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2024 UP to Montana

June - July 2024
Starting the trip off in the UP and making our way west to Glacier National Park via Highway 2. We will finish the trip with a few days in Yellowstone with Ethan and Sam. Read more
  • 28footprints
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Camping, Couple, Nature, Vacation, Wilderness, Wildlife
  • 7.1kmiles traveled
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  • 2024 UP to Montana
    2
    Day 1–2

    Day 1 - LA to MS

    June 21 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 73 °F

    We got up this morning so bright and early. Actually, it was still dark at 3am. We unhooked, moved the cars, and took off. No road trip is complete without vehicle issues, right? Our running lights on the bus aren't working and the brights won't stay on. Sigh. At least today is the only time we're running in the dark. I followed redd to the gas station, and we decided to get air for the rv at the TA on University.

    Let's just say that truck stop is a hot mess. People sleeping on the sidewalk, unhelpful rv tire clerks, Mexicans smuggling illegals...ok we don't know that for sure but probably.

    We decided to hook the jeep up at Target on Louisiana and run until daylight with the hazards on. The trip across the basin and over the MS river was uneventful.

    I55 is boring. The driving a/c, while not cold, blew coolish air. We weren't dying like last year.

    We had to stop at Camping World in Jackson because we left our surge protector plugged in at the house lol.

    Due to the good time we made I called the rv park to see if we could check in early. The lady graciously said yes. We pulled into the Southaven RV Park around 1230. We plugged in our new surge protector and cranked on the a/c. Lord, it took all of 1 year to become a bougie rv camper haha.

    I gave baylor a Dr. Feelgood because he is hobbling so bad today. I guess anxiety makes him hurt. We left them in the dark sleeping, and we came to the MS Alehouse. Nice places w/plenty of guest taps. They sell pizza by the slice, which we will be eating soon.

    Dinner tonight is Frito pie w/my homemade chili. Haha gotta start things off right!

    A new feature for this trip will be Idiot of the Day.

    Today's IoTD is a person on I55 going 70mph with someone on their tail who decided that they wanted to take 1 of those "police vehicles only" cut thrus between interstate lanes. He slammed his brakes and slowly took the left. Guy on his tail slammed his brakes and then cut in front of us, causing us to have to slam our brakes. Dummy. We should hit him but I want to take my vacation!

    Stay tuned    Read more

  • 2024 UP to Montana
    221
    Day 2–3

    Hunter Honey Farm harvest host

    June 22 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 91 °F

    Today was an extremely long travel day. We left Southaven around 7am and immediately our stupid GPS decided to take us not on the route we selected but what it felt like. We had to re-route ourselves, and that is never great.

    After like 4 reroutes due to accidents, construction, and low hanging overpass, we finally got on a pretty good highway for a long stretch. We we heading for Evansville, IN and a delicious butterburger at Culver's. Just as we are about to get there, road closed. Such joy. We get to drive the bus thru Historic Evansville. If you know anything about the size of downtown streets , ou can imagine how not fun that was.

    Lunch was had and not a moment too soon. Someone was getting super hangry. We put the generator running so we could put the roof a/c on for the dogs.

    After lunch , we only had about 2 more hours before our arrival at Hunter Honey Farm. I like HH farms, but I don't like the roads these farms are on. Good thing I don't care about pinstripes!

    This Farm is so nice. Tons of nice products to purchase. Very quiet spot. The wildflowers are everywhere and not only do the bees enjoy them. I've seen butterflies and hummingbirds too.

    Of course, we are the midst of a heatwave, but it's breaking. Right now, it's 89, but it's no humidity and a lovely breeze blowing. If summer was like in LA, I'd love it.

    We are just hanging out and enjoying the quiet. Tomorrow we will be in Lake Michigan. Only a 4 hour drive tomorrow.

    Idiot of the day is not a person but the goddamm rv gps which is SUPPOSED to take into account our height and width and give us appropriate routes. I'd like to speak to its manager.    Read more

  • 2024 UP to Montana
    Day 3

    Notre Dame University

    June 23 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 72 °F

    Made a little stop in South Bend to see the Fightin Irish football stadium. It's such a beautiful campus!

