FROM Y'ALL TO EH!!! Day 22 - 28 June 14 - 20, 2010 Dowling, Ontario

Prior to heading back to Dowling we headed for downtown Parry Sound, the home of Bobby Orr.

We also took a look at the harbor and decided not to take a tour of the islands in the area. The cruise is called “ 30,000 Islands “ and it probably would have been very nice. However we decided to push on and head to Dowling.

We arrived back in Dowling fairly late in the day so we just set up and called it a night. The next two days we spent getting new tires, doing a little shopping and just enjoying the time. When Gary returned we decided to go camping on Manitoulin Island. Gary’s family still owns the old homestead and a lot of his family use it for camping. We spent 2 ½ days just enjoying the company, the fresh air and the good food. We definitely ate too much.

We did do a little sightseeing during the day and of couse I took pictures.

Sights of Manitoulin Island

FROM Y’ALL TO EH!!! Day 19,20 & 21 June 11,12 & 13, 2010 North Bay to Parry Sound, Ontario

We woke up Saturday morning a little tired, ok, a lot tired and didn't get moving real fast.  When we finally did get moving we headed out to do a few errands and then we headed over to Rick and Trudy's house once again for some more story telling.  It was a great night and it certainly gave us a chance to catch up.  It is most unfortunate that we live so far apart as we really enjoyed their company.  However, I think we might have stayed a little longer than we should have. This is a picture of Rick and Trudy as we were leaving.

It was another good night, late but good.

Sunday was a day of rest.  At least it was for us.  We didn't do much until around supper time when we had to go " Swiss Chalet " for our fix.  We have to head there at least once when we come to Canada as they are not in the USA.  It was gooooooooood.

Monday we decided to head south as we wanted to gather some information of a certain RV for a future trip.  The only place where we could view one was in Shanty Bay which is halfway between Orillia and Barrie.  Once we got the information we started heading up the 400 to Hwy 69 which would take us back to Dowling to spent a little more time with Ashley, Mandi and Gary.

On the way we stopped in a Severn Falls for lunch but couldn't find the falls.  I almost thought I was back in Michigan.  However it was nice to stop for awhile and I did take a couple of pictures.

We decided to call it a day when we got to Parry Sound, Ontario and stopped for the night at the KOA Campground.  Tomorrow we are planning to tour around town for a bit before heading to Dowling.  We might even take in the Bobby Orr Museum.

FROM Y’ALL TO EH!!! Day 18 June 11, 2010 Dowling, Ontario To North Bay, Ontario

We got away from Dowling just before noon but had to make a couple of stops in Sudbury before heading east. It was only a couple of hours to the Bay so when we arrived we headed down to a RV park very close to Champlain Park and checked in for a few days.

Next we headed over to Rick and Trudy Stanton’s house for a BBQ. It had been 25 years since I had spent any time with Rick and Trudy and I was really looking forward to the evening. Rick was one of my first room mates when I moved out of the house. We also played Rugby together as we were both founding members of the “North Bay Vandals Rugby Club” When we got there we were also very happily surprised to find that Gerry and Karen Rivet had arrived back in town and had come over for the BBQ. It had been over 30 years since I had seen either of them and it was really good to see them. Gerry and I went to college together and he was also a founding member of the Vandals Rugby Club.

It was great to catch up and find out what everyone had been doing with their lives and we realized how lucky we had been with family, health and friends.

However it wasn’t long after supper that the reminiscing started and the stories came out. Some of them were even true. It was a great night and one I will remember for a long time and I didn’t want it to end. However we were thrown out just after midnight so we headed back to the RV site and settled in for the night.

Rick and Trudy Stanton

Gerry and Karen Rivet

Glad I didn't wear my blue shirt.

FROM Y’ALL TO EH!!! Day 11 – 17 June 4 – 10, 2010 Dowling, Ontario

We have had a real nice week visiting with Mandi ( daughter) Ashley Jordan ( granddaughter ) and Gary ( son in law ). We didn’t do anything special as the weather turned a little cold and rainy and spoiled our plans to head to the lake. We did manage to get out fishing once and in fact it was AJ’s very first fishing trip. She handled it pretty well until she got hungry and then made sure that everyone knew it, including the people on the shore. Once she was fed we got back to fishing but she kept dropping her fishing rod so we had to take it away from her and call it a night. Sadly to say Ashley got skunked on her very first fishing trip.

The rest of the week we just enjoyed each others company and took a lot of pictures.

Then, just because we could, we took a few more of Ashley Jordan Sharp.

FROM Y’ALL TO EH!!! Day 10 June 3, 2010 Brimley, MI to Dowling, Ontario

We stayed last night in Brimley State Park which was a large and very nice park. However it was pretty quiet as we are not quite into the camping season here. We were eager to get going so I took a couple of pictures and headed.

We headed straight to the border which was only a few miles down the road in Sault Ste. Marie, MI. After a fruitless stop at the Duty Free Shop we joined the line heading for the border inspection. We were waived through with a simple “ Have a good day, Sir”. I am sure it was my good looks, charm and personality that impressed them.

We were now in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario and I realized that I had not been here since January of 1973 and of course I couldn’t recognize anything. We decided not to stop and just keep heading to Dowling. So other than a stop for lunch we we just followed our nose and arrived in Dowling just around supper time. So it was hugs all around and we settled in to catch up.

FROM Y’ALL TO EH!!! Day 8 & 9 June 1 & 2, 2010 Champion to Brimley, MI

The past two days have been fairly quiet by choice and weather. Tuesday June 1 was a planned relaxing day. We spent the morning catching up on paperwork ( paying bills ) researching this and future trips and all in all just relaxing. We didn’t leave the campsite until almost 1PM when we headed a short way up the road to Munising. We plan to take a boat trip along a section of the coast of Lake Superior which is called Pictured Rocks.

