GPS and Maps

  I rely on our GPS way too much, but then I figure if it takes us somewhere other than where we want to go we need to go there. Yesterday was a prime example...

  We left Saulte St Marie yesterday heading in the general direction of Marquette MI. No real plans, and in no hurry to get there. The thing is, up here in the UP there are very few Wal-Marts to spend a night, but there are a lot of casinos that welcome RV'ers.

 We, or I guess I should say I, decided to drive to the Pictured Rocks National Shoreline in hopes of finding a CG there. I punched it into Charleen (the GPS in the MH) and off we went. I didn't bother looking at a map to see where she was taking us. We wound up in Grand Marais, which is right on the big lake. It has one way in and one way out for motor homes. Hwy 77 crosses MI 28 about 25 miles south of Grand Marais, and it ends there. When you get to Grand Marais there is the little town, one CG, and a few primitive Forest CG's and one way out, hwy 77.

 Which was OK with us, except it is summer time, and a weekend. Grand Marais was having one of their two major weekends. The fourth of July being the first, and the second weekend of Aug when they have their annual music and arts festival. Every CG was booked to the max including all the overflow areas. The town also has "no overnight parking" signs in all the large parking lots, so I had to drive the 25 miles back to MI 28 to get to anywhere else.

 We retraced our route back to MI 28 where we headed west again. We wound up at a small casino in Christmas MI. Once we found a place to park the rig we unhooked the jeep and took it to check out a few places in the area. A NF CG right across the road from the casino was full, as was another CG we looked at, but that is no problem for us we have water so we can boondock here at the casino. It has a few electric posts for RV's, but they were full and they were also too short for us to fit on without blocking the the road.

 Even though we run into obstacles like we did yesterday, I still enjoy not having a destination planned for every night. If not for the music festival, Grand Marais would have been a nice town to spend a day or two in. Tomorrow we will drive to Marquette and find a CG to spend a few days at. We will return to Christmas and the surrounding area in the jeep, if not this trip maybe next year........