Living Our Dream

Busy Weekend in Michigan

Milford, MI - Events of Saturday, August 27 to Monday, August 29, 2011

We usually end up holing up in the motor home over the weekend and letting the weekend warriors have the run of the campground, the sightseeing attractions, and the restaurants. We sometimes do our grocery shopping on Saturday, but Walmart can be a zoo then as well.

While we were in Milford, however, we made plans to go visiting over the weekend. We planned to visit with family who live nearby on Saturday and to visit with old friends on Sunday.

Our niece, Sonya, lives in Lansing and our nephew, Alex, lives in Ann Arbor, both about 30 miles from Milford. We haven't seen either one of them for years and years, so made plans to meet them and their significant others on Saturday part way between Ann Arbor and Milford for brunch at the Breakfast Club in Brighton.

The Breakfast Club has delicious breakfast bowls and plates, but they also have great sandwiches. Margery had a Monterey turkey sandwich with mango and avocado, and Paul had a California chicken melt with provolone, roasted red pepper, artichoke, and scallion aioli. Big breakfasts range in price from $7 to $10. Simpler breakfasts start at about $5. Sandwiches and lunch salads run from $6 to $10. 

Unfortunately, we got so caught up in our conversation we completely forgot to take any pictures. We did have a great time catching up on what has been going on in our niece and nephew's lives and we enjoyed meeting Sonya's husband, Scott, and Alex's girl friend, Lucy.

On Sunday, we scheduled meeting Pierre and Terry, who are old friends from back in Pittsburgh. In the late 1960s and early 1970s when we were first married and before our daughter was born, we belonged to a sports car club, which is where we met Pierre. When our daughter was born, we quit the sports car club and lost touch with Pierre.

We knew Terry separately from the church we started attending when our daughter was in school. Subsequently, we changed churches and lost touch with Terry.

In the ensuing years, Pierre and Terry met and married, and they ended up moving to Ann Arbor. Margery reconnected with them through Facebook.

We decided to meet for lunch at Bobber Down Restaurant in Whitmore Lake, which is about half way between Ann Arbor and Milford. Bobber Down doesn't look fancy - it's primarily a bar, but it got good reviews on a couple of websites we checked, and the location was convenient.

Check out the old Ford parked in front of the restaurant. We're guessing it's a Model A (1927-1931). Below is another view. 

This time, we made sure we remembered photos. That's Pierre and Terry to the left.

Margery had a grilled turkey club sandwich on foccacia bread, and Paul had a black and blue burger (black pepper and blue cheese). The food was great. Sandwiches range in price from $6 to $9 and include house-made potato chips. Regular fries, sweet potato fries or onion rings are extra.

We dug the next photo out of our archives showing Pierre back in 1971.

We had a lot of fun reminiscing about old times in the sports car club and about people we knew back then. Since we're on the subject of the sports car club and since we were digging through our archives, we thought we would show you a picture of Margery racing her Opel Rallye. Zoom-zoom.

We raced in what are called autocrosses. In those days, malls were not open on Sundays, and the club would get permission from the mall management to set up a small course in the parking lot using rubber traffic cones. There were different classes for men and women, and for different types of cars. We raced against the clock one at a time, so there was little chance of wrecking. That was a good thing because most of us raced the cars we also drove to work the next day. However, the autocrosses were hard on brakes, tires and clutches.

Paul raced his 1967 Camaro for a while.

Later, we bought a used 1969 Opel GT to replace the Opel Rallye, and we both raced the GT.

After a fun weekend with family and friends, we headed about 30 minutes north on Monday to Flint, MI to tour the GM Assembly Plant. There was a tour of a plant in the Ford Rouge Complex available through The Henry Ford, but there was a charge for the tour. Not only that, but we have been staunch GM buyers most of our lives, so we opted for the free tour of the GM Plant in Flint.

The Flint Assembly Plant builds Chevrolet and GMC ¾ ton and 1 ton pickups. The next photo shows our view as we approached the plant.

