This past two to three weeks has been an absolute whirlwind for my wife and I. We made two pretty significant camping trips within five days of each other. It basically gave us enough time at home to do the laundry before we had to load it all back in the trailer to leave again.
Days in my office have been rare and days that I get to post on Hive have been even fewer.
As good as it feels to be settling back into my routine, I am going to miss the days of traveling, exploring, and breathing in the fresh air of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
Make no mistake... this is going to be a long, drawn out series of posts about our recent travels. I hope you enjoy reading it and I hope you gather something useful from at least one of the posts.
Think of this post as an introduction to what will be filling your feed over the next couple of weeks. I will try to break them up into short segments to make it easier on you as the reader.
As I mentioned, we made two separate trips to the "UP" of Michigan. We felt obligated to take a picture of what used to be Sanford Lake as we crossed over it. This past Summer we had a massive (once in 500 years they say) storm that caused the failure of several dams.
The area you see in these pictures used to be completely covered with water. Now it is just the original river flowing through what used to be a lake before they dammed it. If you want to learn more about the flood, just Google Edenville Dam failure and you will probably find a ton of videos and pictures as well as lawyer pages because of the class action lawsuit that is going on against the companies that own the dams.
Speaking of obligatory pictures... Even as a native from Michigan (Michigander), you never go over the Mackinac Bridge without taking a picture (unless you drive over it every day for work...).
The Mackinac Bridge is a five mile long suspension bridge that connects the Lower Peninsula and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We call those who live in the UP Yoopers and they lovingly refer to us LP people as trolls (because we live below the bridge).
Just to give you an idea of the scope of our two trips... Our first camping trip took us eight hours away from our home. The second one was about four hours.
Once again, to give you a point of reference...
The state of Michigan is just about 250,493 square kilometres in area. Here are a few comparisons:
- England ~130,279 square kilometres
- United Kingdom ~244,820 square kilometres
- Spain ~504,782 square kilometres
- Nigeria ~923,769 square kilometres
Remember, Michigan is just one state, if that helps to give you an idea of just how big the US is.
With all of the day-trips we took, our first camping trip clocked about 1400 round trip miles on our truck (that's ~2253 kilometres). The second trip had us racking up ~660 miles (~1062 kilometres).
I wanted to keep this post to around 500 words, so I will leave you with a couple more pictures of the Mackinac Bridge before I call it a day.
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Very impressive bridge and that you managed to fit in some good camping adventures!!
Yeah, it was a really memorable trip!
Keep enjoying your time together.
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I have no idea how I missed this yesterday.
Man, that Mackinac bridge is a piece of work, isn't it? I've been over it 2 times, once each way on Connie and it is intimidating on a calm day. But beautiful, really gorgeous structure.
You know I'm looking forward to the UP. It's been two years since I made it to the bridge and actually feel like I need to go back again. I love that area.
As you will find out in the coming days/weeks, this trip covered our last section of the UP that we had yet to explore as a couple. It is by no means the last time we will visit there! The bridge is definitely awe inspiring no matter how many times you have gone over it.
when i was a kid and we went over those long bridges we would stick our faces in the curvature of the back seat window, look up, and it would create the sensation of falling... anyone else ever do that?
I have never heard of that before. That is pretty funny though. I don't find myself in the back seat too much anymore, but if I do I will try it out. Assuming I can fit!
i don't recommend it when one is driving the car at the time :P It's probably just a kid thing.. If i went and tried to do it today I would probably think that it was stupid, and so was I for even trying it.
I think you reported something about more recent floods. or was it another area, not the one you speak of now?
We're having both floods (in the capital city) and wildfires (near the south borders) on a territory twice as small as that state ;) I am serving as a family driver and I can't take the liberty of going for pictures of the wildfires right now.
I actually hope they are dealt with soon but in general...I feel the "Up" side of the globe did not take seriously the months-ago warning signs from "Down Under".
Very good points. We have wildfires every year on the West side of the country. They just seem to be getting bigger and bigger each year and it is horrible. These are the same floods. It has been horrible, but I can't imagine what it must be like over there. Good luck with everything!
Things in the US are on a different scale to the UK for sure. If we drive 400 miles it's a big deal as that takes up way up into Scotland. That bridge is impressive. Not sure I've been on any bridge that long.
Hope you have enjoyed your travels and look forward to hearing more.
Yeah, I remember you saying something about that before which is why I thought it might be a good idea to throw out some numbers so people could have an idea.
I agree on the bridge. It is always a big deal to go over it no matter how many times I do it.
thanks for sharing your adventure i love that bridge
do they plan to rebuild the dams that were damaged?
I think that is still up for debate. The original plan was to not, but the homeowners on the lake are obviously not okay with that. There is/was a lot of money tied up in the land around what used to be the lakes.
I see, keep us posted on what develops
Will do!
I bet it was so nice to get away from the usual surroundings and routine. My wife and I really need to do that soon. I've never been to that part of Michigan but have heard nothing but good things. On our trips to visit my great aunt in Detroit (1970's) we crossed over into Windsor, Canada a few times but that's about as far North as I've been.
We're going to try to escape to the North Shore to a cabin before the snow flies. It's so beautiful and peaceful up there. Maybe by this time next year we'll have made our RV purchase.
Good luck with the RV thing. It is definitely a big decision. It always makes me a little sad when I see people spend a lot of money on an RV only to have it sit in their driveway all Summer. I know that won't be the case for you given your plans! Detroit is pretty awesome, but you really need to get farther North to really appreciate the magnificence of Michigan.
Thanks! We're going to spend as little as we can on a reliable one. We're rethinking the wisdom of having it be our primary residence right off the bat. We're going to be putting our condo on the market soon so after we get resettled in a new place we'll be purchasing the RV and setting off on our road trips, the UP will be on the list.
That sounds like an awesome idea. I personally like having a place to call home. It can be a pain at times, but it is just a really good feeling. There are so many great places to check out up that way. You will probably be coming from the North West so you get to see all of the right away. The Lake Superior circle tour is a nice trip too once you can get back into Canada. We did it when I was a kid once.
It's always a great idea to take a break from daily routines and escape to new places/adventures :)
I totally agree!
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Because this is such an awesome post, here is a BBH Tip for you.
. Keep up the fantastic work