Week 5, Part 1 - The Dakotas!

Week 5, Part 1

Leaving Windom, MN on the 10th was our longest day driving up to that point - 6 hours = 8/9 car hours! I stopped and bought Milo a bigger crate, hoping it would get him to stop meowing. Nope. Just changed the frequency from every 2 seconds to every minute. I'll take it. We were now in North Dakota, and officially in the Great Plains! I saw buffalo from the highway, and a sunflower field! I had known I would see buffalo, but the sunflower field was a great surprise! Turns out that North Dakota was covered in sunflower fields, and that I had arrived just as they were opening up!! That night we arrived at a tiny park in Medina and I got my first taste of the dark night skies.

On the 11th we finished the drive along the boring, flat, straight road that cut across North Dakota, finally making it to the North Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It was $25 for a week pass into the park, and another $14 a night for a site with no hookups, but who cares! I was in the Badlands, and they were incredible! I'm not even sure how to describe them... it was like driving in to a mountainous canyon, painted in so many different colors of rock, with a mix of prairie lands and trees. Soon after entering the park I passed a sign warning that Buffalo were dangerous and to stay at a distance, causing me to squeal in delight and eagerly scan my surroundings for one! I had read reviews for Juniper campground where the buffalo walked within the sites, and it was the reason I was staying inside the park grounds. I was so excited! While I didn't end up seeing one in the camping area, I did see a lot!
Later than afternoon I was walking on a trail when I first saw one, about 75 feet away from me. I watched him roll around, kicking dirt onto himself like he was giving himself a dirt bath 😃Afterwards, he stood up and took a step towards me and I booked it out of there! Before seeing him I had hiked to a "Prairie Dog Town" about a mile into the Badlands. I had seen the ranger on my way in who had warned me of a bunch of bison cakes, or something. Once I started walking I soon realized he was talking about their poop! It's huge! Easily 3 times the size of my foot! So avoiding those, I wound my way along the rocky path. I actually heard the prairie dogs squeaking before I got to their "town"! When I did get there, they got very quiet, and ran into their holes. As I walked further, the ones I had passed would pop back out of the ground and call out to the others. At one point about 5 or 6 of them came out and stood on their hind legs, all facing the same direction, frozen still and staring dead ahead, almost like a nighttime prayer.
Anyways, after I left them, and after I saw my first buffalo, I drove to the first overlook. It didn't matter where you were; high, low, where ever - it was beautiful from every perspective. At the overlook the ranger was there again, talking to a group of men in animal costumes.. At first I thought they were doing something for the park guests, but found out that they were from the UK and were taking pictures at parks, dressed in $2000 animal suits, for fun. Just for something to do! Only one of them took his head piece off to talk to us, while the others stayed masked; the animal eyes watching you from every angle. It was really unsettling! A storm was off in the distance, so I left that odd situation to finish the drive to the last overlook.
On the way there was a herd of buffalo, right on the side of the road!! 3 other cars were stopped, so I got out and took some awesome photos! I even walked with one, about 10 feet away, until he noticed and I got freaked out. They are so incredibly big!!! On my way back from the overlook they were blocking the road!! Who cares about traffic when it is caused by a herd of buffalo setting the speed limit!? It was amazing. They were only feet away from me, not even caring that I was slowly following behind and beside them! It was, without a doubt, one of the coolest experiences I have ever had.
When I finally made it back to my site, the storm that had been lurking had finally caught up to me. I had driven out to this specific area to see the meteor shower happening that night, and only afterwards learned about the wandering buffalo. It wasn't until I got there that I realized what an amazing place the badlands were, so needless to say, I was hardly upset that I missed the shower.

