INTO THE NORTH WOODS

 

We traveled through Minnesota, camping at Forest Service campgrounds.  Detours around Hwy 71 took us on many backroads. Not sure why, but I’m assuming it had something to do with the partial dam break I’d heard about on the news a few days before.  We exited Minnesota at Duluth and crossed Wisconsin far up in the northern region.  Lots of wetlands, small lakes, and  trees.  The forests in the North Woods are hardwood forests, not conifers and aspen like in Colorado.  We have looked everywhere for moose, but have seen none.  Beginning to think that moose are related to unicorns—often talked about, but never seen.

 

We entered Michigan at Ironwood in the Upper Penninsula.  We found the encroachment of trees right up to the roadway depressing and did not care for it.  Reminded us of what we didn’t like about Washington state.  We are wondering if Canada is like this.  If so, maybe we can skip it.  In the occasional areas where the trees opened and we got a view, it was lovely.  The town of Marquette, on the shore of Lake Superior was pretty, and I enjoyed Munising, also on Lake Superior.  A very working class, beachy small town, a few tourists walking around.  There were signs everywhere selling pasties.

 

We crossed the entire Upper Peninsula using Hwy 28 until we had to turn south to head for the Mackinaw Bridge, the only place to cross by car from the Upper Peninsula to the Lower.  It’s a long and sweeping toll bridge over the Straits of Mackinaw, with essentially Lake Huron on the East, and Lake Michigan on the West.  Honestly, it all looked like one huge lake to me.

 

Once in the Lower Peninsula, we headed for the western coast of the state, along Lake Michigan.  We toured through a variety of towns—Cadillac, Ludington, Holland, South Haven, Saugituck, St. Joseph, and Benton Harbor. The more southern we went, the lakeside towns became more and more filled with tourists presumably from Chicago (meaning big city people).  And Benton Harbor had a shocking amount of abject poverty and urban decay.  We went there because the real estate prices were so reasonable, but quickly discovered why the prices were so low.  Neighboring St. Joseph was not the same.  In fact we talked to a St. Joseph city worker in a meter-maid type vehicle who said that her job was to go around and give people fix-it tickets on their property and then to go back later and make sure the repairs had been made.  Big difference between the two towns which are separated by a river, but essentially it’s like one town.  Benton Harbor is definitely the “wrong side of the river”.

 

We are looking for a “base” where we can rent a small house and strike out from there for continued journeys.  There is a level of uncertainty in traveling constantly and not knowing where you will sleep each night that is stressful and beginning to wear on us. This year most of the Forest Service campgrounds require that you make reservations at least four days in advance.  That’s just not the level of planning that we operate under.  We are “first come, first served” campers.  Having a “base” should help alleviate some of that stress.  Actually, what we really need is two bases—one for summer and one for winter.  Since we can’t afford California, we are looking in Michigan right now to be closer to Hannah and family.