2010-07 Soo Locks

From 2010-07 Soo Locks

(Aerial photo of Soo Locks seen in the Visitor Center)

Our son Ward drove up to Mackinaw City from Chicago and stayed almost a week. It was great to spend time with him. We primarily stayed around the campground, but did take a day trip to Sault Ste. Marie, MI to tour the Soo Locks.

It was just over an hour’s drive across the Mackinaw Bridge and up through the Upper Peninsula. This is a sparsely populated area of forests and some farmland until you reach Sault Ste. Marie, which is pronounce “Soo Saint Marie” and comes from a French translation that means “the falls of St Mary’s (river)".

We had a very enjoyable stay two years ago at Aune Osborne campground which sits right on the bank of the St Mary’s river just south of the Soo Locks. Our campsite was next to the river, and I was frequently stepping out to take close-up pictures of the Great Lakes freighters (“Lakers”) as they passed. Here is one of those photos:

From 08-08 Sault Ste Marie

Looking at the Soo Locks visitor center web site I learned that freighters passed through the locks on average every 1 1/2 hours.  So based upon that information and our prior experience, we assumed we would be able to watch a ship pass through. Well we were wrong. Six ships had passed through that morning, but none were in the St Mary’s river channel from the south or in Lake Superior from the north. The visitor center has a computer display that shows the location of ships in those areas, but no incoming ships were visible. We learned that traffic had been way down in 2009 due to the economy, but had picked back up so far this year. However a recent visitor came in from Duluth, Minnesota who works at the huge grain elevators on Lake Superior. He said their elevators were empty because there had been too much rain and the crops had failed (I assume winter wheat.) So he said no international ships nor “Lakers” would be coming through the locks with grain anytime soon.  I imagine that is a key reason we did not see any ships.

We did watch a tour boat go through the locks.

From 2010-07 Soo Locks

And just enjoyed looking at the locks and entrance way.

From 2010-07 Soo Locks

2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petoskey, MI

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

Tuesday July 13th we headed on a day trip toward Petoskey, Michigan.   On the way we took a short detour after we saw a sign for the McGulpins Point Lighthouse. 

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

This lighthouse went into service in 1869, but was only used for 37 years.  It became redundant when a lighthouse was built in Mackinaw City that provided a better light for both the west and east entrances to the Straits of Mackinac.  The local county bought the property a few years back and began restoration.  The iron top was rebuilt and installed just a year again in April 2009.  I read that many lighthouses still owned by the Federal Government are being decommissioned and will be sold over the next few years.  Wouldn’t it be neat to buy and live in one?  (But perhaps not that far north)

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

Before we had left, we had chosen a route that was marked scenic.  Since this road is along Lake Michigan, we thought we would have great views of the lake.

The route is known as “The Tunnel of Trees”,  It is a beautiful drive through a heavy canopy of trees. 

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

The road is winding, narrow and a bit of a challenge to drive.  We only had some occasional views of the lake.

Along the way, we spotted this group of people practicing polo.  Wish it had been a real match.  We would have stopped to watch having never seen one before.

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

We also drove past a golf course that is quite a distance from anywhere.  It was appropriately named The Wilderness Golf Course. 

The lovely town of Harbor Springs was our next stop.  We enjoyed lunch, a stroll through the town, and going into some of the shops.

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

The town was very clean and all the buildings were so well maintained.  We asked one shop keeper if there was a town ordinance about how frequently they needed to paint.  She said no it was just the pride of the town and shop owners.

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

Almost all shops had beautiful window boxes of flowers.

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

There were lovely homes

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

and this one is the town museum.

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

In Petoskey, we stopped at a park and enjoyed the beautiful view.

From 2010-07 Harbor Springs and Petosky

After a short drive through Petoskey, we headed back to the RV.  This time by a more direct route

2010-07 Mackinaw City, Michigan

From 2010-07 Mackinaw Bridge

We reluctantly left Creekwood Farm RV Park on July 6th. We really enjoyed our stay there, but we had firm reservations in Michigan.  So it was time to go.  

We traveled 4 days with three overnight stops along the way. We drove about 250 miles each day for a total of almost 900 miles.  We much prefer making shorter trips where we only stop overnight one or two nights before we stay a week to a month in the same area.

This trip was made more stressful because we are having problems with the slide mechanisms that open the room expansions in our bedroom and kitchen.  Each stop we had difficulty getting the bedroom slide to open or close.  We did not even attempt to open the kitchen slide.  It appears we have a voltage problem due to either a battery problem or some other electrical component.  Based on advice from my friend and Master RV Tech, Dale Sumner, I'm going to clean and check all the battery connections.  If that does not fix the problem, we  are hopeful someone from Newmar can diagnose the problem while at the upcoming Newmar Rally in Indiana. Anyway we were really tired when we reached Mackinaw Mill Creek Campground in Mackinaw City, Michigan.

This is a huge campground with over 600 sites, although probably only about 1/2 are actively being used.  We are fortunate to have a large site and one of the few full hook-up sites with 50 amp service.  Most sites have only partial or no hook-ups and many are much smaller.  Lots of RV's are crammed in with barely enough room to open their slides and patio awnings.  There are a lot of tent campers here with many of these also on very small sites.

This a popular spot for family campers.  In spite of  some of the cramped spacing, all seem to be having a good time.   There are a lot of little ones on bikes with training wheels.  They are learning to ride and having great fun, but neither they nor most of the other children are being  cautious about where they are going.  It sure makes us pay close attention as we slowly drive in and out of the campground. 

The main attraction for the campground is its location beside Lake Huron with a great view of the Mackinaw Bridge.  The "Mighty Mac"  connects the lower peninsula of Michigan with the Upper Peninsula.  It was built in 1957 and, at almost 5 miles, is the longest suspension bridge between anchorages in the western hemisphere.

Our site is just around the corner from a nice park area with a wonderful view of the bridge.  
 

From 2010-07 Mackinaw Bridge

We have enjoyed some beautiful sunsets.

From 2010-07 Sunset at Mackinaw Bridge

From 2010-07 Sunset at Mackinaw Bridge

So far we have had very pleasant weather with only one day of rain.  We are looking forward to touring some of the surrounding area over the next month.