On the 12th I ended up in Medora, a tourist town near the South Unit. I was looking for a rodeo when I stumbled upon the town, lined with Saloons and gift shops, all in the classic Western design. So being that I'm more into bars than rodeos (even more so when they're called Saloons!!), I decided to stop in. The one I went to even had the swinging doors to enter! Inside there was a big bar, wooden tables, and a velvet dining room. Seriously, the walls were lined with red velvet, and there were big, heavy, red velvet drapes pulled to either side. On the ceiling there were hundreds, if not thousands, of one dollar bills tacked to the beams, accompanied by old cowboy hats. Some of the bills were written on but not easy to read, and some of the hats were dated. The service and the food sucked, but the place was awesome! I also met these 2 older guys who bought me a beer for my travels! Afterwards I went to get ice cream and it had started pouring which quickly turned to hail! In August! That night the skies cleared up pretty well, so I woke up at 3am and walked into the dark to watch the second night of the meteor shower. I saw maybe 15-20 before heading back to bed.

I only slept a few more hours before waking up Sunday morning to leave for South Dakota. It was a long drive, through a whole lot of the same. I took the Enchanted Highway, a road otherwise so small and unimportant that it had never been named until a local artist began making large sculptures to bring tourists along and into their town. They were interesting, and certainly broke up the otherwise plain scenery, but also a little creepy. In fact, they got weirder the further I drove, until it ended with a tin family sculpture. But I'm sure it accomplished what he had sought out to do - bring tourists down that road - because there I was, driving along just to see the sculptures!
It was a really long drive, and when I realized I only had about 100 miles left on my tank, I found out that the closest gas station was 80 miles away. When I got down to 30 left and 20 to go, I started getting nervous. When I hit 15 miles left on my tank, I was hardly using any gas at all! Downhill or uphill, I didn't change. Every mile that went by I watched to see if I got a full mile out of it for what it said I had left, thinking I was surely going to end up walking a few miles! Luckily we rolled into the gas station with 5 miles left! Being in the middle of nowhere, the gas was $3 a gallon, but I didn't care. I filled up all $98 worth, not wanting to get stuck like that again!
Finally we made it to Whitetail Campground, only to find the review online of it being free was false, and in fact they even charged $2 per pet! (I left Milo out of it!) Not expecting this, I had to backtrack to Hill City to get cash, but luckily the camp host let me leave the camper on a site. I had traveled up a mountain to get to the site, and did not want to tow all the way back down, and back up again! Hill City was a very cute town, just one strip, again in the classic Western styles. I got dinner at a saloon and listened to a group of bikers with the thickest Texan accents talk about Sturgis, a week long biker convention in Sturgis, SD. It had ended that day, and we actually drove through the town but everything was closing up, so we hadn't seen much.

On Monday, the 14th, I got up early to go see Mount Rushmore. It really wasn't that impressive, just looked like every picture I've ever seen, except now I was the one taking the picture! I drove up to see Crazy Horse as well, but didn't pay to go into the park area. I had to be off our site by 1pm and had been planning on driving an hour to a free site, but I had already seen everything I had came for! So instead I packed up and hit the road for Nebraska, stopping at Carhenge along the way. Basically it is a bunch of old cars, painted gray, sticking in the ground by their front or end. Not something I would drive to Nebraska to see, but it was cool!
I had some trouble finding our site in Bayard, it was only 5 electric and water boxes near the city park, but I got there just before a storm hit. The other camper came over and started pointing to the sky, saying how bad it looked, pointing to swirls in a greenish cloud, talking about tornadoes! He told me I would hear the siren, and when I did I needed to go lay in a ditch! As soon as he left I called Amber, rattling off my location like a crazy person feeling like I was about to die. Luckily there was no tornado! Actually there was hardly a storm and it was clear in 10-15 minutes... When I called Amber back, she said, "Yeah, I figured there wouldn't be". As if that's something she could've "figured" from Connecticut!

The next day I drove to Colorado, a bonus that I had acquired from skipping out on my second night in South Dakota. Check out Week 5, Part 2 to read about it!

Week 4!

Wow! I knew I had been slacking on updating this, but I didn’t realize so much time had gone by! A lot of the places I stay I don’t have cell service, so I never think to pull out my laptop, and the other times I’m just too busy exploring that I don’t save time to write about it! But I am now in a remote boondocking site in Wyoming with an amazing view, and cell service, and I am going to get this caught up! There really isn’t much else to do but sit in this awesome new chair I found yesterday and soak up the view, so it’s finally the perfect spot to just veg out and write about it all!

