Happy 4th of July

Bruce Crossing, MI - July 3-5, 2012 - Our current location

We stopped for a late lunch at Ma's Place in Wakefield, MI.  They were unused to the hot temperatures they were currently experiencing and had one little window air conditioner running for all it was worth to try and cool the dining room.  Even with the A/C it was still 87 to 88 degrees inside.  As long as you didn't move around too much and exert any energy it was OK.

EJ and I shared a sandwich with fries and asked the waitress to save us a piece of strawberry-rhubarb pie.  After the sandwich was gone, we looked at each other and said there was no way we can eat the pie too, but the waitress being ultra efficient had already topped it off with whipped cream and was bringing it to our table. So what do you do? You  get'r done! Somehow we found room for the pie too.

After lunch we took a walk to try to mitigate the pie and to go investigate an interesting looking statue mounted on a dock over the lake.  Turns out it was a wood carving by Peter Toth.  He has 74 carvings with at least one in each of the 50 states and calls the collection the Trail of Whispering Giants. They are each 20-40 feet high and 8-10 feet in diameter carved from a single piece of wood. We had seen one of his carvings last year in Valdez, AK and will be looking for more in our travels. 

Scattered around the lake were numerous parked empty cars and trucks with lawn chairs all around.  We inquired what that was all about and found out they had been parked there for several days.  People were staking out their spots for that nights fireworks display. We could also see the Wakefield campground and it was packed.

Now we began to panic just a little.  The lady at the visitor center (we had stopped on the way into town) had told us that finding a place to stay that night was going to be tough. Actually she couldn’t believe how many people come through that don’t have reservations. So as we left Wakefield, EJ began researching a place for us to land for the night. Using the Days End guide, she found a Township Park, (Township = County) in Bruce Crossing.

We're finding that if you can locate what we call a "non-destination" rv park, more than likely you'll have no trouble finding a spot.  A destination park generally has at least one major attraction such as a lake, fishing, swimming, water park, etc.  A "non-destination" rv park has none of those and is just a convenient place to stop for the night. Families don't like "non-destination" parks which means more room for us old folks. And true to form, when we arrived at Bruce Crossing, there were 8 sites, and only one other RV. They had a dump station which was popular and electric and water for only $10 a night.

It was still really hot and we were glad to have A/C. This poor little robin was outside “panting” trying to stay cool.

A storm snuck up on us that night and we had a surprise hail storm.  No damage, but the hail was about 3/8 inch in diameter and it did last for about 10 minutes.  It's very nerve wracking(and loud) not knowing if your car and motorhome are getting dings and dents when there is nothing you can do about it.

On Wednesday we decided to get serious about finding a campground for the rest of the week.  After several phone calls, it looked like we were going to strike out, so we decided to stay put for the night.  It was definitely a quiet 4th of July night, not at all like the ones being experienced in Orange Park and Kissimmee.

The next morning we explored town and found that although it was a very small town about one intersection big, it had quite a bit to offer.  A nice grocery store, an ACE hardware store, a good restaurant and two bars.  One of the bars was named "A Taste of Alaska". We headed over to the restaurant for breakfast. Guess what we found?? Homemade cinnamon buns! Of course we had to have one and now have the standard by which all other buns on this trip will be measured. 

With the 4th being on a Wednesday this meant folks would either be spending the whole week on vacation or dividing it up between the two weekends This was making finding a place to stay somewhat difficult.  After being turned down by several campgrounds yesterday, we found a place in Copper Harbor, MI on the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula.

So off we go headed north to hopefully find cooler weather.  So far it's been pretty scarce.