Author: rvingwithapurpose

Monday, August 5, 2024

After our morning sunrise Sunday, we said goodbye to Rogers City and continued our trek to the north.  Max found us a local restaurant “The Chuckwagon” along our route up the coastline.  We had a great country breakfast with some locals.  This was one of those places where everyone in the restaurant knew everyone except us, and there was constant banter between all the tables.  We checked with our server to be sure we hadn’t sat at someone else’s table, but she assured us that we were fine. We enjoyed a great breakfast of eggs, hash browns, buttermilk biscuits and gravy and bacon cooked just right.  If you ever happen to be on Highway 23 between Rogers City and Mackinac City, you should definitely stop for a meal.

Continuing on highway 23, we stopped at a roadside pull-off and sat enjoying a nice view of the shore of Lake Huron while we streamed our Lester Memorial worship service.

We arrived in Mackinac City before check in time at the RV park, so we went to the visitor’s center which was unfortunately closed.  There were some brochures available outside that were helpful.  Then we got our first view of the Mackinac Bridge.  There is a nice park where you can view the bridge and the lighthouse, so we spent some time there and then wondered around town a little.  After lunch we registered at the Mackinac Mill Creek Camping for a two-night stay.  All our Switch Crew friends will remember this as the location of the huddle last year which we were not able to attend.  We spent the rest of Sunday walking around the park, playing miniature golf and visiting with other RVers.  During the night we had several episodes of rain.  There was none in the forecast and new the forecast for Monday was supposed to be good for a trip to Mackinac Island but…there was some lost sleep. This is the third time we have tried to make a trip to Mackinac Island. We had to cancel the other two, and we were so close we definitely didn’t want it to be a rainy day.

Monday morning we were at the shuttle pick up at 8:30, on the ferry at 9.00, and had a beautiful day on the island.  Sunshine.  Light breeze.  We rode bikes around the entire island and had a perfect day.  We had lunch at the Great Turtle restaurant and our brisket sandwich was great.  We visited all the beautiful spots like the Grand Hotel, the view across the lake to the bridge, many of the gift shops and most of the chocolate shops. Of course we came home with some wonderful Mackinac fudge.

We completed our Mackinac adventure today (Tuesday) when we finally drove across the Mighty Mac (Mackinac Bridge).  It was another beautiful morning with light traffic.  There was some repair work in two spots, but it was an easy drive. One more item on the bucket list checked.  We feel so blessed.

Sunday, August 4, 2024

Friday afternoon after our beautiful drive across the state of Michigan, we arrived at our Boondockers Welcome site for the next two nights in Rogers City, Michigan.   We parked in our host’s driveway which was across the street from the shore of Lake Huron.  A great place to spend two days even if all we did was sit and look at the water.  However, our host, Katy, described her hometown “as a little jewel on the lake with friendly people and a great small town feel. You can walk and or bike from one end of town to the other and there is a great bike path that leads all the way to the lighthouse north of town.”  A very good description of this small town.  Katy also told us the town was in the midst of their Nautical City Festival.  There were lots of events happening throughout the community.

Friday afternoon we walked to the marina and adjacent park where there were many craft booths, rides for kids, and food fenders.  Saturday there were soft ball games, a pancake breakfast, more food vendors, a classic car show, music, and a great strawberry short cake ice cream social. At various businesses around town there were wonderful murals painted on the walls.

We were at the beach both mornings at sunrise to welcome the day so, the visit was not as quiet and restful as we had expected, but it was a good time.  Another serendipitous encounter.

Saturday, August 3, 2024

Thursday we left the Platte campground headed to some more lighthouses.  First stop was in Empire to see the Robert H. Manning Memorial lighthouse.  It is in a small city park on the western shore of Michigan.  Robert H. Manning was a life-long resident of Empire who spent as much time as possible indulging his passion for fishing on Lake Michigan and longed to see a lighthouse built at Empire for returning fishermen. After his death in 1989, Manning’s family and friends raised money to build this tiny lighthouse on the beach. It’s not an official nautical lighthouse, and no tours are available, but people love to have their pictures taken with it.

