East Tawas City Park

Wednesday, September 16, 2009 emerged as cloudy, windy and cooler, so as we finished up our 99 miles down Route 23 to Alpena, we decided it was the perfect day to extend another 60 miles to East Tawas. This was right along the shore of Lake Huron, and was a very pleasant drive. The unusual name's history is explained on the city's web page.

Yesterday's neighbor, mentioned this place as "required" stop on Morty's sashay South. Why East Tawas City Park? It's also pretty unusual: very few open sites, even though hardly anyone is around this time of year -- meaning many people pay full freight to keep their choice spots; full hook-ups including free cable TV; right in the heart of the city -- next to restaurants, Wal-Mart, and fast food of all types; right on the Lake Huron beach; great bath houses; lovely shaded sites; low cost; no reservations -- you can keep your site as long as you pay for it. It's as if they were using the city's capital resources, without having to earn a market rate of return -- oh wait, that is the deal here. Great for the happy campers, not so much for the good citizens of East Tawas. Maybe the business that is brought to town is the clincher -- it would be interesting to see the actual numbers. The Wikipedia entry  has no mention of the campground.



Dinner was at Ginii's Family Restaurant, practically next-door. We were tempted by the fresh local fish, but ended up with oriental -- Moo Goo Gai Pan, and Thai Pad shrimp. Both were very good, and extremely reasonably priced. I guess we need a little more courage to go with the local specialties, due to recent experiences. Mulligan's on the main downtown street looks to be the place for a 99 cent breakfast -- also on the list of the former neighbor.

Now were ahead of the daily mileage curve. We're targeting Grosse Isle south of Detroit for a Saturday meet-up with an old friend

Cheboygan State Park, Tuesday, September 6, 2009

We stopped at Scarborough’s Whitefish and Chips, as we pulled out of Petoskey. Now we know how they can afford to close for the holiday – frankly my dear, they are quite greasy, undersized and overpriced. You can see a lot just by watching, as the great Yogi says.

All of the sudden, Lynne’s floating knee cartilage is acting up, and slowing her down in a major way. Here’s hoping that this is just a temporary thing. She seems a little better this evening.

A milestone from a couple of days ago, was the epic crossing of the 45^th parallel as Morty negotiated his way North. This of course is noteworthy, because it is exactly halfway between the equator and the North Pole. Consistent with the ceremonies associated with crossing the equator, Lynne donned a crown, trident spear and flowing white beard and forced me to drink the swill and do the limbo walk – at least those were my fears.

We stopped at Wilderness State Park as our original destination, but couldn’t find the campgrounds; in fact we did find a sign proclaiming “NO CAMPING.” Later, Lynne gave me a pen and told me to cross out the bullet in the state brochure that indicated “Modern Campground.” Plan B then was to go on an additional 30 miles to Cheboygan.

In the good omen department, we stopped in the center of town to gas up, and spotted a bald eagle doing low loops right over the town. We looked for a supermarket type place to replenish the frozen dinner department, without avail. On the state park and its bullet for Modern Campground – finally success. This is a lovely little spot on a Lake Huron bay. Only a half dozen campers in the whole place. We can see the bay from our bedroom window. Got a picture of a great blue heron and some frog earlier in the afternoon. The camp billboard devotes an entire side to the local bear population. Not sure whether to take that as a threat or not.