Grab'n Life: Yooper for a week

Couple years ago we saw a "Pure Michigan" billboard for Pictured Rock National Lakeshore. This year we decided to make the 400+ mile trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and check it out. Here is one of the pics we took of Miner's Castle formation.

Beautiful isn't it. Well worth the trip.

We left on Thursday the 15th, arrived at Tahquamenon Falls state park late afternoon. Nice wooded park out in the middle of nowhere. Of course a lot of the U.P. is nowhere! If you want to get away from civilization this area is for you.

Next day we set out around 10am headed for Pictured Rock about 90 miles further to the west close to Munising, Michigan We stopped at the National Park Visitors Center and got info on some hiking we wanted to try. It was 8 miles from there to the parking lot for Miners Castle overlook. At around mile 4 we turned on to a park road. Somewhere around mile 6, Anita heard a very loud crack, Rog heard a very loud bang. (Interesting isn't it we heard different sounds). Next thing we know, Rog has lost control of our 8,000 pound Dodge dually. He said it felt like trying to hold on to a very large dog wagging it's tail. We crossed the other lane of traffic headed toward a very deep ditch and toward the Hiawatha National Forest. At the point we started down into the ditch, Rog said "Hang On!". We ended up in the forest.

We both waited for impact, there was none. We looked at one another and asked if the other was ok. We were amazingly. Anita couldn't take her eyes off of the very large tree inches away from her door. Rog thought we had blown a tire. He got out and our tires were fine, other than our right front tire was facing the opposite direction of the left. We had snapped a tie rod! Somehow, between Rog and the Good Lord, he managed to not hit that large tree and believe it or not, no damage to the body of our truck! We checked our cell phones, no service. Great, now what? Well, thank God again for helpful, caring passerbys! First young couple stopped to see if we were ok, then then drove back until they could get cell service to call a tow truck. Next family, on vacation, stopped. Man who happened to be a nurse talked to Rog, Anita is still sitting in the truck and can't get out, remember the tree. He comes over and checks her pulse and gives her a bottle of water. That family then continues on into the park and sends back a park ranger. We believe he called a State Trooper. Probably 15 minutes goes by and Tony from U.P. Wilderness Recovery shows up with his tow truck, (which was smaller than our dually). Thanks to Tony's expertise, Rog's 3 ton jack he had in the back of our truck, between the two of them they were able to haul our truck about 2 hours later. The State Trooper offered to drive Anita back into Munising, Rog rode with Tony. They had a very difficult time getting our 8,000 pound "beast" back into town, but Tony did it. Now, we had no clue about where they were taking it. We don't know Munising from Timbuktoo. Well, again, our luck was riding high and Skip's Auto Repair shop, right on Lake Superior, took amazing care of us. The owner came out and right away started taking off hanging parts. By now it's 4pm. No way they could fix us then. He said he'd have to get parts from Marquette. Another hour west. Here we are no vehicle, so we asked where we could rent a car. Guess what, no rental cars in Munising! Closest car rental is at KI Sawyer international Airport outside Marquette. Now,,how do you suppose we got there? You guessed it, an employee of Skip's, Joey, drove us in his own vehicle! The owner of the rental car company stayed late till we could get there to rent a car! Now we had about 3 hours to drive back to Tahquamenon State park to our home away from home. Anita had put dinner in a slow cooker and we were a little concerned about the condition of the food. We arrived around 8:30pm. Food was well done but edible. After dinner and 2 drinks we just sat and looked at one another.

Things we are thankful for...

1. No one was injured, not us or someone that could have been in the lane we crossed.

2. We weren't towing our camper, don't even want to think about that one.

3. All the people who helped us, from the young couple that called, the nurse, the park ranger, the tow truck driver, Skips and the car rental owner.

Believe it or not, we had our truck back by Monday afternoon!

With our rental car on Saturday we drove back to Munising to finish that drive to Miner's Castle and took these pictures.

The colors of the water are amazing.

We are smiling!

We found Ranger Jim who had helped us the day before and thanked him.

At the top of this picture in the foilage you can barely make out the viewing deck.

Towards the bottom of the picture you can just make out an orange kayak. They had a great view!

We learned from the rangers at the visitors center that you really can't see all the formations from above you need to view from the water. We chose not to take a cruise on a tourist boat. We were happy with what we got to see. Pictured Rock National Lakeshore stretches 40 miles along Lake Superior.

Next day was Father's Day. It rained, hard, all day long. We didn't even leave campground.

Isn't this the strangest looking set up? With the tent on a platform on the top of the vehicle! There was a group of distance bikers in the campground.

Monday we checked out all the waterfalls in Tahquamenon.