USA Coast to Coast. The Ultimate Road Trip. Part 4.

17th - 30th July 2014.

Those who live in Michigan’s Upper Peninsular, the “U.P” as it is known to locals, treat it almost as a separate state aka Yoopers the folks who live here love the place. The weather’s cooler, it’s sparsely populated, the scenery is gorgeous and life is a bit more countrified than the faster pace of lower Michigan.

The giant freeways don’t come up to these parts mostly there are just two lane roads bounded by forests or cherry farms on either side. Cherries are a big thing around here. Producing 75% of the USA’s crop Michigan is known as the Cherry Capital of the country. You can hoof on down to the paddock and pick your own or get them by the basket load or baked in to die for cherry pies from the roadside farm stalls. We didn’t do any picking but know all about the pies as we indulged in the odd one or two. After all, when in Rome …

An intermediate stop for us in U.P was at the Soo Locks in US border town of Sault St Marie. The St Marys' River, the only water connection between Lake Superior and Lake Huron as well as the other Great Lakes, forms part of the border between Canada and the USA.The locks were built to allow a system for vessel movements around the St Marys’ Falls that dominate this part of the river The original smaller locks built by a private company in 1853 were taken over by the US Army Corps of Engineers in 1881. Sitting on the US side of the river, today these four locks are an integral part of the seaway that link the upper Great Lakes to Atlantic Ocean.

The locks operate free of charge to all vessels and handle pleasure and commercial vessels up to 1000ft in length. Three of the four locks are 80 ft wide while the larger Poe Lock is 110ft in width. The height drop from Lake Superior to Lake Huron is 21 feet so you can imagine how strong the lock doors have to be to hold back the rushing waters as the locks fill and empty many times a day. We were lucky enough to see one of the 1000 footers squeeze in for a transit while we were there. Over 11,000 vessels carrying 90 million tons of cargo pass through these locks every year. Most of their cargo is iron ore, coal, grain or stone.

Moving on we headed west to Newberry, the Moose capital of Michigan. Apparently there are more moose sightings around here than anywhere else in the state. And for the record, we never saw one.

So apart from peering into the swampy fields intent on spotting one of Bullwinkle’s cousins we did have a very nice sausage sizzle in the local park and visited Oswalds Bear Ranch where we saw a few grizzly and black bears. The brochure says there are 28 bears running free but they were actually free-ranging behind bars.

             

                       

Still in Michigan and driving west we stopped at Tahquamemon Falls. Both the upper and lower falls were beautiful with a sparkling stream full of trout running between the two. We wished we’d had a tent to pitch alongside for the night, that would have been a nice change from boring hotel rooms.

 

Earmarked for the night was a town on the outskirts of Munising. After settling in to our Super 8 Hotel we ventured out for a bite to eat. The pickings were pretty slim so we poked our heads into Sydney’s Shark Bay Bar and Restaurant for a look see. After all how could we drive past a place way out here that was named after our home town.

It was run by a chatty lady named Peggy Sue who, apart from having two Aussie diners in her establishment, had always aspired to go down under but had never made it, so she turned a little piece of the U.P into OZ instead. Decorated to the hilt with Australiana kitsch it made us feel a little homesick.

 

From here it was on to Pictured Rocks State Park along the shores of Lake Superior. The main event were the towering multicoloured sandstone cliffs. They were pretty but certainly didn’t blow us away. As we didn’t hang around the rocks for long we made a beeline 90 miles further on to an out of the way town named Iron River.

It was Saturday night and the Rodeo was coming to town. We might not have been dressed for the part sans cowboy boots and hats but we sure had a great time watching the show.

The stands were absolutely chockers by 8pm.It seemed the whole town had turned out to support the event or maybe there just wasn’t anything else to do in Iron River on a Saturday night. Anyway as with all big sporting events in the land of the free the night started with the crowd on their feet and hands on their hearts as one of the cowgirls belted out an excellent rendition of the national anthem. Then it was time for some very fancy horse riding, bull wrestling and bucking bronco stuff.

   

 

The show went for about 3 hours with many different events all timed against the clock. There was a real carnival atmosphere to the night. If you ever get the chance to go to a Midwest small town Rodeo then do it. You sure won’t be disappointed.

                 

  

 

Tripping across the state line we found ourselves in Wisconsin, the Badger State.

Wisconsin was given the name the “Badger State” in the 1930’s after the lead miners, called badgers, who lived in shelters in the hillsides much like their animal namesakes.

 

Now  while Michigan might have been big on cherries,Wisconsin has cheese and lots of it.The WI population, in particular the Green Bay Packers NFL fans, refer to themselves as “cheeseheads”, not the nicest of nicknames but there you go and the states’ license plates sport America’s Dairyland as the tag line and it’s easy to see why. The countryside is speckled with cows, mainly the black and white versions. Wisconsin churns out 2.4 billion pounds of cheddar, gouda and other yummy varieties and from the few that we sampled they were delicious and not always that awful orange colour either.

