Sunset on Goose Island

We had some remarkable colors and tints in our sunset this evening:



One even caught a fish jumping out of the water!

Hiking Seminole Canyon State Park, Texas

Morty got to rest today, while the people did the hard work -- hiking the three mile trail to where the canyon joins the Rio Grande and the return. Lynne calls it a quarter-marathon. We had perfect conditions, 70s and sunny with just a little breeze. Weather was again a consideration, since the morning reports had winter storm warnings for this area over night, including freezing temps and snow.



By the time we made it back, however, the warnings had been retracted, and it seems that we are just in for rain and 40s. We're wondering if we will be able to hold out until Wednesday when the guided tours to the pictographs are conducted. Looks like Tuesday could have Morty plunging yet further South -- if the people are not too stiff to get out of bed.

Munising City Campground

Busy travel day! We left McLain Park early still hungry for some McDonald’s breakfast. This put us on the same route we used getting there. With breakfast in hand, I tried to find a Wi-Fi signal to upload the last couple of updates. I found the one I used last time, Pasty, but it wasn’t strong enough to work. No wonder, being named after the local specialty, most find once is enough. We went across the road to Wal-Mart and had the same situation. There was a motel behind the shopping center, so we went there. Found a signal named “moyle11”. I know what a Moyle is but couldn’t figure how it was associated with a motel. The signal was awesome, did the updates and even the stock and options. So then we left for our next destination, Pictured Rocks. Turned the first corner, and saw a weather-beaten sign for “Moyle’s Sand and Gravel”. Thank you Mr. Moyle for the great connectivity.



Pictured Rocks is a National Lakeshore. I knew nothing about it except that it was on the map and some highway singage, oh, and it was the right distance from McLain and in the direction of home. As we were getting close, we noticed a National Parks Service Information Center, so I wheeled in there to get the campsite info – not a typical, but still pretty good move. The roads to the national parks campsites are all at least 12 miles of gravel, and good chunks of those are closed for construction. This was on the eastern edge of Munising. As we came into town form the West, I noticed this commercial campground, so I asked about it and the notoriety of the pictured rocks themselves. Well, the campground would be the best alternative for someone like us who were finished driving for the day. The Pictured Rocks can only be seen from the water, and the boat cruises were just ready to leave, but the fare was $33 and would take the rest of the afternoon. We headed for the campground, and passed up the boat ride.

The City of Munising Tourist Park Campground is a very interesting place. It appears to be municipally owned. It was unattended at our arrival at 4PM, so pick a spot and leave your money in an envelope! The views of Lake Superior are outstanding. The Internet is free and open. The utilities are fine. The rates are as good or better than the state parks. The brochure/guide is slick and professional. The showers and lavatories are clean, hot where needed, and supplied with soap, just a little shabby in the building department. It’s just that the roads and most sites are very dusty and gravelly. Oops, too pessimistic maybe?

This evening’s sunset was spectacular. Every time I thought it was played-out, Lynne pointed me in an new direction, and my camera kept grabbing marvelous pictures. So we kept on taking pictures, and I now have 135 pictures of Munising sunset of 9/14/09! In the old days, that would have been four rolls of Kodacolor and processing -- costing over $80 in the 70’s.

Van Riper State Park, MI UP

On Friday, September 11, 2009 Morty meandered from the South side to the North Side of the Upper Peninsula, about 115 miles. I had expected the roads in this very sparsely populated and remote area of the state with a pretty severe winter climate to be below par. But I am really surprised to report that they are indeed in prime condition – smooth ribbons of asphalt with no potholes or frost damage. In Ohio, even the interstates are not in as good condition. Morty just loves being able to cruise along at 60 MPH with no hassles at all, and he shows it by increasing his gas economy to 9.8 miles per gallon, a pace he has held since departing Cheboygan. I’m thinking he deserves a switch to synthetic oil to encourage this improving performance.



Getting into Van Riper campgrounds had a few difficulties. Seems that someone made a reservation for tomorrow instead of today. Fortunately they still had a couple of open spots when we arrived around 3PM. The ladies at the check-in were no better than I was at reading the tiny on-screen print of this notorious system, which continues to charge a 36 % premium for making a one-night reservation. The grumbling on this point continues.

This park is famous for being in Moose Country. This was the locale of an airlift of entire moose families from Ontario in 1985. They are thriving just a little northwest of the park. I set out on bike to spot some, but ran out of decent biking trail before the moose ran out of habitat.