August 3^rd I had decided last minute that I wanted a break. The campsite I was at thought I was staying a night longer than I had actually planned, so I figured it was a good enough reason to just not leave! Cooper had been acting a little strange and had been to the vets the day before (turns out he’s fine, just tired of being in the truck!), so I thought it would be a nice bonus day for the pets! That was until I was checking my bank statement and saw a charge for a place in Missouri. I hadn’t been to Missouri yet, and as far as I could remember I had absolutely nothing planned out for places to stay. And then I remembered a campground that I had left a voicemail for, and an email, and a request for a site on their website… All of that, and when they called to tell me I could have a site, I never wrote it down! I still had to do my laundry, and wasn’t ready to drive, so I headed into town and took my time leaving. Of course this made me get to our site for the first time after dark, but luckily it was a pull-thru spot so I had no trouble. I heard people in the pool next to my site, and by the time I had set up the camper they had left so I got it all to myself! I was staying near the Lake of the Ozarks, and there is a new show named ‘Ozark’ that just came out on Netflix. It looks really creepy, so I purposely haven’t watched it, knowing I was coming here! So because of that, I didn’t stay in the water for long! All I could hear were really loud bugs, and couldn’t shake the feeling that I was going to be murdered in the pool!

The next day I went to check out the lake and realized just how wrong I was about the area! I was nowhere near the middle of nowhere! I’m assuming because there are no nearby beaches that they built up the lake to have their ‘beach’ scene – every spot on the lake was built up with resorts, bars, and yacht clubs! They even had a strip with the generic t-shirt and towel stores you would find at the shore. After exploring for a bit I went to Ha Ha Tonka State Park, which is the remains of an old castle. It was pretty neat, but it looked like they had recently put up fences to keep visitors away from the ruins. That night I went to my first concert by myself! One of the resorts was hosting 2 local country bands with no cover charge, and though it wasn’t really my type of music, I had a great time!

Saturday, the 5^th, I had planned on leaving, and was actually completely packed up, literally rolling out of my site when the woman from the office came over. I had seen there was a bad storm coming but didn’t think they would have a free site on a Saturday, so I never asked. Always ask!! I didn’t even have to change sites! After unhitching, Amber video called me from my brother’s baby reveal party! So I got to read his birthday card to him, and watch the reveal! They are having a girl! (I was hoping so!!) The rest of the day I just hung out at the camper. The storm wasn’t that bad (she had warned me of a tornado!) but I was happy to not be driving in it!

On the 6^th we drove to Sharp RV Park in St. Joseph Missouri. Don’t camp there. Well, with Passport America it was only $14 for full hook ups, and I had good cell service, just never pay full price! It was more like an RV parking lot, and a lot of the sites were full timers. When I pulled in, I had pulled off the entrance onto a little clearing, only to find out that I had parked at my campsite! Later on a neighboring site had heard I was traveling alone from the owner, and gave me a bottle of wine for my travels! So at least the people were nice!

The following day I was finally able to get an eye appointment in St. Joseph! It turns out that I actually am not blind, I passed every test, but I have a stigmatism so light doesn’t enter my eyes the way that it should. I really thought I was blind… well, blinder than I used to be! I’ve been having trouble with road signs, and will avoid driving at night, so I am very happy I am getting glasses to fix that! (Of course they don’t make them on the spot, so it’s been 18 days and I still am trying to figure out how to get them to me!)

From there we drove to Elkhorn Rec Area, about 30 minutes outside of Omaha. I stopped at Indian Cave State Park along the way which was a pretty neat stop. It would have been nice as a day trip though, not only passing through. The strangest part of the drive was that on all the nearby roads, leaving Missouri and entering Nebraska, there were hundreds of butterflies sunbathing on the pavement! Even on the busy-ish highway, they would lay there until they had just enough time to fly up and die on your windshield…. So that was upsetting.. but they sure looked pretty up close in those final moments! That night a girl, Rachel, pulled up and was camping out of her jeep! Over a few beers and a fire we told each other about our adventures. She was driving across country in just a week to start a sort of internship at a vineyard in Northern California!! She also had recently gotten back from a spur of the moment trip to Europe! So jealous! She told me that while she was there, some days $10 could buy all 3 meals, beer, and ice cream! Also a few of her flights were as low as $15! (Next up, I need to go to Europe!)

