Day 52: Happy Birthday, Carol!!! We woke up to a nice sunrise at the
Epoufette Bay campground on Lake Michigan. The morning was very quiet
as the waves had subsided. Janut, Bob and I drove to the Bridge View
Park (Mackinac Bridge) and hung out there for a few hours to air out and
dry John & Alan's tents (condensation and lake fog), prepped dinner
in the slow cooker, chatted with sprinter van admirers (during the
sprinter van tour the guy kept saying to his wife "this is what
YOU want honey!"), and talked to a nice guy named Ken who sold his home
and belongings in Oregon and took off in June with just $50 in his
pocket (no credit cards) and is riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle to
Maine. His blogspot is "Cruising with Ken". He has basically survived
from generous handouts from sandwich shop employees, gas station
attendants, KOA campgrounds, you name it. A nice guy on an epic
adventure with no time limit...a free spirit. We wish Ken the best.
After crossing the Mackinac Bridge, Janut saw a guy with his pet
chicken. He was carrying the chicken, then carefully placed it in the
ground, kissed it on its head, and proceeded to take pictures of his
chicken on the beach with the Mackinac Bridge in the background! Too
cute! We headed southwest along the west shore of "the mitt" of
Michigan, a beautiful shoreline with sand dunes, beautiful homes, and
cool "tunnel trees" (roads with tall green trees that form a canopy -
feels like a tunnel of trees). Tonight's camp site is in the Petoskey
State Park. Kevin had his own little adventure today...he was taking a
picture while riding his bike, side swiped an orange traffic barrel, and
lost the brake cover on his right shifter (but it still works ... for
now). this afternoon we enjoyed the sunshine and chowed down on beef
pot roast for dinner. Another good day. by Jo 
Day 51: Lovely morning at Indian Lake State Park, Manistique, MI. We
talked to a man who owed a converted sprinter van, a couple who lived in
Anacortes, WA, and a woman riding her bicycle from Detroit, MI to
Ironwood, WI. Kevin and John talked to a man who stopped them as they
were riding out of the park. There's s lot of nice people everywhere we
go. Janut, Bob and I drove up to the Palm Books State Park to see the
Kitch-iti-kipi "The Big Spring". It's Michigan's largest
freshwater spring (400 feet across and 40 feet deep, and a constant
45*F all year long). It is crystal clear, stocked with trout and on the
bottom you can see the water wells erupting from the bedrock of
limestone and sand. It was cool awesome! Janut, Bob and I rode on the
tow rope raft that had the middle of it open so you can see underneath
it (like an observation window, but without the glass). Afterwards we
drove into Manistique, had lunch at Big Boy's, and walked to the 35 foot
tall lighthouse at the mouth of the Manistique River on Lake Michigan.
Manistique has a 2 mile Boardwalk, but we ran outta time to walk it.
The boys rode like the wind and beat us to Epoufette, WI, so they hung
out at the Cut River Inn until we got there. We got the primo spot at
the Epoufette Bay Campground (Lake Michigan) with a shoreline view (we
have the campground all to ourselves), a couple of large white swans
were swimming off shore. There's also an artesian well where water is
constantly flowing out of the spigot. We made a yummy dinner of
chicken, chick pea, veggie coconut curry over rice, enjoyed cherry pie,
and another beautiful sunset. The waves sound like we're at the ocean
and the stars are incredible. A wonderful spot...except for the
mosquitoes that came out at dusk...once again we are thankful for
Kevin's man sewn screen. by Jo
Before Day 50: John's back! Yay! Yesterday (Sunday - Sept 18) John
flew into Green Bay from Seattle and I flew into Green Bay from Los
Angeles (my niece's wedding in LA was really fun). My LA flight take
off was delayed 20 minutes and my Chicago landing was delayed (sat on
the Tarmac for 20 minutes after landing waiting for a gate to open) so I
missed my connection to Green Bay. The Chicago airport is humongous, I
ran ... it felt like I ran a half mile (in 5 minutes) to try
get to my connecting gate in time...I was out of breath and upset that
the plane didn't wait for me. I had to take another flight out 4 hours
later. Kevin, Janut and John waited for me in GB and picked me up at
10:10pm (central time) and then we drove 2.25hrs to Escanaba. By the
time we went to sleep it was 2am (eastern time).
Day 50: After organizing gear and luggage, drinking motel coffee and
eating yummy 85* pastries from LA, Kevin, Alan, and John took off. Then
Janut and I shipped John's suitcase back home (filled with excess
gear), bought more pasties at Gram's Pasties, and had an adventure
driving out to the Peninsula Point Lighthouse. The one lane dirt road
has giant mud puddles, low overhanging tree limbs, and is a lumpy
washboard...but we decided to take a chance and go for it. It was going
well until we had to stop and turn around when we came upon a fallen
tree that was too low for the sprinter van to pass under...we
successfully completed a 20 point turn on the narrow dirt road. We
parked the van on the side of the road and ran 100 yards to see the
lighthouse, take pictures, and then we ran back to the van. Not sure
why we had to run, but we did. We hit some tree limbs so Janut assessed
the damage...just one long superficial scratch on the top of the
van...all is good. We have a nice camp site on the lake at the Indian
Lake State Park in Michigan. It was bike maintenance day this
afternoon. John's right shifter wasn't working and they couldn't fix
it, so they took off Janut's shifter and put it on John's bike. John
also put on cushier new tires and a handle bar bag. We made a yummy
chicken green chili lasagna (Carol Kautz's recipe - thank you Carol!)
and enjoyed cookies from the Torrance bakery. Plus we ended the day with
another beautiful sunset! by Jo
