2017.09.19-Benzonia, MI

We’re in the Traverse City Michigan area.  Benzonia is a small town about 25 miles away and where our campground is located.  This is a fish camp and the catch from the past few weeks is salmon.  I’m going to show my fishing ignorance here, having spent last summer in Alaska, I didn’t know that salmon would/could be exclusively a fresh water fish.  Apparently they stay out in Lake Michigan for the majority of their lives and then come into local streams to spawn.  The fisher men and women in this campground are all smiles, there’s plenty to go around at the moment.

For our first outing we went to see two close-by lighthouses.  You can imagine with as much shoreline as is around the Great Lakes, they have lots of lighthouses and are built uniquely for the lake shore and not sea shore.  One of the biggest details I’ve noticed is the height; these are usually only 3 to 4 stories.

Frankfort Lighthouse

Point Benzie Light house

Later the same day we went to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.  Driving around the Scenic Drive we again saw huge sand dunes on the lake shore and numerous maritime museums and displays.  Did you know that before there was the US Coast Guard there was an organization called The US Lifesaving Service?  I didn’t, but these two organizations are critical to these areas.

Covered Bridge from Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive

Sandy inclined shoreline on Lake Michigan

After a couple days set aside for rest and chores we rendezvoused with Carol and Darrel, two good camping friends from our Texas camping chapter and toured the downtown Traverse City area.  Among many attractions we found some interesting shopping and yet another lighthouse a few miles from town.  Oh, yes we have the t-shirt to prove it.

Lifeboat US Lifesaving Service, predecessor to US Coast Guard

 

Light house 18 miles north of Traverse City MI

An update on our adventure with Amazon.  We have been called to start on October 2, just a short couple weeks away!  Our plans for the next few weeks are to tour facilities that produced both the chassis and the coach for our RV.  After that the plan is to work in the Campbellsville Kentucky distribution facility until December 23 when the contract is over.  Hopefully we’ll take a few trips during that time and we can post entries to this blog, but we expect the work will put a big crimp into our blogging energy and material.

Eastern shore of Lake Michigan is great for sunsets!

2017.09.9-Mackinaw City MI

This was easily one of the most commercialized tourist areas we’ve been too.  That’s not to say it isn’t beautiful, interesting and enjoyable, but after three months in the Great Lakes we’ve already seen so much of this.

We started our adventure here by walking around the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse on the Lake Huron side.  It was very nicely restored and kept up, but seemed oddly short for a lighthouse to me.  It does have the look though.

Then our day took us on a comprehensive tour of the old fort at Colonial Michilimackinac, on the Lake Michigan side of the 5 mile long Mackinaw bridge.  There were a number of restored buildings illustrating life at this 1700s British fort and trading center.  We watched musket, mortar and artillery demonstrations and toured through the Commander’s House, Blacksmith shop, barracks, fur traders seasonal homes and several others.  Very interesting and all well done.  We’re at the end of the season so the crowds are much smaller and the historical interpreters all had their parts down very well.  I never knew, for example, that it was the Indians that taught colonials how to make maple syrup or that “wampum” was actually beads woven into belts that documented events, details and treaties of Indian life.  Imagine a binary series of colored beads forming words.  Here are a couple other views of the old fort.

Mackinaw Bridge on Lake Huron side

South Rowhouse within the British Fort Michilimackinac

Live Musket fire

Notice the Union Jack flag

Obviously there are lots of lighthouses around the Great Lakes and the Old McGulpin Point lighthouse is one more example we couldn’t pass up.  This one was interesting because it’s location was more political than practical; notice how short it is and then know that it’s placement prevented it from being seen by ships during half their journey around this point!  We found an interesting tree carcass on the grounds, notice how the branches extended into the inside of this white cedar log.  I never realized they grew as spokes in a wheel.

branches grow like spokes on a wheel

Lighthouse at McGulpin Point

Another day we took the ferry to the ultra tourist destination of Mackinac Island.  No motorized vehicles allowed on the entire island.  Except for EMS everyone either walks, rides a bike or takes a horse drawn conveyance of some sort.  Interesting history and stories surround this place but you can find all that on-line and at your fingertips.  Here are a few of the sights which caught our eye.

Arch Rock on Mackinac Island

All aboard to the Grand Hotel

don't miss the kitty at the front door

notice how the leaves are turning and the flowers continue to bloom

So now we’ve spent time on Lakes Superior, Huron and Michigan and visited the critical connecting points of Superior to Huron, and Huron to Michigan, all very interesting.  Our next stop will be much more rural and is about a hundred miles west and slightly south of here.  Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is on the eastern banks of Lake Michigan.  Oh and for those interested, details of our fall jobs with the Amazon camper-force in Kentucky are beginning to firm up.  We’ll get back with you in a few days. 

2017.09.03-Sault Ste. Marie, MI

This is the last day for our visit in the Sault Ste. Marie area, still in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  First things first, “Sault” is a french word pronounced “soo” which means fast tumbling waters.  The town therefore was named because it is located at the 3 mile long rapids on the St Mary river, the artery connecting Lake Superior and Lake Huron.  This makes it critical for Great Lakes shipping. Four locks were built on the river here, one of which can accommodate ships up to 1,000 feet long.  We heard that more ore tonnage passes through these locks than all the other locks and canals in the world combined and we understand they are the busiest in the world with over 11,000 passages per year!  One more fun fact, passage is totally free.

We saw two ships pass through the locks this holiday weekend.  What you are looking at is the 700 foot Canadian ore freighter, Michipicoten, entering the lock system from Lake Huron to Duluth, Minnesota, the most westerly port on Lake Superior.  She is a self-unloading ship capable of carrying approximately 11,000 tons with a cargo of what we believe was crushed limestone.

Entering the locks from Lake Huron

Notice ship approaching from Lake Superior, upper left

One of the first things we did once we set up our rig was make the drive over to Tahquamenon Falls.  Locals call it “root beer falls,” you can see the brown color of the water and the frothy foam for yourselves.  We were told this is the second largest falls east of the Mississippi, second only to Niagra, of course.  The area was scenic with many interesting and unique sights.

On another day we made the short drive to the Point Iroquois Light Station with it’s steam powered fog horn, built in 1870 and manned until 1962. We understand that the lake passage from Pictured Rocks to the Soo Locks has the most ship wrecks in the Great Lakes system.  This is due: to frequent bad weather; being the deepest and coldest portion of Lake Superior; and, to a large number of ships queuing up to go through the locks. 

This was a two family home as well as the lighthouse

Yet another day we toured the Great Lakes freighter Valley Camp, a 550 foot decommissioned ore ship.  Built in 1917 and now moored on the St Mary river the Valley Camp now functions as a museum.  It’s one thing to see these behemoths slowly glide through the lake waters, it’s completely different to board it and climb all over, inside and out, and realize just how big, really big, they actually are!  Here are a few shots that don’t do it justice, but give you a general idea.

Remember how I mentioned how many ship wrecks are in this area?  One of the exhibits of this floating museum was an homage to the 1975 mysterious sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.  It may be more familiar if you remember the Gordon Lightfoot song from 1976 by the same name.  He immortalized the event in my mind with this musical earworm.

Actual life boat from the Edmund Fitzgerald

One of the last items we noticed on this quirky but very interesting museum ship were several references to the derivation of interesting terms used in our language.  Here is one appropriately placed.

We were also impressed with the many colorful cross walk murals painted on the roads in this town and the large number of  wind mills on the Canadian side of the river.  We highly recommend this stop if you are in the area.

After a long day sightseeing... we come home to pure mischief