2014 Big Truck across the NW, Day 1

Well - off to a great start. Writing this from Kim's phone as we have zero connectivity. This may be brief, I'll have to catch up later because a lot of funny stuff happened today. Our child is ridiculous, and has really stepped up her game in cracking us up. Today she thought the Mackinaw Island ferries were actually Tinkerbell and Silvermist (Dads, don't act like you don't know who that is).

The drive started off pretty gloomy, with rain and fog until roughly Grayling.

Once we got there, we stopped at Charlie's Country Corner and had Cletus top off the propane.

We achieved the rare 'Full Monty' of the Big Truck - full bars on fresh water, battery and propane, and totally empty grey and black water tanks. 

I'm sure none of you care about that, but for an RV nerd that's like making it all the way through Contra without using the cheat code.

We also happened to see this setup, resplendent with matching paint scheme on the Geo toad and clever vanity plates. Looks like I'll have to put some sweet graphics on the Jeep to match the ol' Catalina Sport. Or not.

Fast forward to the bridge - first time crossing it with the full rig setup. Not bad, although the new RV tires and Jeep lift are not a good match (more on that later). After explaining the fairy/ferry thing to Jordan, we headed across the UP and saw and endless barrage of UP things. If you've spent any appreciable amount of time up here, you know what I mean. 2 year olds driving combines, 1 acre parcels with 10 structures (none larger than 600 square feet) and even more vehicles, none of which are operational, tourist traps literally advertised as tourist traps with 10x-scale chainsaws, etc.

Once we made it past Marquette, even our GPS gave up, simply going with 'Road' rather than try to decipher our location. 

Rolling into the Porkies (not to be confused with Porkys), we saw the landscape and scenery we had heard about. Crashing waves from Lake Superior, a dark green mass of pines rising from our campground to the west, and a sense that this remote section of wilderness was some sort of reward for the journey here. (Sorry, I stole that from a J. Peterman catalog entry).

Once we found the park, Jordan was not satisfied until we scoured the entire campground, only to find a tiny sandbox and a 4-up swingset in a remote corner of the grounds.

A few strolls on the rocks along Superior and it was time for dinner and sleepies. I snuck out to do some recon on the bike trails for tomorrow, and ended up riding a bit of coastline right at dusk. Got a few good shots and called it a night.

Hearing the waves from the campsite is always a bonus, so day 1 has been a rousing success. Tomorrow brings sure mountain bike crashes along with a Lake of the Clouds visit and hopefully some day hikes & exploring.