Can’t get enough of the UP- August 2020

We are less than two weeks from putting Subject to Change to bed for the winter. Summer is definitely over here in northern Michigan. We’re having our second gale in a week and the anticipated high temp today will be 60, the heater helps me get out of bed in the morning and Tim is wearing long pants and a sweatshirt again. All sure signs that we need to begin planning our trip south with the geese. Once again the boat will be stored in a heated building at Walstrom Marine in Cheboygan. While we haven’t cruised as much this summer as we thought we would, she has been a great summer home base and we have had a lot of time to complete long overdue maintenance chores and do a lot of RV tripping.

Since my last post, we spent about 10 days revisiting sites we enjoyed and touring other areas we’ve wanted to get to with DeFever buddies, Bob and Diane James. Then Tim and I took a drive down the coast of northern Michigan, up the Leelanau Peninsula and through central northern Michigan taking in the sites and checking out areas we will be boating through next year when we take the boat south.

We first met the James in Cape May June of 2018 and cruised with them along the Erie and up to Bremerton. Since then, we’ve stayed in touch and our lives have somewhat paralleled. Maggie, being such an ambassador for doodles, helped inspire them to get a doodle of their own. Enter Cooper, a not so mini Goldendoodle, and a real hoot. They inspired us to buy our RV after they visited us in their Winnebago View last fall.

We returned to the Soo Locks.

Out next stop was Whitefish Point. While Bob and Diane toured the Maritime Museum, Tim and I took the “kids” to the beach. While Cooper frolicked in the water and the sand, and I marveled at the multitude of colors in the rocks, the freighter you see in the photo above, came around the corner heading into Lake Superior.

After a visit to the falls, we camped that night at Tahquamenon State Park.

Fellow RVers know this, and future RVers need to know this- finding campsites in popular places in the summer is not easy. Complicate this by trying to find two RV sites at the same time can be near impossible. When we left Tahquamenon after only one night ( one night was all we could get), our fingers were crossed that we would find an opening somewhere along our way. The plan was to go to Pictured Rocks and find a place around Grand Marais or Munising. We’ll, we did, sort of…..

After many phone calls and stops along the way with no room at the inn, we found a casino in Christmas ( yes, that’s the town’s name) that allows RV camping and even has 5 hookups for FCFS ( first come, first serve). Having never stayed at a casino before, we were a little skeptical. But we had a great spot, the dogs got to play of leash and we enjoyed a quiet night. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any photos of this prime spot. We were in the same boat the next night and now feeling like old pros, we did what all RVers do at some point. We headed for the nearest Walmart. We were ready to restock our fresh produce supplies and this Walmart had good reviews on RV Parky, an app to help find services for RVers.

By this time, we were all ready to find a spot and stay put for a while. Luckily we were able to get 4 nights at McLain State Park. Finally we were really camping. We weren’t just sleeping at a campground. No, were were hiking, biking, making campfires, eating somemores, getting dirty. We were really camping and having a great time. Tim even played a card game- Play Nine. Maybe the fact that it has a golf theme helped, or that it was fast, or that there weren’t too many rules, but my card game disliking hubby actually seemed to enjoy it. Maybe it was because Bob, Diane and I gave him sh…. about not wanting to play. Anyway, he was a great sport and we had fun. We toured the Quincy Copper Mine in Hancock, had wonderful sunsets over Lake Superior and relaxed.

Somehow we had managed to have another night without a camp site booked. Fortunately Harvest Host came to our rescue and I was able to find a ski resort that welcomed RVs and was near our planned route. So off we went. On our way south along the Lake Superior coastline, we stopped at Porcupine State Park and hiked to the waterfalls.

We were the only campers at the ski resort and again, the pups loved being off leash and we enjoyed the relaxing scenery.

Our final two nights were spent at Fayette State Park. Tim and I stopped at this old iron ore smelting town last ear on our way home from Cheboygan and we enjoyed it so much, we wanted to share it with our friends. I didn’t take a lot of pictures this year, but if you are interested, you can look at my blog from this time last year.

It was time to say “see ya later” to Bob, Diane and Cooper. We’re hoping that next year we’ll meet up with them again on their De Fever, Sea Cottage, as they head north from Sandusky. The North Channel will be calling us back. We may even work things out so we can head down the rivers with them in the fall.

Tim and I had one final RV trip in northern Michigan before heading south. I will get caught up with that in my next post.

P.S. Thanks to Bob, Tim added an appliance to the RV.