8/17/08 Day of Travel From State to State

An early start for us is being out of the campground by 10 am and we did it this morning. Even though I cooked breakfast and both of us showered, we managed this early start. That rest day really paid off. North on Hwy 13 to the Wisconsin’s lakeshore was a fairly flat road, trees close to the road and no vistas to see across the land. When the road wound close to the lake the view was pretty however that seldom happened. Very different scenery from the North Shore, which spoiled us with the grand views of Lake Superior. The town of Bayfield is a quiet, hot, little village that relies on tourism year around since the fishing business faded out years ago. The Bayfield Maritime Museum displayed the types of fishing nets used over the years in the area. Shipwreck stories told the history of them all around the Apostle Islands which go up north from here. Beautiful! The bay freezes in winter so a road is made to the closer islands and ice fishing is really big.

Hwy 13 came back to Hwy 2 so on east into Michigan we went at Iron Wood. Grocery shopping at the Super One Foods is like shopping at home since we are setting to know the layout of the stores. Iron Wood’s store didn’t disappoint us. I bought a green bag for groceries way back in South Dakota and I have only remembered to take it in once. Also just like home. Determined to get better about that!

At Iron River, Michigan we missed the Hwy 189 sign so some back tracking was necessary. Terry gets so frustrated at me when this happens only this time we both laughed since we both missed the big signs right in town. He chose this small, black-line highway because it showed many National Park campgrounds along the route. We soon learned that no roads showing on the map meant a rustic dirt road to the campground. We aborted the first try due to a r-o-u-g-h-a-s-a-c-o-b road. About 8 pm we found the National Forest Campground at Bagley Rapids had a paved road all the way to the campsite. The rapids are noisy enough that I could hear them while we were leveling the RV. This is really the first hot, sticky night that we have spent. Glad it was quiet in the campground. We were tired after a long day of driving, but I’ll bet we will have better gas mileage since it was 55 mph all the way.