granddaughter coraline

granddaughter coraline

grandson mason

grandson mason

grandson jaxson

grandson jaxson

Monday, September 22, 2014

16-20SEP14 - Minnesota, Wisconsin & Michigan

Early Tuesday morning, 16SEP, was our departure from Corrie’s brother Ed & wife Elaine’s place in Sprucewoods, Manitoba, Canada.  As we were connecting the Toad to the RV Gumbo, our one eyed Jack Russell Terrier, took off to check out a kid waiting for the school bus.  The kid ignored Gumbo as the bus approached; so Gumbo decided to follow the kid onto the bus when the door opened.  Apparently the driver has dealt with this before, because he reached right down & grabbed Gumbo by the neck & held onto him until we could retrieve him.

After this little sideshow we then started our drive back to the USA, & eastward to Dan’s 40th college reunion in Connecticut.  We re-entered the USA in North Dakota & headed east on US2.  Outside of Devils Lake, MN, we stopped at a rest area where the restroom building was modeled after an old style Riverboat Paddle Wheeler (there was no info on why a paddle wheeler?).  The first two RV parks we tried to stay at didn’t bother to answer their phones & we soon learned they were full with “seasonal” occupants even though the season was long over.  Thankfully at our third try outside Erskine, MN, we found a vacancy (right next to the RR tracks)!

Wednesday morning after being awoken by a very loud, squeaky, train it was back on US2 heading east.  The weather was great until we were next to the south shore of Lake Superior in Wisconsin when the skies clouded, the temp dropped, & the winds picked up.  We overnighted in Bessemer, MI, at an RV park run by a little old lady who had a very thick accent from Sweden or Norway?
In case you haven’t noticed this drive appears to be a retrace of our drive back in SEP09 when we attended Dan’s 35th reunion in Connecticut.  This time we did not stop at the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center, Ashland, WI; Da Yoopers Tourist Trap, Ishpeming, MI; or “Lakenenland” east of Marquette, MI (see below BLOG if interested in learning more).  One change we noticed from our 2009 drive, is that are a large number of small Indian Casinos throughout northern WI & the upper peninsula of MI.  One tribe has five casinos scattered around the eastern part of the MI Upper Peninsula.  We also learned more Yooper humor:
---you know you are getting close to Yooper Land when the road sign says – End of the World 2 miles, Upper Peninsula 4 miles!
---what is a seven course dinner for a Yooper?  A pasty & a six pack!
Thursday morning we were back on US2 heading east but almost immediately we switched over to MI28 across the upper peninsula of Michigan.  We did this since US2 heads southeast & actually is a longer way to get to St Ignace, MI, our next stop.  After two hours we stopped at Lawrys Pasty outside of Marquette, MI.  Voted the best pasty in the UP for close to ten years.  First it is pronounced “pass tee” not “pay stree” nor “pay stees”.  We purchased a traditional pasty & a cudighi sausage sandwich.  Lawrys is a small non-descript building that is easily missed from the roadway.  Since it was early, we were the only customers; but the phone rang constantly with takeout orders for lunch.  The pasty was pretty bland (think old fashioned hash in a pie crust), but the cudighi was very good.

Also, we are not sure why but the diesel in Munising, MI, was over twenty cents cheaper than anywhere else in MI?  We must say that we found the scenery on US2 & MI28 thru the UP fantastic!  It was even good to see Michigan State Police still have an old fashioned red “bubble-gum” machine on their cars even with all their modern LED lights.
Friday morning was another long drive from St Ignace, MI, to Port Huron, MI, to spend two days before heading across Ontario, Canada, to New York.  We decided to spend two days in Port Huron to take a break from the hard driving we have been doing for four days.  We also decided to stay in a very nice KOA next to Port Huron.  This is one of the biggest RV parks we have seen, with not only numerous activities/facilities to keep you entertained (mostly aimed at kids/teens); but the KOA was right next door to another facility w/batting cages, go-carts, putt-putt, etc.  After Corrie returned from a grocery run, we headed to the Raven Café in Port Huron for dinner.  The café is part library & part restaurant decorated in an Edgar Allen Poe theme (Quoth the Raven “Nevermore”).  They feature nine fresh soups a day; & all the food was very, very, good.


Saturday, 20SEP, we slept in to recover from four days of hard driving.  In the early afternoon we headed out in search of a Muffler Man located at the World’s Finest Frozen Custard stand in New Baltimore, MI.  Little did we know pro-golfer Greg Norman is secretly a Muffler Man (see below internet link to learn the threat posed by Muffler Men hidden throughout the USA).  After observing the Muffler Man we then enjoined a round of Putt-Putt golf; the putt-putt course was definitely old school.  As to the final score – all Dan will admit is that he didn’t lose by double digits!  The putt-putt outing was topped with delicious frozen custard.  That evening severe weather rolled thru, something we didn’t want to see before getting back on the road tomorrow.






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