We arrived in Munising around 3PM, headed for the boat cruise office, got the info we needed and headed back towards a RV site. On the way we came across a sign.

We thought there was only one definition of Pastie and were not sure what we were going to find. It wasn’t a shop for strippers but a shop that sells Pasties (pass-tee) which in Michigan is a special Meat or Fruit Pie. We bought an Apple Pastie for our Anniversary. Yes today is our 9th/28th Anniversary.

We headed to the RV site where we had planned to BBQ but shortly after we got set up the wind came up and really started to blow. I mean really blow. We sat in our camper and were thankful we were not in a tent. We saw tents, chairs, tables and anything that was not secured go flying across the parking lot.

So BBQing was out as it also started to rain so we contented ourselves with Eggs Benedict and our Apple Pastie. It was a nice night especially since we were not in a tent.

We woke up Wednesday, June 2 to a cold and cloudy day with threats of rain. We weren’t in any hurry this morning as the boat did not leave until noon. We stopped at the Info Center in town and found out that the lake would be fairly rough today with the North wind and you know what happens to me on a boat in rough water. Well all I can say is that you had better stay up wind.

We decided that we needed to come back some day and take both the Pictured Rocks Cruise and the Sunken Ship Cruise because today was not the day. We decided to drive up to Whitepoint Bay which is at the tip of the Peninsula and take in the ShipWreck Museum so we jumped in the truck and headed out.

We followed Hwy 41 until we came to Newberry where we turned onto Hwy 123 for the loop into Paradise. At Paradise we turned due north and drove for 11 miles until we reached Whitepoint Bay.

However on the way I did something I said I would not do. I lied. I said I would not stop at another waterfall no matter what the reviews say. When making that statement I did not take into consideration Kathy saying “ Pull over, we are stopping “ What’s a guy supposed to do? Stand up to his commitments or listen to his wife. So we at Tahquamenon Falls State Park and hiked down to the falls. Actually this one was pretty impressive.

We also enjoyed the hike as the return trip was the forest on a well marked trail.

We had no sooner got back to the truck when it started to rain so we headed once again towards Whitepoint Bay and the Shipwreck Museum. The museum is in the old original lighthouse which is still operation today. They have four building holding all the artifacts, showing movies and of course selling stuff.

It was amazing to learn how many ships had gone down in Lake Superior or Gitche Gumee as it is also called. The first ironically was the “ Invincible “ that went down November 16, 1816 and the latest was the “Edmond Fitzgerald” that went down November 10, 1975. Overall there have been up to 6000 ships estimated lost on the Great Lakes, with 550 credited to Lake Superior.  Until I talked to people here and visited the Museum I had no idea how big, bad and mean the Lake can be.

I also found out that the Lake was first discovered in 1622 by Etienne Brule who was a protégé of Champlain. After several years the Hurons began to distrust his comings and goings and he met a most unfortunate end.   The Hurons captured, tortured, butchered and then ate him. Not a nice way to go.

It was a very interesting stop.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

We left the museum and headed towards Canada which we will cross over into tomorrow. We ended up stopping at a state park in Brimley where we set up and called it a night.

FROM Y'ALL TO EH!!! Day 7 May 31, 2010 Copper Harbor to Champion, MI

Another normal start had us leaving the park at 11AM, at least we are consistent.  The first stop this morning was a short jog north, very short as we came to the end of the road.

Only to find out it was the beginning of the road.  As the sign says, Hwy 41 starts rights here and goes all the way to Florida.  Who knew.

The next stop on the way out of town was Manganese Falls and again it was not all that spectacular.  I am not going to stop at anymore falls no matter how great the reviews are.  We couldn't get real close but I took the best picture available and then we headed on.

It wasn't that far down the road that we stopped to walk on the beach for awhile.  It was a cool and windy day as it should be on the beach with a rocky point. During our walk we ran into a bunch of people looking  for rocks or so we thought.  We found out they were actually looking for Agate.  Agate is a micro crystalline variety of quartz, characterised by its fineness of grain and brightness of color. We looked for a little while and I think we found one.  Whooppee.

We left Hunter's Point and headed for a scenic view before we left town.  We climbed to the highest point in Copper Harbor which gave us a nice view of the town and surrounding area.

Town of Copper Harbor - Lighthouse on point.

   Lake Fanny Hooe

Island on the end of Hunter's Point

It really is a nice area and we both would like to come back some day, let me refrain, some summer day.

We finally got out of Copper Harbor and headed south on Hwy 26 which gave us a different perspective of the peninsula as it runs down the west coast close to the water.  The drive was quite nice as we had a view of Lake Superior just about the entire way.  We made brief stops to take pictures of Lighthouse, sandy beaches, bake shop run by the monks and other various things of interest.

Lighthouse at Eagle Harbor

                                                                          Bakery Run by Monks

We made a quick stop for a late lunch at a roadside park outside of Mohawk, MI and found this sign at the side of the road depicting the annual and largest snowfall in the area.  You can see from the sign that the record was 390.4 inches in 1978-79.  Now that's a lot of shovelling.

After lunch we continued on until we came to Van Riper Campground which is on Lake Michigamme just outside of Champion, MI.  We decided to stay here for the night even though it was still early in the afternoon.  We just relaxed and read a bit before having supper and called it an evening.  Another very enjoyable day.

Sunset Pictures of Michigamme