On the 7^th she had left before I woke up but left her number on the table which made me really happy! That day I finally found a solar panel kit that was available for in store pickup nearby! For about $250 and some searching for instructions online, I was soon charging my battery with the sun! Yay! Later on I went to Ralston for free town music that I had found on Facebook. I also checked out the Village Bar, a really cool dive bar with arcade games! The only downside was they didn’t have a kitchen. I got talking to 2 locals who filled me in on their tornadoes and other things unique to Nebraska. Apparently, even though Ralston is so close to Omaha, they have an agreement with the city where they can’t increase in size, but they also aren’t included in Omaha’s taxes. So you get this little tiny town, practically attached to the city! Before leaving the bartender gave me a glass with their logo on it as a souvenir!

On the 8^th I packed up and hit the road for Windom, Minnesota. I felt bad that I was only passing through the NW corner of Iowa, so I was happy when I saw a sign for the highest elevation in the state, right off the highway! It was only about 1000ft above sea level, and to add to that it was surrounded by flat farm lands, so it didn’t seem higher than anything else in sight! But I signed Milo, Cooper, and I into the visitor log, so Iowa stop accomplished! Shortly before that I had given into Milo's meowing demands, and had pulled into a gas station to let him do his business. I'm glad I stopped there, because inside I found a local Native American handmade pipe! I don't think I'll ever smoke it, but will probably hang it as an ornament! So Iowa souvenir also a success! When we got to our campsite I went grocery shopping. I've started to get used to not finding everything in small stores, but get totally frustrated when a store is big enough to have what I want, but locally owned and not organized in a "chain store" way that I can relate to! At check out the bagger offered to bring my bags to my car for me, and it seemed I had offended him by declining. After watching for a few minutes, I saw him helping a girl with only 2 bags who was talking on her cell phone, struggling to find her keys in her purse, while he stood there patiently waiting. I suppose maybe that's normal? To me it just seemed rude! Back at my site there was an adult baseball game going on in the park, with probably most of the townspeople attending. It was $6 to watch though, and because I like Netflix more than baseball, I didn't stick around. 

Well the sun is going down here in Wyoming, and it was chilly when it was out, so I will continue on tomorrow with week 5 and 6! I promise I won't leave this site until I am up to date! (And then won't let it go another 23 days in between!) Next up is the Dakotas and the Grand Teton Mountains, hands down two of my favorite experiences yet!

Week 3

So I am finally sitting down, ready to write about Week 3! I've been trying to write this for a few days, and now I just popped off the letter B from my keyboard.. Every time I get to a new site, the first time I open a cabinet I get surprised by whatever has re-positioned itself while bouncing around on the road. 99% of the time I completely forget and am caught off guard but I'm getting used to it. I went to grab my journal from the cabinet above my couch, and it fell out and hit my laptop, somehow stealing the B key. The video on Youtube made it seem so possible to fix it myself, but 30 minutes later I'm just leaving it off!

So here is week 3! It was one of the craziest weeks yet, so enjoy!

On July 27th we were still at Seney State Park and were only driving to an overnight parking spot so I was in no rush to hit the road. I had no groceries, so I headed out to the grocery store. It was just a normal trip to the store, not very interesting, but I wanted to share what a store looks like out in the U.P.. Basically all I'm eating now is chicken and vegetables, but the only chicken I could find was just one entire frozen chicken. There wasn't raw meat in any of the fridges, though there were plenty of choices for sausages and bratwurst. Another thing you can find in any store is cheese curds in a few different flavors. They have their own shelf. Some stores won't have eggs or bread, but you can always buy cheese curds! I went to 3 different "grocery" stores and still did not find chicken except for the frozen one. But I did buy a carton of eggs for $.89 which I was happy about! I also found a frozen Pasty that I quickly snatched up. A Pasty is pronounced "Pass-ty" and its an old staple of the U.P. - they even have pictures and recipes for them on postcards! It is sort of similar to a potpie, but they are made without a pan to shape them, and they don't have a sauce. 

