Greetings from Pelkie, Michigan! This is night #7 of our first grand road trip, and we’ve been enjoying the heck out of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and the “Yoopers” who live here. It’s such an interesting combination of industry (mostly former copper mining sites) and wilderness. There are amazing buildings everywhere – old industrial ruins, yes, but also grand cultural and religious buildings that were built during the mining hey-days of the 1800s. As for wilderness – well, we knew we were heading for a prime leaf-peeping zone, but apparently the UP is ranked second only to New Hampshire for its amazing fall colors! Plus the rugged shorelines, forests, and Great Lakes are all awesome wonders to behold.
People sure are crazy about rock hunting here (apparently there are Rockhounding Clubs and everything). Every night we’ve been near a lake shore, there have been head lamps and black lights roaming the shorelines until all hours, perhaps searching for the mysterious fluorescent “Yooperlite” (click the link if you want to know more). We haven’t caught the rock fever yet – we’re more into the dialect and phraseologies — just today we thanked a 20-something guy in a bike store for helping us find exactly what we needed and he said, “Well, bless my buttons, I’m happy to make your day.” Other highlights of the trip are included in the picture captions below.
I’d say our biggest challenge has been spotty cell & internet service (thanks, GCI!) … which wouldn’t be such a big deal if we’d actually done a little more research in advance. Haha, oh well – I guess people figured out how to travel before the internet, eh?
Also included in photos below: the arrival of our stuff from Sitka! Plus other adventures before we left West Michigan: we biked a nice portion of Rails to Trails, kayaked several miles of the Kalamazoo River, and tried out more breweries.
Next stops: our plan is to head to Wisconsin and check out the Apostle Islands, continuing on to Grand Rapids MN to catch up with a friend, then to Des Moines to see other friends, and onward to my hometown of Storm Lake for a couple of quality weeks with my dad. Then, in early Nov, a week or so in Minneapolis. Let us know if we might cross paths with you somewhere!
Wild turkeys! Near the lake house in Glenn. 
Our stuff arrived from Sitka in a full-size trailer. It was too big to turn around on our street, so the driver dropped our stuff off at the community center and we had to schlep it 1.25 miles back to the house. 
Luckily, we were borrowing my sister’s pickup for other purposes, but it still took us four trips, and the remainder of our things sat in the parking lot until we came back for another load. 
Not more than 10 min after we left with the first load, the woman who runs the community center called Matthew (his number was on a box) and asked if he knew someone had just dumped a bunch of his stuff in the parking lot. She was worried someone was mad at him and threw all his stuff out! Gotta love the small town neighborliness. 
Good thing it was a nice day so we could deal with everything outside! 
Railtown Brewing Co in Grand Rapids: good beer and unique food, inc beef bulgogi and – yes – that IS a chicken sandwich with waffles as the bread. 
Have bikes, will travel! 
Rails-to-Trails from South Haven to Kalamazoo. We biked the first 10 miles (to Grand Junction) and back to South Haven on a beautiful afternoon. 
Handy to have a bike mechanic along! 
Guardian Brewing in Saugatuk is one of our favorites so far. Great beer cheese! But also a really interesting property history – they own a farmer’s barn (built in 1912) that became a community gathering space in 1948 and was a renowned playhouse off and on until 2016. 
Another beautiful day in West Michigan! Let’s kayak the Kalamazoo River! 
Turtles! Nearly impossible to see in this photo, but we saw them everywhere along the way … mostly diving into the river at the first sign of danger. 
Kickin’ back. (And that’s his index finger – I think he might be channeling Jeff Budd.) 
Floated right past this heron. 
Nice little Friday afternoon. 
Apparently you can buy meat from a VENDING MACHINE in Michigan. *mind blown* 
We hit the road on Oct 4. First stop: camping in Interlochen, with dinner at The Filling Station brew pub in Traverse City. Very cool set-up in an old train depot … 
… with fantastic wood-fired pizza! 
Camp set-up at Interlochen, including the new, HUGE (to us) 6-person tent we found at REI’s “Garage sale” for $60. (REI members, check out the garage sale in their stores – people return things for the silliest reasons and then REI resells them!) 
You can’t swing a cat without hitting a pumpkin patch around here. 
The mighty Mackinac Bridge, straddling the combined waters of Lakes Michigan and Huron. 
We camped at Lakeshore Campground, just a few miles west of the bridge, and shared a beautiful sunset with other campers. 
En route to our next destination – the Cut River Bridge, a beautiful cantilevered bridge … 
… that even has a door for T. Troll. 
Still enjoying fresh veggies and delicious dinners by candlelight on the road. 
Clever Matthew used a twist tie to secure our knife’s sheath. 
We spent a day in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Gorgeous drive to get there. 
And we did a 7-mile hike through the forest to get to the shore. 
Amazing cliffs, sometimes compared to the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland. 
So of course there are many cruises per day to bring you up close and personal. 
This little guy was not at all skittish of us. 
We got rained on a little bit in Grand Marais so we borrowed the visitor’s center parking lot to air things out a bit. 
And then treated ourselves to a night in the big city of Marquette. We were lucky to get two seats at the bar of the historic Vierling Restaurant and could enjoy the original decor … 
..authentic oak bar … 
… and original owner’s renowned art collection. 
Firewood is a necessity for any successful campground evening. 
We spent two nights here, in McLain State Park, about 10 miles north of Houghton in the Keweenaw Peninsula. Prime location right on the shore of Lake Superior. 
Beautiful sunsets here, also! 
I told you firewood was important … and so is charcoal! 
We took a lovely drive up the Keweenaw Peninsula to Copper Harbor. 
This handy roadside sign is a guide to the snowfall history of the Peninsula. Average = 240 inches/year. Highest? 390 inches of snow in 1978-1979. 
It rained on us again, but our tent keeps us dry and protected from all those pine needles! 
We spent a few hours in Houghton – nice town about the size of Sitka, and apparently home to Ozzy in the summer. 
We found an Airbnb for a decent price that has allowed us to dry everything out, do laundry, use reliable wifi, and even take a sauna!
Love following your travels. Giving me ideas! Remember that Northfield is just off Hwy 35. Especially on your way to Des Moines.
Yes! I had thought of this — we’ll be in a bit of a rush on our way to Des Moines, but maybe we could stop by to see you on our way back to Minneapolis in early Nov?
Really cool. Brings back memories for me of our trip.
Stay well
Thanks, Charlie!
WOW!!! What a trip! And thank you for the REI garage sale tip. Having a huge tent makes all the difference when camping.😎
Yes! The extra space in a bigger tent was really helpful! Now we’re obsessively watching YouTube videos about how to make a small camper trailer. 🙂