don't remember if we stopped.  We will see what tomorrow brings.

Last Day in Wisconsin

 6-10-2021  Thursday

Headed back into Iron Mountain for our town chores first thing.  We got a little lost getting out of the park (the GPS brought us in a different way last night, partly on a quad trail.  Good thing we weren't in the RV)  We had to put the last campground in the GPS so we knew which way to turn when we got to the highway.  Joe said it was a good thing we have clothes with us if we get lost.  But we made it, had breakfast in Iron Mountain and found a laundromat with a fast WiFi!  

We got our chores done in Iron Mountain (laundry, posted blog at laundromat, auto parts store), and headed out of town around 2:00.  OMG, we can’t even find our way back to the campground on the highway.  Somehow, we missed a jog on Hwy 141.  We were driving through these little towns, seeing things we don’t recognize – a big wooden bear (no way I would have missed that Tuesday), a Vulcan (I got a picture), and a big mountain guy in front of an iron ore mine, advertising tours. 

I checked the GPS and it said we were headed east, but I had noticed on the way in that we went west for a while, then north, so I wasn’t sure if east was good.  I started looking for highway signs, and finally found one (I hadn’t said anything to Joe about the highway for these miles).  By this time, he had started looking for the turn-off to our campground.   I asked him, if we were supposed to be on Hwy 141, why did the highway sign say Hwy 2.  Well, he laughed, and said 2 and 141 don’t ever run together, so do we need to turn around??? We didn’t even know what state we were lost in!  I put the campground in the GPS, and sure enough, we had driven about 12 miles too far east.  When we got back to Hwy 141, we were only 3.2 miles from the turnoff to our campground.   We may have to hire a pilot car to get us to Florida!

Finally, we got back to the RV, a little after 3:00.  We drove 76 miles on our trip to a town 17 miles away.  I was just glad we were in the jeep and not the RV.  So then we did our maintenance here.  Joe cleaned the batteries on the jeep, and I put away laundry, made the bed and vacuumed.  Then we took a nap.

But we just couldn’t do it.  We could not just sit in the RV and do nothing the rest of the day (remember, no TV, no internet, bad phone signal).  So about 6:00, I asked Joe if he wanted to go for a little drive in the park (I know I’m a glutton for punishment).  But since we kept getting lost in the park, I thought maybe we should go for an adventure right here for about an hour.  So we did. There were signs about 2 falls on our drive in, so I thought we should check them out.  Well, both were “rugged” trails, with steep overlooks.  And the bugs in the woods are really bad (not to mention, worrying about ticks).  So we didn’t do any hiking.   Of course, Joe couldn’t just stay in the park, so we drove across the road, down some other dirt roads, etc.  The woods here, especially in the park, are so thick it’s hard to imagine how animals get through them.

But they do.  We saw 9 deer on our little drive (one with a fawn), plus two fawns on our way back from town this afternoon.  Joe said the deer are hard to find because there is no place they can’t hide.  We also saw a little turtle.  Joe actually straddled it with the jeep tires, and he hadn’t even seen it.  But he missed it because we saw it continuing on across the road in the mirror.   We came upon a sign for “John’s Road,” so we drove back it, but it dead-ended pretty quickly.  Nice that John has a road here, though.

We were almost back to the campsite (we could see the pin on the GPS) when I spotted another deer down a dirt road – this was one with the fawn.  So, down that road we go. It was some dam road, but we never did get to the dam. We did see a few more deer on that road, but now we are out 2 hours.  Fortunately, our dirt road connected with a highway, that brought us back to another highway, that brought us back to the park (a different way, again).  Thank God for GPS!

While we were at the laundromat (with internet), Joe found us a spot in a campground in Garden, Michigan, on the south shore.  The campground we have been in the last two nights is nice, very secluded and quiet.  Some sites have water, but ours only has electricity.  The phone signal is very weak (too many trees), and internet non-existent.  And we couldn't get a TV signal.  But we are ready to leave Wisconsin, and see what trouble we can get into in Michigan.

Green Bay, Wisconsin

 

6-9-2021 – Wednesday

We survived the night with no tv or internet.  Played Rummikup, read books.   This is our woodsy campsite.

Joe cleaning the windshield is a regular occurrence, usually happens more than once a day.  Today, after he did what he could, we hit the first car wash we saw and finished the job.  Temporarily.

