Week 7 and 8 were spent with friends and family, so I skipped substack for that time. But I did make a short reel that you can watch here, which doesn’t truly capture all of the people we saw and fun things we did.
Saturday, June 22nd
This felt like another farewell to Michigan, even though we were really just heading to the UP. We said goodbye to my mom in Greenbush and headed north after spending the morning being lazy and playing card games. The trip up through the lower peninsula gave us some crazy skies, but not much trouble until we crossed the Mackinac Bridge.
It felt like we were going to get blown right off the side and into the water because of how much the wind and rain were blowing sideways at the trailer. Zac was a champ and made it across nice and slow though. We went just a little further into St. Ignace and were able to park the trailer for the night at a casino for free. This was our first time staying in a casino parking lot, and there were a lot of other RVs there which made us feel a little safer and more welcome. We braved the rain and went inside the casino to play a couple slots and hands of blackjack before calling it a night. Casinos might have to be the new go-to for overnight stops instead of Cracker Barrel or Walmart, this felt way less imposing.
Sunday, June 23rd
Left the casino and headed to our campground for the week - Bewabic State Park. We drove along the lower coastline of the upper peninsula and got to see some sweeping views of Lake Michigan. Made it to our campground with just a few dropped calls along the way and got settled in to our site while adjusting to our new time zone.
Monday, June 24th
Once we started work on Monday, we realized that our internet connection wasn’t strong enough. We checked with the park office and asked to move campsites so that we could use Starlink with un-interupted views of the sky. In record time we packed up our trailer and got re-situated with way better internet connectivity at a new campsite. After work we explored the state park and did a short little trail with some nice views. Then we got some ice cream at a cute local shop called Fizzy’s and then checked out the riverwalk in the nearby city of Crystal Falls.
Tuesday, June 25th
Today was Zac’s birthday! We finished work and his one request was steak on his special day. We got two different cuts of meat and Zac went to work on the grill, afterwards we shared some wine on the beach and Zac enjoyed one of his cigars. Then we waded into the cold water and swam for a while before calling it an early night.
Wednesday, June 26th
While checking into the state park on Sunday I grabbed a brochure that listed local activities. Skimming it, I noticed a free waterski show put on twice a week in a town about 30 minutes from us. So we drove up to Spread Eagle on this 60 degree evening and got out our folding chairs and blankets for the hour-long show. This was a pleasant and fun surprise! We were so impressed by the performers and couldn’t believe some of the things they could do on waterskis. Afterward we drove towards Iron Mountain and grabbed some ice cream from a shop that had two cows to pet and feed out near the parking lot. Zac got his go-to and said this was the best chocolate-peanut butter milkshake he’s had since starting our trip! To finish out our night, we headed to an overlook to see the city of Iron Mountain and take a peak at the sunset.
Thursday, June 27th
This was one of our chiller nights, made a quick dinner and then tried to go to a waterfall nearby. The directions and street markings were not very clear and we had to do some off-roading for quite a bit. Once we got to the end of the dirt road the stable flies were dive-bombing our truck. The flies in the UP are particularly bad at the moment and we were not willing to risk getting attacked by this swarm, so we turned around and headed back to camp.
Friday, June 28th
After work on Friday we raced to Marquette to meet Gabby and her family for dinner. We made it just in time and had a pretty nice dinner at The Vierling Restaurant then said goodbye to Gabby’s great aunt and second cousin. We grabbed some ice cream after that and then headed to the Black Rocks in Presque Isle State Park.
A plan was made earlier in the week to jump off these cliffs (a right of passage), but that was before we realized it would be 60 degrees out and the temps of Lake Superior would be close to freezing. Zac, Gabby, and I made it to the edge of the cliffs with an audience of people watching from the sidelines and the beach. I have done this before so I shouldn’t have been so scared but I think it was a combination of the height, cold, audience and the darkness that physically kept me from jumping in. Zac and Gabby were fearless and stepped off the cliff hoping I would come along with them, but I just couldn’t do it. Felt pretty disappointed in myself but proud of Gabby and Zac for making the plunge!
Saturday, June 29th
Our normal Saturday consists of packing up and moving on towards our next site - this Saturday had a bit of a wrench thrown into it. We rolled out of bed around 9am and realized that Scout had gotten out of one of our windows by opening the screen. I have an AirTag on him and my phone let me know he was last nearby around 7am, but couldn’t tell us exactly where he was because it wasn’t within bluetooth range. We spent hours walking and driving all around the campground searching for him, even asking other campers if they had seen a cat. Both of us were panicking and so worried that we ended up extending our stay an extra night to give us more time to find him. Right after driving to the office to extend our stay, Zac started walking in the thick woods behind our site and got a ping off the AirTag. Turns out Scout was about 100’ from our campsite under some logs and brush, scared and covered in burrs. We were soooooo relieved and took the rest of the day to clean him up and de-stress to get ready for travel tomorrow.
Sunday, June 30th
Packed up this morning and got on the road towards our Fourth of July week campsite. I had struggled to find a reservation in Wisconsin for this week because of the holiday and even had to set up a notification for anything that became available on the state parks website. Lucky for us, Willow River State Park let me know that they had a spot open and I booked it immediately. When we pulled into this place there were 100+ people parking for just day use. Little did we know that Willow River had an awesome waterfall that you can swim in, making it one of the most popular parks in Wisconsin. We sure got lucky!
A few years ago we did a trip through the Upper Penisula and loved it! Although this week we didn’t do much sight seeing, we still really enjoyed our stay on our way west towards Montana. I have compiled a list of the things we saw on our UP trip a few years ago and would highly recommend Lake of the Clouds if you are ever in the area!
Check out the reel I made for this week and subscribe for free to the substack by clicking below if you haven’t already!