Tag: Mackinac Bridge

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Green Bay to St. Ignace

Amy Kline

Started off our U.P. Roadtrip about 10:30 am with a beautiful drive up to our campsite for the next couple nights at Straits State Park, which is very near the Mackinac Bridge. We stopped for lunch in Marinette and I was able to stop in a a quilt shop there for a few minutes.

Later we stopped to stretch our legs at an amazing beach called ThompsonRogers Roadside Park. Carson and I were expecting to do a little rock hounding, but the sand was like brand new sandbox sand. So we waded instead. There was a spring fed fountain where people could fill up their water bottles too. A great place to stop during a road trip!

Kwik Trips are the best for roadtrips. Good food, easy parking
Spotted knapweed-apparently invasive but pretty flowers against the sand.
Puncture vine. Called that for a reason. Also invasive. But pretty. Goos thing we didn’t take shoes off until we were near the water!
It was only knee deep about 30 feet from shore . Refreshing!

We got to our campsite and set up pretty quickly. It is so much easier now that the boys are older and help so much. Jeff made some delicious pork sandwiches while I went to explore and check out the viewing spot of the bridge that was near the campsite. Amazing view!

After so many years of camping, we have a pretty nice setup that is efficient to set up and take down. We have 2 plastic drawer containers that Jeff puts on the picnic table and then locks away in the back of the pickup along with the cooler at night. No raccoons visiting us in the middle of the night! The drawers hold all the dishes, cooking utensils, dry foods and snacks. We also have a Rubbermaid tub for the bigger things like bread and big bags of potato chips.

One other thing we started doing is to put a trail cam out to capture any animal invading our site and as a deterrent to any potential bad guy who might try to break into our camper while we are out hiking or adventuring for the day.

We are in a wooded campsite so no sunset pic or decent view of the sky here, The weather is perfect though-cool enough to keep the mosquitos away, but not cold at all. Great sleeping weather in the pop-up tonight!

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Michigan Driving day

Amy Kline
  • My daylilies bloomed just in time!
  • Our goal was to leave about 7am, and we drove out of the driveway at 7:38 and didn’t have to go back to grab anything. Pretty good for a 25 day trip!
  • Bye house!
  • Jeff did most of the overall schedule planning for this trip and will do almost all the driving too. Amy does the research on things to do and see along the way. We both packed and got the camper and truck packed.
  • Our first stop was a boat landing. Great visual! One summer I worked for the City of Oshkosh and tested lake water for zebra mussels which were just starting to take over. They can really do damage to water intake pipes!
  • Trains! (If anyone reading this didn’t know, Jeff loves trains)
  • Great to see a Monarch on some milkweed.
  • We stopped for lunch here and you can see the Mackinac Bridge in the distance.
  • A windy selfie
  • Impressive, isn’t it?
  • The cost was $2 per axle. Not bad! We were expecting it to be a lot more.
  • The table is the staging area for the bed of the pickup. The blue cooler on the right is the only cooler we bring. Jeff built a cedar rack in the bottom of it so water can drain out as the ice melts. No soggy food!
  • A selfie on the northern most shore of Lake Michigan.
  • A quick tailgate lunch

We set off almost at the target time of 7am, and drove for most of the day. The highlight of the day was stopping for lunch in the shadow of the great Mackinac Bridge. Amazing feat of engineering! We also stopped to stretch our legs mid morning as we drove through the U.P. and saw some really old train cars. The driving was pleasant all day, not crowded and no bad weather, with occasional construction zones. After getting to the hotel and a bite to eat, we are all relaxing and will probably fall asleep early.