When we finally left Seney State Park, I put our destination in both my phone GPS and my Garmin RV GPS. I always compare the 2 because the RV GPS tends to be a lot longer and sometimes I just use my phone and leave the RV one on as backup. The RV GPS is programmed specifically for my height, weight, and length so that I don't end up going under low bridges, or going over ones that I will fall through.. I'll learn my lesson in a few days, but using my phone this day turned out OK. The point for this day is that the RV GPS was coming up for over an hour later arrival! It finally dawned on me what was happening when I saw that I had 75 miles to go, yet it said I would arrive in about 20 minutes. I was going to pass through my first time zone!

We arrived at Sunday Lake Overnight Parking right before sunset, and I was lucky enough to get a nice, sandy, level spot right on the edge of the lake! Free parking aside, it was the best spot I had had yet! The clouds were blocking the sunset, but it was still an awesome spot with an amazing view. I met two guys there, one was a 62 year old man who was camping out of his car and had been everywhere, and had every story to tell about it! He even once ate an elephants trunk in Africa!! The other guy was a man from Ireland, with the strongest Irish accent I have ever heard, and he was BIKING! He had been on the road for about a month, had started near Vancouver, and was averaging 50-80 miles per day! Absolutely incredible! The three of us sat outside my camper and talked about our travels over drinks while we watched the bright orange crescent moon set over the lake. We were right on the time zone line, so it had been bright out until around 10:30pm, and the moon set very quickly. It was really neat to watch!

On the 28th I started my day with a nice trip around the lake in the kayak, which by the way is a way better energizer than coffee! Shortly after we hit the road again, officially leaving Michigan and headed into Wisconsin! The drive was fairly boring, with the exception that the roads were lettered! Yep, not numbered - lettered! Any letter you could think of there was a road to match, and after that there was double lettered roads, like 'WW'. Weird, but it made the drive fun as I "collected" letters!

Saturday, July 29th, I decided that I needed to try the famous cheese curds! I went to a bar in Merrill called Ballyhoos, ordered a local draft, and read about the strange cheese while I waited for mine to come out. Apparently if they are fresh they will squeak when you bite on them due to their high elasticity, which I thought was pretty bizarre! Mine didn't squeak, I'm thinking because they were fried, but they tasted like they could have! They were very similar to mozzarella sticks, but they had a much tougher chew. From the bar I went to a local fair that I had overheard other people talking about. It was pretty much just like any other fair I have been too, with the addition of cheese curd stands!

Sunday we drove to Illinois, leaving Wisconsin and it's odd lettered roads behind! I wasn't able to find a street address for the campground I was going to, so I was only using my phone GPS. I figured I was practically in trucker country anyways, why would I have any issues? Well I was about 10 minutes from my site when I turned off the "highway" and immediately saw a sign for a 10ft bridge up ahead. I'm 10'6"! The only place to turn around was a county lot that was fenced in, and the drive was gated off as well. I tried backing into it, but immediately realized that I was too long to turn around. On the other side of the road was a steep ditch, leaving me with hardly any wiggle room. With no other exit, I continued to try to spin myself inch by inch, until I was totally stuck with about a foot clearance from the fence parallel to the back of my camper. At this point I was completely blocking the road and luckily enough the first car that came along was an older couple, one of which was a retired trucker! He quickly jumped into the driver seat, reassuring me that he would get me out. And then he hit the fence.. Not his fault, I had gotten myself stuck there to begin with anyways, and was only a few inches from it! Of course the fence won, taking off my awning arm and slicing into the side of the camper 😧Two more cars showed up, and guess what? Two more retired truck drivers! They decided to unhitch the trailer - and it was very much a "they" not a "we" - I was just trying my hardest not to fully panic. I could feel the anxiety quickly building up inside - it looked like I was never going to get out unless someone came and removed the fence! With so much pressure on the hitch (it was practically jackknifed at this point) it took a lot of work to get it off, but it finally came loose. Once they flipped the truck around the trailer moved away from the fence easily. Crisis averted!! (Mostly) Throughout all of this, each person continued to tell me about how many people have hit that bridge, ripping the roof off of their truck or camper. Even at my campsite later on the guys agreed - it is very common to hear of a truck hitting that bridge! So all in all, I think I made it out OK.