The plant is so big it wouldn't all fit in the picture, but it didn't look as big as most auto assembly plants. That's because most auto assembly plants are only one story and sprawl all over the countyside. This is an older plant built right after WWII, and it's two stories high. Of course, just because it's an older plant, that doesn't mean it's outdated. The building is older, and they have to cope with the fact it's two stories by routing the assembly line to the second floor and back down; but all the equipmnent is state of the art. 

We had to make reservations for the tour in advance, and the email confirmation we received gave us directions to the plant and info on the parking. There is a special visitor lot right by the door if you are driving a GM vehicle. Otherwise, you have to park in the next lot and walk a little farther. Since our Saturn was made by GM, we got to park in the preferred lot. The photo below shows the sign limiting parking there to GM vehicles only.

The next photo shows the semi-circular entrance to the office where the tours start.

Of course, cameras are not allowed in the plant, so we can't show any pictures of the inside.

The GM Plant in Flint is an assembly plant. Engines, transmissions, body panels and various sub-assemblies are manufactured elsewhere.

We got to see all the operations except inside the paint booth. Since that area must be kept clean, it is closed to tours.

We did get to see the assembly of brakes, engines, transmissions and other components to the chassis. We also got to see welding of body panels together. They have an amazing coordinate measuring machine that uses lasers to make sure all dimensions of the assembled cab meet tolerances so it will match up properly with other components like the doors, fenders and hood when they are assembled later on. The machine also makes sure every spot weld is present and in the right location.

The cab, doors, hood and fenders for each vehicle are all painted at the same time. After painting, the other components are separated from the cab. Doors go one direction to have windows, door handles, locks and speakers installed; and the cabs go another direction to have interiors installed. The doors, fenders and hood all come back together for final assembly with their original cab farther down the line.

GM, like Toyota that we visited in Kentucky last year, uses teams to perform groups of related orerations. Operators can assist each other, or they can sound an alarm which summons a troubleshooter to the location to provide additional help.

One of the most impressive machines we saw was the one that marries the cab and box to the chassis. The machine has to be huge to be able to handle those heavy components, yet the precision to align all the components and then line itself up to hit all the bolts and tighten them is amazing. Not only that, but the machine also has to know whether it's assembling a 2-door cab or a 4-door cab and whether it's a short box or a long box.

There were originally supposed to be more people on our tour, but they didn't show so we had our own personal tour. That was kind of nice because we got to sit right behind the tour guide who was driving the tram so we could hear very well, and we got to ask all the questions we wanted.

We mentioned the Henry Ford Museum in our first post about Greenfield Village. The museum was the next thing on our agenda, and we'll tell you about our visit there in our following post.

Castle Farms

Mackinaw City, MI - Events of Tuesday, August 16, 2011

When Margery was doing her online research into things to do, we found a couple of possibilities around Petoskey, MI, which is about an hour south of where we were staying in Mackinaw City. We originally considered staying several days in Petoskey, but we couldn't get reservations at the highly-recommended Magnus Park in Petoskey, and the KOA there was around $50 a night, so we decided to just stay in Mackinaw City a few more days.

One of the things we found in that area that sounded especially intriguing was Castle Farms in Charlevoix, MI, which is close to Petoskey. Therefore, we decided to take a day trip in the car to visit Castle Farms.

Castle Farms was built in 1918 by Albert Loeb, who was acting president of Sears, Roebuck and Company at that time. Loeb built the farm to raise award-winning livestock and to showcase farm products sold by his company. Castle Farms has stone barns whose design is based on old stone barns in France.

Today, Castle Farms has been restored and remodeled into a premier special event center with Renaissance-themed reception halls inside and with attractive gardens outside.

Castle Farms is open for self-guided tours when there isn't a special event going on. The website suggests calling ahead to verify their schedule. Guided tours are available for groups of 8 or more, and there are special programs available for school groups.

The farm employed 90 people at its peak. Albert Loeb died in 1924 and left the farm to his son, Ernest. There was a farming recession that preceded the Great Depression, so the Loeb family sold off the livestock in 1927 and rented out the buildings for storage for the next 30 years.

In the mid 1960s, an artist by the name of John Van Haver bought the property, cleared some of the debris from caved-in roofs, added some Renaissance touches and opened an art studio and gallery.

