Today we drove US-2 from Ironwood, Michigan to St. Ignace, Michigan, a distance of approximately 317 miles.  We were on the road for about 7 hours, including rest/food/fuel stops, and lost an additional hour to the time zone change from CDT to EDT.  That’s more miles and more time than we prefer, but we have done 400 mile days when we needed to.  200 – 250 miles seems to be the sweet spot for us at this point, at least until we get better driver/passenger seats in the coach and seal up the wind leaks around the windshield and entrance door.  (The bus is 23 years old after all.)

Most of US-2 through Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (U.P.) is good, 2-lane road with occasional 4-lane divided and 5-lane (center turn) stretches.  There are also lots of passing lanes, which are needed due to the hilly nature of the western U.P. and the volume of traffic in the central and eastern U.P.  There are places where the surface is rough and bouncy, but on balance it’s a good road to drive.  The speed limit is 55 MPH, but you have to slow down for the small towns.  Even so, we actually prefer traveling on US and state highways rather than Interstates when we can.  And this route gets us home in a reasonably direct way while keeping us as far away from Chicago, Illinois as possible.  My life will not be incomplete if I never drive in, through, or even near Chicago in the bus ever again.

[ A note on Michigan drivers:  speed limits appear to be lower bound suggestions.  One of the nice things about this, is that if you are driving a large vehicle at the posted speed limit, when you get to a passing lane the cars (and trucks) behind you don’t screw around; they step on the accelerator and get around you.  By the time you get to the end of the passing lane, all (or at least most) of the traffic that was behind you is now in front of you.  We did not encounter any blatant bone-headed drivers today, and that helped make for a better and more pleasant drive for us. ]

We had excellent weather for this leg of our trip.  It was 45 degrees F when we woke up this morning.  We pulled out of Curry Park, the city-owned RV park/campground in Ironwood, Michigan at 8:19 CDT.  There were enough discrete clouds to make the sky interesting and the high temperatures only made it into the upper 60’s.  There were plenty of hills and turns in the road, but the bus ran well; it really likes this type of weather and roads.

Although we are trying to learn to be more about the journey than the destination, the reality is that you have to end up someplace each night.  Most of the small towns we went through yesterday and today had signs about not parking overnight on streets and the one Walmart we checked in Ashland, Wisconsin did not allow overnight parking due to a city ordinance.  We took a chance last night (no reservation) and it worked out.  The sites at Curry RV Park were first-come, first-served, but we were in early enough to snag a “full hookup” site even though we only needed/used the electrical connection.  These sites were the only ones that would accommodate our size and turning radius.  That made four nights in a row of boondocking, at least with respect to water and sewage, and three nights for electrical.  We passed several casinos and more than few RV park/campgrounds.  Tonight, however, we wanted to make sure we could get into a RV park/campground with legitimate full hookups as we will need to refill the fresh water and dump the waste tanks before our final leg back to the house on Tuesday.  We also wanted to be positioned so that one more driving day would get us back to our house in southeast Michigan.

Our target was the Tiki RV Park on the north end of St. Ignace, Michigan.  We have stayed at the Tiki before when we had our Itasca Sunrise motorhome, and we liked the park.  We also like the town of St. Ignace, which sits at the north end of the Mackinac Bridge (Big Mac).  St. Ignace is a nice town on the water facing Mackinac Island which lies close by in Lake Huron due east of the town.  It has a marina, which is always interesting and pleasant.  There are plenty of things happening during the summer tourist season.  Like all of the U.P. it never feels crowded and is an unpretentious place.

The five mile long Big Mac connects Michigan’s Lower and Upper Peninsulas, bridging the Straits of Mackinac (pronounced Mack in naw), and is high enough in the center span for very large lake freighters to pass under with lots of room to spare.  We like both of Michigan’s peninsulas, but they are very different.  The U.P. is much more sparsely populated and has a cooler, harsher climate (especially during winter).  Trees and other vegetation tend to be shorter, and in many places it has an “edge of wilderness” feeling.

In spite of previous good experiences, we had an issue with our site at the Tiki.  We had walked to the site to make sure the coach would fit and not encounter any obstructions, but we did not walk the entire route to get to the site.  Big mistake.  The narrow gravel road took us around a sharp curve that did not leave me room to maneuver when I found myself facing low overhanging branches from a fir tree.  Pressing forward, the branches dislodged the top half of our broken searchlight.  Once parked, I had to get the ladder out, climb up, and redo the rescue tape that has held it together since I did this same temporary repair in Gillette, Wyoming back in June.  While I was up there I discovered that the limbs also scratched the paint on the driver-side of the roof.  The scratches are not visible from the ground, but that is not the point.  I consider the RV park responsible for this damage as Linda very clearly explained to them the size of our rig, both when making the reservation and when checking in.  We, however, should have known better than to take their word for it that our coach could make it to and into the site without any difficulties.  We are learning, sometimes the hard way, that we should never discount or dismiss even a minor concern that either one of us has about a situation, and to never take someone else’s word that our coach “will be just fine.”

Once settled in our site, we walked down the hill to Java Joe’s.  Java Joe’s is on the main road at the bottom of the hill leading up to the RV park, and is great place to get coffee, breakfast, etc.  It’s about 1.5 miles from there into town, a flat and very walkable distance on a nice day.  On our previous visits here the place was hopping, but it was mostly empty and quiet this evening.  The owner is a “parrot head” and has a Jimmy Buffett concert playing in an endless loop on a TV monitor the last time we were there.  It was still playing.  We went for coffee as we didn’t have any this morning, but ended up getting a couple of dinner salads, sans cheese, as we had not had sufficient greens for the last few meals.  Since the last time we were here the owner has opened a second location just down the street called The Garden that serves “vegetarian and vegan friendly” food.  We were told they are only open Friday through Monday, 11 AM to 3 PM, so we will probably have lunch there tomorrow.  BTW:  I’m not sure what “vegan friendly food is.”  Either it’s vegan or it’s not.

When we got back to our coach we opened the bottle of Yellowstone Howlin’ Pear wine we purchased at the store in Fishing Bridge, Yellowstone National Park and each had a small glass.  It was a very acceptable wine given that we did not get to taste it before we bought it.  As with accepting other people’s opinions about RV sites, purchasing wine without tasting it first is generally a risky proposition.

We will be at the Tiki RV Park for two nights and then head for home on Tuesday morning.  We have nothing planned for here except to relax and enjoy the local area.