U.S. Highway 2, Part 4 - Wisconsin & Michigan

It won't surprise you to learn that we tried to extend our stay at Lakehouse Boat Basin in Duluth. We always try to leave lots of wiggle room in our travel schedule so that we can stay longer in places we really enjoy along the way. But, no joy! It is a popular place, particularly on weekends.

We resigned ourselves to moving on, and in doing so we hopped back on U.S. Highway 2 and entered Wisconsin, our 49th state. Of course we can't take Scoopy to Hawaii, and whether or not we ever make it there is up for debate. But for now, we are thrilled to have filled our map with stickers representing our fulltime travels.

Feels good to have no blank spaces (except for Hawaii).

I'd love to tell you that we did Wisconsin justice, but we didn't. We intended to stay at the Ashland Elks Lodge for a few days, but they no longer have RV parking. So we rolled into town, parked in the Walmart parking lot and headed downtown to eat, buy some booze and find some Wisconsin sausages. To our great delight, the restaurant was right across the street from the liquor store which also sold sausages from the local butcher. What luck, right? We stocked up on everything and, spoiler alert, the sausages were fantastic!

After all that and a quick shop, we rolled out the other side of town and headed for the Bad River Casino about ten miles east in the big middle of nowhere. Twenty bucks for water and electricity, a forgettable overnight stay and we cruised out of Wisconsin the following morning. 

Bad River Casino.

Our redeeming grace, of sorts, is that we'll return to Wisconsin in a couple of weeks, but for now, we had our sites on the brand spankin' new Pictured Rocks RV Park in Christmas, Michigan near Pictured Rocks National Seashore. It's the one place we weren't able to visit during our summer stay in Michigan last year and we were looking forward to it. We booked a weeklong stay at the campground. The great thing about staying in new places, especially if some of the infrastructure is still under construction, is that the prices haven't yet caught up to others in the area. The owners, looking to build a clientele, were keeping prices reasonable.

Pictured Rocks RV Park as seen from Scoopy’s roof. Still working on the landscaping.

I've said before that we're not always interested in doing all the touristy things, but sometimes a Must-Do really is a Must-Do. The sunset cruise along the Pictured Rocks National Seashore falls into that category. Even with more clouds than sunset, it was just gorgeous. Take a look...

 

 

Spectacular views along Lake Michigan during the Pictured Rocks boat tour.

I mentioned in my last post that I had my first walleye fish while in Minnesota and I really, really liked it. I wanted to fill my freezer with these yummy fishies, but here's the thing. The department of Health in Minnesota publishes not one, but TWO brochures warning consumers about the dangers of fish from Minnesota waters. Seems all that coal combustion, mining and incineration of mercury products has taken its toll on Minnesota lakes and rivers. I'm sure it's this way in other states too, but I've never come across warning brochures in a state park before in our travels. So knowing all this, it kind of put me off buying fish for my freezer. But hey, Michigan doesn't have any brochures, so it's gotta be okay, right?

Two brochures warning of contaminants in fish from Minnesota rivers and lakes.

Smoked fish at Vanlandschoot & Sons Fish Market in Munising. We stocked up on Michigan fish.

Our departure from the campground was bittersweet. We were ready to go, but this trip would be our last stretch on U.S. Highway 2. What a glorious trip it’s been! It so exceeded our expectations, I just can't tell you enough times how much we enjoyed this route. We would do it again in a heartbeat! Except the very last two miles.

The last leg of our U.S. Highway 2 adventures was, ironically, chockablock with traffic.

What's with all this traffic? Sunday on Lake Michigan is popular, especially when the weather is great and the sun is shining. It took us a couple of hours, but we finally made our way onto the Mackinac Bridge. And with that, we completed our tour of U.S. Highway 2, a route we would take again and again. We loved it!

Heavy traffic on the Mackinac Bridge.

Once we crossed the bridge, we were now in familiar territory as we had made this same trip from the bridge south a couple of times last summer. Our goal for the day was Petoskey, to free casino parking that had our name all over it. Ours and a bunch of others’ too, apparently. When we arrived, the RV parking was completely full, so we eased along the curb and parked up for the night.

We rarely arrive ANYWHERE and find all spaces occupied. We snuck in the side and stayed the night.

By the next morning, we were on our way to Suttons Bay, the same area we stayed for a month last year. Other than the ranch and boondocking in the SoCal desert, Suttons Bay was our first lengthy stay since we started fulltiming in 2014, certainly our first month-long stay at a commercial campground. We loved the area so much, we couldn't wait to return. We had a great monthly rate last summer at Wild Cherry Resort, but the nightly rate was not such a great deal for us. Instead, we stayed at the Leelanau Sands Casino. We had a great view, 50 amps and it was $10 a night. What's not to love? To make it even better, Jim and Diana Belisle were parked up next to us!

 
We parked nose-in next to Jim &  Diana so we could enjoy the lovely view of Lake Michigan.

UP NEXT:  Our Fourth Anniversary on the Road, spent with wonderful friends!