Since we’d been hot bedding it every night for more than a week we decided to slow down for a bit with a two night stopover on the eastern side of the state. Pretty Door County covers a small peninsular that sits between Lake Michigan and Green Bay WI. We found a little cabin in Bailey’s Harbor which was described on the net as rustic and rustic it certainly was. Blind Freddy must have been the architect as not one wall was straight and we won’t even talk about the sloping floors. My dad would be turned in his grave if he could have see it. Still it served as a good base to explore the peninsular. The county is surrounded by water which makes it pretty enticing for those who live further west in the state. Weekends in summer are busy. The main villages are Bailey’s Harbor, Egg harbor and Sister’s Bay. We drove the entire loop of the county in a day stopping at upmarket Egg Harbor and Sister’s Bay. Egg Harbor had a theme going which as the name suggests included eggs, big painted ones. While up the road Sister bay was more into goats.

        

   

 

Madison, Wisconsin’s capital is toward the southern end of the state and we  stopped here for a couple of hours to tour the state capital building. Looking  like a mirror image of the Capital building in Washington DC this is the second largest but the tallest state capital building in the country by 16ft 2 inches so we were told.The biggest one being the nation’s capital of course.

Built between the years 1906 and 1917 at a cost of $7.25 million the inside is very ornate with huge murals adorning the walls and amazing glass ceilings giving loads of natural lighting as well as a massive 40,000 light bulbs to boost the interior on dull days.

There are 43 kinds of stone in the building from six countries and eight states. In the rotunda alone there is marble from Greece, Algeria, Italy and France.

 

      

       

The building is not just a pretty face it’s a workhorse housing the WI Supreme Court of Appeals,the houses of the Senate and the Assembly as well as the Governor's conference and reception rooms. With an excellent guide we had a very interesting couple of hours there.

 

From here it was on to our cozy pre-booked log cabin in the town of Tomah and another BBQ dinner in the park where our special guests were a flock of Canadian geese.

 

 

 

 

INFO: Iron River Rodeo U.P Michigan: Fee $20 ( check in advance for fee changes)

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Park : Hours, Open year round. Admission Free

Oswalds Bear Ranch, Newberry Hours:Memorial day – Sept 30th,.Hours 0930-4pm .Fee $20 per vehicle 

Wisconsin State Capital, Madison. Hours: Daily 800 –4pm. Admission Free

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USA Coast to Coast. The Ultimate Road Trip. Part 3

8th – 17th July 2014

Liam is really into American history, in particular the Civil War. So how could we possibly bypass Gettysburg, Pennsylvania without putting in a few days.

The battlefield which covers 6,000 acres of fields and hills surrounds the small town of Gettysburg and is recognised as a National Military Park.The grounds and cemeteries, which are pristine, come under the watchful eye of the National Park Service. There are many ways to see the grounds and learn the history of the battle. You can take a sightseeing bus, do a self guided audio tour, jump on a horse, cycle or Segway your way around with a ranger, or do as we did and hire a National Park guide who will drive you in your car through the grounds for 2 or 3 hours and impart every  piece of info about the battle that your brain is capable of absorbing.

Our guide was an enthusiast name Roy who did an absolutely marvelous job. There wasn’t much about the battle site that Roy didn’t know, getting right down to the nitty gritty in a way that we could understand. He brought the whole battle alive.

 

Gettysburg was a turning point in the Civil War. It was fought out between the Confederate Army of the southern states under the command of Gen. Robert E Lee  and the Federal Union Army of the north led by Gen. George Meade. With the two armies meeting by chance on the June 30th 1863, the next three days became the bloodiest battle of the entire Civil War which began at Fort Sumter Charleston Sth Carolina in 1861.

           

To cut to the chase, the battle raged for three days with each side gaining and loosing precious ground. It culminated on July 3rd with 12,000 of Lee’s soldiers charging across open fields towards the opposition who, unbeknown to them, lay in wait just beyond a small rise. The southerner's attack failed and over 5,000 of Gen Lee’s men fell in just one hour. The Union forces had the edge over the Confederates and by dusk the battle of Gettysburg was over. By the time the two armies marched away some days later, they had left behind 51,000 soldiers dead, wounded or missing. Most of the dead lay in shallow graves and some where they had fallen.

 

 Distressed by the events of war, four months later The Gov. of Pennsylvania set aside 17 acres of land on the battlefield for the reinternment of the dead. That plot of land is known as the Gettysburg National Cemetery. The cemetery was dedicated on November 19th 1863 and amongst those present was Abraham Lincoln who was asked to say a few words. His speech was short and sweet, taking only two minutes, It began with the words ”Four score and seven years ago…” and wrote it’s way into history as the Gettysburg Address.