The next day I was supposed to drive into Chicago, but had to get my awning arm put back on before hitting the highway again. Every place I called said they couldn't fit me in, until I finally stopped mentioning any damage, just that I needed the damn thing reattached somehow! I drove about an hour and only ended up paying $20 to have it drilled back on! I'll still have to get it repaired down the road, but at least it won't fly off in the meantime! On my way to get it fixed I drove through the countryside of northern Illinois, and it was absolutely gorgeous. You would think that endless roads of corn and farm would be boring, but it wasn't! It was a new kind of beauty unlike anything I've seen before. The rolling hills, vibrant greens and the golden tops of corn rows stretching out as far as you can see, dotted with farms and silos, contrasted against the big, blue, open sky. Every rolling hill we'd pass over would open up a new stretch of farms to see, keeping me smiling in awe. It was a big change from the endless pine trees in Michigan!

With my camper bandaged back up, we left on the 1st to head into southern Illinois. After learning my GPS lesson, I punched the address into my RV GPS and hit the road.Well a few minutes later I found myself at a stop sign, looking at a 10' bridge sign that my GPS wanted me to go under!! Thankfully I was stopped and was able to easily turn away, or I would've been in the same situation all over again! I then recognized the name of the road I was on and realized that I was on the same road but coming from the opposite direction. So I turned, and waited for my stupid GPS to reroute me, only to see that it was having me do a 5 mile circle, back to the bridge! On my phone I could see the other roads also crossed railroad tracks and didn't want to chance driving down them either. I saw someone walking and pulled over to ask them. And once again, he knew exactly what deadly trap of a bridge I was talking about! So at least I feel better about using my phone GPS the other day, because clearly my RV GPS doesn't know what it was doing anyways!

A few hours after finally getting around the bridge we made it to our site on Lake Carlyle, the largest lake in Illinois. I didn't know this when I booked it, I just like being on water! And it was the perfect spot, right on the edge of the lake with an awesome view of the sunset and the passing thunderstorm. Finally I had no mosquitoes, but the flies were HUGE! Thankfully they didn't bite, just annoying!

August 2nd I drove into St. Louis! The first parking lot I pulled into I hit the building trying to get out of traffic 😒 Not very hard, just enough to dent my bumper, but no paint damage so whatever! I've adapted a "shit happens" attitude - I just don't think there's any other way to make it through the bumps of this trip! The attendant wouldn't let me into the garage anyways with my kayak sticking out, so I had to search for awhile to find another lot. I've never seen such low parking garages! Most of them only had 6ft clearances! When I finally did find a spot, I think every other truck in the city was in the same garage! Besides having tiny garages, the city was very clean! The CityGarden was really nice, with kids playing in the water areas and a free band performing in the center. I had booked a tour up the Gateway Arch, so I headed there. They were doing construction, so the walk wasn't very direct, but who cares! The arch was incredible to look at. I learned on the tour that it is as tall as it is wide, and only looks taller because it gets narrower at the top. Regardless, even from the highway you could tell it was the tallest thing in the city. Makes me wonder if they have a rule against building taller than it..

The tour inside was pretty neat, and I got to skip the line when they only had one more spot available - yay for being single 😃 On the flip side, I ended up squished in this tiny capsule with low ceilings and a family of 4. This thing was like a enclosed Ferris wheel seat, and everyone is circled up with your knees almost touching. I would hate to be claustrophobic, especially because nothing informed you of this until you climbed through a 4ft door into it! The view from the top was really cool, and I'm glad to say I've been up it, but I wouldn't go again.