Got an early start this morning (8:40) for our drive to Green Bay.  First on our agenda was Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers.  Of all the NFL stadiums, this is the one we wanted to see the most.  We found it pretty easily, went into the Pro Shop, bought tickets for the Field Tour (15 minutes, but we got to go in the bleachers  down to the field (another tour took you onto the field and into the tunnel, but we didn’t do that one).  It was all quite impressive.

Outside the building are these statues of Earl Lambeau and Vince Lombardi.

And in the Atrium is this giant statue of the Lombardi trophy.  Quite impressive!

See Joe standing at the bottom.

The field itself looked small, without the grid lines.  The grass is 95% real grass, and just 5% artificial.  They water it every day, and mow it every other day.   

And here is one of the goal posts.

Across the parking lot is the Don Hutson Center, their indoor practice field.  There are outside practice fields on each side of this building.

We asked about tickets.  There are no individual tickets for sale, all are season tickets.  However, there are usually some season ticket holders who can’t make the game, so there are tickets that can be bought from them.  Individual ticket prices start at $125, but I don’t know what they go for from the season ticket holders, I would guess they are much higher.  The waiting list for season tickets is 135,000, so get your name on the list now if you ever want a ticket.

Saw this “statue” driving through town.

 

From there, we headed to Sturgeon Bay, with Green Bay on one side, and Lake Michigan on the other.  From the highway, we worked our way over to the water, and found a place with a view of the bay of Green Bay.  Most of the shoreline is hidden by homes, some very nice, and others lake cottages.  We didn't drive to the end of this peninsula, or even to the town of Sturgeon Bay.

I picked up a few rocks, but nothing special.

Then we cut over to the Lake Michigan side and drove to the little beach town of Algoma.  This was a really pretty town, well kept, lots of flowers blooming in yards, beautiful beach, nice marina. 

We drove through town, and turned around at a field full of seagulls.

Joe really thought the scenery on this beach was great.

(At first I didn’t think she had anything at all on, but Joe had her zoomed in on the camera and could tell there was a little piece of clothing around her waist).

We did walk the beach a little.  It had been quite warm in Green Bay (town), mid-80s, but by the water, it was a chilly 73.  We looked for rocks, but they just aren’t the right kind here.  We found a little restaurant with a beach view, right across the street from the beach, and enjoyed a nice meal there.

Joe wanted to see the town of Green Bay, so we drove right through the center on our way back.  It’s an old town, but well kept.  We left Green Bay about 4:50 and got home at 6:30, not too bad.  285 miles today.

The highway to Green Bay was mostly woods.  But we came back into the town from the south, off the peninsula, and even on the peninsula, we saw lots of farm ground and crops:  corn, rye, alfalfa or clover, and a sod farm.  And some dairy farms. And lots of silos and barns.

We did see a little wildlife today:  4 sandhill cranes, 7 turkeys, and some Belgium belted cows.  I wanted Joe to turn around so I could get a picture of the belted cows, but he said, “I have all my u-turns and back-ups in for the day.”  Humph!  A little later, he passed a road named “Rustic Road,” which he mentioned.  I waited a mile or so, and snottily replied, “Too bad you have all your u-turns and back-ups in for the day.”  But I sure wish I had gotten a picture of those cows.

Back at the RV, we had a bite to eat, played Rummikup again (Stacey, after getting beat several nights in a row, I beat him tonight 75-0).  Read our books.  Adjusting to life without TV and internet, but now we have to go to town tomorrow to find a wifi signal so I can post 2 nights of the blog, do laundry, and try to find our next campground, in Michigan.

Across Wisconsin

6-8-2021 – Tuesday

Today was our travel day, and we drove Hwy 2 across Wisconsin, then in and out of Michigan on Hwy 2 and 141.  It was 61 when I got up, but it warmed up to 93, too hot. One town we went through not too long before we got to the campground registered 100 degrees.  We got an early start, 8:00, and crossed into Michigan the first time at 9:45.  We were back in Wisconsin at 1:10, Michigan again at 1:55, and Wisconsin for the night at 2:10, about 8 miles (probably less) from the Michigan border.  But our campground is off the beaten path, very secluded, not much of a phone signal, and no internet.  I think it’s part of a city park system, but we are in the boonies, about 25 miles south of Iron Mountain, I think.  The address here is Pembine, but I don’t think that makes the map. 