The rest of our drive up the narrow Leelanau peninsula was beautiful.  There were ripe cherries being picked from the many fields of cherry trees, as well as several festivals in the tiny towns.  At the tip of the peninsula is the Grand Traverse Lighthouse established in 1852 in what is now the Leelanau State Park.  We got to use our annual state park pass again.  This lighthouse has been restored and is open to the public.  We were able to tour the restored keepers dwelling that is filled with artifacts and climb the lighthouse tower (very cramped climb) for a great payoff view of Lake Michigan.  The lighthouse serviced the mariners on Lake Michigan until 1972 when the automatic light tower was erected.  The lighthouse and museum were opened in 1986.  This was one of the better lighthouse restorations we have seen.

Friday morning we began our trek across the state over to the east coast of Michigan.  It took all of about 4 hours including several stops for some sites and one for groceries.  It was another beautiful drive filled with cherry and apple trees, sunflowers, lakes, mushroom houses, another lighthouse and a gigantic pie pan.

Friday, August 2, 2024

We left you Tuesday in Ludington, MI at the close of our last entry. Tuesday afternoon we decided to head up to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Seashore.  If you are looking at a map, we were just working our way further north along the western shore of Lake Michigan.  It was a cloudy, gloomy drive most of the way except for the times when it was raining.  There was a silver lining. The rain brought a significant drop in the temperature – to the upper 60’s.  You all know we go north to get away from the heat but it hasn’t worked so well this year.  Tuesday afternoon was a real blessing.

We knew before we left Ludington that the northern Sleeping Bear campground was full.  However, it looked like there were still one or two sites available at the southern Platte River Campground.  We just had bad connectivity and could never get a reservation made.  We had Gumby with us, so we just drove the two hours or so to Platte River.  Asked the Ranger for a one night stay and she said, “Let me grab it for you because I’ve only got one left.”  The site was ours.  We love traveling spontaneously!

After getting checked in, we decided we would head to the visitor center located in Empire.  There we picked up our maps, stamped our passport book and then headed into the park.  The Ranger recommended that we first drive the scenic loop which we did.  First stop was for a covered bridge.  Nice.  Of note, the height of the bridge was raised to 13’ 6” when they had to replace the side boards because the porcupines ate them. Seemed the porcupines preferred the man-made structures more than the native wood of the forest.  From the bridge there were eleven other stops on the drive.  Overlooks of lakes, dunes, a drive thru the cottonwood trees, the beech maple forest, a pine plantation etc.  The stop of most interest to many was the Sleeping Bear Overlook (doesn’t look like a bear anymore).  Here you are at the top of a really, really, tall sand dune. At the bottom of the dune is Lake Michigan.  The sand is extremely fine, hot, and difficult to walk.  The signs warn people to not go down the dune because if you must be rescued it is a minimum $3,000 bill.  Of course, people go down it every day, and for young, healthy people, while it is an exhausting climb back up, they make it back to the top without problems.  We choose to not push our luck since we had made the very difficult climb at Indiana Dunes a week earlier.  There is a second dune for people to climb that looked almost as tall as the Sleeping Bear Dune but the second dune you began at the bottom and climb up as high as you can or want, and then turn around and come back down, thereby avoiding needing to be rescued and the $3,000.00 charge.  There are a lot of other things to do in the park.  There are many interesting, preserved buildings to tour, trails to hike and beautiful scenery.

After the dunes, we went back to the Platte river campground and asked for two more nights.  They had had a new cancellation and we were in for a total of three days.  We needed some time to rest.  We also had to move BB out to a place beside the Platte river on Wednesday night so we could have connectivity for our Bible study.  Thursday we did some touring of the area outside the park, but that’s information for another blog entry.