  • 2024 UP to Montana
    13
    Day 3–5

    Warren Dunes State Park

    June 23 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 72 °F

    Arrived at Warren Dunes State Park. We checked out the beach and Lake Michigan while waiting to check in to our campsite. The water was a bit chilly. Got to our site and setup, then showered, water was a bit chilly[paulas water was scalding hot]!!!!

    We then proceeded to BEER Church Brewing. Had a couple of beers and an app. This "communion bread" was a dough made onsite and slatered w/a salami spread. It was spicy and wow so good.

    Then we went to Greenbush brewing, it was kind of meh.... but there was a great produce market next to this brewery where we bought local blueberries and cherries!

    Weather is gorgeous and cool... highs in the 70s... like a break from hell!!! Campsite is very shady and we have lots of birds. Tomorrow, I'm not sure what we are doing, but I know it will include a big breakfast here at the campground!!    Read more

  • 2024 UP to Montana
    42
    Day 4

    Silver Beach, St. Joseph MI

    June 24 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 73 °F

    This morning was a super chill morning. We didn't really sleep in because my reminder about work went off at 6am. I've been off of work since 6/6 but everyone needs something today.

    We made breakfast and coffee and hung out outside because the weather is glorious. It is a stunning day.

    We cleaned up and decided to drive to St. Joe. This is the cutest little beach town with amazing coastal cottages. I did see a house that looked just like the Amityville horror house, including the crescent top windows.

    We paid 7.00 for all-day parking, and we walked down the pier to see the St. Joe lighthouse. The water and the sky are so blue. But lord, do the folks up here like to be in the sun. Even when there is available shade, they choose sun. And they barely wear anything as far as a bathing suit.

    We ended our trip with an iced coffee from a local chain called Biggsby coffee and took a look see around Meijers, which is a grocery store.

    Planning to grill ribeyes for dinner and catch the sunset on the lake. Sunset time is 9:34pm and the beach closes at 10.

    The campground is full but it is very quiet. A big van of kids w/young life just pulled into a site near us. They seem very happy. Our camping neighbor just fell out of her hammock. We pretended not to see haha.    Read more

  • 2024 UP to Montana
    111221
    Day 5–6

    Upper Pennisula of Michigan -St. Ignace

    June 25 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 72 °F

    Today was probably one of the worst driving days we've ever had. The only one worst was when we got caught in that snow/ice storm in Montana for Thanksgiving. Sheer line winds, monsoon rains and overall rogue winds all day long. The wind was so bad we had to pull into a truck stop for 1.5 hours to wait it out.

    Aside from bad weather, MI is almost like LA. Trees, swamps, no views..boring. And people from MI...not so friendly.

    After the terrible drive, we topped it off with the drive across the Mackinac Bridge. While I was not as freaked out crossing this 1 like I am w/the Lake Charles Bridge, Redd was. Of course, he's driving an 8' wide bus in a 12' wide lane. The 18 wheelers crossing are regulated to 20mph and other vehicles are topped at 40. There's also a toll per axel, so we had to pay $14 for the bus and jeep.

    We're staying at the Tiki RV park, which said there were views of Lake Huron...yea if you're standing in the street haha. It's actually a nice park w/full hookups. And they gave us a pull thru site, so that's convenient.

    After we hooked up, we went into St. Ignace to get some food. We ate at a place called The Gangplank. We had burgers and fries, which was not terribly expensive and actually homemade, including hand cut fries.

    We went back across the bridge this time in the jeep to Mackinac City. This is a tourist destination, but I'm not sure what the draw is. We arrived too late to take the ferry to Mackinac Island, but still. It's mostly old people and families. Not sure what the families are doing?

    We visited a lighthouse, which was closed since it was 8pm and drove down to the shore of Lake Huron so redd could see if it was cold. Surprise, it was, lol.

    We then decided to watch the sunset at Wilderness State Park, which was lovely. They are very proud of their international dark sky designation, and we went out to Headwaters Dark Sky Park. We weren't sure east to expect, but there were a ton of people waiting for the presentation and to look thru the telescopes. Really didn't want to fight kids for a view of Jupiter so we left and headed back to the rv park, paid the toll for the 3rd time on the bridge.

