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.