BOOK UPDATE and Winter Camping in the Spring?

First: a book update! The Memory of Cotton will be released on May 26, 2022. Please spread the word, preorder, and if you are willing to write a review for Amazon and/or Goodreads when you read the book, I would be eternally grateful.

I am also thrilled to announce that talented teen musician, Morgan Hammer, is composing original music for the book trailer which I can’t wait to unveil soon…

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Now, here is the latest Paddy Wagon Tale…    

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Maybe Spring has sprung everywhere else, but certainly not last week in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (otherwise known to Michiganders as the “U.P.”) where we recently spent a few days camping in The Paddy Wagon.

Although we have been looking forward to testing the van’s self-sufficiency by NOT staying in established campgrounds, we realized that when the temperatures were going to dip into the 20s at night, we were going to need an electrical hookup to run our space heater. (Most of Michigan’s campgrounds are closed during winter, but, lucky for us, there are a few that remain open year-round.)

Traveling north, we spent a night with Pat’s cousin, Jan, and her husband, Chuck, who live at the top of the Lower Peninsula. It was already snowing when we plugged the van into a barn outlet and went inside to enjoy Chuck’s delicious organic chicken stew and play a dice game called “Chicken.” In a shocking turn of events, I won both games. (IN YOUR FACE, dear husband, who usually wins at everything!)

The next day, we crossed the 5-mile span of the Mackinac Bridge, that connects the Upper and Lower peninsulas. Blustery winds forced us to drive our “high profile vehicle” at 20mph, which prompted Pat to remind me of the infamous story of the high winds that blew a Yugo off the Mackinac Bridge in1989.

We crossed safely, and a few hours later, we made it to Fayette Historic State Park, which was empty. By empty, I mean that in a campground with 61 sites, there were exactly ZERO other campers. We literally had the whole state park to ourselves.

 As we wandered through the 19^th century iron-smelting townsite and hiked on the wooded trails and along the icy shoreline of Lake Michigan, we saw exactly two other humans. They were park rangers, who smiled and waved as they drove by in a pickup truck and were probably surprised to see us.

We tried to make it to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore the next day, but we didn’t get far because the Lake Superior side of the U.P. still has a lot of snow. We did manage a very short hike to Munising Falls, but the ice on the trail was so thick that the hand rails were sometimes at our knees. When we saw two other hikers bent over, holding onto the handrail for dear life, trying not to slide to the bottom of the icy staircase on the left of the falls, we decided to try the staircase on the right.

Fortunately, we made it back to the Paddy Wagon in one piece, and tried to drive to a scenic vista where we could hike to the Au Sable Light Station, but the snow-covered highway stopped us and we had to turn around.

Lesson learned: Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is obviously a summer excursion.

However, snow and ice did not stop us from visiting Tahquamenon Falls, which took about 20 tries before Pat said I was saying it correctly.

TAH-KWA-MEN-ON

The Upper and Lower Falls are 4 miles apart and judging by the size of the parking lots and signs for shuttles between them, I can understand why people would brave massive crowds during the summer season. These waterfalls are spectacular.

We stayed in a year round campground close to the Lower Falls. We almost had this campground to ourselves, too, except for a construction worker, who we believe was helping with a nearby demolition project, living in an RV. The next day, a few other campers also straggled in, including one hearty couple who pitched a tent on the cold ground.

We hiked three miles on a trail with foot-thick snow and ice that frequently gave way, causing our feet to sink in snow up to our knees. Occasionally, our feet landed in freezing cold runoff that was melting under the ice. Even with wet, cold feet, Maya seemed to be having a good time even when her legs sank in the snow all the way up to her belly.

It was nice to get back to the van, which stayed nice and warm, thanks to our nifty space heater, but it was even nicer when Pat decided to bake a loaf of bread in our camp oven.

When it rained the next day, we drove to Sault Ste. Marie, which again I had to learn how to pronounce properly. According to saultstemarie.com, it is pronounced

Soo-Saint-Mah-Ree, not Salt stee Marie

But the locks were definitely called Soo Locks. (Thanks for making it easy for me.)

Returning to the Michigan “mitt,” we stayed our last night in a small town called Indian River at a Harvest Host site. We parked adjacent to the Northland Brewing Company, where we sampled some great brews and enjoyed tasty Mexican food from La Casa Des Rosas food truck. In the morning, we got coffee and pastries from the Wildwood Coffee & Whole Foods next door.

“If I lived in Indian River, I would be in here every single day,” I told the cashier as she filled our travel mugs and bagged a homemade blueberry pop tart and blueberry crumble bar. The coffee and pastries were so delicious I couldn’t stop thinking about them, long after I licked my fingers clean and drank the last drop of java in my mug.

Our trip to the U.P. was so wonderful, but I was disappointed about one thing. Although I was on constant alert, scanning the woods and horizon, we never saw any bears or moose. It would have been such a thrill to see one (from a safe distance).

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Final update: as soon as we returned home, Pat installed new van windows in the back! I was so nervous when he was cutting big holes in the sides of The Paddy Wagon that I plugged my ears and looked away, but I have to say, THE NEW WINDOWS ARE BEAUTIFUL! They have multiple open settings and include screens and privacy shades. Now our van build is about 99% complete. The last major thing we want to install, which might have to wait until next year, is a Webasto or Espar heater that will tap into our gas tank to replace our electric space heater that kept us so warm during our trip to the U.P. And we do need heat, because I can’t wait to winter camp again next spring.

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