2020 A UP Vacation

 Well, I ended up liking Munising a lot more than I thought I would/remembered. This is dispute of/due to the blow up of tourism that’s happened there. It definitely felt like one of those towns on the edge of a national park (think I said that yesterday), but they have a cool downtown and outstanding views. They were repaving roads downtown which exasperated alright present traffic problems. It took us 5-10 extra minutes to get into town on the first day and there was usually a long line of cars snaking through town. You could even tell that businesses were unprepared/scaled up for the volume increase. We had pizza last night and while they had a system down, you could tell they were working like crazy to keep up with the orders. This morning, too, we ordered breakfast at a coffee shop downtown. The cool stuff and drinks came up quick, but the egg sandwich took 25 minutes. They only had one, small griddle and simple couldn’t handle the influx of hungry tourists. A shitty thing we’...

Thursday 8/6: Day 5 Well, another great day on the UP. A “rebound” seems like the first part of the trip was garbage, which it wasn’t, but this day was near picture perfect. Before the day: a couple random thoughts: Of the many Trump signs here, a good number fly Trump 2020 flags with the sub title: “No more Bullshit” (their words, not mine). It really got me wondering. Is this to say that Trump’s first term was the “bullshit” and now they will cut it out and start governing? Or is this to say that there’s bullshit that they did not get to after 4 years, and are evidently admitting that they kind of fucked around the last half decade, but now they plan on getting down to business. Herein lies the problem of running and outsider campaign...twice. Then again, roughly 43% of the populous is all over that, and roughly 90% of the UP sign toters, by my count. Another random, but similar thread of thought: I do not exaggerate when I say that possibly one of the highlights of this trip has bee...

Wednesday 8/5 Took a leisurely start at the campsite this morning with the standard coffee and granola. It’s actually a pretty sweet campground- a good stumble upon find. We talked to the host a bit, who also said it’s been crazy busy. One weekend it was completely full, he said. Left for grand Marais around 10, which is maybe 20 min north. Got into town and parked at the beach for a run and future swim. I looped around town a bit, vaguely searching for the school in dim hopes they’d have a track. They did not, and didn’t even have a football field. Settled for some light speed on the road, which with the cool weather was just fine. Went for a dip when we got back, dash too. He’s a swimmer, if a little hesitant at times. At our picnic lunch over looking the harbor with a picturesque view. Chatted with a couple from Lansing for a while too, which is always interesting. Post lunch, we headed down to the main beach on the lake and went for a stroll/hung out for a while. Lots of people, bu...

Tuesday 8/4 Beneath the tourism in st. Ignace is a town that’s probably seen better days. A lot of the houses are nice enough, but it just has that feeling of being economically depressed. Ran downtown and headed to the state park which is at the strait. It’s tiny, really no hiking, but there was a campground and a nice overlook of the bridge. The north country trail rolls right through town and I saw it again in the park. Made me wonder how they cross the bridge, as I don’t think there’s a pedestrian span on it. We also ran into a lady that was biking through Michigan and it again made me wonder how they get across. I’ll have to research when we get Internet again.  Set off around 11 again, bound for whitefish point. It was a little over an hour over up there, through sandy pine forests, which seems to be pretty much all the UP on this side of it. Whitefish point is a pretty sweet view and quite a history. I loved seeing the hills/mountains of canada off In the distance. The museu...

Monday 8/3        Woke up in big knob and went for a run down the entrance road. I wouldn’t call it awesome running, but it was cool, and gravel, so it worked fine. Not very hot this trip means less enticing swimming, but we jumped in afterward for good measure. Kate mentioned that a guy leaving the beach on the path said “it’s just horrible” down there. She went down to find a very nice sand beach that looked almost the same as from our memories from 5 years ago. Dunked under despite the 64 degree air temps to clean off if nothing else.  Hit the road around 11:30 bound for St. Ignace and mackinac island. Pulled up at just before 1 and the lady at the dock mentioned that if we hurried, we’d catch the 1:00, which we indeed did and were on our way to the island. The ferry was busy, but masks were required and most people wore them correctly. The island was an absolute zoo when we got off. Again, a lot of masks, even outside on the street, but so many people that t...

Sunday 8/2 Well, we’re back on the open road again, which is awesome. Headed to the UP this time for a week on the shores of the great inland sea. The original plan of cape cod ended in shambles as we got put on the naughty list there and would have needed to quarantine for 2 weeks upon arrival. Much of the east coast is like that now, which effectively eliminated the ocean. Briefly thought about the LP but I worried of lots of people and limited space/spendier options. So back to the UP it is. Mom and dad gave some good suggestions and with a little research, I precooked a lot of places and have a reasonable plan for a couple nights of camping as well. Got off around 10 and set East on 94. Gassed up in menonomie and soon parted ways with the interstate. I’ve heard 29 is sometimes seen as a state divider for Wisconsinites. A book I read about the “politics of resentment” quoted a lot of people saying that the big cities and politicians didn’t care about people north of it. It sure seem...