World United States Michigan St Ignace

Darlene and Herb's Adventure

Michigan, Great Lakes Sep 25, 2007

We pressed on into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, known to locals as the U.P., and populated by a unique breed of hardy persons of mostly Scandanavian descent known as "Yoopers". (Yooper Humor: Sign on a combination gas station/cafe/bait shop: EAT HERE, GET WORMS AND GAS!) This is heavily wooded country, but mostly the trees are small, at least from the road hardly any of the trees are over 12 inches diameter or 25 feet tall. Mixed conifers, including some spruce swamps that look like pictures of the tundra, cedars that are obviously high-lined by whitetail deer, and an assortment of scrubby pines and what I think are balsam firs - look like white firs, but occassionally like sub-alpine firs. Again we are driving through country that is a destination resort area. There are deer hunting and fishing cabins, guide services and boat trips on Lake Superior. Lots of "lake houses" that apparently are the summer retreats of folks from the cities who have mucho dinero. This was a long day driving most of the length of the U.P. and seeing both the south shore of Lake Superior and the north shore of Lake Michigan and spending the night at St. Ignace near the northern terminus of the Mackinaw Straits Bridge with a view of Lake Huron. Lots of wildlife refuges and state forest, some national forest, not much farm land here. We stayed in a really nice campground that is reported to be haunted by the spirits of some 50+ of the local Indian tribe whose skeletons were exhumed during a gravel mining operation at the site before it became a campground. Sure enough, Chief Thunder Cloud rattled our windows at about midnight along with North Wind and a few of their friends. By morning, however it was only Gentle Breeze and Pink Cloud that were still drifting around. We are missing lots of chances to take boat/ferry rides, visit museums like the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Bay, and sights like the Sault St. Marie bridge and locks, but we still have 1500 miles to go and we want to be in Maine in about 6 days, so we pressed on to Port Huron Michigan where I plan to get the oil changed - 3000 miles already. Bought some smoked whitefish and salmon at a little one-room fish market and pressed on down the highway.

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