This was our first visit to Michigan. When we left
Wisconsin, we took Hwy 39 to Wausau, 29 to 22 at Shawano and 4l which
turned into 35 right up along side Lake Michigan on Hwy 35.
It was a beautiful drive on a lovely day. I could have stayed on any
of the pulloffs forever. 298 miles for the day.
We ended up at Wandering Wheels Yogi Bear Jellystone
Park in Munising in the Upper Peninsula. The back of the
campground was nice, but we were right up front. There was a
big rig 2 down from us that had a huge campfire at night with loud
talking and then turned their spot light on about 1 a.m.
Soon after that we heard a train that we thought would come thru our
RV. Never did see a train track. We left the next morning.
We had a buffet meal that night at the Dogpatch Restaurant that was
excellent. It was just a small coastal town but very pretty.
We drove 134 miles across the middle of the Upper
Peninsula, hwy 28. It was a 2 lane road in need of repairs and could
have been in any state cause it was all road lined with trees.
When we got to hwy 129 we turned south for about 30 miles and then
turned east on hwy M134 to Cedarville RV Campground (1-800-906-3351).
We stayed here 7 nights. It's indicated by the red star above.
This was about 30 miles to Sault St Marie and Canada, 20 miles
to St. Ignace, Mackinaw Island and Mackinac City. We pulled
our RV right up to about 2 feet from the shore of Lake Huron.
It was elevated a couple of feet. It was beautiful. And cool.
It got down to 47f several nights we were there. Had to have heat in
the early morning a couple of times. Day time was between 70 -
75f. Nice. That's Jim at the wheel showing the view we woke up
to each morning. At home it was 95f with 86% humidity.
Most
of the Upper Peninsula is either state or national forests. The sign
said "The Land of Many Uses". They have around 200 inches of
snow starting about October. The lakes freeze over so you can
drive on them. The houses had their street numbers on 4 foot
post and fire hydrants had a post beside of them - I guess to show
above snow? There were snow mobile trails everywhere. We
only have about an inch of snow where we live. This was all
new to us.
We drove up to Sault St Marie and crossed into
Canada for the day. This was our first time in Canada. Right
after you cross the bridge and see the welcome station, the next
building is a casino. We just looked around and had lunch and
returned to the RV. We had thought about taking the RV into
Canada and come out over at Niagara Falls. However, alot
of people told us it took 3 days across there and was not that much
to see. We decided to wait and go into Canada from New York or
Maine later. There were 5 casinos within 20 miles of
us. We did not go to any of them.
We also visited St. Ignace where we caught the boat
over to Mackinaw Island. We ate lunch at the Bentley Cafe
which was enough food for a family and really good. Our
waitress was telling us that sometimes the snow covers the entire
front door.
We also went to Mackinac City. There was a
corvette car show and also a crafts sidewalk fair. We had the
breastfast buffet (around noon) at the Pancake Chef. It was
delicious. Next time we come a good campground would the Mackinaw
Mill Creek Campground which is within view of the bridgeon Hwy US23.
It is not a Passport America. . It was very nice. We had
heard some pretty bad stories about crossing over the Mackinaw
Bridge which is between the upper and lower peninsulas. (pictured
above) It is
a 4 lane bridge with a speed limit of 45 (in good weather). In windy
weather speed drops down to 20 and when it gets real bad, they close
the crossing. They were sandblasting both sides so they only
had 2 lanes open. You can see through the grate. It still was not bad - just another bridge.
Everybody has seen the signs "Detour ahead".
Well, we found where they lead to. There is a little
place on the east end of the upper peninsula called
DeTour. Up near Drummond Island. Just thought I would
put that here so next time you see DeTour, you could end up in
Michigan.
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August, 2003
