| 07/30 (Sat) - Travel day. Truck transmission almost overheated on the way up near West Branch. Made it to camp and found that our site was either a pull-around or a back-in. We chose pull around. But that left our trailer hitch almost 4 feet off the ground because of the slope! The campground site stated that they had wifi, but only at the check-in building and Verizon has ZERO towers up here so we have no service. Also it was very windy and the wind turbines were spinning pretty rapidly. The Thomas's went on an excursion to Manistique and saw that Herb's 40 is still there, but it is now a bar and grill called The 40.
07/31 (Sun) - We all went to the Big Spring aka Kitch-iti-Kipi and rode the platform across the spring. It was really cool watching the little plumes of sand pubbling on the floor of the spring where the fresh water comes up from the bedrock! We didn't have to wait too long but when we got off the platform, the line was several hundred people deep! Wind was more fierce than yesterday! Probably blowing 30mph and gusting to 50mph! Made the campfire like a blast furnace! Ellie put up a hammock and has been swinging all week.
08/01 (Mon) - We all went to Historic Fayette and walked around the village. Nothing has changed since the last time we visited. Still, it was a nice trip down memory lane for Josh. We left Fayette and continued down M-183 until we reached Fairport. on the very tip of the Garden Peninsula. It was pretty neat to say that we did that. Sophie had a seizure at 10:11pm and we had a thunderstorm roll through the area. We even had hail around midnight that woke us all up.
08/02 (Tue) - Jeani had to login to her Salt Conference at The Dock, a bar and grill down the hill from the camp. The owner lady was kind enough to give Jeani the wifi password and let her work on the porch for the day. #whiskey! Josh and Ellie came down to visit and login to their own laptops for a few minutes. Josh watched a family group trying to fish off of the dock and they were able to scoop up a Northern Pike in a net! They let it die and took it back to their camper. The kid wants to mount it!
08/03 (Wed) - Jeani logged into her 2nd day of Salt Conference 2022 and she stayed in the camper and managed to stay logged on all day which was amazing since our internet service SUCKS! Once she was done for the day, we all went into Manistique and walked up and down the main street. It was ok since nothing has really changed in 30+ years, but it was pretty underwhelming. Later on the Thomas's visited Josh's scout friends, the Reimers (John, Kellie, Emma and Jake)on their property near Fayette. It was still under development and all they had was a driveway and clearing for their camper. They have a stretch of the beachfront but it was mostly the dolemite shards.
08/04 (Thu) - We all took a trip to Escanaba and shopped around. Josh saw a couple of the filming sites from the film Escanaba in Da Moonlight. Rosy's Diner, and the Swallows Inn. We also visited the Sand Point Lighthouse. We went into the Orange Duck Antique store and they had a display of glassware in a cabinet lit by UV light. The glassware was glowing green with radiation!
08/05 (Fri) - We went back to Manistique and walked the boardwalk out to the red lighthouse and then had dinner at The 40. It was a nice walk down memory lane as the inside decor was pretty much the same as I remember. We also checked out Christopher's Antiques shop and the Art Plaza.
08/06 (Sat) - Travel day, truck made it home (just barely). |