Afterwards I drove to "The Hill", the Italian neighborhood where fried ravioli was first made! My childhood favorite food! (No really, my dad convinced me to change my trade school shop choice with a fried ravioli bribe) There's two places that are rumored to have first made it, but I chose Mama's on the Hill, and I'm glad I did! It was a really cool place and the server, Nate, was really awesome. Not only was he extremely attentive, but once the other tables cleared out we got to talking and he was really cool! (And cute 😏) He told me that he was from Kentucky and was driving the 4 hours home the following day. I didn't even realize I was that close to Kentucky! On my way out the door he caught me and gave me a bottle of their house dressing as a souvenir 😃 If you're ever in St. Louis, go here! Don't expect the free dressing though, but you will have an awesome meal and spectacular service!

Week 4 to come soon!

Week Two

Alright, week 2!

I want to apologize first for not doing this page sooner, and subsequently having to list the last two weeks in a row of days. But there's only two more posts like this one, because tomorrow marks the end of week 3! From there I promise I’ll keep this updated. Can’t promise they will be much quicker reads, but I will be able to go more in depth on each day without feeling like I’m writing a book, or flying by too quickly like I am now!

SO, July 21^st we were still in Who Knows Where, Ohio. I didn’t have much to do besides drive that day, so I didn’t set any alarms. Well of course it was an overcast morning, so with no sun shining in I didn’t get out of bed until around 11:30. But when I did go outside, I was met with the darkest, most menacing sky. I packed up the site so fast, terrified of the dirt road washing out, or a tree falling, or just anything happening that would keep us in bumble**** Ohio! We made it to a paved road just in time to sit and watch the storm pass. And then we drove, and drove, and drove.

A few days earlier, ironically while I was figuring out where the heck I was going to stay in Michigan, one of my old friends, Morgan, suggested we get together. I had gone to middle school with her and her fiancé, Kerry, and they had recently bought a house in Michigan, right on the Indiana border. It wasn’t the original plan to park at their house, but when I told her I was staying at a Walmart nearby, she offered to let me park there instead because of the bad rep from the other town. (Thanks for keeping me alive guys 😊 ) When I finally arrived at their house I showered to become somewhat decent again, and then we headed out to a local bar. The place looked sort of like a rec hall, with wooden walls and a handmade bar. Even the drinks were served in Solo cups, and the server made up the price on the spot, “Let’s call it $5 a piece”. The kitchen was closed so we ended up going to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner, which I also had never been to. I’m glad we stopped in at the bar first though – it was just the kind of local place I wanted to see!

On the 22^nd we left pretty early to head to Michigan’s National Forest and dune area. Adding in a stop to Cabela’s for a new camper battery, as well as a ton of stops for the pets, a 2-3 hour drive turned into a 6-7 hour day in the truck. I had read online about free sites on Green Rd. and when we arrived, all of the free sites that I could’ve fit the camper onto were taken by tents. And of course, all the smaller tent sites were empty… So we drove to the paid camping area nearby, and after driving down every loop, we finally found a site – 2^nd to the last one, so we certainly got lucky! We were a 5-10 minute walk from the shore of Lake Michigan, which Coop Dog and I went to check out. Unfortunately he is scared of water, so after taking in the view we walked back to the site.

The 23^rd was my sisters (Amber/Bams) 20th birthday! Besides walking back to the shore to get service to call her, I didn’t do much else that day! I eventually found a good spot with service at a small lake nearby, and sat at a picnic table with my laptop and planned out my trip up until August 5^th. (Today is the 2^nd and I still haven’t planned past then. Actually I don’t even know where I’m staying Friday night yet 😯 I need to get better at that, but at least there’s always Walmart!)

