Pole Day, Race Day, Family Visits, and Finally We are Home!

That's a lot of snow!

The record and average

Going for another stamp

We left Copper Harbor the next day and headed back to Isle Royale’s visitors center in Houghton. On the way out we came across a snow gauge that recorded the record snowfall for the peninsula for the 1978-79 winter. Of course, not all of this snow was present at one time (it sublimates), but it does give one an idea of how much snow falls in this area. By contrast this past warm winter had produced one of the least snowfalls on record and everyone was bemoaning the negative impact that this had (skiing, snowmobiling, etc.) on the local economy. We stopped at the park's visitor center to see the exhibit and collect a second stamp for the park. Once again, we had to reset the year only to find that the stamp would only record through 2011. We must have been the first to point this out to the staff, as they all agreed they would have to order a new stamp. Anyway, we got the stamp and wrote the year into our passport book. We had a leisurely ride through the rest of the UP and northeastern portion of Wisconsin and made it to Rockford, IL, to spend the night. We were on our way to visit with fellow loopers Dave and Joyce Johnson on Joysea, who were now living just outside Indianapolis, IN. We called them and told them we would be there the next day, and everyone was excited at the prospect of reuniting. The area around Rockford is largely agricultural, and this is reflected in the city’s fabric. We had dinner at an interesting restaurant with an agricultural and farming theme. The food was good and service exceptional and Jane got to browse the gift shop and marvel at the various farm implements and tools on display. These things only reminded Capt. Larry of how hard he used to work on the farm.

At Cataract Falls

While heading for the Johnsons’, we came upon the Illinois River in central Illinois. We decided to do a quick side trip over to Ottawa, IL, which had been one of our more favorite stops along the river on the loop. Ottawa is known for being the site of the first Lincoln-Douglas debates, an important station on the underground railroad during the Civil War, and where the Boy Scouts of America was first incorporated. We had visited some of these attractions when we came here by boat, but had trouble trying to find some of them again by car as we kept getting lost. It just goes to show that things used to be centered around the waterways. We finally did find the free dock that we stayed at before leaving to resume our trip. We arrived at Dave and Joyce’s a little past noon and were delighted to see them again. We spent a couple of hours catching up before they started a sightseeing tour for us. We toured the lovely community with its college campus then headed out to the countryside to a farm owned by one of their children. We were given an off-road ATV tour of the spread by their son-in-law, and then were taken to Cataract Falls, the largest waterfalls in Indiana. We headed back to their home where we were treated to a delicious steak dinner before turning in for the night.

The Go Daddy car at practice

Parnelli Jones in a vintage car

The next morning we had breakfast and reminisced about our loop travels for almost two hours. We had a great visit and hoped that it would not be too long before we could do it again. We headed out for Indianapolis to spend a weekend at the speedway and view the qualifying sessions for the Indianapolis 500 the following weekend. We arrived at the race track and went into the stands to watch the practice sessions for Pole Day the next day. We were surprised at some of the speeds that were being turned and knew that qualifications would be interesting. The next day we were back at the track for our first Pole Day- the day the pole and first 24 positions are set, based on the fastest average of four laps. Since the cars only come out one at a time and are set up to produce their fastest times, qualifying is all about pure speed which we thoroughly enjoyed. We watched some  amazing speeds being attained and were excited by the results at the end of the day. It was going to be an interesting race next weekend. On Sunday, Bump Day, the last nine positions are filled. We didn’t attend this event because with only 33 cars attempting to qualify for the 33 positions, there wasn’t anything dramatic to see. Besides, it was swelteringly hot! We stayed in our air conditioned room and watched TV.

The commodore gets his burgee

Hey! No pictures or we'll break your legs

Pam and Jane

After the weekend of qualifications, we had until the following Friday before there were anymore track activities. We had planned to use this time to run over to Ohio and visit some family and friends. We left Indianapolis and took a leisurely ride on some scenic back roads to Lakeside, OH, where we stayed with Kevin and Pam Vogel. The Vogels had set us up with yacht club access to the Gravel Bar Yacht Club when we passed through Lake Erie last year on the loop. We spent an afternoon getting caught up, then went to the yacht club so Kevin, who was elected as the this year’s commodore, could get his official commodore picture taken. Capt. Larry presented Kevin with an AGLCA burgee to display in the club. After the pictures were taken we went to dinner at a great Italian restaurant in Sandusky, OH. It was a hoot! The next morning Pam took us to Lakeside so we could do some early shopping at some gift shops. Jane was looking for gifts and Capt. Larry was searching for Ohio State University cooking supplies for the outdoor kitchen. We both made out pretty well. We returned to the house and packed our things and said goodbye. The Vogels were very gracious and hospitable and we hope to see them again soon at our place.

Edra, cute as a button!

