AUGUST 14, 2015
I'm still in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. If you look at a map, the U.P. is the part of the state on the very top — north and northwest of the state below.
I am writing you now from St. Ignace, which is right at the bottom of the U.P. along Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.The folks in the U.P. refer to themselves at Yoopers and are very proud of it. They should be. It's a beautiful land.
So far, Gail and I have spent time on Lake Superior, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. The people around here are the friendliest in America, although maybe you say that for most of the rural Midwest. They will talk your ear off. They are just plain nice.
Being a ship captain is different on these lakes than in the ocean. The waves are closer together, making them more dangerous in stormy seas. That may have been a factor when the 728-foot SS. Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior in 1975.
I love the slogan I found on tee-shirts in tourist shops along Lake Superior: "No salt. No sharks. No problem." Another version is "Unsalted. Shark Free." With all the shark attacks recently in the ocean, this seems like a timely — and very appealing — message.
Chuck: Salt water is heavier than fresh water, not the other way around
ReplyDeleteThe UP is one of our favorite places. Copper Harbor was our favorite location. We have been to both ends of US Rt 41. Got the pictures to prove it. :-). As we traveled across the UP we kept seeing signs advertising "pasties". We saw these signs in front of gas stations, motels, stores of all sorts and even in front of homes. What the heck is a pastie? At a gas stop we saw the now familiar sign. As I gassed up, I asked my wife to go inside to see what a pastie looked like. A few minutes later she returned with two piping hot pasties. They were large deep fried crusted things filled with rutabaga, meat of some sort and other veggies. It was lunch time so we pulled aside and ate these strange treats. I can't say I would look forward another one though. Rutabagas are not a favorite with us. Uppers are great folks so I hope they aren't offended that we didn't really care for such a popular local treat.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you took my (and probably a few other's) suggestions to include Michigan's UP in your eastward travel route to Nova Scotia. Because of the placement of the Great Lakes, the UP is an area you have to go out of your way to get to and many people never venture there. It is one of the most beautiful areas of the US. We travel fulltime now but when we lived in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, we loved to visit the UP every year of two for a week or two and just wander thru the small towns and beautiful unspoiled tracts of land up there. Your description of the land and people was perfect. There is so much to do and see up there if you love the outdoors, that after many years of visiting there we still haven't seen it all. We're back in southern Michigan visiting family for 2 months, but when we leave Sept. 1st to head south for the winter we're going to detour up thru the UP once again for 3 weeks to savor the smell of the pines, visit the friendly people, do the 5 mile Bridge Walk across the Machinaw Bridge on Labor Day, kayak in the Pictured Rocks area on Lake Superior, visit the Keewenaw Peninsula that juts about 70 miles out into Lake Superior, where the fall color in early October is stunning, and spend a few days in Porcupine Mountain State Park which was recently listed as one of the most beautiful state parks in the country.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you got to experience a little bit of heaven here on earth.
What is your route from St. Ignace? Do you go into Canada or come down into lower Michigan? I'm curious because I might take a similar route next summer.
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