Mary Kinney and Derrick Sullivan are married on Saturday May 20th at Sainte Anne's Catholic Church

 Arriving on Mackinaw Island.

It was a rainy day in the morning, around 1 pm the skies turned blue and the sun blessed this wedding.  We had a wonderful time.  They are a great couple.

Wilderness State Park

 

Brandon and Marie

 Brandon and Marie's new camper, ours is behind theirs. 

We camped at the park for two nights, Friday, and Saturday.  

Alaska 2023 and many other places along the way

 

Having a bon voyage party with some of our canal family.  So many of you couldn't make it Thursday night so hugs out to all of you.  I'm sure you will all keep good times happening on the canal over the summer.  Our first stop is Wilderness State Park on Lake Michigan. Tomorrow we head to Machinac Island for Mary Kinney and Derrick Sullivan's wedding before we start heading west through the Upper Peninsula.

Ok there are a few things I need to learn about chromebook, it's a little different from my laptop.

Never say Never

We no longer live entirely on the road, our home base is in Au Gres, Michigan.  We sold Moose our 34' Tiffen and purchased a 24' Prism Coachman Class C motor home in February 2021.  Our first trip was in the spring of 2021, traveling to Colorado and Utah visiting 3 national parks and 2 monuments.  Yes we did travel during covid as did millions of others.  Michigan is great in the summer, we visited family and friends all summer long.  During the winter of 2022 we traveled back to the western edge of Arizona and into California visiting the Grand Canyon, Death Valley and Joshua Tree.  So far we have visited 18 National Parks, numerous monuments and so many interesting places along the way.  We are so fortunate having the time to travel and see our beautiful country.

This spring we are heading west again all the way north to Alaska, allowing 6 months of traveling time we're hoping to visit many national parks along the way.  I am super excited to visit this part of our country, this area has the most beautiful scenery.

Our travels to date:

Final Blog Post

Living on the road was a great adventure and this blog was intended for our family and friends to keep tabs on where and what we were doing.  The postings were usually a couple of weeks after the fact, but we tried to keep it current.  Originally, our plans were to live three years on the road, never be afraid to make changes.  Our adventure's now include boating on the Great Lakes during the summer and traveling the remainder of the year.  We are selling Moose the motorhome, since we are no longer living in it. 

We enjoyed sharing our experiences and places visited along the way and hope you all retire, have a chance to do anything you want, when you want and where you desire.  Our travels will continue, however we will not be keeping up this blog.  

Thanks for traveling with us.

Darlene and Deck.

Black pins are the National Parks.

Road Trip 1st stop The Great Smokey Mountains Tennessee

To get into the National Park we drove through downtown Gatlinburg.  It was bumper to bumper and everyone was out walking around enjoying the beautiful day.  From one side of town to the other took us 1 1/2 hours to drive 8 miles to our destination for a hike.  

We hiked Jakes Creek Trail to Avent Cabin.    Here are pictures along the trail out to the cabin, it was about 2.7 miles out and back.  The out is all an incline of a 482 ft. 

To reach the cabin it's a little tricky catching the smaller trail that leads out to the cabin.  We just happen to stop and notice some steps a trio of backpacking campers stopped to chat, they were looking for the trail to Avent cabin and thought it was about where we were stopped, we told them about the steps we found so we all hiked out the trail and it was to the cabin, yeah!

Elkmont Ghost Town in the park is where we parked to pick up the hiking trail.  The fireplaces remain and some of the foundations along the trail of a resort area that was once established in the park.  There is a campground called Elkmont that looked like a great place to camp.

Nothing like a walk in the woods.

 We traveled in September along 23 and Lake Huron, over the Mackinaw Bridge onto 2 along Lake Michigan passing through Manistique, Gladstone, Escanaba then down route 35 west into Wisconsin.

FAYETTE HISTORIC STATE PARK / SNAIL SHELL HARBOR

Historic town site from 1867-1891, once a bustling iron smelting community.  

Taking a short hike up the rocky cliffs to capture this view of the town and harbor.

THE TOWN HALL

HOTEL

The park was a self guided walking tour allowing you to enter the structures and read the history about the town and the people a great place to visit.

KITCH-ITI-KIPI  - PALMS BOOK STATE PARK

This park is north of Manistique and well worth the trip, take the self operated barge platform ride with a glass opening for viewing the natural springs and fish below.   An abundance of trout live in river.

MANISTIQUE   -  The next 3 pictures are  along the boardwalk, you climb on rocks that take you out to a cement pier to the Manistique East Breakwater Lighthouse.

WE STOPPED IN ESCANABA AND DISCOVERED THIS INTERESTING STORY ABOUT MARY AND THE SAND POINT LIGHTHOUSE. 1868-1886

THIS IS THE CHEQUAMEGON-NICOLET NATIONAL FOREST 

NORTHERN WISCONSIN

We camped here several days and enjoyed being on Bear Lake.  Just outside the campground area we discovered the Rat River Recreational Trail which we rode our bikes over 12 miles through beautiful woods following the Rat River. 

WISCONSIN

EGG HARBOR, FISH CREEK, STURGEON BAY

DOOR COUNTY - PENINSULA & WASHINGTON ISLAND

We spent only 2 days camping in the area and definitely worth coming back to spend a week alone in this area.  We spent 2 days driving around the area, shopping and eating.  There are shops, art galleries and restaurants galore.    

A view of the waterway into one of the marinas.

We had lunch at this restaurant facing the harbor.