    We only have a 2 hour drive tomorrow. It's supposed to be rainy again, but hopefully, it's not too bad.    Read more

  • 2024 UP to Montana
    1
    Day 6–9

    Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

    June 26 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 54 °F

    Today, we drove from St. Ignace to Christmas, MI. The drive was not long. Only about 2 hours. It was a pleasant drive with views of Lake Michigan to our left.

    We turned north and finally made it to our campground, Pictured Rocks RV Park. We are super fancy here with a cement pad and full hooks up. This place is full to the brim with Class A and Class C rvs and a handful of tents. Not too many of them.

    We got everything set up and then took a drive. We ended up at Muldoon's Pasties shop. So a pasty is a hand pie. It's stuffed with beef, cubed potatoes, carrots, and rhutabagas. Miners would bring them with them to work. I can see how that would be a comfort meal. Pretty good.

    We drove to the national park and did a little viewing/hiking of the pictured rocks. It's pretty cold with winds off the lake. It's only mid-60s during the day.

    Tomorrow, we will hike to some waterfalls that end at the lake. Weather is projected to be chilly. We plan to arrive early because the road down is terrible [like a 4x4 road] and it seems to be very popular, so we'll try to avoid some people.

    Dinner tonight was sandwiches, but we bought some smoked whitefish dip. Sounds gross, but not terrible. Redd liked it more than I did.    Read more

  • 2024 UP to Montana
    1112
    Day 7

    Chapel Falls Hike

    June 27 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 48 °F

    We spent a good portion of today hiking. We wanted to hike the full route from the falls to the beach, and we were only about a mile away, and the mud just became too much. There were long swatches of boggy mud with no option other than to try and balance on logs laid in the mud.

    I was able to get thru some of it, but just past one bog that was about 100 yards were three worse than the 1 we went thru. I called it off. Bummer.

    But we did get to experience the falls alone. The great thing about hiking early is that you beat out all the folks with kids. It was so peaceful and quiet when we were heading down. We passed 6 groups on the way out, and when we arrived at the trailhead, there were so many more people getting ready to head in.

    We drove to Miner Falls and did the short hike to view it, then had our picnic lunch there. We watched folks who got no business hiking heading out only to come right back.

    We finished our hikes at Munising Falls and a visit to the lamest NPS Vistor Center. Not even a souvenir to be purchased.

    We stopped off for a beer at By George Brewing and came back to the rv. I took a nice nap in the sun while Redd tried to figure out our fuse issue. No joy.

    We made smash burgers for dinner and have been just relaxing outside. Tomorrow, we have a glass bottom boat tour that will show some shipwrecks.    Read more

  • 2024 UP to Montana
    212
    Day 8

    Shipwreck Tours

    June 28 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 59 °F

    It's raining and blustery today. I was not looking forward to the non-refundable glass bottom boat shipwreck tour we had booked for 10 am. I was thinking it was an open-air boat, but luckily, it was a closed cabin.

    The tour was pretty cool. We were able to see a few wrecks, one of which was a wooden supply ship, you know the kind with sails? It sunk in a storm because it was 80k tons overloaded with iron ore.

    There are over 3,000 ship wrecks in the Great Lakes that historians know of, and Lake Superior has 1,700 of them. Fascinating. I wish we would have had more time to explore some of the maritime museums around here.

    After the tour, we walked around downtown Musining, got coffee, and purchased some souvenirs. Craig Brodie had recommended a restaurant called Foggy's for the whitefish basket. He did not lie. Think of how delicious sac-a-lait is, but then subtract those pesky bones, and you have whitefish.

    After lunch, we did laundry and then came back to the rv. It's like winter today, rainy, misty, and brisk winds of 15mph. We have just been lounging around killing time. We are going to empty the tanks, add fresh water to the fw tank, and bring in our slide tonight. We have 3 nights of dry camping coming up. We almost ran out of fresh water before we arrived here due to only putting about 5 gallons in the tank in Memphis. I thought Warren Dunes would have water at the site, but it did not.

    We cross back into the central timezone in the morning. I'll be glad for that as my fitbit watch has not synched to the new time. Spend all that money on a fancy watch, and it does not work as it should. Dumb.    Read more

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