August 2024 – Page 2 – RVing With a Purpose

Days 5 and 6 in the UP

Sunday, August 12, 2024

Day 5

We stepped out of BB Saturday morning to go into Walmart to buy some groceries and we were greeted with a beautiful rainbow. Thank you, God, for such a wonderful start to the day! It was a rainy and dreary day after that beautiful rainbow, but all was okay. We have been going and going and needed a little more rest and time to catch up on the blog and other stuff. We drove out to Presque Isle Park, parked where we could look out the window at the lighthouse and Lake Superior and enjoyed our day. We started out the breakwater to the lighthouse once, but after the concrete walkway turned into very large boulders, we decided that with a very strong wind trying to push us over we should concede to our years and just go back to BB.

Saturday morning at Camp Walmart in Marquette. There were at least 11 RVs there for the night.

We just happened to meet another Beyond family at the park.

We decided not to walk across the wet rocks in the high wind.

We hoped to see a ship at the Marquette Ore Dock, but none came in while we were there. To give you an idea of the size of the dock, those little box-looking things on top of the dock are train cars

As we were leaving the park we stopped to watch some surfers on Lake Superior.

BTW, I know we have complained about the heat in Alabama but… in the UP the second week in August and we are now wearing three layers – short sleeve shirt, long sleeve shirt and our hoodies. And, with the wind we had today, we weren’t very warm. We even had hot chocolate and turned on the furnace! We had to buy some hot chocolate because we didn’t expect to want hot chocolate in August. The high Saturday was 63 and the low 52 with a really blustery wind all day. The forecast does appear to be improving and the locals think they may get a little more summer – highs of 75 maybe.

Day 6

Today (Sunday) after breakfast, we pointed BB northward again. We left Marquette, headed toward the far northern tip of the Keweenaw peninsula. Today we again had sunshine and mild temperatures, even though we began the day with the furnace and sweatshirts. It was a beautiful day. To make the day even better, we were able to meet up with Suzan and Kevin, dear NOMADS friends, for lunch in Houghton. Suzan had been reading our blog and knew we were in close proximity, but we had been running behind on the blog. She reached out to us yesterday afternoon and we discovered that we were only about 1.5 hours apart and we were planning to be in the same town today. We both will be moving in different directions tomorrow but for a short time today, we were able to reconnect. So thankful for the blessing!

After lunch and hugs, we continued traveling northward to Copper Harbor. There were several small towns to drive through and interesting things to see along the way. We spotted a snow gauge that indicated there is way too much snow in this area for this southern couple.

Snowfall pole in the Keweenaw Peninsula. Even the lowest total is three feet above the van.

We visited another lighthouse, at Eagle Harbor, that was very well restored. It is still an operating light, just automated now. It’s been operating since 1851. The Keweenaw County Historical Society now operates a museum at the site. Admission $8.00.

A picture of the lighthouse after a winter storm in 1938

We also visited Fort Wilkins located at the tip of the peninsula. The fort has an interesting story. The primary purpose of Fort Wilkins was to maintain order and protect the interests of copper mining companies from the Ojibwe. After its establishment, Fort Wilkins served as a military post for only a short period. Due to declining copper prices and improved relations with the Ojibwe, the fort was left in the hands of Sgt. William Wright, in 1846. The rest of his fellow soldiers were sent to Texas, he was the only man to remain. However, Fort Wilkins was reactivated in 1867 after the Civil War and remained in service until 1870. The fort was used as a place for men to serve out the rest of their enlistments from the war. The fort has now been restored by the state of Michigan.

The fort hospital held several displays of period medical equipment.

The Bake House. According to the signs, the garrison ate a lot of potatoes, meat and bread.

One of the character actors that was on site to tell the story and answer questions

While returning to Houghton this afternoon, we saw an interesting memorial in the town of Kearsarge. There was a battleship, made of bricks, to depict the USS Kearsarge, a ship of the Union Army during the Civil War. The boat was famous for sinking the CSS Alabama, a Confederate ship that wreaked havoc on the Union merchant and naval ships during its 2-year lifetime. The USS Kearsarge later sank in the Caribbean. The memorial was later built by WPA during the great depression and still sits at a prominent location in Kearsarge, MI. The interesting things you learn when traveling around the country.

Kearsarge Veterans Park. The first brick ship we’ve seen.

We crossed this large drawbridge in Houghton twice on Sunday.

