I was trying figure out what residents of Michigan call them selves: Michigains? Michigones? Michigonians? Then a fellow camper called himself a Michigander! Now as a bird dog I could definitely relate!
So it was pretty much straight north with a little lean toward the west to get us to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and cooling waters. We made the Platte River campground in good time and settled in for a few days. Now we’ve already been through the explanation of these big lakes, glacier-ground, sand dune shores, but this one has a kinda neat Indian legend told about it. Seems a big Mama bear was swimming across Lake Michigan with her two cubs when the babies both drowned. Mama didn’t know this and arrived on the eastern shore of the lake before she noticed her babies were not behind her. She settled down to wait and wait and……. She fell asleep for a really long time and they were recreated as north and south Manitou Islands. She became a large rock outcrop and sand dune so that she could stay forever and wait for them. That’s how the park got its name. Sad but sweet.
We took the 7.4 mile Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive one afternoon just to get a better feel for this terrain. It seems this guy, Pierce Stocking (sounds like he had holes in one of his socks, huh?) spent his youth working as a lumberman in the Michigan forests. He so loved the woods that he became a self-taught naturalist. He particularly loved the dunes and bluffs above Lake Michigan and wanted to share this beauty with people. So he developed the idea of a scenic road through the area, helped build it and operated the road as a scenic drive until his death in 1976. Later, when the road became part of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, it was renamed in his honor.
Covered Bridge
Glen Lake
Dunes Overlook
Beech-Maple Forest
Lake Michigan Overlook
Sleeping Bear Dune Overlook
North Bear Lake
Pine Plantation
Dune Climb
Another day was spent driving down Platte River Road out to the waters of this great lake. We were actually following the kayackers, tubists and canoers as they drifted down the river and out into the lake. Stupid regulations would not allow me to float with them but Cokie got some fun shots of all of their fun. I was simply envious!
Clear water of the Platte River just before it enters Lake Michigan.
We drove out to a place called Bessie Point, just outside of the park, and there I could chase waves, get parts of me wet and generally have a good time on the beach. Kae went crazy over rocks, I found incredible smells and Cokie did her photo thing. Man, were we happy or what?
We took a scenic drive around several lakes, like Crystal, Long and Traverse Bay where we found a very interesting lakeside ‘green’ home.
Now we had heard that the Upper Peninsula was very beautiful, as well as buggy and wet. We had an executive meeting and unanimously decided that wet and buggy were not options and that we should go due east across the state to Lake Huron and cooler climes at the AuSable River. We actually ended up inland a few miles in a neat campground called Monument at the Lumberman’s Monument Park. This lovely spot is dedicated to all of the hardworking, tough lumbermen who harvested most of Michigan’s white pine and hardwood forests during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. They pretty much stripped the land of trees but they also began the first large scale reforestation programs in the US.
Knowing we had a bunch of mail waiting for us in Bay City, we shot due south down to there and stopped at the Bay City State Park Lagoon on Saginaw Bay. This was a very pretty area but a little expensive for our budget.
We did our decision thing again and decided Ohio was beckoning and we must follow. The very next day it was off again south and east along our favorite back ways and byways. These are the fun un-crowded kinds of roads we all love. The only crowding we encountered here was mushrooms and lots of flowers right along the roadsides. When we got into Ohio we just kept going right into a sweet little town called Gibsonburg, OH.
On our way my sweet gal friends did such a neat thing – they bought an expansion room for the Pod. Now I can take my cat naps in comfort as I have the best bug free environment in the whole world. If they would just move the Tempurpedic bed out here, I would be the happiest critter in the universe.
Guess we see you later when it’s O-My-O, O-hi-o!!
