Sunday, July 12, 2015

PAUL’S OLD FISHING GROUNDS

Saturday, July 11 – We had a short trip this morning of less than 30 miles from St.Ignace, MI to Hessel, MI. One of Paul's fishing buddies had a cabin a few miles down the road in Cedarville, MI. We are spending a few days in the area to share old memories of Paul's fishing days with the gang.

hessel

We are again at a Kewadin Casino campground. This is a much smaller casino. The campground is located in the woods across the street from the casino. Paul recalls that is was once privately owned but evidently the casino took it over. The sites are gravel and the roads are gravel. Most of the sites are for small RV's or tents, but they do have about a half dozen pull thrus. We are the only RV in the campground. There is a group of tenters way back in the woods at the other end of the campground here for some four wheeling on the snowmobile trails.

Our site is very long (about 100') and has full hookups, 50 amp electric and sewer but no water. I mentioned to the fellow working at the casino check-in desk that we probably would only stay one night since there was no water. He offered to run a hose (about 200') from a rental cabin for no extra charge. WOW! He even had one of the workers bring us a load of free fire wood. How's that for being accommodating and treating the customer right! All this for $10 per night.

Kewadin Campground Hessel

This is how far they ran a hose for our water.
Kewadin Campground Hessel

We are way out in the country (Can't figure how a casino out here can stay in business but it was busy this afternoon) so it should be a great night for star gazing. We were lucky to get the satellite dish to find the satellite. Being this far north the elevation is only 32 degrees, nearly on the horizon.

All the years that Paul fished up in this area, he never had the famous Michigan Pastie. Bob, How To Love Where You Are And Eat Where The Locals Eat, suggested we have our first one at the famous Hessel Bakery. They advertise they sell the best Pasties in the North. A Pastie is much like a pot pie. It's filling is some sort of meat with potatoes, and vegetables. It is then baked in a pie crust shaped like a calzone. Thanks for the great recommendation Bob. The Pasties were delicious.

Hessel Bakery

We don’t normally take pictures of our food, but this one is for Bob. Marsha had chicken; Paul beef.
pastie

We toured downtown Cedarville in about five minutes this afternoon. Bought a couple gallons of spring water at the only grocery store, bought a hose repair coupling at the only hardware, and had a couple beverages at two of the FOUR bars.

The very busy main street in Cedarville.Cedarville

Tons of marinas here in Cedarville.
marina

water

Main attraction at the hardware store. Yes, that is a real moose.
moose

One of  Paul’s favorite bars, Bumpas’.
Bumpas'

The bar is in the shape of a boat.
boat bar

deer

Internet service is marginal at best up here. We stopped outside the library hoping to get WIFI – nope! We headed over to the school searching there – nope! Maybe at the Chamber of Commerce or the Visitor's Center – nope! At the last bar we stopped at, what did we find.....WIFI, and it's only a couple hundred yards down the street from the campground. Gotta love small towns UP North.....LOL.

Stop back as we continue searching for Paul's youth. This is turning out to be a “bar crawl”, but we are having a good time and loving the beautiful weather.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

13 comments:

  1. Isn't it wonderful to be the only ones in the campground! How nice of them to run water all that way. Couldn't you have just filled your tank? Did you have a problem with it?

    What a neat inside of Bumpas! I love that unique "boat" bar...very clever!

    We've never had Pasties either. When we were up there last year I said we needed to try some. But when I researched the best places, the reviews were so mixed we didn't bother. One day! Yours looked good.

    What a neat trip for Paul to relive fun times and have a chance to share it all with you:)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love the pasties its been a very long time since I had one. Before Suzie even.
    Hope to get some later this summer if all goes well.
    Love small towns up north.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your trip looks so peaceful. I've experienced a paster,but John has not. If we ever get out of Indiana and down to Red Bay, we will be heading to Michigan. I know, it's called back tracking.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nice to see you blogging again. I read your past blogs and got caught up yesterday, but we lost our internet for 4-5 hours and my comment was deleted.

    The UP is very interesting and we toured Mackinaw IS a number of years ago when my knees were better. Lots of walking around and they charged to go in the hotel 17 yrs ago. Guess they want to keep the riff-raff out. LOL

    I'm glad you had some Pasties since I couldn't remember their name. We bought some also and liked them.

    Have fun up there and it seems like Paul has some fond memories for the area.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Those Pasties look great and easy to serve.
    I don't think I want to find my youth though I wish my body felt the way it did back then.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This sounds like a nice walk down memory lane. Nothing wrong with a pub crawl every now and then!

    ReplyDelete
  7. You sure can have a little bit of peace and quiet in that campground. What a gem for the summer time. Those pasties would be right down our alley!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Strange that a campsite would have sewer but no water.
    Nothing wrong with a "bar crawl" trip!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Why is it that the least expensive places seem to treat their customers better than the high priced ones?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Can Paul remember that long ago...lol So....Paul spent all his fishing trips in the bars?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Glad you enjoyed them, always a little frightening to make a recommendation.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Great service you got from the casino campground ... nice to know your patronage was valued enough that they went the extra mile for you.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for leaving us a comment. We enjoy reading them. Have a great day!