Day 4 in the UP

Saturday, August 10, 2024

(We spent today trying to get caught up so we are posting twice tonight)

We had a peaceful Thursday night at our Boondockers Welcome site, but were up bright and early to go to Kitch-iti-kipi (The Big Spring) at Palms Book State Park. The park opened at 8:00 and we were there at 8:07. We had been forewarned about long lines at the spring. Kitch-iti-kipi (Chippewa for The Great Water or The Roaring Bubbling Spring) is two hundred feet across, and 40 feet deep. It is Michigan’s largest freshwater spring. 10,000 gallons of crystal-clear water per minute gush from fissures in the underlying limestone. The flow continues throughout the year at a constant 45 degrees. Visitors to the park can step onto a self-operated raft and float out over the spring and watch the water bubble up through the sand. You can also see huge fish swimming over the spring eruptions. Our raft had 10 people. (By the time we left there was probably 40 people on each raft trip.) Everyone was just looking around and no one was propelling the raft so Anne read the directions (of course) and then started moving us out over the spring by turning the big wheel. Soon everyone wanted a turn at “skippering” our raft which was fine because we all wanted time to watch the spring erupt too. A number of years ago we did a lot of scuba diving and watching the spring was very similar to diving in one of the Florida springs. The unique thing here was the self-propelled raft so anyone could see the spring. Very cool!

The operator is really just moving the raft along a cable.

We really enjoyed looking down through the boat at the bubbling sand and huge fish.

The crowds started growing as we were leaving

From Kitch-iti-kipi, we drove to the Manistique Lighthouse. It was said it was painted “fire engine red.” It was beautiful in the morning sun. We were able to walk out the breakwater to the light, but it is not open for tours. We spent most of the rest of the morning walking the beach and looking at the rocks. The Great Lake beaches are covered with all sorts and colors of rocks and you can see many people picking up the stones. It’s not illegal most places.

Manistique LIghthouse. We try to wear red shirts on Fridays (even though one of us usually wear greys and blues) because RED means Remember Everyone Deployed.

Once you get past these first few rocks this is an easy breakwater walk out to the lighthouse.

After leaving the beach, we headed northwest to Marquette and stopped at the Laughing Whitefish Falls State Park. The road turned to dirt a mile or so before we arrived. It had been raining earlier so BB isn’t very clean right now. The hike to the falls is about a mile round trip, BUT to go to the bottom of the falls there are 157 steps – one way, so total of 314. Max just loves finding steps for us to climb. Oh well – building muscles. The falls got their name from the Laughing White Fish River, which got its name from the Native Americans who thought the mouth of the river looks like a laughing whitefish. On the way back to the van, it began raining again. YUK!

It was a very nice path to the falls surrounded by large ferns.

Laughing Whitefish Falls from the top viewpoint.

We drove on into Marquette and it was still raining. The forecast was for more rain. We decided it was a good afternoon to do laundry and found a very nice laundromat (although expensive) across the road from Walmart.

Really, not so much!

Day 3 in the UP

Saturday, August 10, 2024

Thursday morning, we remembered the crowds Wednesday at lower falls, and arrived at the upper Tahquamenon Falls about 8 am. We visited all the lookouts and 92 stairsteps down to the brink and climbed down all the steps of the gorge trail (116 one way) and were almost back to the van before we saw the first person. (416 stairsteps done before breakfast). We saw a total of 6 people on our morning hike. The upper falls are far more impressive than the lower but there is no swimming, so families probably like the lower falls better. The Tahquamenon River feeds the upper and lower falls as it runs north to Lake Superior. The Upper Tahquamenon Falls is Michigan’s largest waterfall. The Upper Falls are nearly 200 feet across and 50 feet high. Each second you spend at the viewing platform, up to 50,000 gallons of water flow down the falls right before your eyes! Pretty impressive.

Upper Falls parking lot at 8:15 am. At Lower Falls the day before people were driving round and round trying to find a place to park.

Some of the steps to the base of Upper Falls

View from the bottom of Upper Falls

After our trip down to Upper Falls, we came back to the campground and cooked up a package of bacon, some of which we saved for future use.

We left Tahquamenon Falls State Park around noon headed for the north shore of the upper peninsula. Two of our Bible study friends, Geane and Bill, recommended we check out Oswald’s Bear Ranch in Newberry, MI. We did and are glad. There are about 40 North American Black bears at the ranch who for many reasons are not able to live in the wild. We could have spent much more time in the park, but we had a boat to catch.

