We came into the Marquette area today aiming to stay the night at the Ojibwa Casino just outside of town. We had read that they had about 7 free RV sites with electricity, so we wanted to get there early enough to snag one of them. Failing that, we would just boondock in their parking lot for the night.
So we were up and out fairly early and got here at 11:30. At first we couldn't tell where the RV sites were, because there weren't any RVs. The slots are in a sandy area just to the North edge of the parking lot.
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| All by ourselves |
Peg went in to register. Not only was the parking free, they gave her a coupon for $5 cash and a coupon for a free beer, and told her to have her husband come in and get his. In other words, they paid us to park here, and asked us politely to please come in and use their casino. Peg feels so guilty she isn't even going to cash in the $5. I was more of the mind of "free beer" and "free money to buy more beer".
After getting settled we drove into Marquette, which is a busy port (shipping iron ore) and a college town. It's very attractive with many quaint well cared for Victorian era homes. We stopped in at the Michigan Visitors' Center and got recommendations for pasties and lunch. We then followed the directions given by Matilda (who replaced Karen, much to my distress) to try to find an ATM for my bank. Matilda suddenly says "Arriving at destination" without any hint of where the destination is in all of this strip mall hell. Karen, God love here, would have placed me right in front of the ATM. Karen is the Good Australian, and I miss her. Matilda is the Evil Australian. If I can ever get through to Garmin they will get a piece of my mind about Matilda vs. Karen. Fortunately we passed right by a branch of Peg's bank and she got enough to get us down the road.
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| The wall of photos at Lawry's. I'm no longer allowed to post pictures of Peg buying food. |
Next on the list was pasties, not pasties. That is pass-ties, not pays-ties. Pasties are edible, pasties are not. Peg wanted pasties and we just happened to pass Lowry's, famous for pasties, on the way to our ATM. They sell them hot or frozen, breakfast, lunch or dinner. We bought 3, one for dinner and 2 for breakfast. The UP is known for two things pasties is one and lake perch is the other. Beer, I think is the third thing. They also have moose and deer. The road kill up here is unbelievable.
Moving along to lunch. The restaurant Vango's has a Greek pizza that caught my attention.
The man at the Visitors' Center agreed it was a good choice, so we pointed Matilda to it and arrived without incident. The pizza was excellent and we bought one large enough to feed us for 2 more meals.
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| Greek Pizza |
The staff is young and friendly. As I was paying the bill the hostess got all excited when I said we were from Arizona. She asked what we were doing up here and I told her we were making a 'round the country trip before we got senile.
She whipped out her iPhone, looked around furtively and said "I'm off the clock now anyway" and proceeded to pull up a gorgeous sunset photo. "You have to go here if you have the time", she said. "It's at Presque Isle, and the sunsets are gorgeous. It's only a mile away." I told her that we would check it out. Peg pointed out to me that sunset is around 9:30 and we are in our jammies by then. So we checked out the place after lunch and it is a beautiful park, right next to an iron ore shipping depot.
Lake Superior is currently the largest slushy in America. It is almost June and there is ice on the water. Even the locals are amazed. One told me he doesn't think some of this ice will be melted by July 4th. It is pretty, but I can only imagine what winter must be like here. There were locals sunbathing on one of the sandy beaches by the lake. It is not as weird as it may seem. The sun was warm but the air coming off the icy lake was cool, making for a perfect combination. And for the locals, who had one really tough winter, this must have seemed like a balmy Spring day.
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| Hello Yoopers in the sand. (apologies to Neil Young) |
We made it back to the rig, where we closed it up against the cold and mosquitoes. I think we'll be using our warm comforters tonight.
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| My next bike |
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