Leaving Michigan's Upper Peninsula

When the time came to leave Michigan's Upper Peninsula we aborted our plan to take the southern route and we opted, instead, to backtrack (something we rarely do) as we're trying to escape the heat and mosquitoes.  We went back through Munising, where I was able to get a photo through the windshield of the coach, albeit not a good angle, of the Munising Front Range Lighthouse.

Established in 1908. Along with the rear light, this active light also has a continuous red light.
It is in process of restoration.

Backtracking is a tedious task. Bored with seeing a scenery "repeat" I busied myself with odd photography including this one of Lexie and Ozzie sleeping in their usual arrangement on my lap.

I held the camera over my head. That's my left leg stretched across the co-pilot seat ottoman.
My foot is comfortably resting somewhere on the dashboard. I don't have a right leg.

It was late afternoon when we reached Aune Osborne Municipal Campground in Sault Ste. Marie. The afternoon was hot, dusty, sticky and mosquito infested. The campground was brimming with families of two and three generations.

This picture gives a good perspective of how close our campsite is to the shipping channel.

Aune Osborne Campground is part of the city park along the St Mary's River just below Soo Locks. Staying inside to avoid the heat and mosquitoes, we did enjoy seeing the freighters go very close by.

From here we'll travel back down the east side of Michigan and into Ontario at Port Huron. We'd thought of going straight through Sault Ste. Marie and over to Toronto, but with so few campgrounds along the way, we decided we'd just be wasting so much diesel fuel going the long way 'round without much to see.

Me at the wheel. 
Do you suppose he ever was relaxed enough to put his feet up?

Wayne is looking forward to a visit in Toronto where he lived for a short time as a child. We hope to get into one of the campgrounds outside the city and take at least one day-trip into the heart of Toronto.



For a while I drove the coach, something I rarely do. Fortunately, I turned the wheel back over to Wayne just before a long stretch of construction.





On the way through Marquette we decided to buy a new Rand McNally RV Specific GPS.  When we started this journey in July 2010, we had a Garmin for the car and bought the Garmin T465 for the coach. This was just a few months before Rand McNally introduced it's RV GPS and it was the best offered at the time. We learned in short order however, that a truck specific GPS does not suffice for motorhomes as it re-routed us along truck specific roads.  We ended up changing it to "car" mode after awhile.  This trip is the first real trial for the new Rand McNally and I like what I'm finding on it.

We've named the new GPS "Tom McNally"
I can select to have certain Points of Interests displayed on the map. 
Here you can see hospitals, veterinarians and Walmart locations displayed.  I like it.

We've planned an overnight stop just off I-675 in Birch Run, Michigan to stock groceries and supplies before crossing the border into Canada.