It was a real nice RV park
Most of the RVs here were in permanent set-up sites. The owner was a real nice guy, kept the place very well maintained. the only thing I didn't like about the place was....NO WI-FI! Oh they had it, but we were so woodsy I could never get connected(got some knitting done tho) ! Due to my lack of Internet connection, I am going to wrap a week into one blog, since I was unable to blog daily!
During our week here at Rivers Bend RV Park, we had the typical Michigan weather:cold,rainy,sunshine, repeat, cold,rainy,sunshine, repeat.....on our sunshiny days we did manage to see some nice sunsets!
OOOOOH!
AAAAH!
OOOH & AAAH !
We also saw some waterfalls, rain or shine!
Pine River Falls
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We even drove over to Wisconsin(we were right on the state line!)to view some falls!
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We did some hiking.....
Enjoyed all of nature....
mushroom!.
Had our picnics....
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This picnic was "SPECIAL" more about that later!
We saw local sights & nearby towns...
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There are 500 steps that lead up to the Pine Mountain Ski Jump,the largest man-made ski jump. Did we walk them!?! Noooooo we didn't, there's a road that also leads to the top!
Another local tourist attraction, Iron Mountain Iron Mine & Museum, in Vulcan, Michigan
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I swear I heard Jimmy Dean singing,"Big Bad John"!?!
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The Mine tour was going just fine until I saw a movement & the tour guide said, "Oh that's just a BAT"!!!! I saw that same movement 3 more times & I wanted out of that mine!
From our RV Park we drove to Spread Eagle, Wisconsin, about a 10 minute drive to see a summer tourist attraction, water skiers! These skiers were kids ranging from 8-18!
The show was very entertaining & FREE too!!!
And nobody can go to Michigan's Upper Peninsula without having an infamous Pastie! It's a tradition!
The Pasties were a staple of the miners.The traditional pastie was a complete meal consisting of meat,potato,onion & seasoning all wrapped in a crust & baked.Now they come in a variety of flavors but I still order the traditional pastie!
Yum!!!
My goal while we were in the U.P. was to "go back to my family roots"! Iron Mountain, Michigan is the area my grandparents were from, Foster City to be exact.
We drive into Foster City,
<---Yep, that's the town! The post office! Next to the post office is a Bed & Breakfast, but it's for sale so I don't know how much longer it will be part of the town??? We tried to find my grandparents homestead as we'd been there 5 years earlier, but we couldn't recognize where we thought it was??? It was lunch time & our picnic was in the back of the car & lucky for us, Foster City actually had a little park!!
(remember this picnic picture!?!) After our picnic, the need to use the bathroom was overwhelming. the only bathroom was in the form of an outhouse & it was kind of scary looking!?! Lennie used it & yelled out, "It's okay Wen, it has a cement floor & everything!" But I spotted something right by the bathroom door that made me think I didn't have to use the bathroom as bad as I thought!!!
I don't even want to hear the word HARMLESS!
Back to my roots! The 2nd time we drove the country roads, we spotted the old homestead hidden in the pine trees!
This house is over 100 years old, & no one has lived there since the early 50's.
It amazed me after all these years that the house is still standing!
After taking pictures, we went to the Foster City Cemetery to see the family plots.
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My great grandfather(the original Haggblad) .
my grandfather .
my grandmother
Also buried in the family plot was their son Walter who died at 5 yrs old from measles.
Of course, along side the Erickson plots are the Swanson plots(my grandma's side of the family. It was interesting to walk through the cemetery & read all the names. There were a lot of Erickson's(besides us!),Nelson's, Anderson's, Peterson's, definitely a Scandinavian community within the cemetery......
Tuesday morning August 13th we left Rivers Bend RV Park. This time when we leave we are leaving the Upper Peninsula & Michigan all together. We are going to Door County, Wisconsin. We have a 3 hour drive ahead of us. Before we pulled out the owner of the RV Park came over to say Good-bye to us, told you her was a nice guy!!!!
Good.bye Michigan, Wisconsin here we come!
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