July 30, 2006 by Tim Enright.

We now visited the Whitefish Point Lighthouse and Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum near Paradise in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. This is the oldest active lighthouse on Lake Superior and the only museum dedicated to shipwrecks on the Great Lakes. Whitefish Point is known as the Graveyard of Ships as more vessels have been lost here than in any other part of the lake. Hundreds of vessels, including the famed Edmund Fitzgerald, lie on the bottom of the bay and the approaches.

  We then setup camp at the Tahquamenon Falls State Park. The campground is located near the lower falls. You must be sure and check out the upper falls as well. The Upper Falls is one the largest waterfalls east of the Mississippi. It has a drop of nearly 50 feet and is more than 200 feet across.

You can check out a great shot of the falls at Enright Image Works.

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July 29, 2006 by Tim Enright.

This State Park is located in the center of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula near where the moose herd is populated. We are only here for the night as we were traveling to the east side of the state. I would really like to return to see a moose sometime soon. At the park we met a lady who lives in the area and she told us that they could be quite dangerous. They have been known to attack vehicles. Still I would like to see one in the wild.

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July 28, 2006 by Tim Enright.

Grand Casino Hinckley RV Resort is located in Hinckley, Minnesota. This RV resort is one of the nicest RV parks we have ever been to. The park has 222 sites. Each site offers full hookups, cable TV and a picnic table. It also provides Wi-Fi throughout the park and to my amazement it works quite well. Most parks tend to have a problem in this area.

There is also a Guest lodge with convenience store, fireplace and laundry facilities. There was an outdoor pool, basketball court, volleyball court, shuffleboard court and horseshoe pit. For children there were 2 play areas. For pets there was a pet walking area. If you would like to go to the casino, just raise the flag at the end of your site and the casino shuttle will pick you up.

On this particular night we had quite the scare. The weather had just turned for the worst and at 2AM in the morning the trailer started violently rocking back and forth. Within minutes we heard sirens and then security vehicles with PA speakers informing us to evacuate the RV Park and proceed to the casino. This was an excellent idea since a trailer is no place to be when a tornado comes through.

When we arrived at the casino there was an eerie calm in the air. Upon entering the building I recall hearing a lady at a slot machine saying “ When did they start letting dogs and children in the casino?” We stayed until the storm had passed.

We returned to find that our Fifthwheel had survived the storm. Other people were not so lucky. Several people had minor damage to their units like blown away awnings.  This was a night I will never forget. We were real lucky that night.

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July 27, 2006 by Tim Enright.

Casino’s are a nice place to spend the night while traveling and this one is no exception. Dakotah Meadows Casino is located next to the Mystic Lake Casino Hotel just outside of Minneapolis, Minnesota. This park has full hookups. The showers are some of the nicest that we have seen. You can also get a WiFi signal if you happen to get a site up near the office.

We stayed here so my wife could go to the Mall of America first thing the next morning.

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July 24, 2006 by Tim Enright.

We chose the American World Resort while we stayed at the Wisconsin Dells. The park is actually a hotel with RV hookups. It had full hookups plus cable TV. There was also an outdoor pool and a building with bathrooms, showers and laundry. You are also welcome to use the hotel facilities. Our favorite amenity was the discounted tickets for the Water Park across the street.

We originally were only going to stay 1 night but we had such a good time that we ended up staying for 3 nights. We did the Duck Boat ride through the Dells, shopped downtown and spent an entire day at the Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park. My wife REALLY enjoyed the Go-carts at the park. When it was time to go, it was like taking candy from a baby.

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July 23, 2006 by Tim Enright.

Today we spent the day in Chicago. We decided to drive into the city instead of taking the train. It was Sunday and the traffic was not too bad.

In Chicago, we got a transportation pass that allowed us to get around using the busses, trains and trolleys. We visited the Navy Pier, Grant Park and the Sears Tower. The three of us then had a world famous Chicago style pizza from Uno’s pizzeria. We sat at an outside table next to the sidewalk and enjoyed our dinner as the day came to an end.  I am sure not many people consider going to the city on a camping trip but, I will have to say that we all had a really good time.

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July 22, 2006 by Tim Enright.

This is the first night of our summer vacation. This summer we have decided to circle Lake Michigan.  This is a back up plan due to our plans to go to St Louis got blown away, literally. St Louis received an extremely bad storm causing severe damage and power loss to most of the city. Therefore, we will be forced to change our plans at the last minute and reschedule our trip on the way.

 
This trip will be a compromise of things that my son, my wife, and I would all like to do. My son wants to visit Chicago, my wife wants to go to the Mall of America and I would like to return to Michigan through the Upper Peninsula.

Tonight we will be staying at Michigan City Campground located in Michigan City, Indiana.  We have read poor reviews about this campground. We mostly heard that it tends to draw a rowdy bunch. This will not matter much since we will be only spending the night here. We will be going into Chicago during the day. Upon arriving we discovered that the reviews must have been about previous ownership. The campground was just fine. In fact, we found it to be clean and well maintained.

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