In 1969, Arthur and Erwina Reibel bought the property and built a large stage which they used for rock concerts. Arthur Reibel died in 1999, and the property eventually went up for auction.

In 2001, the property was purchased by Linda Mueller who, with the support of her husband, had a vision to restore the buildings and to make them available for weddings, festivals, corporate gatherings, special events and public tours. Mrs. Mueller used original construction methods and reused original materials and components wherever possible. For example, rather than replace rotted window frames, she had workmen cut away bad sections of the frames and splice in good wood so they could reuse the sound portions.

An example of using original techniques is in the roofs of the turrets, which were originally silos. Even though it would have been quicker, easier and cheaper to bend thin plywood to form the conical roofs, Mrs. Mueller had workmen cut and bend boards to form the conical surfaces as was done originally.

On the tour, we got to see the inside of one of the silos. The radial roof supports create an interesting pattern that kind of looks like a Japanese umbrella. The dark tiles on the walls added a dramatic contrast. If you look closely, you can see the swirl pattern of the roof boards.

The self-guided tour is well marked, and we had a map to follow showing numbered points of interest along the way. We started in the Butterfly Garden, which is behind the hedge in the next photo.

Later in the tour, we got to see the Butterfly Garden from the second story.

Margery tried out ont of the butterfly chairs.

Across from the Butterfly Garden is small pond.

Rather than the usual koi, this pond was filled with what appeared to be trout.

Behind the pond is the Serenity Garden.

Several of the courtyards around the property have oversize chess sets that add to the Renaissance theme. Margery tried to lift one of the pieces and was surprised at how heavy it was.

A garden railroad was added in 2008.

There are several branches to the garden railroad, including one that sits at the tops of the tall shrubs that form the maze. You can climb up to a platform and not only look down into the maze, but also watch the trains.

There are two building complexes at Castle Farms. The main complex, which used to be the cattle barn, is called the King's Castle. Beside the King's Castle is the King's Courtyard.

There are at least four reception areas in the Kings Castle, and it looks like they could easily have several events going on at the same time.

There is a second building complex called the Knight's Castle, which was originally a stable for horses and mules.

Inside is yet another reception hall.

The Knight's Courtyard is outside the Knight's Castle. The large circular building to the left used to be the ice house, and the smaller building to the right was the farm manager's office until the farm closed in 1927.

The gardens at Castle Farms are designed not as botanical gardens or as show gardens with spectacular color, but to provide attractive venues for photography and to provide outdoor settings for wedding ceremonies. After all, the attention should be on the bride, not on the garden. The East Garden shown below not only provides a more intimate setting for photos, but it provides a pleasant view from the windows of the reception hall to the left.

While we were on our tour, we met Mrs. Mueller. We recognized her from the video they show about the history and restoration of the property. She greeted us and thanked us for coming. We chatted a few minutes, and she answered a few of our questions. The information we found most interesting is the fact they have almost 200 weddings a year. That averages out to almost four every weekend.

It was interesting to learn about the history of the farm and to see how someone with a vision (and undoubtedly a good bit of money) can change a dilapidated old cattle barn into a unique, special-event facility.

We chilled out in Mackinaw City a few more days before heading to our next destination. We'll have more info in our next post.

Soo Locks

Sault Sainte Marie, MI - Events of Thursday, August 4 to Friday, August 5, 2011

We woke up only somewhat refreshed from all our hiking at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore the day before. We probably only walked a total of 5 miles, but a lot of that walking was in soft sand on the beach and on the dunes. Our feet and legs still hurt, but at least we would be sitting while we drove to our next destination of Aune Osborne Campground in Sault Sainte Marie, MI.

Aune Osborne Campground is operated by the city of Sault Sainte Marie. There are about 100 sites with water and electric. The roads are paved, and the sites are gravel. Most of the sites are back-ins with only a handful of pull-throughs, and only a few sites have 50-amp electric. We lucked out and got both - an extra-long pull-through with 50 amps.

The site spacing isn't bad, although a few are a little close together. The campground is right along the St. Marys River...

