Day 4

Today was one of those days when I didn't need to write down any directions. All I had to do was take WI-64 due east until I hit Marinette/Menominee at the Michigan state line, and then nake MI-35 northeast up the lakeshore. And that's just about as eventful as the day got.

At lunch in a sandwich-and-ice cream shop in Menominee (where I ate both), a couple of women were talking about new businesses starting up in the downtown area, and people buying property. "It's going to be an Irish Pub"..."ooh, a martini bar would be nice"..."and they're going to organize music there with the Opera House people". So despite the view that the U.P. is in a general decline and return to nature, it was nice to know that there are still pockets of culture and community that are alive and well.

I arrived at J.W. Wells State Park, circled through the campground and returned to register at Site #40, right on the shore (well, right on the shore when the lake level was higher). When I got back to the site, there was a family in it already un-hitching their camper and setting up. No big deal, there were plenty of open sites so I just took the next one over.

In the 20-mile stretch between Menominee and the state park, there were absolutely no services, despite plenty of private property. So I wasn't really prepared with anything for dinner. But then the campground registrar mentioned a nice family restaurant that happened to be at the end of a lakeshore nature trail. That sounded perfect, so I headed out. At the end of the 2 mile walk, I found out that it was closed for the day after Labor Day, which I knew would be a possibility, but it was still disappointing. There was a service station right near by, so I glumly picked up some supplies and returned back to camp.

But then just as I was about to get up my stove and cook up a not-terribly-appetizing meal, my neighbors who had "stolen" my campsite invited me to eat with them. They didn't have to ask me twice. So I had a great fire-cooked dinner of hot dogs, potatoes, and sweet corn along with Kurt, Sue, and their four silken-haired children. It turns out that they home-school their kids, so that's why they were able to join me as the only other non-retirees in the campground. Oh, and the (very well-behaved) kids ranged from age 1 to age 8, so the fact that they were able to get out camping with them was amazing enough, and then to add one more to the mix was unbelievably generous of them. So we had a night of good food, warm fire, some conversation, and I ended up going to bed way past my bedtime! All very much worth it though, and easily the best night of the trip so far.