Our drive was mostly through forests, sprinkled with lakes, through an occasional small town.  We saw two deer, and lots of trees.  No pictures today, which is just as well since we have no internet.  I will have to post this tomorrow when we drive into civilization in the Jeep.  Just before we finally reached our campground, we went past a house that had an irrigation sprinkler going.  Joe considered parking under the spray for a while to get the RV washed.  Our road seemed to go on and on.  The GPS would tell us how many miles to the next turn, but it didn’t show how many miles to the campground.  Finally, with 2.2 miles to the next turn (and we didn’t know if it was our last), Joe said if the campground wasn’t at this next turn, he was just going to take a nap right there.  Luckily, it was only another mile, but then we turned too soon, and drove an extra mile, had to make a u-turn to come back.  Nothing is ever simple for us!

We only have electricity at this camp site, so it didn’t take him long to get us set up.  He messed with the TV but we have no television signal here either.  And we are here for 3 nights!  Not sure how this will work out. 

We drove 237 miles today.  Our plan is to drive to Green Bay tomorrow, which is about 90 miles.  It stormed a little just before dark, but no wind, and it didn’t last that long, although it continued to sprinkle for a while.   Joe started the motor and turned the windshield wipers on for a while to try to get the bugs off the windshield.  We will see tomorrow if it helped.

Once we leave here, we are headed to the lower portion of the UP – we came across the northern part 2 years ago (that’s where I got all my rocks.  Hope the southern portion is equally generous.)  This taste of hot weather has already made us reluctant to start south, but that’s what lies ahead.

Getting Wet

 6-7-21 - Monday

The plan for today was to have an easy day.  But we do not know how to have an easy day.  We decided to drive Hwy 13 along the Lake Superior shoreline as much as it would let us, maybe do a little rockhounding.  We headed out about 9:40, without breakfast, the camp hostess said the little towns we would go through should have a restaurant.  75 miles later, in Bayfield, we found restaurants.  The only one we found along the way was closed, and Joe gets grumpy when he gets hungry.  So at 11:30, we had breakfast/lunch.  We had been to Bayfield on our trip through here in 2019, and actually took a boat tour from here through the Apostle Islands.  After we ate, we drove the streets, checked out the marina, etc.  This is a cute little fishing/tourisy town, and lots of flowers and trees are blooming right now so it was very colorful.  I took a picture of a beautiful pink bush, but it is a bit blurry.  And the lilacs are still blooming here!

  At 12:30, we headed back, and there was a road through the apple orchards, which are very popular right here.  The brochure says "Bayfield's location near Lake Superior and the Apostle Islands creates a unique micro-climate, which allows fruits and berries to flourish." So of course we took that.  A lot of the apple rows were labeled with the type of trees there, and there are a lot of markets or barns that sell produce in season.  We didn't see any of them open.  We did see blueberry bushes, strawberry plants, and peach trees, but again, we are too early for any of this. We wandered around on this J Road, thinking it would come out a little further west, on our way back.  But when it did come out, 25 minutes later, we were east of Bayfield, so we got to drive through the town again.

Moving along west again, finally, we took a side road down to the beach at the National Lakeshore.

This was a nice beach area, but not much in the way of rocks for collecting, it was just little pebbles.  A gal on the beach said there more a little further down the beach, so I walked down there.  Joe had elected to sit in the chair up under the trees, so I was on my own--he couldn't even see me over the ridge.  Well, I saw something larger in the water a little further out, so I took another step, then reached out with my rock picker.  The sand under my feet gave way, and I tumbled into the water.  It was cold!  And I couldn't get my footing, so I floundered around there for a while, swallowing the lake, until I finally got to my feet.  I gathered up my rock picker and headed back to our chairs.  Joe saw me coming, and asked if I feel in or got in on purpose.  I had to tell him I fell in.  He had been on his way down with the camera but his phone rang, so he missed all the action.

We took our chairs back down to water's edge for a little while, but there were just no rocks to be found.  And since we were on a national property, I couldn't take them anyhow.  So we moved on.

We got some information from another lady there about where we might find rocks, so we drove to another site, but it too was part of the National Lakeshore, and it was another sandy beach.  It was a popular kayak area, and they were giving lessons to a group.

Back on the road, we saw a few interesting things.  A pair of huge, tree-size boots.

And 3 sandhill cranes (here's two of them).  They are a little different color here than in Florida, more brown than gray.