The reason for the full park this weekend is the celebration of Halloween. Wait, you say, that holiday is still seven weeks off – but we fail to realize that in terms of parties, decorations and developing traditions, this is now our most important holiday of the year. Here at Van Riper, the celebration – including trick-or-treating -- runs for three solid week-ends at the end of September. That’s ideal then for everyone to pull up stakes and take the celebrations home for the month of October – what could be better?

Sunsets were again quite photogenic so several are in the picasa album for you. The lake here is Michigamme. If you, like I, thought that was a football game with the Buckeyes at the end of November, you now have a new piece of knowledge.

Petoskey Sunset

We wanted to avoid the Labor Day scramble home, so stayed a second day in Petoskey. Slept late, had a bite to eat, then biked to the ranger station to extend our stay. Lynne went to try out the showers, and managed to eake out some warm water. After yesterday’s cold, her plumbing luck still leaves a lot to be desired. My showers on both days were so hot, I had to turn down the temperature.

We saw a Scarborough fish and chips shop advertised in the campground map that claimed to be open seven days, so we biked on over. Would it be a story if the handwritten sign in the window didn’t notify all its would-be customers that they are closed on Labor Day? So we hit the deli next door and made do, including cookies for dinner’s desert. We rode back to Morty, and I headed back out on the bike to the airport to see the great “get out of Dodge” exodus. 

My instincts were right on. All but one of the big planes, and most of the lighter ones, were getting ready for the arrival of their VIP passengers. I rode back and forth on the path along the runway and had a great time second-guessing all the preparations. This is one of those rare airports that have not yet put up massive security around the perimeter. In fact some folks were riding their bikes on the taxi ways, and in and around the $20 million planes. Something tells me that these days will soon be over.

I rode up to a pilot who was killing time sitting on a picnic table. He told me that the plane I thought was a Gulfstream was in fact a Bombadier Challenger 300. So I guess there were no super mega stars here after all. It sure was one sweet flyer though. Every time I thought there was a lull in the action, another crew showed up and began more activity. So it was that I would spend nearly two and a half hours just riding up and down the path fantasizing what it would be like to be going up today. Then a chap shows up and pulls his gyro-copter out of a trailer and fires up the little snowmobile engine and he takes off, right behind the jet of the pilot I was talking to earlier. This gyro-copter was so small, it held only the pilot, and provided only a nose and windshield and rudder. – no doors, body, or wings. I was expecting this to give new meaning to the term “wake turbulence” but he got her up in a shorter distance than the jet required. So by the book, that was sufficient to avoid the problem. Still, if it were me, I would have given it a few more minutes.

Lynne has a plan for tomorrow to allow us a stop at Scarborough’s for fish and chips. We will leave later and travel less. Accordingly, I picked Wilderness State Park at the very tip of the LP – only 30 miles.

Petoskey State Park, MI

On Sunday, September 6, 2009, Morty pedaled further north to Petoskey. This took us through Charlevoix. Someplace else I might have heard about, but nonetheless was unprepared to experience. Every inch of highway 31 through Charlevoix was lined with a dense planting of petunias – pink, red, white and purple -- unbelievably beautiful and fragrant. The only negative was that the town was vamping to the tourist trade in a major way, and that significantly reduced its appeal for us. That, and the fact that traffic forced into one lane through the heart of the town’s tourist traps, crawled at less than walking speed.

Petoskey town was by comparison, wonderfully understated and elegant. Every highway seemed to have a bike path, both in and out of the town. Bikes using said paths, were a major abundance. Lakefront cottages, reminded me of the type of locales described in Greeley’s novels -- lots of atmosphere and ambiance just begging to be soaked up.

The campgrounds are right on Lake Michigan, just a short walk from the dunes and very clear water and mixed sand and pebble beaches. The locale is five miles north of Petoskey town, and five miles south of Harbor Springs. I biked north along the beach road in search of the local airport whose traffic I had noticed. The cottages in this area were even more impressive than the town’s. The airport, though, blew me away. The bike path took me right along the runway and up to the apron and FBO. Parked there, were several transient jets, including the usual mixtures of Pipers, Cessnas, King Airs, and even a Cessna Citation, and a big Gulfstream.

There’s no TV signal at all here at the campgrounds, and the cell service is marginal enough, that I can’t upload my narrative or pictures. At least we had a lot of entertainment watching a 35 foot trailer being parked in a site built for a much smaller unit, right across from us. First from one direction, then from the other. Inch-by-inch in amongst the trees, and dunes. Clearances measured in fractions of an inch were routine for this guy. He finally did it, but it was something to behold.

Sunset over the lake was again a marvelous experience. Maybe you’ll like the pictures.