Back in Michigan
Trip Start
Jan 16, 2006
1
12
16
Trip End
Ongoing
Traverse City, Michigan
Friday, August 11, 2006
Driving through Canada I took a different route than when I came up. It was a shorter length but took about the same amount of time due to the road. As I first got on this road I did see a black bear but could not get my camera out in time to take a picture. The rest of the drive through Canada was rather uneventful.
I crossed the border in Washington State and took highway 97 south to I-90. On July 27 I stayed in a campground in Vantage Washington. It was on the water and it was very hot and windy. On July 28 I drove into Montana and spent the night just east of Butte. I did see an interesting sign at several rest areas in Montana. The sign said that rattlesnakes had been observed in the area and to stay on the sidewalk. I didn't see any rattlesnakes and I did stay on the sidewalk. I was going to take a picture of the sign but by the time I thought of that I never saw the sign again.
On July 29 I continued my drive on I-90 and made it as far as Bismarck North Dakota. I spent the night in a hotel as I could see in the distance a thunderstorm brewing. I was a good thing that I got a hotel, when I got in the room and saw the news there was a severe thunderstorm warning until 4 am.
On July 30 I got up early in the morning to find out that it never rained. Then I headed on my way. I ran into some rain, but nothing significant. I made it as far as Wisconsin and spent the night about an hour away from Michigan.
I woke up at about 1 am to a thunderstorm and it continued to rain all morning. This was the first time I had to break camp while it was raining. Once I got on my way I ran into some more rain, a couple of times it was pretty hard. Once I crossed the border into Michigan the rain stopped. I stopped at the Michigan welcome center to get a weather report and found out that the rest of the way would be good weather. So I decided to head to Tahquamenon Falls State Park. This is another state park in the Upper Peninsula that my family stayed at when I was young. Once I got my camp set up I went to the falls and got lots of pictures of both the lower and upper falls.
The nest morning I headed to my parents in Traverse City to get ready for their 50th anniversary. My 2 brothers and sister and their families had a good time celebrating with my parents.
Now I am relaxing for a while and getting ready to head to the Arizona area. I will make a couple of stops along the way and hope to have some kind of temporary employment by October.