And a nice view of Lake Superior.

We came through the little town of Port Wing, not much more than a wide spot in the road.  They had a sign advertising a "testicle festival."  Don't know what that is about.  Another sign Joe saw in the little town of Free Flow said "population - 1."  He thinks that was the name of the town, I didn't even see the town, much less the population sign.  I mentioned before these towns up north are pretty small.  Before we got back to the campground, Joe couldn't stand it, he had to turn down a dirt road, which happened to be old Hwy 13.  He just knew we would see something on this road.  And he turned out to be right.  He spooked a turkey, and then a deer came flying out of the woods, right in front of the jeep.  He had seen it coming, so we were already stopped for it.  We saw one other turkey back out on the main highway, that was it for wildlife today.  

We got back to camp at 4:00, put another 173 miles on the jeep today.  I was pretty uncomfortable in my wet clothes.  There is a swimming pool here at the campground, heated I think, and Joe told me I should just go jump in.  There were other people in the pool, but I opted not to join them.  It only got to 75 today but it was plenty warm on the beach.  

Joe decided he wanted a steak for dinner, so he looked around on his phone for a steakhouse in Superior.  He didn't find anything he thought sounded good, so we ended up driving into Duluth, across the bridge, to a Texas Roadhouse.  Our steaks were good, but it was after 9:00 before we got back to the RV.  Fortunately, the sun was just setting.  

Tomorrow is a travel day again.  East across Wisconsin.  We will see where we end up.

Across Minnesota

 6-6-2021 - Sunday

We were rudely awakened about 2:40 this morning by gale force winds rocking the RV. There wasn't much we could do, but Joe did bring in the two slides.  We went back to sleep, and saw nothing amiss when we got up, but the camper behind us had a pop-up shade that got destroyed.  It wasn't too windy by then, so we got on the road about 9:00, heading east.  A windy day was forecast, so we were not sure how far we would make it.  If our 95 degrees on Friday didn't destroy the lilacs, last night's wind probably finished them off.

Driving along, we saw this car that would have been perfect for Barbara and me during our "cruising" days.  Surely, if the odometer was clocking too many miles, we could have just driven it from the other end -- maybe that would have taken miles off!  It passed us on the highway, but of course I didn't have the camera ready.  Then we saw it at a gas station, but again, we were past too quickly to get a picture.  Then, lo and behold, it pulled up beside us to turn at a stoplight, and Joe got a picture out his window!  The photo of the day!

It was a pretty uneventful day, except for Joe battling the wind.  We crossed into Minnesota at 10:35, having driven 87 miles.  We drove Hwy 2 all the way into Wisconsin.  We had toured some of Minnesota in 2019, so we just drove straight across the state.

 This area was mostly farm ground.  And lakes.  We started counting Minnesota's 10,000 lakes, but didn't stay with it.  The wind gusts kept most of Joe's attention. (He did spot 2 deer early on the drive.) There were more trees in eastern North Dakota and Minnesota than we had been seeing, and sometimes that sheltered us from the wind, but when the tree row ended, we got slammed.  And we had more than our fair share of road construction.  Just before Duluth, I asked Joe how many miles we had in today.  He said, 352.  But take 50 off for the weaving, so we probably got 270. We stopped for lunch and fuel outside of Bemidji, and there was a little flea market on the parking lot, so I got to go shopping for 5 minutes.  But everyone was putting up their stuff because of the wind and heat.  I bought Joe a jar of carrot cake jam.  How special is that!

We came into the edge of Duluth about 4:25.  Hello again, Lake Superior!  There is a Cody Street here (we didn't take it).  We took a wrong turn merging onto I-35 to get across the bridge, but quickly corrected it.  (Joe didn't trust the GPS.)

About 3:00, I called the campground we stayed at 2 years ago, just across the bridge outside of Superior, Wisconsin.  They had a spot for us, so that was our destination.  We crossed the Wisconsin state line about 4:35, and arrived about 5:00, got registered, and pulled into our campsite.  Joe went out and hooked up the electricity, we turned on the A/C, and haven't stepped outside since.  It was 88, but very hot.  People were swimming in the pool, and on the beach we saw from the bridge.  Summer has arrived here.

Joe put in a lot of miles today, 354.   We decided to stay here for 2 nights, maybe do a little shopping, a little maintenance, find some rocks on Lake Superior's coastline, and take it easy.  We will see how that works out.