North to Alaska

We’re going to have a lot of catching up to do if ,we ever find a internet site to use.  Today is Friday the 1st of July, and we are in Bessenger Michigan, which is near Marquette Michigan, in the North Country.  We are about five miles from the Wisconsin border.

We left Maryland on Sunday June 26th, got on the road around 8:00 a.m., and headed up to the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  We stayed on the TP until it ended at Interstate 80 in Ohio.  To my dismay, I ended up paying 50% more for the tolls than the Jacobs in their 5th wheel.  Still can’t figure that out since we have the same number of axles (including the CRV).

We spent the night in a CG near Sandusky Ohio (Milan Travel Park) which I wouldn’t recommend to anyone.  It was just one of those places that lure you in for the night and charge outrageously for the honor.  We had to move from the original site because the electrical box was hanging off the post, and the outlet was damaged.

Shelby had developed a severe sore throat, and since we had kept Mikey the prior week with a strep infection, we naturally assumed that she had gotten it from him.  We decided to drive on to Middlebury Indiana and try to find a doctor at a walk-in clinic. Middlebury is near Elkhart which is the location of most of the major RV manufacturers.  Don and Sharron wanted to tour the Jayco plant, and I was interested in some of the others.

We checked in to the KOA, and learned that there was an urgent care facility about five miles away.  We arrived there just about the time that the Good Doctor was leaving for lunch.  He very kindly stayed and took very good care of Shelby’s ills…he wasn’t convinced that it was strep, so prescribed a wide spectrum antibiotic that he said would knock out anything.  Course he didn’t mention the side effects would knock out Shelby!

I don’t think he ever made it to lunch….while we were there an influx of patients from the nearby plants began to arrive…some for treatment of injuries, some for periodic drug testing required by their employers.  One  company even had a representative there to witness employees depositing in a bottle.

Sheby said when she first say The Doc, he was humming a part of  “Que Sera, Sera”, and wanted to know what song it was from….said it had been in his head for days.  She told him it was “How Much is that Doggie in the Window”…….

He also told her that the had mentioned to a young fellow, a patient, the other day that he looked like Bobby Darin, and the young fellow asked, “who is Bobby Darin”.

We stayed around Middlebury thru Wednesday to let Shelby rest and to let the medicine work, then headed north on US131, which runs parallel to I-75.  U.S. 31 is a limited access highway (for he most part), and we made good time all the way up to the Macinac Bridge, then crossed over to the Upper Peninsula.  The bridge is undergoing repairs, and thank goodness they had the outside lane closed, not the inside.  The outside rail is only about 3 feet high, and doesn’t look like it could stop a car, much less a big truck.  The big rigs are limited to 20 MPH, and I’m guessing that is to avoid the sway that would be caused by higher speeds.  Now that I have been across this bridge, I do not care to repeat the experience.

We checked into a small CG (right on Lake Michigan) in Point Le Barge Michigan, home of the famous Upper Peninsula Pasty, a turnover filled with meat and potatoes, made with a light crust and baked.  I have been hearing about these for years, everyone says “you ever get to the UP, make sure you try a Pasty”.  I guess I was just expecting too much… I was kind of underwhelmed.  They reminded me of the fried apple pies that my Mom used to make, except those were made for dessert, whereas the pasty was made (originally) for the local miners to carry in their lunch buckets.  The miners were of European Slavic extraction, and I guess the Pasties were brought over from the Old Country.  So, now I’ve been across the Macinac Bridge, and I’ve tasted a Pasty!

We’re trying to beat the Fourth of July crowds to the Canadian border, so we’ve been travelling pretty long days to this end. Actually, our “long days” would probably be a joke for the “road runners” who drive for 12–14 hours, then get a couple hours sleep and head out again.  My body is not conditioned for that, so our days travel consists of 300 miles max, with a stop every two hours.  We try not to exceed seven hours to accomplish that…six hours is preferred.  Yesterday was six and one half hours, 315 miles.  On good roads, that is doable without a lot of stress.  Of course up here the traffic is pretty light, and the semis are almost non existant.  That will probably change once we get over into Minnesota.

Talked to the McDonald’s yesterday at lunch, and they are heading up this way today.  We’re to meet them over near Lake Louise at the Banff Campgrounds around the sixth or seventh of July.  Bill and Roger (the computer Guru at MIT) were taking the MH over to a local CG that has WIFI, to set up Bill’s laptop.  Didn’t have the heart to tell him that we haven’t yet found any WIFI sites at all, up in this country.  I mentioned the term to the nice lady here at the Alpine CG yesterday, and she thought I was speaking a foreign language.

Today we are heading to International Falls MN, to the International Voyaguers (at first glance in the Trailer Life Guide, it looked like “Voyeurs”) campground.  I has lousy ratings, but it is the only game in town.  At least our expectations are not that high, and it is cheap!

We need to do some laundry.  We haven’t been in a CG with dump facilities long enough to use the onboard washer/dryer.  We did manage to get some towels done one night.  Hope to find a laundrymat in Int’l Falls….