...where you can watch all the freighters pass by on their way to and from the Soo Locks during the day...

...and watch them sail toward the sunset in the evenings.

The name of the city Sault Sainte Marie comes from French "Les Saults de Sainte Marie" meaning "the cataracts of the Saint Marys River." The Saint Marys River drains Lake Superior into Lake Huron, and there are rapids at Sault Sainte Marie where the river drops 21 feet.

In 1798, the North West Trading Company, which was headquartered in Montreal, dug a canal around the Saint Marys cataracts and built the first lock to enable ships to navigate between Lake Superior and Lake Huron. The locks were destroyed by U. S. forces during the War of 1812. We'll have more about the locks on the Canadian side shortly.

The United States built its first iteration of the Soo Locks in 1855. There are currently four locks on the U. S. side, but only two of them are being used today. A "super lock" has been planned to replace the two idle locks since 1986, but funding has not yet been approved. Given the current economic situation, it is unlikely the funds will be in the near future.

The Soo Locks Boat Tours offers lunch, dinner and regular sightseeing cruises on the Saint Marys River that include going through the locks. We thought it would be a interesting to see some of the sights along the river and maybe to get to see a freighter close up.

One of the docks for the cruise is a couple of blocks down the road from the campground, so we went down the morning after we arrived for the 11:00 AM cruise. A short time after our arrival, the tour boat showed up and we were on our way.

The waterfront in Sault Sainte Marie is a working waterfront. We passed a floating dry dock where they were repairing a boat...

...and a supply company that has a boat that can pull alongside a freighter to load supplies as the freighter slows to approach the locks.

We also passed the quarter-mile long Edison Sault Power Plant that was completed in 1902. 

The SS Valley Camp is a museum ship similar to the SS William A. Irvin we saw recently in Duluth, MN. The Valley Camp was launched in 1917 and served as a Great Lakes bulk freighter for Republic Steel until 1967.

It was a busy day at the locks. Since both locks were in use, and since there was also traffic waiting to come through the other direction, the narrator informed us we were being diverted to the Canadian lock. However, the captain took the tour boat right up to the U. S. locks so we could get a good look at them. That is an ocean-going freighter in the lock to the left.

After making a loop at the entrance to the U. S. Locks, we headed back out into the channel and made our way over to the Canadian side of the river.

As we said, the first Canadian lock was destroyed during the War of 1812. The lock wasn't rebuilt until 1895. At 899 feet long and 59 feet wide, it was the largest lock in the world at the time, and it was the first electrically-operated lock.

The Canadian lock stopped functioning in 1987 when it was severely damaged by ice. The walls of the  lock were threatening to collapse, so a new, smaller lock was built within the old lock. The current lock is only 253 feet long, 51 feet wide and 10 feet deep. It is used by smaller boats and pleasure craft. All big freighters go through the U. S. Soo Locks. There is no charge to use any of the locks. The photo below shows our entry into the Canadian lock.

The next photo shows our view of the 1896 administration building once we got into the lock...

...and the photo below shows our view of the administration building after the lock was closed and we were raised 21 feet.

After we exited the lock, our boat headed down a side canal past a Canadian steel mill. It was interesting to see some of the materials we learned about when we were in Duluth actually being used. The light-colored piles on the left in the next photo are limestone, the dark piles on the left in front of the limestone are coal, and the reddish piles on the right are taconite (iron ore) pellets.

It should be noted that even though we were in Canadian waters, since passengers do not disembark from the tour boat, passports are not needed for the tour.

From the steel mill, we started heading back over to the other side of the river to the U. S. Soo Locks. The narrator informed us we had been cleared to lock through with the Canadian freighter, the SS Pineglen. Originally launched in 1985 as the SS Paterson, the vessel was renamed when it was sold in 2002. The Pineglen is 736 feet long and has a cargo capacity of up to 32,600 tons. The Pineglen hauls grain. We passed the freighter...

...and moved up into the lock. We eventually took our place near the front. You can see how much bigger this lock is than the one on the Canadian side. This lock was built in 1968 and is 1200 feet long and 110 feet wide. It is the only lock that can accommodate the largest of the Great Lakes freighters.

