Our First 10 Days

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I had originally intentended to make my own website but time got away from me and thus I use this Travel Blog to report in with you all. If it doesn't work out I can make a website later but I felt I needed to update everyone on our travels now.

June 9: We left Grand Rapids and spent Saturday, Sunday and Monday at Bill and Pat's cabin by Grayling. It is good to see family. All of Michelle's family was there along with Carter, Amy, Bob and Mom. THANK YOU BILL AND PAT for being such great hosts. We had seafood boil (crablegs, shrimp, sausage, potatoes, onion and corn on the cob dumpted directly on the table) YUM! The kids played in the water almost all day long.



June 11: We left the cabin and headed to the upper peninsula. We stayed two nights at Fayette State Historical Park. They have a restored iron ore smelting village restored. It is on a pennisula that juts out into Lake Michigan. Very pictureesque.



June 13: Stayed three nights at the Porcupine Mountains State Park, Presque Isle campground. It is one of my favorite spots in the USA. It has a river that flows over rock for about a mile down to Lake Superior. The rocks are carved out in circular shapes from the edies that the falls and rapids make in the river.



June 18: Father's Day. Dan got his breakfast in bed, not an easy thing to do when you are camping. We packed up with the vaugh idea of heading west and stopping somewhere in Wisconsin close to some lakes so Dan could fish. We stopped at a few campsites but they didn't apeal so we decided to drive through to Grand Rapids, Minnasota just to say that we visited Grand Rapids on our travels. Grand Rapids is a small city maybe the size of Greenville. We stayed at a motel and followed some leads to camping sites after visiting the Visitors center.



June 19: Senic State Park in Minnisota. We found a lovely camping spot on Coon Lake. It is surounded by virgin pines. Boats and kayak rentals are only $20. So far the bugs an minimal.

Couple update: My main concern with taking this trip is that Dan and I have never camped nor traveled together for more than a few days. I am afraid that we may drive each other crazy. We have had many squables but they seem to blow over easily. We fight most about packing the car. We have a lot of stuff for a little car. Dan gets very grumpy and slows down more and more the grumpier he gets. Then I get very impatient and just want to get it done. I suppose that it is good that I've waited to post this because I would use very discriptive language to discribe some of our disagrements. This said, I think we are doing remarkably well living together in such cramped quarters.

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Photos

Carol with nieces, Taylor, Alexia and Grace
Bill and Pat's Cabin

Campsite at Fayette
Notice the dream catcher made by our artist friend Eric. We are getting a lot of remarks about it!

Village at Fayette State Park
Our tour guide was very informative.

Kitchitikipi State Park
We visited this park just of an hour or two. This is a boat that goes over the 45 ft. deep lake. The water is 45 degrees summer and winter.

Kitchitikipi Spring
You can see the springs bubbling up like mini volcanos. The trout made Dan itch to fish but no fishing is allowed.

Presque Isle River
These formation are all along the river.

Presque Isle Lagoon
Carol's favorite spot for skinny dipping. I could not get Dan to go with me.

Dan Fishing
Dan is fishing where the River and Lake Superior meet. No luck.

Burls on Tree Make a Face
Found this on the River Trail

Comments

[Shirley]

Awesome!!!!
Sounds like an awesome trip, and to think you two are still talking!!!!!!! Anxious to see all the updates,enjoy.

[Phyllis Hart]

Hooray for the journey.
We can hardly wait to see if you two are still together in July??? Waiting for all you here in Oregon - what a trip- we do have a nice camping place here - by the pool! Love phyllis

[Lisa Blake]

Ohhh -- so jealous!
I've beensuffereing thourgh hellish times on the job, and just now heard (at 4:00 in the morning) that the two women trying to fire me quit the board. I don't know how this was accomplished. I thought they had a lot of support. I was truly being harassed out of a job, and stuck with it only to be finally deciding it was too stressful and I had to quit. Now this reprieve! Still, I 'd certainly rather be you!