Michigan U P

Maritime Museum inside the hold of a 1917 Great Lakes ore carrier

On deck: Museum below

Sunset at the locks: Sault St Marie

These high school kids were GOOD.

Part of a steel band something like 40 strong

Approaching Macinac Island

Except for emergency vehicles & a couple of trash

trucks there is NO powered traffic on Makinac Island.

Makinac Hotel

One of many imaculate guest houses on Makinac

A gem in Makinac harbour

Beautiful gardens everywhere on Makinac Island

One of the Makinac high speed ferrys.

The island is serviced by an ice road in winter.

The 'Mighty Mac Bridge' linking Michigans upper

and lower penninsulars between lake Huron &

Lake Michigan.

Blog #8 Washington to Maryland

The Run East

 

The waypoints shown are places overnighted

 

The homeward leg took us some places we have been before but that is OK it always looks new after a few years break. Most of the stretch across Montana, N Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconson & Michigan upper penninsula was on hwy #2 which for the most part has very little traffic except near towns. Set the cruise control at about 65mph, what we need to do to stay comfortably in 6th gear, & go. Stop every couple of hours to change drivers.

July 6, Day 100, mile: 10,050

Steamboat Rock State Park

This is the day when there is major change in direction of travel. Everything is east now & we start losing hours going through the time zones. First stop is Wallace, Idaho, a little mountain town started by silver & gold. These days people come to ride bicycles, ATVs 4WDs over the forest service roads & trails. Neat little western town.

Wallace, ID

Elevated section of I90 goes over part of Wallace

July 7th, Day 101, Mile:10,225

Wallace to LoLo, Montana.

We stop at this Missoula area town for a squaredance weekend. Years ago BC (before children) we used to squaredance quite regularly. Sorry, no pics for you to laugh at.

 

July 10th, Day 104, Mile: 10,350

LoLo to Fort Bennet, Montana.

Bye Bye to the mountains and east across the plains. Not much to see out here. It is cattle country. No trees, just prairie.

July 15th, Day 109 Mile 11,288

Grand Forks, North Dakota

We are always on the lookout for something different to do. Small city motorsports is always loud, exciting and cheap. These cars spend most of their time drifting sideways.

Outlaw racing

Crossing Minesota we had a bit of a run in with a thunderstorm. It was dead behind us and catching up fast. It was sort of like being caught on tracks with a train bearing down. Simple solution. Step sideways. Found a road to headed north for 12 miles or so and watched it blow by to the south of us, returned to our original road and followed behind the storm.

Saturday, July 16, Day 110, Mile 11,625

Ashland, Wisconsin

Another little town that most have never heard of that seems to be making its way on tourism. Nice waterfront Campground only a few blocks from downtown.

Ashland sunset

Mural on Ashland street

Post #8 Haines, Alaska to Coulee Dam, Washington

Haines, Alaska to Coulee Dam, Washington

June 27th to July 7th

Mile 8,090 to 10,050

This leg of the trip took us on mostly a series of one nighters down through British Columbia

Tuesday, June 28th, Day 93 Mile 8090 to Mile 8252

Haines to Hainses Junction, Yukon

This was a bit of a long day milagewise but easy driving with little traffic and our best day for bear sightings. When you see someone stopped at a random spot roadside you always, at the very least, slow down to see why. Mostly it is because they have found an animal. This is how we was the first bear of the day. A California couple with good eyes had spotted one. We stopped, got out took pictures, chatted for a bit then they left ahead of us. We caught up with them again. Another bear. This cycle went on for at least an hour. Nice to have good spotters in front.

This fellow paid no mind to us at all

Wildflowers

Wednesday June 29th to Wednesday July 6th

Day 93 to Day 100

Mile 8252 to Mile 10,044

Everyday is noticably shorter as we travel south. We take advantage of the wonderful Provincial Parks almost all the way to the US. There is quite a change in climate from nothern BC down to the bottom of the Okanagan valley in the south. The volume of traffic increases also as we get into the populated south. We have been spoiled for too long with very little traffic.

The result of a wildfire in May.

The view out the door, Boya Lake Provincial Park, BC

Boya Lake site

Boya Lake, a very pretty place

Boya Lake

Boya Lake sunrise

Same sunrise just a few minutes later

No need to lock the campground host's truck when there is security

The old boat grill really gets around

Carolyn & her flowers

Somewhere in BC

Snow in July

Roadside flowers

The Coulee Dam with all sluice gates open

The Coulee makes us look small. The roar

of the water would give Niagara Falls competition.