Edie and Opa

Pit stop challenge

We made our way to Columbus, OH to visit Capt. Larry’s nephew and wife, Brian and Janelle Duress. We hadn’t seen them since the pig roast party at Lake Erie last year. We spent the evening visiting and playing with their little girl, Edra (Edie) while Brian barbecued some delicious filets. The next morning we visited some more over breakfast and then got ready to head back to Indianapolis for race weekend. Brian and Janelle had just listed their house for sale and were getting ready for a couple of showings later that day. We said goodbye and had a leisurely ride back to Indy. Race weekend at the speedway is always exciting, starting with Miller Lite Carb Day on Friday before the race. We arrived at the race track around mid-morning and watched the car practice in their race setups until noon. Then we watched the Firestone Indy Lites 100 which is a 100-mile race with up and coming drivers in Indy-style cars that aren’t quite as fast as what the big dogs drive (much like the NASCAR Nationwide Series, but way more interesting and competitive that anything NASCAR produces). After the race we viewed the pit competition in which various pit crew teams compete for prize money. This year the Penske Team streak was broken by the Target Chip Ganassi crews. Finally, the pinnacle of the day was a concert by Lynyrd Skynyrd. We listened to the music and people watched for about an hour before heading back to the motel.

Marcelle and Jane

Gary with a princess

Guy at an Indy dive

On Saturday morning we received a call from Gary and Marcelle Hoffman, our friends from Beverly Hills, CA. Gary and Marcelle were able to obtain a race weekend package and had flown in the evening before. Jane and Marcelle used to work together and go way back. We made plans to get together that evening for dinner. We met the Hoffmans at their hotel and walked down to Harry and Izzy’s steakhouse restaurant for dinner and a great evening of visiting. As we were leaving, in came the 33 Indianapolis 500 princesses. Well, this required that Gary and Capt. Larry have their pictures taken. As we were leaving the restaurant we saw Guy Fieuri of the Food Channel making his way into St. Elmo’s, another steakhouse. We went back to the Hoffmans’ hotel and visited a little longer before saying goodnight and heading out.

Marcelle and Gary on race day

The leaning pagoda of Indy

All settled in for the race

Dario wins!

Race Day! We arose and got to the track early so we could have breakfast at the American Legion hall with Gary and Marcelle. We had heard about this event in previous years, but had never been able to find the location. This year Jane stumbled upon it while she was out shopping for tee shirts. We had a great breakfast then we all went to our car and sat in lawn chairs, people watched, visited, and drank bloody marys! Around 10:00 a.m. we heard the big drum of the Purdue Marching Band bang away, so we knew it was time to head in to our seats. We were seated and got a call from Dave Johnson who was sitting down in turn one. We had made plans to meet up inside the track prior to the race. Unfortunately, we missed the call because of all of the noise from the pre-race festivities. We tried several times to call Dave, but figured that he couldn’t hear his phone ring. The same thing happened to us as we missed another call from him. Neither of us text messages which probably would have allowed us to get together. We watched the pre-race activities and then the race started. What an exciting race it was! There were 3 different engines and a new car chassis this year which resulted in a record number of lead changes. And the finish was exciting with the lead car being challenged on the last lap before the challenger spun out with about one-half lap to go. Capt. Larry correctly picked Dario Franchitti as this year’s winner and extended his winner picking streak to two years in a row. It was a really fun day for us, but there was a record high temperature and it was great when it was over and we were back in air conditioning.

We left Indy early the next morning and drove straight back to Louisiana arriving around 8:00 p.m. It was a long travel time for us and we were happy to be back home and sleeping in our bed again. And that ends our May travels!

Finally, We Make it to Isle Royal National Park!

Waiting to board the ferry

We arose the next day to find the lake conditions a little rougher than we had expected. The waters were fairly protected at the ferry dock and our adjacent motel, but with a fairly stiff southwest wind, we knew the open waters might make for a bouncy ride to Isle Royale. We got everything together for the day’s journey and headed over to the ferry office to check in. We were surprised at the number of people that were going over to the park with us. We were the only day trippers and everyone else were going over to spend a week in the wilderness. The season was just beginning so the campers had to pack in everything they would need for the duration of their stay. As we were boarding the ferry, the captain came by and told us that the conditions on the open water were rough. As day trippers, we would be on the ferry a total of 7 hours that day, and it may not be pleasant. We told him that this was our only chance to visit the park and we would be all right (we felt we were pretty familiar with Great Lakes sailing conditions!). After we boarded, Capt. Larry went forward to the helm and listened to the NOAA weather forecast. The seas were reported at 1-2 ft. with SW winds at the western buoy, so it wouldn’t be too bad! With the wind direction and large fetch on the lake we would experience some rolling around, but we shouldn’t have brutal, crashing conditions like we experienced when we traveled on Lake Michigan. We left the harbor and were bounced around the first hour, but then things settled down and we slept and read the rest of the way over.

