July 13th, 2011

Wednesday we awoke early and went into town for an early breakfast. Someone had recommended Grunde's...so that's where we went. We ordered and it seemed to take forever for breakfast to arrive, but when it did it was well worth the wait. After breakfast it was off to the docks for our boat ride. We had purchased upper deck tickets and knew we might be cold out on the water. All our friends are in a terrible heat wave....for us that day we wore bluejeans, Winter coats and we were worried we might still be cold. The high temperature for the day was 72 with a good breeze on the water! The trip around the islands was informative and the captain of our ship gave us a history lesson. Back in 1910, the "brownstone" quarrying business abruptly ended in the Apostle Islands and many quarried blocks are right where they were left when the business died. The lighthouses were beautiful and the caves which were carved out by wave action, all made for a good ride and an enjoyable day. When we disembarked we looked for a restaurant and had lunch on deck looking out over the bay. We shared a table with two bicyclists from St Louis, MO, who were on holiday touring. Wonderful to listen to how others spend their vacation days. Brought back memories of our own bicycling days. Yes, we did a lot of bicycle touring in the days of yore!!
Thursday we headed east on US 2. Easy day, we were going to Rapid River, Mi. We left Wisconsin and arrived in Michigan....found a diner and had a typical U.P. Michigan pasty. The early settlers in the U.P. took pasties into the mines.... they are still made and are a local favorite. After our lunch we headed east once again.we had a couple of turns to make in towns along the way. The big rig is not easy to turn around, but we both look at road signs so we won't have that worry. Wait, what does that sign say "Welcome to Wisconsin". Did we miss a turn back 20 some miles??? I look on the map and finally see that yes indeed this road did dip back into Wisconsin for a few miles before it wove back into Michigan. What a trying few minutes.

We arrived in Rapid River. Our campsite wasn't the greatest but it would do. We set up and then headed back into town for a dinner. KFC sounded pretty good to us! We were not sure just how long we would stay here....but just in case Nancy did a few loads of laundry. Where we are at a lot of campsites don't have sewer hookups ... but ours did!