July 4 and Beyond

We did stay up late enough on Sunday to watch the fireworks. Actually, we could clearly see displays that were sent up from the south end of Mackinac Bridge and on Mackinac Island. We also had glimpses of those from the town of St. Ignace and some other place on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

This is a small part of the crowd sitting along the shoreline in our campground.



This little fellow had his baseball mitt full of popcorn. At least half of it ended up on the ground before he got settled on those rocks to watch the show.



Could you ask for a cuter (is that a word) front row?



Some of the campers shot off their own fireworks before the professional show began.



The "real" show was a little more impressive.



We left the next morning and drove north over the Mackinac Bridge to the Upper Peninsula. It was a foggy morning, so the view was very limited.



This was all we saw of Lake Huron. The fog continued as we drove along Lake Superior. We are glad we had seen that lake years ago when we lived in Wisconsin.



As we drove west, a black bear ran across the road. How exciting. The fog finally cleared and we did get to see this pretty scene as we headed west.



It was a long drive to Wakefield, MI, where we spent one night in a public park on pretty Sunday Lake.



Now we are spending three nights at the Gull Lake Corps of Engineers campground outside of Brainerd, MN. We are feeding our souls with the quiet and the wooded campsite. Isn't this a pretty entrance for a public facility?



This morning, while John took his three-mile run, I walked over to the lake to take some pictures. How's this for a gaggle of geese (and one duck)?



I walked the nearby nature trail. It is unusual to find a grassy trail.



I caught a glimpse of this White-Tailed deer before it bounded away.



The forest floor has lots of ferns.



Our campground has a vintage trailer and an unusual one.



We saw these different kind of trailers in a sales lot in town yesterday. I think they would be very hard to level. Once you take them off the truck, the wheels and hitch are raised, lowering the trailer to the ground.

Bikes and Horses and Pretty Hotels

The highlight of our time on the Straits of Mackinac was our visit to Mackinac Island on Saturday. The European settlement in the Straits began in 1671 when Fr. Jacques Marquette established a mission ot Huron Indians on Mackinac Island. During our Revolutionary War, the British dismantled a fort on the mainland and moved the garrison and fur trade community to Mackinac Island. A fort was built on a steep limestone bluff on the island. When we won our independence from the British, the fort and island became US territory. During the War of 1812, Great Britain captured the fort, which didn't return to US hands till we won that war.

Following the Civil War, Mackinac Island became a popular summer resort. In 1895 the first automobile appeared on the island. Three years later, after receiving a petition from the drivers of horse-drawn tour carriages, the village council quickly banned "horseless carriages." This action preserved the island's late 19th century atmosphere and has led to the current traffic crush of bicycles and horses.

We rode the ferry to the island, taking our bikes with us. Here is where we disembarked on Main Street.



Mackinac Island is a very popular tourist destination and bikes are everywhere.



This is just one of numerous places to rent bikes on the island.



Bike riders share the streets with horse-drawn carriages that give tours or serve as taxis. At the top of the photo you can see Fort Mackinac.



Here you see the horse and wagon serving the Grand Hotel, the largest hotel on the island.



To tour the Grand Hotel, you have to be a guest, come for lunch, or pay a fee. Since we didn't plan to do any of those, I took a picture from our ferry. Pretty impressive, isn't it?



Apparently the folks who drive the horses have to wear seat belts so they won't be thrown off if the horses turn into runaways. You can see the belt if you look closely at this photo.



Because the only automobiles allowed on the island are police, fire and rescue vehicles, horses and bikes are used to haul all sorts of things. We saw a bell hop from a hotel carrying three large suitcases on a bicycles. You would really have to tip him when they arrived!

Here was a wagon being hauled along the main street of the town.



And another carrying supplies to one of the hotels.



We rode our bikes around the island. The 8-mile Lake Shore Boulevard (Michigan-185) is the only road in the state where cars are banned.



As you can see, on a clear day the waters of Lake Huron are incredibly blue. This is Arch Rock, one of the interesting formations in the limestone that are visible from Lake Shore Blvd.



We also saw Devil's Kitchen.



There are real hazards to sharing the road with horses.



Sea Gulls are everywhere, and they especially love picnic spots.



As we rode by, this mother duck quickly called her ducklings to her side. Aren't they cute?



A large group of Girl Scouts had come to the island for the day. Their uniforms sure have changed since my day.



Many of the downtown businesses had beautiful baskets of hanging flowers, including this small hotel.



On our way to board the ferry to return to the mainland, we saw lots of kites flying in the wind. They sure are fun to look at, aren't they?



A distinctive characteristic of the ferries operated by the company we used to get to Mackinac Island is the rooster tail behind each ferry. I took this picture of one of they ferries, which operate every half hour all day.

Amazing

Amazing is all I can say about the Mackinaw Mill Creek Campground, where we are spending the 4th of July weekend. During the past month we have not needed reservations, but this weekend is a different story. Almost everyone that owns a tent or RV wants to get out for the Independence Holiday--especially when it provides a three-day weekend. That is especially true for families with children.

We knew we were heading north through Michigan to the Upper Peninsula and we wanted to visit Mackinac Island, so we chose this campground. I made a request online for a large 50-amp site for three nights. They called back and said those were full but they had regular size with 30-amps. We took it.

We've never been in a campground this large. We stayed at Valle del Oro in Mesa, a 55+ resort with 1700 sites (I think), but that is a little different. Here they have 600 camping sites, 200 with full-hookups. They have one mile of shoreline on Lake Huron, sites with views of Mackinac Bridge or Lake Huron (at a premium cost), cabins and cottages and lots of tent sites. I have never seen this many tent campers.

We arrived early Friday, checked in, and were given direction to our site: follow the yellow poles; at "C" turn left; at "J" turn left; drive to big rock; at "5" turn left to site 109, a back-in on driver's side. All we had to do was pay attention--quite a task on narrow roads with RVs and tents, cars and bike riders everywhere. But we found our site and got settled. This is a view from our dining room window down the "alley" between two rows of trailers.



Friday night RVs just kept coming in. There are several different areas where they are parked. Here is part of the line-up coming to our section.



I wake up to the sound of sea gulls. They love to sit on the top of poles when there aren't looking for food in the trash or under campground tables. Isn't this guy (or gal) great?



We can walk to our right along about six RVs to a lawn along the shore. There we can see Lake Huron and the Mackinac Bridge. The bridge spans the Mackinac Straits between Michigan and its Upper Peninsula. The straits join Lake Huron to Lake Michigan. Here is the bridge from our shoreline.



Tonight we will sit on the lawn (if it doesn't rain) and watch fireworks at 10 pm. There will be shows off the bridge, off Mackinac Island in the distance, and from a town on the right. It should be quite a show, if we stay awake long enough. People were saving prime seating by 9 am, so our lawn chairs are out there, too.

We think Michigan is a very pretty state. For most of the last three months we have been surrounded by trees in most campgrounds and along most highways. Here we have seen more sky and more open views. And the water in Lake Huron is an amazing color of blue on these clear days we have had. Tomorrow we will be on the edge of Lake Superior to the north. This is certainly a great part of the country.

However, we are looking forward to getting out of this "city" on the edge of Lake Huron. Hopefully, many of the families will go home so the parents can go back to work. This weekend has been too busy, and smokey. No family can go camping without building a fire, can they?