Freighters heading for Duluth or other ports around Lake Superior often drop off laundry here at the Soo Locks. They will pick it up again on their way back through.

With the Pineglen traveling at the speed of a slow walk, it took quite a while to get her 736-foot length into position in the lock behind us. In the photo below, you can see the smokestack belching smoke as the captain uses the bow thruster to move the ship closer to the wall.

With the freighter finally in place behind us, it only took 15 or 20 minutes to lower the water 21 feet so we could be on our way back to the dock.

On our way out of the lock, we passed the freighter Presque Isle waiting to enter. The Presque Isle is 1000 feet long and can carry up to 57,500 tons of cargo.

Our cruise was a little longer than scheduled because we had to wait for the Pineglen to get situated in the lock, but we're glad we had the experience of going through the lock with a large freighter.

With a weekend coming up (and with rain in the forecast), we decided to make a much-needed trip to Walmart (yes, Sault Saint Marie is big enough for a Walmart, and they also have two Dairy Queens). We also got our cleaning chores done and watched the NASCAR race. After the weekend, we had more sightseeing planned so stay tuned.

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

Munising, MI - Events of Sunday, July 31, 2011

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore has an area of about 73,000 acres in a strip of land that runs along the southern shore of Lake Superior from Munising, MI east to Grand Marais (prounounced mar-AY) - a distance of a little over 40 miles. In this area, sandstone cliffs have been sculpted by wind, waves, and ice. The name comes from the colorful mineral stains that decorate the sculpted cliffs.

One of the best ways to see Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is by boat, and Pictured Rocks Cruises, Inc. has been taking visitors on tours of the cliffs for about 50 years. Tour boats depart from the Munising City Dock just a few miles from the campground.

We have been taking a lot of boat cruises this year (not surprising since we are spending the summer around the Great Lakes), and this time we thought we would change things up a little. The cliffs at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore face toward the west, and we read the rocks are spectacular in the evening light. Therefore, we decided to take a sunset cruise.

Since we wanted to leave early so we could be sure of getting a seat on the top deck of the boat, the timing was perfect for a 2011 Zeller Foodie Tour stop at Muldoon's Pasties on the way. Pasties (pronounced PASS-tees) are meat or veggie turnovers that were brought to the Upper Peninsula by Cornish miners.

Muldoon's Pasties, which is right on the way to the dock, got good reviews for their pasties. The bulk of Muldoon's business is take out, but they have a couple of tables inside, three or four on the porch, and several picnic tables out by the parking lot. 

Paul ordered a beef pasty (with beef gravy on the side), which had ground beef, potato, rutabaga and carrots. Margery had veggie pasty (left), which had potatoes, carrots, onion and broccoli.

The crust was excellent - thin and flaky. On the whole, both pasties had good flavor, but we thought they both were a little heavy on potatoes.

We got to the dock, bought our tickets and ended up first in line to board the boat. We were able to get seats on the right-hand side of the front row on the top deck. We heard most of the rock formations would be on the right side going out and on the left coming back. However, it was also possible the sun would be too low on the way back to get good photos. So many people showed up for the sunset cruise, they wounded up taking out two boats. The next photo shows the other boat that accompanied us.

Grand Island is just to the north of Munising. It's not part of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, but it is a national recreation area. The boat cruise started out sailing toward the left past Grand Island to give us a view of the East Channel Lighthouse. The lighthouse is no longer used because it has been replaced by a pair of red lights called range lights on the shore in Munising.

We sailed up the channel. As soon as we got past a large sand bar, we headed toward the right to get closer to the cliffs. The first rock formation we came to is Miners Castle. There are small caves under the main formation.

Bridalveil Falls flows down one of the cliffs a little way past Miners Castle. The falls are more impressive in the spring when the snow is melting. The only time they flow in summer and fall is after heavy rains, which we had the night before.

In this area, there are also a lot of the mineral stains we mentioned earlier. Orange and red are iron, black is primarily manganese, white is calcium and blue-green comes from copper.