July 24^th we had another very long day of driving to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, or the U.P. We stopped in Traverse City for lunch, and at a few roadside overlooks along the way, but pretty much just another day in the truck. We arrived at Andrus Lake Campground, in Paradise, MI. I struggled hard with parking, but I finally got parked at this nice site with a lakefront area. Until I noticed this teeny tiny piece of paper on a similarly small lot number sign, saying that the site was reserved… So I had to move again! Luckily I didn’t have any trouble with the next spot, and it also had a little bit of lakefront to it, so it wasn’t a big deal. Just the little things that get to you after a long day on the road! That night I saw a really awesome sunset over the lake, I saw a shooting star, and I heard coyotes howling nearby! I was a happy camper 😃

The next day I drove to Whitefish Point to see Lake Superior, and was surprised to see all the cool rocks that made up the shore! I took a few at first, until later I found out that the locals collect them to find agates. Then I went back and took a whole lot more! (Like 2 buckets full…) Speaking of the locals, they are called Yoopers! I’m not sure where it comes from, or why, but I read that in order to call yourself a true Yooper, you have to have lived in the U.P. for at least 7 full years, and endure the mass amounts of snow they get. THEN you can consider yourself a Yooper! If you own a lake house, and only visit it in the summer, then you’re just a wannabe, no matter how many summers you’ve spent there! And they get a lot of snow! The woman at the grocery store had quickly gestured above her head to describe it when I had asked about the no snowmobile signs posted at their school. There also was one house that had a mock mail box, probably 20 feet high, with “Winter Delivery” written on the side - gave me a good laugh 😊 I think the best part about this area was the vibes that were given off by the locals. Everyone was extremely friendly, no one seemed to care that the groceries were 2x the normal price, and they even thought the water was warm (and it was not warm. I lost feeling in my feet searching for rocks) I wouldn't want to visit in the winter, but it sure was a great place to be in the summer, and once again, I wished I had more time!

On the 26th I woke up early in hopes to see the sunrise at Whitefish Point. It was very cloudy and we were expecting a thunderstorm at any time, but I still decided to drive the 10 minutes. Of course there wasn't even the slightest chance for a sunrise view, but still I sat on the beach until it started to rain. And when it started, the wind picked up fast and it poured! By the time I made it back to my truck I was completely soaked and my umbrella had flipped inside out, so I jammed it in the backseat and took off to the marina to get a view of the water from INSIDE my truck. Of course the rain stopped shortly after I made it there, so I drove through torrential downpours for nothing..

A few hours later we left Andrus Lake and drove to Seney State Park. After setting up I drove to Log Slide Overlook, and it was AMAZING! I am a huge sucker for mountaintop overlooks, and vista views, but I have never seen a view like this one. From the parking lot you walked on a short trail through the woods until it started to open up and become sandy. At this point I had thought that I was going to walk out onto a beach, so when I climbed up the short hill and the view opened up, I was in total shock. In front of me was Lake Superior, the water as blue as the Bahamas. The drop down was incredibly steep, 300 feet descent in 500 feet. The sign said that it only takes a few minutes to reach the bottom, but up to an hour to come back up. There was a young girls soccer team climbing up, up this sheer cliff of sand, carrying rocks with them from the bottom by tossing them every few feet. It was the largest dune I have ever seen. Looking out onto the lake felt like I was looking at the end of the world – just endless water that blurred with the horizon. I finally understood why it was first thought that the world was flat, and I could picture the water falling off the edge. It was so surreal, like looking at a picture, or falling into a dream. I have never seen such an amazing sight. If you ever find yourself in the U.P., forget about the 12 mile beach, or the lighthouses. Go here. (Or just do those first because once you’ve seen this you’ll be unimpressed by the rest like I was)

That night I finally had electricity for the first time since Pennsylvania, so I cranked the AC, caught up on Netflix, and avoided the mosquitoes. I probably will forget to mention those horrible guys going forward, so just know that I have been bitten more times, and in more places, than I thought was possible. I’ve learned that bug spray only has a hope of working if you spray literally every centimeter of your body, and if you miss a spot, or your clothing moves to reveal a missed spot, they will find it. And they will eat you alive.

Also citronella candles are a joke, but they are a great light source, sometimes giving off more light than my usual dying fire!