Month: July 2018

Tripometer – 2026 mi

Gas Gauge – 166.618

Location – Kreher RV Park, Ashland, WI

Lodging – $30

 

Chore and Web Update Day!

Today as Kelly worked and did a Walmart and grocery run, I updated the website. J

This little RV park has been an interesting experience for both of us. In the past when looking for a place to pitch our tent on a trip like this, I would always Google ‘campground’ or ‘camping’. It occurred to me yesterday to search ‘RV Park’ instead and a whole new list of places to park for the night came up. That search led to us staying in what can best be described as an urban RV park.

The Park is located on the shore of Chequomegon Bay and Directly in the middle of the town of Ashland, WI. We’re about a 5min walk from restaurants, groceries, ice… everything. It has made the day easy. We both got a lot of work done.

Tomorrow we’re headed to Duluth.

Tripometer – 2014 mi

Gas Gauge – 166.618

Location – Kreher RV Park, Ashland, WI

Lodging – $30

We visited Oswalds Bear Ranch in Newberry, MI today. Oswalds is a bear rescue serving most of the North Woods. They have 39 bears in their shelter including 3 cubs. We walked the outer perimeter of the adult male habitat – a little over a ½ mile. The bears were delighted to receive apples tossed over the tops of the 10’ fences. Petting a bear cub really is a bucket-list item! The cubs are surprisingly soft compared to bear skins we’ve handled in the past. Kelly could have stayed here for hours just watching the bears. She was throwing apples to the underdog bears, old or smaller, that were being chased away by the more dominant bears in the group. Good sport!

We ended an evening of driving at Kreher RV Park in Ashland, WI. This is a cute, 50 slot RV park located in the middle of the little town of Ashland right on the shores of Chequomegon Bay. It’s a surprisingly quiet little park with a shower, steps from breakfast bacon we don’t have to cook ourselves!

Tripometer – 1643 mi

Gas Gauge – 130.848

Location – Monocle Lake State Park, MI

Lodging – $16

 

Chore Day!

While Kelly worked Paul did laundry at the Bay Mills Casino (also sneaked in a shower!) and caught up on some chores like fixing that pesky fuse-blowing tongue jack.

With work and chores done we went into Sault Ste. Marie to walk their main street shops and look for a place to grab dinner. I caught a nice shot of the Edwin H. Gott leaving the Soo Locks on his way into Whitefish Bay, Lake Superior. These boats are really incredible.

We opted for a tiny restaurant located very close to our campground that was recommended to us by our campground host – Cozy Inn. I had expertly fried whitefish filets served within a stones throw of Whitefish Bay. Delicious!

Tripometer – 1579 mi

Gas Gauge – 130.848

Location – Monocle Lake State Park, MI

Lodging – $16

We caught the ferry from St. Ignace to Mackinac Island today. To our surprise the ferry and most of the island tourist attractions were open to pets. Mackinac Island was a key player in 18th & 19th century trading at a critical crossroads of the Great Lakes. The small fort built by the British on the island traded hands several times between the English and the Americans. In 1875 Mackinac Island was designated the second National Park following Yellowstone (It was later given to the state of Michigan as its first state park.) More interestingly and pertinent to our visit, automobiles were banned in 1898 making this a car and truck free island.

We enjoyed lunch and a tour of the shops and attractions in the quaint town on the island. Over a hundred years of wealthy tourists and residents have made this island a treasure trove of cool architecture and history. Oh, and fudge. LOTS of fudge. I counted at least five different shops making their own fudge in a 5(?) block long main street! Check out the gardening around the beautiful Victorian mansion.

On the way home we stopped in Bay Mills, MI, a town known now as the home of the Ojibwe Indians. A local casino, several shops, administration buildings and a burial ground. What attracted our eye was not the sign, but rather the unusual wooden gravestones(?) on top of the burial mounds in the Indian cemetery. Take a look.

Ranger posed nicely next to what can only be described as local art. We both thought the mini laker ship next to its companion mini lighthouse was adorable.

Tripometer – 1471 mi

Gas Gauge – 113.987

Location – Monocle Lake State Park, MI

Lodging – $16

We woke up early today to hit the road like honest-to-god tourists. We were still drinking coffee and wiping the sleep from our eyes when Ranger greeted us as pictured above. Apparently he had been making sweet, sweet love to the grill we had used to make chicken the night before. Before we could tour anything this morning we had to find some baby shampoo and wash the pup in a parking lot. Must have been a rather odd sight for the locals!

