July 31st: Home again, home again, jiggety jig

We made ourway home on Tuesday, after 6100-plus miles and 35 days. We saw a lot, some of it anticipated and some of it totally unexpected. Sampled Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Michigan. Lots seen but lots more yet to see so we'll be back. It was all great and we are already plotting what our next adventure might be. Northern Minnesota; Kentucky and Tennessee; the Natchez Trace; New England; Florida; tons more of the west; who knows? What it turns out to be, we're looking forward to it.

July 30th: St. Ignace and a shipwreck

Monday we headed back to St. Ignace to drop off Dave and Helene so she could get back to work on Tuesday. Sandy and I took US23 down the Lake Huron coastline through Cheboygan, Rogers City, and Alpena ending up at Harrisville State Park where we got a campsite that backed right up on Lake Huron. Twenty feet from our RV to the water, not bad. And looking out the window at the head of our bed we had a great view of the almost full moon rising over the lake. On the way there we stopped at the Forty Mile Point Lighthouse and the SHipwreck Museum in Alpena. That was a hidden gem, very nicely done and free on top of it. We even found out the story of the Nordmeer, a German ship that sunk off Thunder Bay in the 60s. A part of the deck and cabin house remains above water and we had seen it when we were delivering our newly purchased sailboat six years ago from Traverse City back to North Cape Yacht Club. Now we know the story of the wreck.

July 29th: What smelts?

On Sunday we headed down from the Keweenaw to Fayette State Park. Fayette is the site of a turn of the century iron smelting facility and after having been totally abandoned was acquired by the State and has survived amazingly intact. It's an interesting insight into what life was life a hundred years ago in an industrial town. It would have been dirty!

July 28th: The Keewenaw

Today was a tour of the Peninsula: Eagle River, Eagle Harbor, Brockway Mountain, Copper Harbor, Fort Wilkins, and Gay. Highlights were almost everything: Eagle Harbor Lighthouse, the view from the top of Brockway Mountain, great whitefish for lunch in Copper Harbor, Civil War artillery re-enactors at Fort Wilkins, and the Gay Bar in Gay, Michigan. We had dinner at the Ambassador Bar in Houghton, a favorite hangout of our performance rally crowd at the LSPR Rally in October. The fishbowl drinks were great. Back to the campground to hopefully see another green flash but it wasn't to be, a little too cloudy on the horizon.

July 27th: Piictured Rocks, a big lawn ornament and the fabled Green Flash

Off to Munising in the morning for the boat tour of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, very impressive and worth the time and money. Then west toward the Keweenaw Peninsula with a stop in Ishpeming to visit the Yooper Tourist Trap with the world's largest chainsaw among other attractions, LOL! We camped at FJ McLain State Park on the shore of Lake Superior where we saw a perfect sunset and witnessed our first green flash. Sailors talk about the green flash all the time but few get the chance to see one in person. The story is that just at the split second that the sun dips below the water on the horizon, you see a bright green flash. Well, we had looked often but had never seen it. Tonight was the night, yes it really does exist and we'll be looking forward to the next time.

July 26th: A big lake

We were camped by the lower Tahquamenon falls and so headed that way to start the day. They were even more scenic than the upper falls. The we backtracked to Whitefish Point, the site of a lighthouse and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. It was just off Whitefish Point that the Edmund Fitzgerald went down on November 10, 1975. We took advantage of our unusually warm summer to swim in 65 degree Lake Superior, much warmer than normal. The rocks on the shoreline were amazing in their variety and colors and begged to be built into a cairn and collected. It was hard to decide which ones looked best. Then on toward Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, stopping at Pine Stump Junction for lunch (how could you not stop at a place called Pine Stump Junction?), Grand Marais, Michigan, and ending up in a state forest campground within the National Lakeshore where we had our own private view of a lake, , a history of logging in the area from a park ranger, a roaring campfire and s'mores. Not a bad day at all.

July 25: Locks, lights, and falls

Wednesday morning we headed up to Sault Saint Marie to see the locks between Lake Superior and the St. Mary's River. We were lucky enough to see two freighters locking through, a 1000-footer upbound to Lake Superior and a 700-plus-footer downbound to the lower lakes. Then on towards Tahquamenon Falls State Park stopping to see an Indian burialground and Point Iriquois lighthouse. At Tahquamenon we viewed the upper falls and then had dinner and beers at the microbrewery/restaurant in the park.