Severance Travels

Upper Peninsula of Michigan

We left Howe, IN on Thursday morning for a long drive (350 miles) to the Upper Peninsula. Got hilly/mountainous as we got closer.

Interesting place to eat, I guess!

Fortunately for us the weather cooperated and we were able to cross the Mackinac Bridge without any problems. If it's windy, sometimes you cannot cross.

We found our campground in St. Ignace, just across the bridge and spend the night. It was cold and rainy, and, even though we were on a hill, we could barely see the lake.

On Friday we headed West out of St. Ignace in pouring rain and wind. But after a few miles, the rain stopped. If you have a map of Michigan, we took Highway 2 all the way across and had many views of Lake Michigan.

We had picked up a brochure about this lighthouse and made time to visit.

SeulChoix (pronounced Sis-shwa) Point Light marks a small harbor on Lake Michigan on the south shore of the Upper Peninsula. Native Americans and French fur traders traveled in canoes across the rough waters of the lake. It was named by the French who found that it was the only harbor in this part of the lake.
It was built to light the way for the increasing number of vessels carrying the iron ore that was being shipped out of Escanaba, MI.

It was 4 miles off the highway and then another 4 miles on a gravel road. I wasn't sure I wanted to take it, but, it turned out to be packed down, so we took it.

Our GPS said not to go any further!!!

Some Canadian geese on the property.

The lighthouse and house (and also gift shop of course!). The light was placed into service in 1892, but the tower had to be rebuilt and was completed in 1895.
It is now fitted with a modern airport beacon lens.

The museum was neat. A lot of old sailing stuff. Used to be a fishing village at one time.

Fishing nets.

The lighthouse where the lighthouse keeper lived was extremely nice. We toured the many rooms.

I walked up the 96 steps to the top and got views from different angles.

A limestone quarry across the bay still ships material via tanker.

Our truck and trailer below.

Stairway down.

A replica of the lighthouse and house was built and erected on a tower.

We walked on a path to the shoreline.

As you may know, Judy loves to look for shells.

And found some. Quite small but different shapes and coloring.

Just passed Judy is a sandy beach, no shells. It was interesting how the shells just stopped being washed up.

Interesting tree.

After leaving the lighthouse we continued along the highway. There were several roadside rests that were very nice.

We did make it to our campground near Iron Mountain and will be staying here until Monday when we head across Northern Wisconsin and into Minnesota via Duluth.

Howe, IN

We had planned to leave Ionia and drive north into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, but, found out that Judy's cousin, Nancy and her husband, Ben, had been in Ohio for a wedding and were coming across Indiana so we went down there to see them for a couple of days. It was only about 100 miles so not bad.

We were able to park beside one another so that was real convenient. The first night we had a salad and Ben grilled chicken. Very tasty.

The next day we made a reservation to tour an RV manufacturing plant there (DMV brand) but they didn't tell us that we couldn't wear open-toed shoes so we got turned away there.
We went looking for grocery store but found this neat little town (Amish - gift shops, etc!!

Had lunch at a great restaurant (Amish, I think). Prices were great and the homemade pie was even greater!!

Had our picture taken - with Scottie.

We found grocery store, got our goods, got some gas and then headed back to the campground.
That night we had ribs on the grill and corn on the cob.

Nancy gave Judy this owl - had their picture taken and then put on Facebook with a saying about 'who are the wisest cousins?"

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and wish we could have spent more time together.

Ionia, Michigan

We did find our way to a Tim Horton's for coffee and snacks. Very popular in Canada and some parts of the US.

Trucks come in all shapes and sizes in Canada. At a rest stop we saw this one. Notice 5 axles on the trailer. We have seen some with 8 axles - can't imagine what they must be hauling!

Finally, we arrive at the US border. Many, many lines, and, at first, we couldn't find the right line for us (RV's).

But we did. The wait was about 30 minutes - not too bad. At the checkpoint we gave him our passports and drivers licenses. A few simple questions and we were on our way.

We spent the night at a campground just across the border and the next day drove to Ionia, MI. We found this campground because we wanted to visit my cousin, Karen, and her husband, Bob in Belding. We also wanted to visit our friend, Jan Gray, who lives in Charlotte. And the campground is in between both.

Nice campground with a small lake.

We got here on a Friday and on Saturday we did some shopping and got the clothes washed.

On Sunday we drove to Belding and visited with Karen and Bob. Had a great time - talked about the Appeldorn reunion that Judy and I went to in IA back in June. Karen's mother was an Appeldorn and was my Mom's sister).

They took us to a restaurant in Greenville for dinner. Great place and great food.

On Monday we drove over to Charlotte and visited with Jan. Her daughter and family live in McKinney (TX) so we get to see her occasionally, but it had been awhile.

She has a beautiful house and property.

On Tuesday we left Ionia and drove down to Howe, IN which is about 100 miles south.

Toronto (not really!!)

OK -- way behind on posting -- no excuse so here goes. (Currently, we are in Iron Mountain, MI for a long weekend -- 58 degrees this morning and heater was running!!)

To start this blog off, notice it says Toronto (not really!!). Well, that is because we never got into Toronto either.

We did see these signs along the highway and weren't sure what they were the first time we saw them. They are "rest stop" signs and are those places busy. In addition to restrooms, they have all kinds of restaurants, shops, etc.

The highway was extremely busy but traffic was moving good. It happened to be "Civic" holiday.

Farmland along the way.

OK, now we think we see Toronto in the distance.

Nope. When we got closer, they were all condo/apartment buildings.

We did see a commuter train.

And that is as much of Toronto that we saw. Downtown was several miles to the south of our highway. We didn't really have any plans to visit.

Before we got to our campground, we saw this along the road. More later.