At some of the enclosures there are elevated platforms so visitors can look over the fence.

Visitors can buy apple to feed the bears, so the bears try to look cute so you will feed them.

This little cub looks sad but we have to remember all these bears are rescues and probably would not have survived if not for the ranch. Actually, this cub was on picture duty. Visitors could pay $10 have a picture made with it.

He headed on to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. You may recall we were at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore a few years ago and Sleeping Dunes National Lakeshore earlier in this trip. Those are the only three National lakeshores in the US. You can see a lot of the beauty of the lakeshores from hikes but we decided to do the boat tour at Pictured Rocks. We had a two hour tour on a catamaran and it was great! Pictures really don’t do it justice but it’s the best we have for you.

Examples of some of the colors in the rocks caused by different minerals brought out of the rocks by water seepage.

The captain advised us not to show our love by jumping off Lover’s Leap because the water is on 3′ deep underneath.

The Flower Vase. There is not enough soil on top to keep the tree alive. It depends on the root that extends across to the other rocks. The root developed on a rock bridge that has since collapsed leaving the root in the air.

If you look closely in the previous picture, you can see one of three Bald Eagles we saw on the cruise in the top of the tree.

We also saw this juvenile eagle and one other adult in flight.

Spray Falls and more examples why this is called pictured rocks. Our captain told us people saw all kinds of images in the rocks – from pirates to dinosaurs. He told us one boy said he saw a picture of Dwayne Johnson, but all he really saw was the Rock.

The trip out was cloudy and windy but we were able to get the pictures we wanted. The trip back was rainy so we just looked.

The rain broke long enough to get a picture of the East Channel Lighthouse

Next we headed back south to Lake Michigan and another Boondockers Welcome site.

While we were working on the blog at our site, we got a message from our hosts that there was a rainbow over the lake. Of course we had to rush out and get a picture for you.

Day 2 in the UP

Friday, August 9, 2024

Wednesday morning we left the Walmart parking lot and returned to the Rotary Park thinking it would be nice to watch the ships while we had breakfast. We had breakfast but not a single ship passed by the park. Guess that was why there was nobody else in the park. The locals know the schedules and we obviously did not. We still enjoyed the quietness of the park.

Our next stop was Whitefish Point which is the most northerly point on the east side of the UP, and about 75 miles from the Rotary Park. We enjoyed another beautiful day walking the shore of Lake Superior and admiring the rocks. Whitefish point is also the home to Whitefish Point Lighthouse and Whitefish Point Shipwreck Museum. We arrived just after 3 buses of children arrived – maybe a day camp? Anyway, we decided to view the outside of the buildings and take pictures but did not venture inside. The adults were struggling to herd their cats and we decided to stay out of their way.

This shows how large a ship’s rudder is.

A nice stroll on a pebble beach on Lake Superior

By then it was time for us to go to Tahquamenon Falls – lower falls. We arrived before our check-in time so we would have time to hike to the falls and see everything on the lower end and still have time to be ready for Bible Study. We did not count on the huge crowds of people at the lower falls.

There’s probably many messages in the words on the back of the Lower Falls sign

Tahquamenon Lower Falls. The water is brownish because of all the tannin it picks up coming down the river.

Crowded Lower Falls area

One of the places on the trail not full of people

At 3:00pm and not one minute before, they allowed us to check-in. Very inefficient way they handled the check-in process – but maybe they have their reasons. We made our reservation on Tuesday and got a nice pull through site. The only catch was that the trees had grown from what was shown in the online pictures. Starlink would not work. We thought that would be okay because we had excellent coverage with AT&T and Verizon. We had coverage all afternoon when we were preparing for the meeting but, when everyone else in the campground came home for the night and began streaming, we had nothing. We quickly drove to the front parking lot and set up Starlink with about five minutes to spare. Then, while we were streaming our meeting, there were some loud noises outside our window. We then noticed the big green steel box in the parking lot with us. It was a firewood dispensing machine. Insert you credit card or 6 dollars cash and there is a loud thump, you open the door and there is your neatly wrapped bundle of firewood. This was our first experience with automated firewood dispensers, but others obviously knew all about them. There was a steady line of trucks and cars purchasing firewood Wednesday night. Just added a little extra laughter to our meeting.

We are enjoying our visit to the UP. In some ways it reminds us of our 2014 Alaska trip. Beautiful scenery. For the most part quiet and peaceful.