The other side of Michigan

I haven't been to Michigan before.  But I knew all about it;  murders, cars, beer and more cars.  I also had seen a documentary about a labor dispute in a spam factory in Michigan. Lots and lots of dead pigs.  I didn't think about back roads, forests, birds and beauty.  But that is what we have found.  Our first two nights in Michigan, we stayed in Christmas, Michigan.  The town is just a couple of stores, a gas station and a big casino.  Why did they name the town Christmas?  I don't know!  There is also an abandoned post office.  We stayed at the casino and again had free hook-ups and parking.  We took a day trip to the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and it was beautiful.  We hoped to get up to the Au Sable light house, but the road was closed so we settled for a walk on the beach.  These beaches are beautiful and look like tropical beaches in Hawaii or the Caribean.  All that is missing is the weather!

The tunnel through the woods.

Can you see the two kayaks?

Lunch on the beach!

Vana of the rocks!

Miner's Castle

These wave marks go all the way up the beach.  I asked a park ranger if the great lakes have tides.  He looked at me like it was the strangest question he had ever heard and said he didn't know, but if so, the winds overpower the tide action. Has the moon decided to only affect salt water?  When I look at the wave marks, I don't think the question was so strange! 

We saw a store that advertised "pasties".  We both looked at each other and asked, is that mispelled?  Are they selling women's almost atire, or were we missing something?  So we went into the store to learn that a pastie ( pronounced pausty, not paasty) is a pie filled with meat, potatoes and assorted vegetables.  Who knew?  Answer, all the people sitting around eating them!

We drove across the upper pennisula of Michigan through the Hiawatha National Forest, but were not able to see much because the woods are so dense. There were not hills to offer an overview.  We are camped at Bay Mills, Michigan, close to the Ontario border.  Tomorrow we will cross over into Canada.  The lake here is more marshy as it heads into the waters between Lake Superior and Lake Huron.  Where does so much water come from?