Tuesday, July 19, 2011

July 18, 2011. Tuesday


Monday morning, the day we move to yet another campsite. We did not travel far....just about 120 miles to Alpena, on Lake Huron. We arrive before noontime and have to wait for the people to vacate the campsite we were to have. The park is about 6 miles out of town right along the back-up from the dam further down the river. The river Thunder Bay river and it flows into Thunder Bay on Lake Huron. Tom used to race the Sarnia to Alpena boat race (185 miles) on our O'Day 27 sailboat. I don't ever remember coming into this port...sometimes memories fail, but I'm pretty sure I did not.


Anyhow we went into town and looked it over, as is the case with so many cities and towns in Michigan, it is not flourishing.....it is starting to get run down. We return just in time for the heavens to open up......and did it ever rain hard. Seems the whole U.S. Needs rain this summer so it was welcomed.Tuesday the day started out sunny....but soon it went from sun to cloudy. This was the day we were heading north to the small village of Presque Isle. It is where the state had a break wall, a stone pier and a harbor of refuge. We used to sail in and anchor out in the boat overnight.....and boy had it changed!!! It now has docks and the harbor is huge and it looks new. Not sure how long ago they were built, but the docks and harbor are great. Then we went to visit the "old" Presque Isle lighthouse.
It is not in use any longer but.....I remember when the boys were little (4-6) and we would walk to the lighthouse from the harbor. It seemed to them back then that we had to walk miles, which in fact was only about 1/2 mile from the harbor. It is a quaint old lighthouse and keeper's cottage, but very interesting. The county is trying to keep them open and so they asked for donations. Some say that the lighthouse and keepers cottage are haunted. The light has been turned off since 1971 but on some nights they appear to be turned on. Great folklore.

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