Monday, September 8 through September 9
We packed up and headed east, mostly on US 2. We’ll follow this road to into Michigan, Escanaba to be exact. Someone asked about US Highway 2 so here goes (no one asked I just thought it interesting). US 2 is an east–west United States Numbered Highway spanning 2,571 miles (4,138 km) across the northern continental United States. US 2 consists of two segments on either side of a portion of Canada. Unlike some routes, which are disconnected into segments because of encroaching Interstate Highways, the two portions of US 2 were designed to be separate in the original 1926 highway plan. The western terminus is in Everett WA and the eastern of this segment is in St. Ignace MI at I-75. The eastern segment begins in Rouses Point, NY and ends in Houlton Maine.
We drive through Washburn (2051 souls), then Ashland WI (16,054 souls). Ashland is a city and port located on the southern shore of Lake Superior and the head of Chequamegon Bay ( threw in the name of the bay ’cause I too have trouble pronouncing it).
We leave the coast and travel towards our destination Escanaba MI. It is kind of a lonely drive. Not too many towns on this route considering its almost 250 miles long.
Iron River MI is a city of 3000 souls. It’s the western most city in Michigan. It is the location of the world’s tallest Indian, a 52 foot fiberglass statue of tribal leader Hiawatha. Bunched up with Iron Mountain is Norway (2100 souls). There’s others but they are not directly on US2.
And then there’s the metropolis of Felch (502 souls). This sign was hanging on a baseball field fence.
Next comes Watersmeet (408 souls). I think the name of this town clever. Its located at the confluence of Duck Creek with the Middle Branch of the Ontonagon River.
Crystal Falls (1598 souls) is located on a pretty steep hill. We are heading down this street.
This is the Pocket Park in the fairgrounds- upon reaching this point we’ve already gone by the Pocket Park RV sites.
Arriving in Escanaba (12,450 souls) we find the Upper Peninsula State Fairgrounds. We called ahead and were told that they have lots of sites available. This fairground has about 700 campsites- no lie. We were supposed to go to the pocket park camping area (or any place we choose) but blew right by it. Instructions are lacking so we go where we feel is a good spot for the dogs. One other RV is in a row of about 100 sites- we stay away from the other rig and we are happy here.
The Pasty Originated in Crornwall England
The city was founded in the mid-1800s at the mouth of the Escanaba River on Lake Michigan and grew into a vital center for the lumber and iron ore industries, We head to Gram’s Pasties to imbibe in this Northern Michigan favorite. Pasties were originally made for a worker’s lunch box. A filling of beef, potatoes, onions and rutabagas is standard fair and a pastry is wrapped around the filling and baked. Pasties would make a good lunch for a blue collar worker or anyone for that matter.
Museum Artifacts
This is a voting machine. It was used until recently!
Downtown Escanaba is very cool. We drive through town on our way to Sand Point Lighthouse. Behind the light is a museum. Signs say that it is closed…… but…….but!! Busses from tour ships are coming to the Delta County Museum so in between visits the employees see us milling around outside and invite us in. How nice of them! The museum is wonderful as have been most all the local small town museums we’ve visited.
We have a short walk to the Sand Point Lighthouse. It too is closed-only opened for the tour busses. They also invite us in. Boy are we lucky!.
Our visit is very nice. We have been able to visit their museum and light. Both of their signs state “See you in June”. It’s September……… so we lucked out when we were invited to enter the museum and lighthouse in between tour busses.
Sand Sculpture in the fairgrounds
The fairgrounds are amazingly busy considering its distance from big cities to the south. Every weekend they have an event. Last weekend it was logger and logging equipment.
We enjoyed our stay in Escanabe. Hope you did too!
Travel With Jil and Mike 
looks like fun. When I was a teenage my Dad would drive up every summer around the USA. I believe we were somewhere around that same area one summer. I remember that waterfall. 💦
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