Our next major stop a few days later was at Niagara Falls. We chose to stay on the Canadian side of the falls as the views are far more spectacular and we weren’t disappointed. Our Days Inn hotel, only a couple of blocks from the falls, made for an easy stroll down the hill. The town itself was actually quite tacky. A mix of Las Vegas meets mother nature and it really didn’t gel. The gaudy fun parlors and loud music certainly didn’t entice us.

Not wanting to miss anything we signed up for the full pack Niagara experience. That included taking the tour boat The Horn Blower right up to Horseshoe Falls and getting very wet despite our colourful ponchos. Being up close and personal with the thunderous energy of the falls was awesome.

 

Next morning our adventure continued. First up was a Imax theatre ,except  it wasn’t your regular movie, they gave us ponchos at the door! Yep more of the wet stuff. Then we took the “Walk behind the Falls”, tour which was yet another  “get wet” opportunity. The poncho had quickly become our most treasured and unflattering piece of clothing.

 

The afternoon was a drought compared to the morning. No wet weather gear needed. We had a leisurely stroll along the boardwalk beside the boisterous rapids of the Niagara River, followed by a drive out to the cute town of Niagara – by - the Lake for a bite to eat. As the name suggests the town sits on the shores of a lake and that would be Lake Ontario. Filled with cafes, restaurants, upmarket shops, tourists and flowers this was the Hamptons of eastern Canada and you could smell the money. Garden beds were in full bloom as were the hanging baskets on every street lamp. It was a very pretty little place.

 

 

That evening back at the falls we joined the crowds as a full moon rose over the falls.The rushing waters were illuminated in bursts of colour and at 9pm a fireworks show lit the skies above. It was a fitting end to to a place of such natural beauty.

 

Niagara Facts : Niagara Falls comprises of Bridal Veil Falls (USA side) and Horseshoe Falls. Horseshoe Falls stretches 675 meters in width from Canada to the USA. 3,160 tons of water plummets over the Niagara Falls per second with 681,750 gallons tumbling down Horseshoe Falls per second.Due to erosion over the years,  the rim of Horseshoe Falls has receded back 6 feet from it’s original position

Staying in Canada for the next couple of days we followed the shoreline of Lake Erie passing beautiful waterfront homes, then heading inland the landscape changed to corn and wheat fields and lots of ugly wind farms.

 

Crossing back into the USA just above Detroit Michigan we continued northwest stopping at the Bavarian town of Frankenmuth.The CBP officer at the border had recommend it and we took her advice. It was just like being back in Europe,except for the accents of course.There were Bavarian restaurants, cheese shops, ice cream parlors even a Bavarian band belting out their tunes in the town square.

 

As a bonus that night the town’s weekly summer series concert was playing in the park. It was Abba and was that a crowd puller or what. Well it wasn’t the original Abba band but they sure looked and sounded like them. Every man, woman and dog rocked up with their outdoor chairs and coolers.

  

  

People of all ages were dancing along to the songs, even young kids not old enough to know who Abba were, but they sure knew all the words. It was a fun night, and I so wished that we could have been there for the following week’s concert, the Bee Gees. If you happen to be passing by Frankenmuth in summer make sure you stop for the night. We can recommend staying at the Duruy Inn. It’s a lovely hotel and they put on a great breakfast spread and very substantial snacks and drinks in the evenings. You certainly don’t need dinner if you join in their happy hour that’s for sure.

Driving further north we spent two nights just outside Traverse City at the Shoe String Cabins. This was our first cabin experience and it made a nice change from staying in hotels. We felt we had a little house of our own and room to breathe.

      

From here we did a day trip up to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on the northwestern shore of Lake Michigan.The weather had taken a turn for the worse and it was cold and drizzly but it takes more than that to stop us hardy sailors from venturing outdoors. The Dunes are in a hilly area fringed with thick maple forests, lakes,sandy beaches and towering bluffs nearly 500ft high. Outward bound types love this area. In summer there are salmon to catch, camping and kayaking around the offshore Manitou islands and in winter the area becomes a snowy playground for skiers and hikers.

 

 

        

 

Legend has it that long ago the dunes were named after a mother bear and her two cubs attempted to swim across the lake from Wisconsin to Michigan after being driven into the waters by a raging forest fire. They swam and swam but the cubs tired and lagged behind. The mother bear reached the shore and climbed the highest bluff to watch and wait for her cubs but they never came.Today,“Sleeping Bear” is a solitary dune and marks the spot where the mother waited.The two offshore Manitou islands are her lost cubs.

 

From here we skirted the western shores of Lake Michigan, stopping at the towns of Petoskey, Elk Rapids and Harbor Town before crossing the Mackinaw Bridge which spans the waters between Lower Michigan and it’s Upper Peninsular. We’ve been clocking up the miles and have covered 5 &1/2 states and part of Canada so far.

More about our trip in the next posting coming soon

 

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