To the L.P.

On September 8th we went "down below" to the lower peninsula to a reunion of college friends in Bay City.  We had a great weekend on Saginaw Bay visiting, reminiscing and watching Michigan beat Notre Dame (had to slip that in).  We stayed the next week to have a couple minor repairs done on our home and then headed to the west side on the 16th.  We'll be hanging out north of Grand Rapids for 5 weeks until we head south for the winter. 

I most likely won't be posting until we hit the road again in late October.  We'll just be hanging out with family and friends.  Chilling, visiting (working, ugh) and taking a reprieve from driving. 

I'll take this opportunity to post a new map of the travels so far.  Since we left Phoenix June 4 the motor-home has gone 4,370 miles.  The car has put on around 4,000 miles of its own not including being towed all of the miles the motor-home was driven.  The green line on the map is this years travels, the blue line was last summer.

Eastern U.P.

Our stay in Cedarville has been quiet and pleasant.  We've had campground visitors (see pictures) regularly which help show how peaceful the place is.  I've twice see large hawks or eagles fly over with fish in their talons. 

On Friday we drove up to Sault Ste. Marie to see the Soo Locks.  We were lucky to see a ship go through without having to wait a long time.  I forgot my camera so no picture for this experience.

Grand Hotel

View from Mackinac Island

Saturday the weather was bad until late so we just drove to St. Ignace to get out of the house.

Sunday morning we got going early and went to Mackinac Island before the forecasted afternoon showers and to try to beat the crowd.  We had a wonderful time walking around checking out the "cottages", Arch Rock, Fort Mackinac, historic buildings and the town.  They have done an awesome job all over the island maintaining very old buildings.  Fort Mackinac is incredible with original buildings dating back to the late 1700s and early 1800s.  By 2:00 the island was a mob scene so we bailed and headed back on the 3:00 ferry.

Fort Mackinac

"Cottages" on Mackinac Island

Monday morning was time for the Labor Day Mackinac Bridge walk.  Ann chose not to walk it so she got drop-off, pick-up duty.  It was cloudy, cold (45 degrees and 12-15 mph wind) but fortunately the wind was out of the north and thus at my back.
  

Bridge walk

Next weekend we'll be moving "down below" to Bay City before heading to the western side of the state the following weekend.