This day turned out different than I thought it would. It was a nice day. I pushed the first blog out ironed out the tech issues I have at first on the road. We finally got out of petunia farm by 10a and headed west on US2, at the top of Lake Michigan. The motel had a Keurig coffee maker. Nice.

We stopped a few times at some of the many turnoffs and parks set up. In the 60’s and overcast.

First stop in Manistique. Fuel, post office and Irena hit a couple antique stores. No purchases.

Headed north to Munising. Home of the Painted Rocks National Park. Tourist season is winding down. Quite a few Chinese queuing up for the boat tours. Lunch at eh! Burger. A smash burger type place down by the piers. Business was brisk. Nice in the sun. Ate outside. Lost Irena again. Saw something shiny I think. :-).

Found Irena again.

Telling Irena where to meet if we get separated.

Once on the road we headed west along the Lake Superior shore. Decided we would head for Houghton, spend the night and do the Copper Harbor thing the next day. Misty, overcast, some construction but overall a nice drive. Skies starting to clear on horizon. Hey, what if we pushed through to Copper Harbor. Whats another hour?

I am not sure why Irena took this..  Telling me to check my zipper?

A picture of Irena taking a picture.

We pulled off at another roadside park and started dialing for motels. Peak color season. All booked. Found a two bedroom, two story cabin right downtown Copper Harbor (very small town). A Lot more than I wanted to spend but hey, I am w my wife. I need to make points.

Action photo.

New arrival, 630p. Beautiful drive. The Kewaunee peninsula juts out into Lake Superior. Copper Harbor is an old shipping port. Beautiful natural harbor. Found the place, checked in. I hauled our family heirlooms inside while Irena went to find ice.

To be blunt. What a filthy dump. When Irena got back I indicated I think we need to get our money back. She was on board.

To their credit they did not has hassle refunding me. They even had to pay cash. Couldn’t figure out how to make the refund thingy work. My super-honed observations skills did detect that they were not at all happy. Especially when they had to fork over a couple hundred cash in US currency.

My bold and decisive move did now leave us in a quandary. What will we do now?  People were circling the block looking for rooms. We headed south down the peninsula. Finally found a Ramada inn in Hancock. Back where we started. Right under the lift bridge across the canal. It was getting late. Still have not had dinner. We stopped at a grocery store near closing and purchased suitable grazing items and found our hotel. Tourist buses parked outside.

A side note is that Irena and I are finding time to laugh again at all the crap, enjoying the time and keep adding to the list of learned experiences, like look at the room before you pay for it. As far as the bonus points I was shooting for, well…

We heard from our contractors. Discussed a few items. They sent pics of progress. Looking very very nice so far.

Tomorrow, Maybe Duluth or beyond.  750 miles so far and have not even left Michigan.  Checked Google.  1,987 miles to Seattle yet.  And that is the quickest way.  We may have to step it up.  But ya know, I am not going to worry about it.

All in all, it was a good day.

Yep, Life is good