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2000 miles - WI/UP/MI
We just returned from a 9 day trip that totaled 2000 miles.
8/7/2010
Left St Louis and drove up through IL and WI to Waupun (south of Fond du Lac). We stayed in a small county park. Evidently they have been flooded. It smelled like rotten mud and we got there at 0bug:30. Mosquitoes in your nose, ears, mouth. AHHHHH. Glad it was only for one night.
8/8
We awoke to rumble of thunder and flash of lightening at 0dark:30. We scrambled to get buttoned up before the rain. We wanted to get an early start, but a 5:00 am scramble was not what we planned ;-) Glad we got moving. By the time we pulled out it had started drizzling, quick stop at the bathhouse and it was raining so hard I wouldn't have been able to find the hiway without the GPS to tell me a street was coming.
This was the last nasty weather we had. By the time we were north of Oshkosh, things began to look better. By the time we got to Escanaba, the sky was mostly blue. By the time we got to Hiway 2 in the UP and near the Mackinaw City bridge, the sky was cloudless.
We stopped a J.G. Wells State Park for our park stickers we'd need later and at a smal Ocono county park on the lake that was very nice looking.
We crossed the MC Bridge with high wind warnings posted, but it didn't seem too bad to me. The slow spped limit across the bridge made for a nice sight seeing drive.
We camped at Wilderness State Park, Lakeshore West. What a loosely organized concept of a camp ground. It looked like someone put trucks, trailers and tents into a Yahtzee cup and tossed 'em out. We were okay with our spot, but the only spots worth it were the 6 or so that had a lake front access. We were inside the loop. The folks adjacent to us had set up their tent so close to our fire ring, that had I started a fire, I might have melted their fly. We were too busy for fires, so it wasn't a real issue, but I have no idea what they were thinking. Had I been any of the people around us, they'd of had a problem.
After looking around, the Lakeshore East was a little more structured, but no real lake fronts. Across the road is the Pines, and it looked more like what a state park campground typically looks like. Where we were was more of a combination of Kentucky Derby or Nascar infield with a bit of the early days of Cape Canaveral rocket launches.
8/9
We did Mackinaw Island. Ferry over, horse carriage tours, shopping, refreshments, walking and dinner before ferry ride back. Very nice. We had some showers, but they always were when we were in the carriage cover. Whenever we got out, it seemed to stop. The day wound up gorgeous.
8/10,11,12
These days had me diving with a couple of other midwestern's (one I have cave dove with.) Suppose to be a couple of others, but they backed out. We did two dives a day (Cedarville, Sandusky, Young, Barnum, Eber Ward). Nice dives, mostly in the recreational range. We did deco on 50% to practice gas switch and stage handling. DW did the tourist thing. Her sister and BnLaw were up also for the first couple of days.
On Thursday, we packed up and moved to Presque Isle (on Lake Huron). We stayed at an Alpena county park, Long Lake. It was pretty nice. We had water and electric, no sewer. We had a spot on the lake, looking west for nice sunsets. I would stay there again (even the same spot). Bath house was a bit meager, but I'm not real picky. Joan uses the TM shower.
8/13,14,15
Early mornings to be at the marina. Some folks I had met either in Milwaukee or that come down to southern IL for winter diving joined me and my cave diving buddy (six total). We dove to deeper depths on trimix with longer deco hang times. We dove the Florida, the Kyle Spangler, and the Windiate. I loved the Florida! All were wooden ships that sank in the 1850 to 1890s. Amazinlgy intact, masts still standing, sitting upright in about 180 feet of water. Visibility such that you don't really need a light. Joan visited art fairs, light houses and such while we were 'out to sea.' We also visisted the NOAA shipwreck museum, which is no charge, in Alpena.
8/16
We broke camp and departed around 8:00 am in beautiful weather. We drove straight thru stopping for a picnic lunch and to push some fresh grease into the wheel bearings. Dry roads all the way home and missed heavy traffic in all the towns. We came back thru Flint, Lansing, Ft Wayne, Indianapolis and back into St. Louis. We did go around the east side of 465 in Indy to avoid all the construction on the west side. I had been up there for the Final Four and knew it was a mess and there were signs out warning you as you approached Indy. We took this route to avoid Gary, IN and that stretch. I shudder to drive that close to Chicago with a trailer anyway, but we had read travel notes on constructino there. My cave diving buddy is originally from Chicago and he was not pulling a trailer. He also got stuck in an hour long standstill the day before. (We stayed an extra day in the area, he left on Sunday.)
In general the weather was real warm and muggy. Not as hot as StL, but warm for that area. Last year we got cold in Kenosha and Two Rivers, WI. We took too many long sleeves and not enough light stuff this time! We figured being that far up and on the lakes would be cool. It didn't cool down until Sunday evening and dry air moved in. Very comfortable, but windy as heck. (Hanging out my dive insulation resulted in them hanging horizontally.) Very comfortable for breaking camp Monday morning. Not really complaining, because the wind that brought the cool dry air would have kept us off the water. As it was, we got in six straight days of diving which is not to be taken for granted in the Great Lakes (or any big open water.)
Great trip and our trip last year to WI in tents is why we bought a TM to begin with. It was neat to go back and use it as planned.
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