The Huron Circle Route

We were recommended to try the Harbor Haus restaurant which has several German dishes on the menu and a selection of real German beer. If you go make reservations for upstairs, the view is just great. The food was good too.

Kayaker's at the Pictured Rocks

Natural arch at Pictured Rocks

We worked our way East along the shores of Lake Superior to the Ojibwe Casino from where we explored The Pictured Rocks and Munising before a hop to Sault Saint Marie and a great Elks Lodge with camping right on the St Lawrence seaway. So close you could hear the engines of the big Lakers as they went by.

Elks camping spots right on the seaway

We parked and I posted a video of the ships going by on the Elks BOF Facebook page and we found out that Tony and Dee Dee, who head up that site, were camped right next to us!! We only got to spend a couple of hours with them before they headed out but what a fun time we had.

We didn't know we were camped right next to Tony and Dee Dee until we posted on Facebook!

We agreed to needing a longer stop and spent 7 days exploring the Soo Locks and the general area, taking a dinner cruise thru the locks themselves. The Valley Camp steamship and the Tower of History were interesting and there are no less than 3 breweries/brewpubs in town. Laundry, grocery shopping and Elks Lodge food were all caught up on, this Lodge has Ship Shots. If a big Laker goes by the windows it's a free drink for all at the bar!

A big push barge 

Maintenance reared it's ugly head again but only oil changes for the car and rig courtesy of Walmart. Didn't know Walmart does oil changes on RV's did you? Well if the store has a bay with high doors they will do oil and filter changes on Gas powered rigs. Pretty good deal too. $20 for the Miata and $50 for the Rexhall.

Oswald's Bear Ranch, not a happy place we thought

Toquemon Falls

A day trip to Drummond Island on a small ferry across the Northern part of Lake Huron, means we've now been on the shores of all 5 of the Great Lakes, another significant (to us) milestone.

Canadian Steel mill where the lakers unload their iron, coal and limestone.

Cruise boat under the road and rail bridges 

Whitefish Point lighthouse and shipwreck museum

Looking down on the Valley Camp museum ship from the Tower of History

Finally we moved on having met some great new friends in Sault, Going South means crossing the Mackinaw bridge which we've been told is a “Must Do” but which was challenging in the rig because maintenance on the roadway left only 1 lane in each direction, and narrow lanes at that.

Mackinaw Bridge

We have been following marked roads for the “Lake Huron Circle”, having already been on the “The Lake Michigan Circle” and the “Lake Superior Circle”routes. We have expected very scenic roads, and they are marked on our big Rand McNally atlas as such. If you like trees these routes are for you but if you expect vast vistas of the great lakes you are in for a disappointment.

Nice sunset at Sault Saint Marie Elks Lodge

We have a target in mind. I want to visit the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Michigan, in fact it's one of my personal bucket list items. We have about 380 miles to do to get from Sault Saint Marie to Ann Arbor and so we split it into 3 stages. The “about 150 miles” spot on the second leg just happened to be Bay City MI. 

We have never heard of this town and have never heard anyone talking about it. The maps show nothing special and searching for things to do there doesn't bring up much, so it was a surprise to see wonderful mansions lining Center Avenue as we drove through town heading for the Finn Park Campground. 

We were so intrigued we drove the Miata back there the next day and I took a ton of pictures. The whole street is a National Landmark Area and the houses it turned out were built in the 1830's by timber barons whose timber businesses developed the whole area.

Finn Park Campground near Bay City MI

Barbara had a favorite pink house she wanted to take pictures of and as we walked up to it a gentleman came out and started to tell us his fascinating story of restoring the house to its original glory over any years. 

A fascinating and generous gentleman Warren Smith. Thanks Warren for sharing this with us.

Many mansions

All different

Huge

Colorful

Barbara's favorite the "Pink" huse

It turned out that the same timber barons who moved to the area for the timber moved on when they exhausted the supply, so the town slowly decayed until the present owners stepped in. Said barons built more mansions as they moved west and apparently there are similar places in Oregon where the same families still run the businesses.

Barbara, Warren Smith and Matia 

Warren ought to have a PBS special about him, the house and the story of the timber barons.

The story behind Warren's house.