The next photo shows an interesting pattern with vertical lines of mineral stains and horizontal lines of rock strata.

The next formation is Lovers' Leap. Leaping is not recommended, however, because the water under the arch is only about two feet deep.

The action of the wind, waves and ice are continuously working to change the shape of the sandstone. Although most of the rockfalls occur in spring because of the strong freeze-thaw cycle, the gray rock at the base of the cliff in the next photo fell only about a week before we were there.

The wind and waves also carve out caves and depressions in the cliff faces.

Indian Head is another formation. The large outcropping to the left is the nose, and the trees are hair. Unlike Blackhawk at the Wisconsin Dells, this one takes a little more imagination.

Boaters used to be able to take their boats under Grand Portal until the stone fell from under the arch about 10 years ago.

Just beyond Grand Portal is Battleship Row. From this angle, the rock in the foreground looks like the bow of a battleship, and there are 5 sterns in a line in the shadows.

From Battleship Row, the shoreline turns eastward, and a lot of the remaining cliffs we saw were in shadow. The captain took the tour boat all the way into the deep inlet shown in the next photo. There were only a few feet to spare on either side. The water isn't real deep close to the rocks, but the tour boat only draws about 6 feet of water, so we didn't run aground.

As we approached our turn-around point, we noticed erosion had left the delicate columns shown below.

The final rock formation on the cruise is Chapel Rock.

There really isn't enough soil on top of Chapel Rock to support the large tree that stands there. Chapel Rock used to be connected to the cliff behind it with a stone arch as shown in the photo below from the 1940s. Tree roots ran along the top of the arch to the adjacent cliff. The stone arch has since fallen away, but the tree still has roots connected to the soil over on the cliff. The light-colored roots can be seen trailing over to the cliff in the shadows behind Chapel Rock in the photo above.

From Chapel Rock, the boat tour turns around and heads back to Munising. We got to see the same formations from the other direction; but the light was starting to fade, and we were also on the wrong side of the boat.

We were treated to another beautiful sunset while still out on the lake.

The boat's wake made an interesting pattern in the fading red glow.

The day after our boat cruise, we decided to explore some of the area around Munising on foot. Look for our next post, and we'll tell you all about what we saw.

Lake Delton, WI to Munising, MI

Munising, MI - Events of Friday, July 29 to Saturday, July 30, 2011

We pulled out of Lake Delton, WI at an unusually early time of 8:15 AM. That was because we had an unusually long (for us) drive of about 5 hours plus a stop for fuel. We left early because, not only did we have a longer drive, but we would be arriving on a Friday afternoon without a reservation. We would be also losing an hour going from the Central time Zone to the Eastern Time Zone.

We were making a one-night stop on our way to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. There weren't many campgrounds near the half-way point where we wanted to stop, and the campgrounds we found were heavily wooded. The one that we did find looked from the satellite photo on Google Maps like they might have or four or three sites where we could possibly get satellite reception, but the campground would not guarantee reservation requests for specific sites. Therefore, we decided to go with Plan B, which was to drive an hour farther and stop for the night at Island Resort Casino in Harris, MI.

The campground at Island Resort Casino has two ovals surrounded by trees well away from the casino. There are a few back-in sites around the outsides of the ovals, and the pull-throughs run across the width of the ovals. There are a total of about 50 sites. The only problem is most of the pull-throughs are double sites that are set up nose to tail. In other words, if you have the rear site of a double pull-through, you can't pull through until the person in front of you leaves. Since we were only staying only one night and didn't want to unhook the toad, we really wanted one of the few single pull-throughs or one of the front sites of a double pull-through.

We arrived about 1:30 (EDT), checked out both ovals, and found only a couple of short back-ins and a bunch of rear pull-throughs left. As we sat there discussing whether to push on to our final destination or to go knock on doors to see if anyone in the front sites was planning to leave the next morning so we would know we wouldn't be blocked, a man approached the motor home. He saw us driving around looking perplexed, so he followed us on foot to tell us he had a front site and was leaving in the morning. He welcomed us to take the site behind him. He was double towing a 5th wheel and a boat and even offered to move up a little if necessary. Fortunately, he was in one of the longer pull-throughs, so we fit with no problem. We were even positioned perfectly to get satellite reception between two small trees.  We thanked our new acquaintance profusely. The photo below shows our rear pull-through site at Island Lake Casino.