<cue Gordon Lightfoot>

Monocle Lake State Park surrounds a tiny lake just inland from Lake Superior.

‘The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee’

The day was cloudy and rainy off and on with a fairly good fog in low areas.

‘When afternoon came it was freezin’ rain in the face of a hurricane West wind.’

We drove West and North all along the shores of Whitefish Bay to the Great Lakes Shipwreck museum on Whitefish Point.

‘The searchers all say they’d have made Whitefish Bay if they’d put fifteen more miles behind her.’

It was a nice little museum with several early maritime buildings – lighthouse, keepers house, Coast Guard lifeboat house, working foghorn, etc… But there was one major flaw.

‘And later that night when his lights went outta sight came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’

The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum is the proud owner of the bell from the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Conveniently for a small community organization, someone wrote a song that they’re allowed to use at will in their museum. And they played it over, and over, and over… Or maybe it was just in my head?

‘And all that remains is the faces and the names of the wives and the sons and the daughters.’

Later that afternoon, to purge the song from our weary heads, we took a hike to see Tahquamenon Falls — a 50’ tall fall running at 10,000gal/sec in the second largest state park in MI.

Tripometer – 1335 mi

Gas Gauge – 113.987

Location – Monocle Lake State Park, MI

Lodging – $16

DOWN DAY!

Not much to report here. Kelly worked, Paul ran a few errands and goofed off. Took a few walks, swam the dog, had campfire drinks and retired early.

I think Ranger’s starting to like this.

Tripometer – 1305 mi

Gas Gauge – 113.987

Location – Monocle Lake State Park, MI

Lodging – $16

After work today Kelly and I drove from Mid-state Michigan to the North East corner of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The drive was beautiful watching the forests become more scrub and the human population diminish. The trip was punctuated by a trip across the Mackinac Bridge, a tremendously high and fairly long bridge similar to the Bay Bridge South of Baltimore. Thankfully the wind was around 10 mph. I don’t think we would have tried the trip across the bridge with this trailer if the wind speed had been much higher.

We arrived earlier in the day than usual. Kelly had to do some more work so I took the opportunity to install the new tongue jack and promptly blew the main camper fuse on the first attempt at jacking. We jumped in the car as quickly as we could to catch the auto parts store closing at 8 pm. With new fuses in hand we picked up a pizza and sat at the Soo Locks picnic area to watch the enormous lakers glide into the lock system.

The sun now takes much longer to set and the light doesn’t truly fade until well after 11pm – This leads to tremendous light shows around dusk. We arrived back at the campground to capture a few easy sunset pics looking out across Monocle Lake.

We are struggling to update LessInTents.com with blog posts as often as we’d like to, so sometimes we’re a few days behind. For more timely updates, including many more photos, please check out our Instagram account @lessintents !

Tripometer – 1096 mi

Gas Gauge – 97.711 (10.7mpg to date)

Location – North Higgins Lake State Park, MI

Lodging – $32

While not the epicenter of entertainment for mid-Michigan we found North Higgins Lake S.P. to be a lovely little campground. (Jen P told me some time later that she had exactly the opposite experience due to large numbers of late night Budweiser swillers.)

Today we took a drive around both Higgins and Haughton lakes. This little lake vacation community looks like it had its hay-day in the 50’s and 60’s like so many other small camping destinations. Some of the homes were clearly lake homes for wealthy Detroit professionals. On our drive we bought an electric tongue jack for the trailer at a local Camping World. While not a necessity it will certainly make life easier given how often and the time of day that we typically use it (late at night after a long days drive). More on that later.

We ended the day with ice cream for P&K and a ‘Pupper Cup’ for Ranger, complete with a Milk Bone.

Tripometer – 1019 mi

Gas Gauge – 80.821

Location – North Higgins Lake State Park, MI

Lodging – $32

Chore Day!

While Kelly worked from a picnic table under the pine trees Paul got groceries, tidied up from the last week of travel and mailed off his signed separation package to Coty! We took a few walks and snapped the pic above of the swimming area at North Higgins. We ended the evening with our first dinner in camp and a little local TV. (We’re both enjoying sampling local programming as we travel from place to place.)