Michigan UP Miscellanea, Part 1

Having ticked the major boxes on our trip to Sault Ste. Marie in the Upper Peninsula (Soo Locks and Whitefish Point) it was time to check out a few other area attractions. We were in the area at kind of a shoulder season of sorts, in that summer festivities were over but fall/winter activities had …

Continue reading Michigan UP Miscellanea, Part 1

Itty Bitty Boats; Great Big Rocks; Big Big Water

Humans have paltry imaginations when it comes to the size of natural wonders. We underestimate what is required in terms of time, distance and effort to experience such places. We look at the dots and splotches on maps that indicate where such things are located, ogle photos from slick publications and imagine ourselves in the …

Continue reading Itty Bitty Boats; Great Big Rocks; Big Big Water

Gordon and Edmund

There are times when learning a bit of history makes some ordinary or cliched thing you've known since forever take on new life. Spend any time in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and sooner or later you’re bound to hear Gordon Lightfoot crooning The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The song is the official background music …

Continue reading Gordon and Edmund

Locking Through

We are currently parked in Sault Ste. Marie in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The word Sault is pronounced “Soo.” Businesses and attractions are either named “Sault-something” or Soo-something,” presumably in the name of variety, and to confound tourists who might be searching for a business named Sault-something when it's actually spelled Soo-something. Our campsite …

Continue reading Locking Through

Shiver Me Timbers!

For our Summer trip we chose to explore the north coast of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Ben and I were last in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (separately) in the 1980s. We reached Sault Ste. Marie, a city perched on the river between the US and Canada, and made it our base camp for the first …

Continue reading Shiver Me Timbers!

Restoration Hangar

You hear people say it again and again. “I never visit local attractions unless I have company from out of town I need to entertain.” I know people who have never visited our local zoo, art museum, theaters, parks and historical sites. We’ve done our fair share in checking Ohio's offerings, but this particular summer …

Continue reading Restoration Hangar

She Loved Dogs

After extended time on the road we stop here and there on the way home for maintenance on our RV. That is how we came to be in Tuscumbia Alabama, where there is an excellent generator service business. Tuscumbia is also the birthplace of Helen Keller. Her childhood home and scene of the famous water …

Continue reading She Loved Dogs

Portland Times Two

We got a later than usual start on on our annual escape from winter. If the weather broadcasters were to be believed, after several days of really cold weather we were going to find ourselves trapped in a “Day After Tomorrow” type polar vortex. (I am a huge fan of cheesey disaster/action films. DAT is …

Continue reading Portland Times Two

College in the Park

Group travel in Yellowstone usually conjures up visions of busloads of elderly tourists decked out with floppy hats, fanny packs and cameras or disaffected teenagers who stand in front of the mountain vistas and text as their chaperones try to motivate them. There are other groups trekking through the park, though you have to be …

Continue reading College in the Park