I Went East

Location: Island Resort Casino and RV Park; Harris, Michigan (el 750 ft)

Thru Stop #8

I went east. Yeah, it surprised me too. I know that sounds strange but when traveling freely, there are many things that can change your direction of travel. This change was a combination of things, but the number one reason was "a feeling". I just felt that going east was the right thing to do and going west meant problems. I learned a long time ago to trust these feelings/vibs. So, as I've said before, I set a destination point then head in that general direction with stops along the way. Going to a destination by way of some journeys. My destination is Louisiana and the time of arrival will be sometime in the first week of September to welcome a new grandson into this world. It will be number four, 3 boys and one girl. Olivia is going to be a big sister. 

So, I have about eight weeks before arrival back in Louisiana. My plan is to spend about four of five of those in Michigan. I've been here twice in the past and it is one of my top five states since I've been RV'ing. I've refreshed my memory by re-reading my old posts from here as well as some old posts from fellow blogger and RV'er, Malia Lane. I was reading her blog "Malia's Miles" for a couple of years before I hit the road. Her Michigan blog posts from 2011 are still relevant today and full of useful information. Unfortunately, she is currently in Oregon dealing with a terminal illness but for well over a decade she traveled the highways of America with the smell of Freedom filling her motorhome. May you have safe and peaceful travels. Take care of yourself Malia.  

I stumbled onto this Michigan welcome center. It surprised me since it was along a U.S. Highway instead of Interstate. There was a nice lady working there that helped me gather information. There was also, what I took as a sign, that I made the right decision to head east. There was another traveling in the welcome center who had come from the west and specifically mentioned Fargo, North Dakota. Strangely, that would have been my first stop if I headed west. I told him I had planned to go that direction, but changed my mind. He mentioned the lack of trees for days and there were more around here. Yeah, that was a reinforcing sign of my decision. Thanks to whomever sent him in there. 

I made quite a haul of information. After I culled through it some more, I threw away about 1/4 of it. 

I left the Duluth area with 260 miles of mostly two lane highway ahead of me. Most of it had decent shoulders in case something happened like the blow out in Oklahoma. It was good travel weather as I fell in behind a low pressure front that was headed in the same direction. It is the one that brought heavy rains all the way from the Dakotas to Duluth. It was about 20 hours ahead of me and as usual after the passing of such a front, the sky was a bright blue with wispy clouds. I've seen this many times over the years as the low pressure fronts will clean the air after first causing some bad storms. The temperature was in the upper 60's, humidity low, smooth road that I had never driven and a pretty sky. It doesn't get much better than that on a Moving Day.

Perfect traveling weather

Even a short stop at a construction site, no problem. By the way, the work looked good. 

The clouds are beginning to disperse.

When I hear the word, "wisp" or "wispy", this is what I think of.

The blue color was getting deeper as the day wore on. It was a very good travel day.

Since most of my planning was for going west, I'm playing catch up with campgrounds and places to see in the east. I quickly found an Indian Casino Campground that didn't accept reservations. That meant I needed to get here before 2 or 3 o'clock in case they filled up quickly in the evening. There isn't anything special about this casino or this area except that it was in the eastern direction. It is about 15 miles from Escanaba, Michigan which sits on one of the bays of Lake Michigan. I signed up for five days which in hindsight may be a couple of days too long. But the campground is nice with paved sites, electric/water and 24 hour security. I will use these days to explore the area and do some travel planning. One of the things I have discovered during this trip is that most of the state parks are full up on weekends. Apparently, there has been an RV boom and locals have started reserving Fridays and Saturdays 90 days in advance. This makes it hard for travelers to do planning. But the good news is that I have found the Indian casinos are pretty good, mostly available and not expensive. Where I used to look first for state parks near the places I wanted to see, now I look for an Indian Casino.

Kind of unusual curves to the sites but still overall, OK.

There isn't anything here in Harris, Michigan except this casino and a BP gas station. Escanaba is the nearest big city. A sign along the road near the casino advertised Pasties and Yooper bars at a place in Escanaba. I remembered from my last visit to Michigan that the Pasties (pronounced past-t) were just meat pies with different fillings. The one I got was the classic which is meat and potatoes. In Louisiana we have the Natchitoches meat pies which are sold just about everywhere in the state. Well, the meat filling is better in the Natchitoches pie but the crust is better on the pastie. I probably won't get another classic, but may try another flavor. The Yooper bar is nothing more than a chocolate bar. The name is a play on words from, Upper Peninsula, UP, Yoo Pee, Yooper. Apparently, the people who live in the UP call themselves Yoopers while calling the people who live in the "mitten" (the rest of the state) "trolls". They call them trolls because they live below the bridge, The Mackinaw Bridge. I guess you have to be familiar with the layout of the state to follow all of this, but the important thing is the chocolate bar was pretty danged good and made in Michigan.

Pastie and Yooper bar. The pastie, so-so, the chocolate bar, very good. 

I saw a few billboards and read TripAdvisor about a restaurant in Escanaba that I figured would be worth a visit. The name of the place was the Swedish Pantry. I thought well maybe, just maybe, the official Swedish ski team may be working there during the off season. No such luck. There were plenty of things on the menu that I had no idea about. The swedish pancakes looked good and the Swedish, maybe Finnish, waitress said they were similar to crepes or what I call 'thin pancakes'. I ordered them with potato sausage and imported lingonberries. The berries were tasty, the potato sausage I could take or leave. Overall, it was worth the visit, even without the ski team.

Wouldn't a normal person thing the Swedish Ski Team worked in there during the off-season?

Swedish pancakes, lingonberries, syrup, butter and potato sausage. All good except the sausage was only so-so. 

I also found time to visit the Historical Society Museum, climbed an old lighthouse and drive around the town. Not bad for only two days. 

The Historical Society Museum on the right and the old lighthouse in the background.

Interesting skates from a hundred plus years ago for skating when the lake froze over.

This is the most interesting thing I've seen in a long time. At first I thought it was a bronze casting, but it is a wood carving. The entire piece is carved from a single piece of wood. It was a privilege to see it. The next picture tells the story of it.

Story of the dog carving. The museum guide was an older fella and he remember the carving being in the window of the insurance office when he was younger.

Typical narrow spiral staircase in the lighthouse. The size and shape of the stairs sometimes makes it hard for heavyset, chunky, overweight, hefty, husky,,,tall people like me to get up and down them. 

The view from the top of the lighthouse

I found a bench looking out towards the lake. I guess in Minnesota this bench would be turned backwards??

I figure the passing low pressure front was causing some of this wave action. That structure in the middle is what replaced the lighthouse.

I caught this picture as I was driving away. 

I need to do some boring stuff like laundry too. Maybe I'll get lucky and find one with a tanning salon attached again. Oh well, west is best and east is least. Wait a minute, scratch that, I went east didn't I??? 

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.