20060806 - Michigan

8/06 We spent most of this week traveling and goofing off. We haven’t spent much time on the Great Lakes before this so this is all very interesting. During this trip I am learning a lot about the Great Lakes. I did not know that the lakes have varying depths. Lake Erie is relatively shallow. The other lakes look like reverse mountains, with some very deep sections. I don’t know how long I’ll remember this stuff (with my steel sieve brain), but as for now it is pretty interesting. We drove from Sault St Marie to St Ignace in upper Michigan. We were there to visit Mackinac Island and upper Michigan. Sault St Marie was on the link between Lake Huron and Lake Superior. Lake Superior is 20 feet higher than Lake Huron hence the falls and the Locks. St Ignace is on the link between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. They are the same height so no need for Locks. Instead we have the Mackinaw Bridge which is the longest bridge over fresh water. From St Ignace we took the ferry to Mackinac Island, an island resort in Lake Huron and spent the day visiting the island. The Island was gorgeous. We had a great day. I have often wanted to see what the resorts in upper Michigan were like. This one was very nice.
After that we drove along Lake Michigan to Menominee on our way to Wisconsin Rapids. In Menominee we spent the night in a city campground on the Michigan side of Menominee River (across the river from Wisconsin). The next day we took the rig to Wisconsin Rapids to a RV Repair shop to be repaired. We stayed in a motel for a few days as they tried to repair the holding tank. The repairs were completed so late that we decided to stay an extra night in Wisconsin Rapids. Unfortunately I did not have my Quilt Store book so did not know to go to the quilt shop in town. The next couple of days we stayed in the middle of Wisconsin while we waited until after the weekend to go to the Wisconsin Dells.