Jane figures out where we are

Heading for the bay

No seaplanes in the Tobin Bay

Rock Harbor and boat dock

Saginaw Point lighthouse

Honkers outside our motel room

We arrived at Isle Royale’s Rock Harbor visitor’s center just before noon. The ferry left to deliver the members of a wolf pack research team to the interior of the island, and then would return to pick us up. The island of Isle Royale is in Michigan, but is actually closer to Minnesota and Canada than the Upper Peninsula. It is approximately 45 miles long and 9 miles across at its widest width. Many years ago moose swam over from Canada and populated the island. The moose population thrived, but the winter of 1949, a land bridge formed between the island and Canada and a lone pair of wolves arrived and set up a unique predator-prey relationship. This relationship and the moose and wolf populations have been extensively studied, and you can read more about the ecological dynamics at this link. Because we only had around 3 hours at the park and many park offices were still closed, we were limited in what we could do. Of course, the first order of business was to obtain our stamp at the visitor’s center. We believe that we were the first visitors to get the stamp for 2012 as we had to change the stamp date to the correct year. We had a picnic lunch along the shores of Rock Harbor and then walked to the amphitheater, an old lodging display, and the park’s restaurant and lodge. We then hiked across the island to a complex of rental cabins that overlook a beautiful Tobin Bay. This bay is also home to the seaplane docks which is another way of coming to the island. We hiked along a wilderness trail until Capt. Larry’s knees started to complain. Returning to the visitor’s center, we chatted with the rangers while we watched our ferry return to the dock. One ranger told us that more people visit Yellowstone National Park in a day than visit Isle Royale in a year, and in recent years approximately 14,000 visitors have come to the park. However, he also noted that Isle Royale has the highest rate of return visitors of any of the national parks. If this is accurate, then there are not many people that have seen this beautiful place and that thought made us feel like we were part of a special club. Around 2:30 p.m. we boarded our ferry and watched as some campers that had come over the previous Friday for the weekend loaded up their gear for the return trip. The ride back to the mainland was much smoother than the morning trip and we napped most of the way. It was early evening when we docked and we headed out to a restaurant for some supper before turning in for the night.

Sunset by the shores of Gitchi Gumee, by the shining big sea waters

Up in the UP

Right out there's where we went by boat

In the UP!

Grand Island Harbor

We left Charlevoix the next day and made our way over the Mackinac Bridge and the Mackinac Straits into the Upper Peninsula, or the UP. As soon as you cross the bridge you realize that the UP is another world. It’s very similar to going to New Orleans. And the Youppers (UP residentas) are proud of where they live. Signs advertising pasties (PAST eez) are everywhere as well as an eclectic assortment of oddball tourist attractions, where anything that seems to be out of the ordinary is featured as a must see place to stop and spend money. One such place was Christmas, MI, which advertises itself as THE place to postmark and send your Christmas cards and lists to Santa. Jane found a Christmas store and went shopping for gifts and ornaments. We made our way to Marquette, MI, which we had visited one the motorcycle trip in 2008, and checked in at the same motel we had previously stayed at. We went to a local restaurant that was known for its pasties to give them a try. We were told that we came to the right place and were given a choice of a pasty with or without rutabagas. They were rather large so we decided to split one with the rutabagas.

It's cold in the UP

Basically a pasty is a puff pastry shell filled with pieces of steak and finely diced potatoes and rutabagas (Much like a pot pie). Ours didn’t have a whole lot of meat in it and the overall flavor was rather bland. We think it has English origins which probably explain the lack of flavor. Jane had one bite so Capt. Larry at most of it before we checked it off the list as something we had tried. We both agreed that some smoked sausage, pork, tasso, chicken and some Cajun seasoning would have made it worth eating. We returned to the motel and walked to a nearby cinema where we saw Johnny Depp’s movie Dark Shadows.

The Ranger III

A Copper Harbor gift shop

A little UP humor!

Our ferry to Isle Royale

The next morning we took a leisurely ride through the western UP heading for Copper Harbor, MI. Here we would take a ferry over to Isle Royale National Park and hopefully collect our stamp. Along the way we stopped in Grand IslandHarbor for lunch and then visited a roadside park with a scenic overlook of the harbor. We followed some back roads to Houghton and stopped at the Isle Royale visitor’s center. Since it was Sunday and early in the season, everything was closed, but we did see the park service’s ship, Ranger III, which is used to ferry visitors and supplies over to the island. Running along the shore of Lake Superior, we finally ended up at Copper Harbor. While the village only has 90 residents, it is well set up to handle the tourists that come to visit the park. There are several motels and restaurants, but not all of them were open so early in the season. We checked into our motel, went to the ferry office to get the details for the next day’s ride, then went to a restaurant for dinner.