Still On the Road Report

Thank you for reading this Still On the Road Report. We’re now on Manitoulin Island in Ontario.

After leaving Platte River Campground, we drove to Wilderness State Park, still in Michigan, crossing the 45th Parallel along the way, and stopping at an exquisite roadside art gallery in Charlevoix. If you find yourself in the area, don’t miss it!

The state park, still on Lake Michigan, was beautiful, its facilities clean. The campsites were too close together, though. And it’s pretty expensive for a campsite.

From there we were able to explore Mackinaw City a bit. Two cool lighthouses and a very tourist-trappy downtown, and the Mackinac Bridge, quite an engineering and construction feat. We drove across on our way to Munising.

The Weinerlicious store in Mackinaw City.

Actually, we stayed at the Bay Furnace Campground in Christmas, Michigan, driving through the Hiawatha National Forest on the way. So Florida is not the only state with a Christmas. Fall is definitely here, according to the leaf colors. And there actually was a furnace at Bay Furnace. In a protected bay on the shore of Lake Superior, it was used to smelt iron from its ore.

Sugar maple leaves, Hiawatha National Forest.

Wikipedia says, “Bay Furnace was a town in Alger County, Michigan. It was established in 1869 around a blast furnace run by the Bay Furnace Company and used to make iron ore into pig iron.

“The town that was established around the furnace was originally named Onota. The name changed later to Bay Furnace. The town had a population of approximately 500.

“The town was destroyed by an accidental fire started by a wagonload of charcoal on May 31, 1877. The furnace and surrounding land were given to the United States Forest Service in 1940.”

This image and the next three were taken on the Pictured Rocks Boat Tour.

We saw the Aurora borealis while we were there, and took a boat tour to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Both were major cool! And we dined at a place called the Dogpatch Restaurant. I was expecting a nightmare but it was actually decent.

From Christmas we drove to Sault Ste. Marie, got on I-75 north, and crossed the International Bridge into Canada. Oh, Canada! We spent three nights in a Vrbo in the Soo, explored the town, including the Bushplane Heritage Museum, and then drove to Manitoulin, from where I write this.