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Some day we will slow down. When that time comes we will probably stay in each place for a month or so. When that happens we will probably want a more homelike RV and a small car to drive while the RV stays parked.

Here’s some pictures of what such an RV could look like:

These pictures were taken by our favorite Winnebago dealer of a used unit they have for sale right now. It even has a washer/dryer and a dishwasher! If we were ready now, we would probably buy this one.

Instead, we are headed to Hershey, Pennsylvania, to the huge RV show where manufacturers display their newest RVs–the 2010 models this year. There we hope to see the perfect one we will buy used some day when we slow down.

TTYL,

Linda

We’re alive and well and still traveling. Posting just hasn’t made it to the top of my To Do list lately. Sorry about that.

TTYL,

Linda

The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore visitor center is in Empire, Michigan. We stopped there to get a map of the park and to see their exhibits. We were told the campground that has electrical hookups had five spaces left a half-hour previously but the one with no hookups had twenty-seven spaces still open. Since we want to start our visit to this park by seeing the Coast Guard Station Museum and it is by the no hookups campground near the north end of the park, we decided to go there since it was too late in the day to see the museum now.

It turned out the D. H. Day Campground is also a popular place but we got in early enough to have our pick of spaces. The sites are close to one another with some brush between them but people were quiet so even having young children on both sides of us turned out to not be a problem.

The Coast Guard Station Museum doesn’t open until 11 a.m. We actually made it there about 11:30.

This is a cool place. I highly recommend a stop here.

Back before the formal organization of the U.S. Coast Guard there was a lifesaving station here to protect ships that foundered trying to make their way through the pass.

A rescue boat could be sent sent to help. It held a six to eight man crew wearing cork life vests.

If the ship was close enough to shore, a small cannon was used to fire a line to the ship. That was part of a “Breeches buoy” setup that was used to haul sailors to shore.

For those of you who lived in the Twin Cities back in the day–here’s the original weather ball.

And a statement that made me think about why I don’t like boats.

Our next stop was the Dune Climb. This is a national park. You are not supposed to climb the dunes. But people always will do so. This place had the sense to provide an authorized spot for this activity.

What you can’t see from here is that this huge dune is only the first ridge. You have to climb a second one to actually be able to see Lake Michigan. I suspect few people do the second climb but the people we watched climbing were mostly having fun. Only the ones who were still trying to figure out how they would get back down looked like maybe they weren’t having such fun. I saw one guy rolling down the hill but he didn’t look like he was enjoying it. In the movie we watched about this place the ones that looked like they were having fun coming down were sliding on the seats of their pants. I wonder if their pants still had a seat by the time they reached the bottom? We, of course, didn’t go up. We’re too decrepit to enjoy that type of activity anymore.

Then we took the 7 mile scenic drive. Here’s some scenes from that trip.

We finished that day by checking in to the Platte River campground–the one with electrical hookups. It was a long day and we were ready to rest.

TTYL,

Linda

We stopped at the Father Marquette National Memorial in St Ignace to take a picture of the Mackinac bridge from that perspective.

Then we, finally, crossed the bridge.

It’s a toll bridge but so it cost us $7 for our two-axle motorhome.

So we are no longer on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, generally referred to as the UP, where the residents are known a Yoopers.

I would have sworn the sign said this stretch of road is maintained by the “Straits Area Geocaches.” It must have said “Geocachers” though, since geocachers are people and geocaches are the things they hide. Geocaching is a fun activity that is very popular with RVers since they can hunt caches all over the world. We’ve hunted a few and will likely do more some time as they often lead us to interesting sites.

In Pellston, Michigan, the train depot is now an historical museum. Lots of former train depots have been converted to other uses. The most common seems to be history museums, art galleries, coffee shop/cafe’s, realty offices, and visitor center/CVB offices. On our former Midland Industrial Railroad we modeled several of those conversions. If you are interested you can see some of them in the photos on our web site at http://www.sandsys.org/. Click on Model Railroading then Models Built.

The sun came out which has happened so rarely lately that I felt compelled to comment.

We stopped at Walmart so Dave could drop off a new prescription. Unfortunately we did that when the pharmacy was closed for lunch. Oh, well.  the best laid plans and all that.

We stayed the night at Fisherman’s Island State Park. We could only stay one night because the site, #34, was already reserved for the next night. For $12 we had no hookups but we did have a lake view with our own section of beach.  Nice, huh?

The next day we moved on to Traverse City, Michigan, where we had better luck with the timing of our visit to their pharmacy.

I saw a sign that said, “Viewtiful weddings.”  Cool word.  OK, it’s not a word but it is very descriptive.

The next sign said, “Peace Pole Makers.” What’s a peace pole? I’ve heard of a peace pipe and a totem pole but not a peace pole. I’ve never heard of a war pole either. Although, I suppose a lance could be called a war pole.

So, I looked it up on the internet and learned “A Peace Pole is a hand-crafted monument that displays the message and prayer May Peace Prevail on Earth on each of its four or six sides, usually in different languages. There [are] tens of thousands of Peace Poles in 180 countries all over the world dedicated as monuments to peace.” It’s part of the same movement that displays those “Visualize world peace” bumper stickers. I’m in favor of world peace but I prefer the bumper sticker that say, “Visualize whirled peas.” That one tickles my funny bone.

Then we traveled on to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. But that place deserves it’s own blog so I’ll stop this one here.

TTYL,

Linda

Manistique has a place known as the siphon bridge. It sits low enough that, when the water is high, the bridge deck can be lower than the height of the water apparently causing the water to “siphon” under the bridge. These pictures were taken from the bridge. In the first picture you can see the canal on the right is higher than the river on the left. The second picture looks the other way at the canal. You can see that the top of the canal is in line with the top, not the bottom, of the bridge.

I saw a motel advertising, “showers, tubs, carpet.” How many of you remember when motels had linoleum, not carpet? Those were some cold floors. They felt good if you were in a hot place, though. And they sure made sense at the motel we stayed at in the Florida panhandle area–all that sand tracked in could be swept right back out. So, are you visualizing me sweeping Dave out the door?

We were detoured off US Hwy 2 onto a “seasonal road.” That means the road is not plowed by the county during the winter. There were a lot of houses along it so my guess is the locals plow it themselves just enough to keep reasonable access to their homes. I wonder if they all get together and pay some one or if the guy closest to the highway plows as far as his house then the next guy plows to his, etc. If so, what happens when the furthest guy needs to get out before the others plow? Does one guy plow from one end and a different guy plow from the other end and no one plows the middle? Anyone want to volunteer to come back next winter to find out and report back to the rest of us?

Today is a rainy day–good for sleeping but not so good for sightseeing. We pulled into a scenic overlook to take pictures of the Mackinac bridge. Here’s my view from our RV and Dave’s view from the overlook.

We then drove into town for fuel and lunch while the sky cleared some. So we went back and Dave got this picture.

Like that one better, do you?

The Captain’s Inn Motel had a sign saying “highly recommended by owner.” It was closed. Apparently no one else highly recommended it.

We are now in the Tiki RV Park in St Ignace, MI, waiting out the weekend and the weather. Sunday we hope to cross that big bridge. If there are no wind warnings that prevent us from doing so. All you blowhards out there keep it to yourselves on Sunday, OK?

TTYL,

Linda