The next photo shows the layout of our double site. That's our rig behind the boat near the center of the photo.

The campground at Island Lake Casino has water and 30/50-amp electric only. The roads and sites are paved, and there is a narrow strip of grass between the sites with a fire ring and picnic table. The sites are a little narrow, but at only $15 a night, we couldn't complain. The campground was nice and quiet except for just a couple of trains.

After we got set up, we walked over to the desk in the casino hotel to register. We're not into gambling, but it looked like a pretty nice casino. It was surprisingly busy considering it is in the middle of nowhere.

The next morning, our neighbors in front of us pulled out fairly early. We weren't in a particular hurry because our drive was less than three hours, and that included a stop at Walmart along the way. We forgot a couple of items last time we shopped, and we knew we would be away from any Walmarts for a while. Much of the Upper Peninsula is kind of remote, and there aren't many towns big enough to support a Walmart, much less a Super Walmart with groceries.

Margery, always looking for unique sightseeing opportunities, was disappointed that she had not planned better so we could stop in Gladstone, MI, which was right along our route, for a tour of the Hoegh Pet Casket Company. They offer tours Monday - Friday 8 AM to 4 PM. Unfortunately, we were passing through on Saturday. In addition to a variety of pet caskets, they also have pet cremation urns, memorials, and remembrance plaques.

Our next destination was Munising Tourist Park in Munising, MI. Munising Tourist Park is a city campground located a couple of miles outside town on the south shore of Lake Superior. The main road in the campground is paved (we think it's the old highway that used to pass by where the campground is now located), but all the campsite roads are dirt with a little gravel mixed in. The roads are pretty dusty when they are dry, and the wind off the lake and vehicles in the campground kick up clouds of dust from time to time.

All the sites are back-ins. Some are grass (like ours), and the ones closer to the lake are dirt and gravel. The next photo shows our site at Munising Tourist Park.

The sites have water and electric only (mostly 30 amp but a few have 30/50 amps), and most of the sites have shared hookups. Notice where our water hose is connected in the photo above. Some of the sites have the electrical hookup all the way at the rear and the water all the way at the front by the road. To camp in one of those sites, you'll probably need an extra length or two of water hose and a long electrical cord.

The other problem is many of the sites aren't very level. Some slope, and some (like ours) have high spots and low spots. When we first pulled into the site, the front wheels were on a high spot and we were pretty far off-level. When Paul pulled forward to get the front wheels off the high spot, the steps got hung up when he opened the door. He had to raise the jacks on that side to get the steps to come back in so he could move the motor home a little farther.

Spacing of the sites near where we were located at the back of the campground is fairly decent.

Once we finally got leveled and set up, we took a little walk down to the lake. The RV sites by the lake are a little close together, but there is a nice view. This is also where most of the 30/50-amp sites are, and it looks like these sites have the water hookup closer to the electric pedestal. The waterfront sites book up well in advance.

If you are lucky enough to get one of the waterfront sites, you can step out of your door, walk behind your RV to a sandy beach and swim. The water is shallow pretty far out so that the water was warmed by the sun.

There are about 20 very nice primitive tent sites along the water as well.

Although the sun was out much of the day, you can see some heavy-looking clouds in most of the above photos. Early in the evening, a storm moved through. Our weather radio went off a couple of times with severe thunder storm warnings, but we just got a lot of rain, a few small hailstones, and only moderate wind. From our window, we did see one tent blowing up the beach, but they quickly got it secured. When our satellite internet connection died because of the rain, we switched over to the campground Wi-fi so we could watch the progress of the storm. After the storm passed, the skies cleared to give us a spectacular sunset.

A small boat hurried back to shore shortly after the sun dipped below the horizon and began to cast a red glow.

Back at the motor home, we enjoyed the last of the sunset.

We have a number of things we want to see while we are in Munising, so stay tuned.