Austin, MN, Plainfield, IL & Houghton, MI

 Sunday July 15^th. We arrived in Austin, MN. Nancy's niece and family live there and we wanted to visit with them. Lynn, Aaron and 2 sons, Andrew (7) and Lance (4). We visited with them at their home and took them to dinner at the local Mexican restaurant. What a fun visit. Andrew and Lance loved to show us all their new things since last visit. Andrew had a soccer game after dinner so we all went and had an enjoyable evening. After that we headed back to the RV and they went home.

Monday we left early as we had a long day ahead of us. We left Minnesota at 7:00 and headed towards Plainfield, IL. where son Greg and family live. Lynn had told us about a couple of other RV parks in the area so we thought we might try the one closest to them. Drove there and got into the park.....NO decent electricity or campsite. It is an old park and VERY run down so we got our money back and headed back to the old reliable park near Joliet, IL. We arrived, set up, then headed out to the kids house to see them. 

Allie, Grandpa and Emily

Allie, Greg and Emily

Friday night we went to Downtown Plainfield Days; Carney games, rides, cotton candy, noise, etc.; entertaining!!! Saturday, July 21, we did have them come out to the RV and had a nice picnic. Greg and girls went swimming and then after a pizza dinner they headed home and we called it a day. 

Sunday there was a Semi Pro Womens soccer game at Toyota Park, in Chicago so we all went to the game. If we understood soccer better it might have been a little easier to follow. Charley got several days of unrestricted exercise with Greg and Lynns' two Softcoated Wheaton Terriers.

Brady, Charley & Maggie
(cousins?)

Monday another week gone by and we headed north to hopefully escape the heat. We back tracked a little at first, heading west on I-80 then north on I-39 into Wisconsin. Well we stopped for the night in cool.... Bruce Crossing, Michigan in Yuperland, the UP (Upper Peninsula to you non Michiganders)! Went out to dinner at Carla's Cafe and were pleasantly surprised by our menu and what great cooking it was. Tuesday found us up early and headed north to Houghton/Hancock, Michigan. We un-hooked the car at Wal-Mart and tried Houghton City Park, sorry full up. We headed across the bridge to Hancock City Recreation Area. Yup they had room.....let's pay for our spot and then go back and picked up the RV. This is really a great spot, but what is there to do????

DHH - Tom's dorm in 1962 and 1963

We are only staying 2 nights. Tuesday afternoon, we drove around the Michigan Tech Campus where Tom went to school, then out to McLain State Park and the lighthouse. 

Wednesday it was raining and cool. We made wonderful wild blueberry pancakes and then since it was clearing, it was off to the copper country, the Keweenaw peninsula. 

Eagle Harbor Lighthouse

Record snowfall marker
OVER 20' of snow in 1 Winter

 We headed north to Calumet toured the downtown area, then on to Eagle Harbor and ending up at Copper Harbor. The old dump was closed so no bear watching for us. After lunch we visited the state park before heading south to Hancock. Almost home and look an old copper mine was opened and so we stopped for a quick tour.

The Old Quincy Mine north of Hancock off US 41