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.
Our home for two nights
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.
Rogers City has several festivals each year. One celebrates their murals.
Of course we had to check out the strawberry shortcake and ice cream social here at Westminster Presbyterian Church.
It was very good and the people were all very friendly.
The church was open so we went in and looked around.
The classic car show was across the street from the church.
Anne used to have a car similar to this classic car.
This was our favorite at the classic car show. The owner had a remote that would make the car spray water out the front or make the trunk open and close.
One of a few unusual attractions in Rogers City
Another unusual attraction.
We found out what Big Al does for a summer job.
We did not ride the elephant at this toy store.
We spent some time walking around the Rogers City marina
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.
Since we were so close, we walked over Saturday morning to photograph the sunrise.
Saturday sunrise was pretty even without clouds.
On Sunday morning we drove BB across the street to watch the sunrise in comfort.
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.
Robert H. Manning Memorial Lighthouse.
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.
The Grand Traverse Lighthouse
The looked bigger in the pictures.
The light was decommissioned when this new automated light was built.
One of the most interesting things in the keepers house was this old stove.
Two aircraft carriers built on cruise ship hulls were used to train Navy pilots on Lake Michigan during World War II.
To get to the top you first climb these tight circular stairs …
… and then two ladders.
The view was worth the climb even if it was a hazy day.
Beach walk on Lake Michigan
An unusual planter on the lighthouse grounds
We stopped for gas at a station in Northport and saw pumps we have not seen in a long time. A young couple was trying to pump gas at the same time and figured out how to turn the pump on just before we got out to show them.
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.
We drove by acres and acres of fruit trees …
… and sunflowers.
Almost every town and village we drove through had hanging baskets of flowers lining the streets.
As we were driving to see the Charlevoix Lighthouse we saw a sign that read “Mushroom House”, so we had to check it out. We found them on the hill overlooking the lighthouse. This one is called The Thatch House. All of them can be rented.
This one is called The Chalet. We didn’t go around back to see the third one.
We just stopped for a quick photo of the Charlevoix Lighthouse.
This was the most unusual thing we saw. The World’s Largest Cherry Pie (pan) is in Charlevoix. The pie was baked in 1976 and was 14’4″ in diameter and weighed 7 tons. It was baked in this specially constructed pie pan in an 18′ oven. It held the record until 1987.
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!
Our first site at Platte River Campground
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.
The covered bridge at the beginning of the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive
One of the views from the scenic drive
The lake is a lot farther down than this pictures shows.
This is the dune you don’t want to climb down unless you are sure you can make it back up – or can afford a hefty rescue bill.
The official Dune Climb
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.
When we actually spend time in a campground, we cook outside. And usually enough for several meals.
One of our favorite meals is shaved ribeye sandwiches on Sister Shubert’s rolls.
There was very little wireless coverage but a lot of tree coverage in our site, so for our Wednesday night online Bible study we drove out to a beach parking lot with a clear sky and set up Starlink.
We didn’t see much wildlife in the park, but we did see some deer …
We spent the night at a very welcoming Walmart in Ludington last night along with three other RVs. We awoke to a dense fog, so it was a good time to buy some groceries. We really like our little refrigerator in BB, but it does require more frequent shopping than Fred’s residential refrigerator. We frequently overnight at Walmart when we need groceries anyway.
We saw the recycling machines when we went into Walmart for groceries this morning. They give back money for cans and plastic bottles. We wished we had one to try them out.
It took a while for the fog to begin to burn off, but when it did, we drove out to Ludington’s North Breakwater Light. It is ranked the number one lighthouse to visit in Michigan. The concrete break-wall leading out to the light is popular with fishermen and those who enjoy walking the mile-long round trip. This morning there were many like us getting their morning exercise and enjoying beautiful clear water of Lake Michigan. It’s easy to forget you are looking at a lake and not an ocean. There were already fishermen out today as well, but we never say anyone bring in a fish. 2024 is the 100th anniversary of this light. It’s open to the public for viewing daily and since the light sits on top of the big breakwall, there are only 53 steps to climb.
When we first arrived at the half mile long breakwall leading out to the lights, we could barely see the north light and the south light was almost invisible.
We were surprised at the clarity of the water in Lake Michigan.
The North Light is open tours each day, but we decided not to stay around.
Anytime we were walking away from the sun, these little bugs covered the backs of our shirts. Thankfully, they didn’t bite.
This herring gull did not appear to be afraid of us.
At the end of our second hike out and back, the view was much clearer.
Next, we went to the Ludington State Park to purchase the Michigan Recreation passport. It is required for entry into all Michigan parks and we knew we would need it before we left Michigan. While we were there we checked out the campground but decided it was a little too busy/crowded for us so we just walked on the beaches and enjoyed our time there and headed to our next destination.
RVing With a Purpose 