Wednesday, July 8 – U.P. North....that's Upper Peninsula, Michigan for you non-Yoopers! We arrived at the St. Ignace Kewadin Casino a little before noon after a delightful drive through the forest of the northern lower peninsula. Beautiful country and wonderful weather.
(Don’t forget you can click on any photo and it will enlarge for easier reading or enjoyment.)
We got to see the “World’s Largest Hot Dog.” So they say in the UP.
Don’t see this sign every day.
We crossed the Mackinac Bridge with no problem ($8 for our 8 axles, Northbound only – free Southbound). Of course, they were working on the bridge doing some road maintenance and painting, but they are always actively painting in the summer. That scared Marsha a little and the see-thru steel deck didn't make her any happier..... ha! ha! With the outer asphalt lanes closed that must make it pretty harry for those on motorcycles.
We are staying at the Kewadin (Indian Tribe) Casino here in St. Ignace, MI. As a matter of fact, we will be staying at three Kewadin Casinos in a row. Here in St. Ignace, then in Hessel, and eventually in Saulte Ste. Marie, MI. $15 per night (except Hessel which is $10) gets us 50 amp electric and water. There is a dump station available on site for our use. It's pretty much about 20 campsites around the perimeter of a large asphalt parking lot. It pretty nice though, and we can't beat the price.
The Casino isn’t fancy outside but is very, very nice inside.
After cleaning up, we headed to St. Ignace for some sightseeing and to get ferry tickets to Mackinac Island (tomorrow's adventure).
There several large sea stacks around St. Ignace. Don’t know what a sea stack is….read on.
We stopped to see the colorful painted moose along the highway. They must just be catching-on because these were the only two we saw around town.
Remember Big Boy? He is huge up here.
We drove down Michigan Hwy 2 for some “Kodak Moments” with the Mackinac Bridge. Rising 552’ (that’s 55 stories) above the Straits of Mackinac, where Lakes Michigan and Huron meet. The bridge is 5 miles long and held the record as the longest suspension bridge in the world for over 50 years.
Before the Bridge was constructed (1954-1957), travelers had to cross the Straits via an hour-long ferry ride. On busy weekends, carloads of anxious travelers would wait in line as long as 24 hours to catch a ferry.
Some Bridge facts – Length = 26,372 ft.; Height of Towers = 552 ft.; Maximum depth of water at midspan = 295 ft.; Ship clearance = 155 ft.; Total length of wire cables = 42,000 miles.
Marsha had to see how cold Lake Michigan is. “Not too bad,” she said…wait Marsha, you were feeling water about 2” deep.
We then strolled along the St. Ignace Boardwalk for awhile. Be stopped at the Wawatam Lighthouse and stopped at a local tavern, The Driftwood, (One Paul and his fishing buddies frequented.), for a couple beverages and a snack.
We plan on trying our luck at the casino this evening. Gotta reimburse them for the inexpensive campsite…hehe Check back to find out how we plan on spending all our gambling winnings!
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day.
