10 Sep - Goodbye Northland Camping & RV Park - Hello Silver City MI

10 Sep

We pulled chocks at the Northland Campground this morning at 0834 hrs.  The trip to Silver City was pretty uneventful.

We passed Ashland WI and saw the Ashland Breakwater Lighthouse in the distance.

Ashland Breakwater Lighthouse out in the water

We continued east on Route 2 and then headed north to Silver City.  It was a beautiful drive as the trees are changing.

We crossed the Michigan border

Doreen laughed as we passed Highway 28.  We live near Highway 28 at home.

A shot of the trees

We pulled into Silver City about 1132 hrs after driving 147 miles.  We are here to visit Carl and Tonya Panveno and see the area.  My connections with Carl go back a long ways.  First, Carl worked at the State of Iowa Public Safety Communications back in the 80's with me.  He did tower work there and I was an electronics technician.  Carl retired from the Iowa Air National Guard and served with me in the Des Moines unit.  He also served as a State employee firefighter at the Des Moines airport.  So we have known each other for a very long time.

When Carl retired as a State firefighter, he and his wife Tonya bought a resort in Silver Springs MI called the Lake of the Clouds Resort.  Right now they have several cabins open and are renting them out to tourists there.  They also recently bought a restaurant building and are in the process of remodeling it.  They don't have an RV park, but we simply pulled up next to the restaurant building and he provided a water connection as well as a standard 110 VAC receptacle.

So we pulled in and met Carl at the restaurant.  He was working on the roof installing a standing seam metal roof.  We parked the RV and got it leveled just fine.  We connected the utilities and were set to go.

Tonya came down and we traveled a couple blocks to tour their cabins.  We also toured the restaurant building.

We made plans to go out to eat tonight at a restaurant down the road a few miles that has bears that approach and feed there!  That will be fun!

In the afternoon Doreen and I walked across the street and down a short trail to lake Superior.

Beautiful view down the shoreline!

Doreen picking up stones from the lake

Carl and Tonya came down to the RV and picked us up for dinner.  We headed west and they gave us a tour of the Lake of the Clouds campground.  Things were pretty soggy there from rain, so we are glad we camped back at the restaurant building.  After touring the campgrounds we headed into Lake of the Clouds park and walked a trail to a beautiful overlook.

Doreen, Tonya, Carl and Ed

Beautiful view of the lake from this vantage point.

Trees are starting to change

We will walk from here down the trail to this cliff overlook.

From the park we headed to the restaurant where we would eat dinner.  It is located at the site of an old copper mining camp.  The buildings still exist  but the mining had ceased.  They used to have an entire town run by the mining company, including a mining store where the mine workers would get tokens and buy their needs from the company store.  Many of the buildings are still occupied and some are abandoned.

We arrived at the Konteka restaurant and ordered our meal.  I ordered liver and onions since Doreen does not like it and we never have it at home.  Before we knew it  a large black bear emerged from the woods and started to feed just outside the restaurant, but behind large picture windows so we had a great view.  Not long after the bear emerged so did a wolf.  the bear scampered away and they a larger black bear appeared.  they gave us quite a show, for sure!!

It was amazing watching these critters, but I was glad they were on the other side of the window!  We finished our meal and then we headed back towards Silver City.  We stopped by the RV to let Liberty out, and then headed over to Carl and Tonya's house for a campfire.  

This fire pit was created by Shane Olson, another 132d Fighter Wing Firefighter

This is the first campfire we've had on this trip due to the dry conditions and fire bans out west.  It was great to sit around the campfire and talk with Carl and Tonya.  After a long day we headed back to the RV and called it a night.  Tomorrow we will head out on a fairly long drive to see lighthouses in the Upper Peninsula.