The Great Lakes

How many of the Great Lakes have you bathed in? With little pride I can say two.

Entering Michigan from Canada was a breeze, I guess I look less suspicious driving than Zack since the van was searched when we entered Canada. When asked our occupations we looked at eachother and almost as if rehersed said “we quit.” Smiling and giggling at eachother since we are practically becoming one being, the immigration officer handed back our passports and told us to have a nice day. I’m sure he just saw two naive kids wasting their time while they should be working or more likely he was just jealous of our cross country romance tour but his eye roll towards our happiness was unprecedented.

Michigan is filled to the brim with wilderness and wildlife. The whole state seems to be swallowed by the wild with only a few tamed places for cities and towns. Wilderness State Park, named accordingly, has a whole campground section designated for tent campers. Not very common but should be, staying away from the generators and RVs, along with most of the people who inhabit them is ideal. Our picturesque campsite had views of Lake Michigan from our tent door. Although not proud, we did have to take advantage of what God and the state of Michigan had put in front of us. We threw on our bathing suits and ran in the cold cold water. Gotta do what you gotta do. The night was peaceful and we slept to the sound of the lakes’ tiny waves roll up on shore.

With a later than normal morning we arrived to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore a tad too late but I guess right on time none the less. The first campground was filled probably five minutes before we had arrived. We rushed to the next campground three miles up. Entering as a trailer was leaving, the one way street allow us to grab the site while the other motorist were on the other side of the loop. Score!! The last one of the day! We rushed to set up our tent and do some hiking! 7 miles and my feet were getting blisters? C’mon feet you better callus up because it’s not going to get any easier. After last road trip my feet looked like they went through a cheese grater, stiff and strong I could have walked on hot coals but after 14 months of living easy, they were back to being soft and smooth. With no showers again, we jumped in Lake Superior, this time a little more difficult. But there’s nothing more therapeutic than the feeling of being numb from the freezing water so I got right in. Legs feeling like jello and fingers completely white, the setting sun assisted my racing heart putting warm blood back into my drained extremities. We called it an early night reading our books until we could no longer see anything but inside of our tent.

An early morning to catch sunrise at Pictured Lakes, we had to use the van headlight to pack up the tent. Up next is Voyageurs National Park but we’ll take it slow and stop a campground about half the distance. No need to rush this journey.