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.

Looping by Land

We haven’t posted to this blog since we got back from our Great Loop trip, because we hadn’t taken any major trips. We enjoyed spending Thanksgiving with our looper friends in Panama City, FL and Christmas with our family. We spent most of January and February catching up on doctor visits and things that we postponed until after the loop. The biggest deal was that in February, Capt. Larry saw an orthopedist about having knee replacement surgery which was scheduled for early March. Most of March and April were spent rehabbing in our home in Florida. At the end of April he was finally discharged with his surgeon agreeing to do the other knee in July. So, that meant that we only had May and June to do some traveling and some of the work at our two houses. Since we always come north in May for the Indy 500, we decided to extend the trip this year and do some traveling before the race.

We had almost the entire month of May to travel, so we decided to head back north and revisit some of the areas in Michigan that we had traveled to last year while doing the loop. We also found out that, although it would be early in the season, we could take a ferry from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula over to the Isle Royal National Park to get a stamp for our passport book. Isle Royale was the only national park that we were unable to visit when we did our four corners motorcycle ride around the country in 2008. Then the plan was to work our way back down to Indianapolis and visit our looper friends, Dave and Joyce Johnson who sailed on Joysea, before going to the Indy 500 qualifications for our first time. The week between the qualifications and the race would be spent in Ohio visiting family. After the race we would high tail it back to Louisiana to get a bunch of stuff done before Capt. Larry’s surgery and rehab in July.

Frankfort, here we come!

Mmmmmmm, smoked fish sausage!

Jane on Dune Climb

Beautiful Leland marina!

So, with that agenda we headed out. We made our way up to Indianapolis from Louisiana, then took scenic route US 31 up into Michigan. This route runs along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan so we could revisit by car some of the places we had visited by boat. Of course, one can approximately travel by car in one hour the distance you can travel by boat in a day, so we wouldn’t be revisiting all of the places we had traveled to on the loop. One of our favorite stops on the boat trip was Grand Haven, MI, the home of the musical water fountains and light displays in the summer. We love Grand Haven and it was interesting to see it by car. We saw the marina and boat slip we had stayed at for 3 days, then had supper a really neat tavern. The next day we headed north again and took another route into Frankfort, MI. We stopped at a smokehouse so that Capt. Larry could purchase some smoked fish sausage at the same shop next to the marina we were at last year.  It was fun visiting with the owner of the shop who was familiar with and interested in the loop.

At the visitor's center

The route out of Frankfort took us along the shore of Lake Michigan and we ended up at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. We stopped at the visitor’s center to collect the stamp for the passport book then went to Dune Climb to see the dunes up close and have a picnic lunch.  The dunes were beautiful, but we thought the view from the lake was better. We left the park and made our way to Leland, MI, another one of our favorite loop stops. Jane went shopping while Capt. Larry went to Carson’s Fish House to get some more smoked fish sausage. We visited the marina we had stayed at and then followed some back roads through Traverse City, ending up in Charlevoix which we had immensely enjoyed last year. We got a room for the night and then went to an Italian restaurant for dinner.