• The Keweenaw Peninsula, MI & A Day Trip to Isle Royale National Park

    The Keweenaw, a small peninsula on the UP’s north shore, was our next destination. We spent 2 weeks at the City of Houghton RV Park, which we really enjoyed. Our site, while not waterfront, did have a covered deck with a water view. We did not enjoy the mouse that lived with us for several days, exploring our camper from basement to ceiling. Cody thought it was pretty neat and provided no assistance. We were walking distance to the cute downtown area of Houghton, a college town home to Michigan Tech. There was a path along the Keweenaw Waterway that was perfect for after work walks and also views of…

  • Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

    Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has been on our list since the beginning and while we drove through it a couple of years ago, we didn’t stop and explore. The Mitten and UP are connected by the 5-mile Mackinac Bridge and crossing that bridge feels like entering a completely different place. The UP contains ~30% of Michigan’s land, but only ~3% of its population. Nearly empty two lane roads crisscross through endless forests connecting small towns. There are some touristy spots, but it generally feels very uncrowded. On our drive to the town of Munising, we detoured to visit Tahquamenon Falls State Park. The beautiful river and falls are brown due to…

  • Traverse City & Sleeping Bear Dunes, MI

    Our Shipshewana stop for RV repairs ate into our planned time in Traverse City, so we decided to drive up on Friday after work to at least save our weekend days. Thank goodness we did because on the following weekend Michigan was smothered by smoke from the Minnesota and Ontario wildfires. We chose to stay at the Northwest Michigan Fairgrounds campground because the state and national park campgrounds in this area have poor cell signal and are too wooded for Starlink. We had water and electric hookups, and it was much more affordable than the private RV parks in this popular summer vacation destination. Plus, apparently no one else wanted…

  • Great Lakes & Football Fun & a New RV!

    Since my last post, we’ve visited new (Wisconsin/Michigan) and familiar (Indiana) places, bought and moved into a new RV, and had a 5-week break to spend time with our family in western NC. Looking back to September, we had a few days left to do something fun at the end of our week-long trek from the Yukon. We were headed toward Michigan for a day trip to Mackinac Island, but it was raining there so we stopped in Wisconsin instead. We lucked out with a great first-come first-served city park along the Lake Superior waterfront in Ashland, WI. Near Ashland, we hiked at Frog Bay Tribal National Park, along the…