Easy and Breezy in Escanaba

The last stop that Wayne and I made when he was following me around the U.P. a few weeks ago was to J.W. Wells State Park.  Michigan state parks are not the sweet spots that Wisconsin parks are (sorry, but it's true!) and haphazard spots with shared hook-ups on grassy lawns are what you can expect.

Even though it isn't as wet in the U.P. as it has been this summer in Wisconsin it was wet enough that we made new friends when Wayne had to hook up and pull someone out of their muddy ruts and re-position them.  The strangest part of the whole experience was the folks in question were so grateful they gave Wayne free beer and me about 2 platefuls of homemade baked goods.  On top of that anyone who witnessed the scene felt compelled to come tell Wayne how kind it was of him to help.  We kept looking at each with confusion as this kind of helpfulness has been the "norm" in our experience on the road.  I don't know if I mentioned it on the blog but back at the beginning of summer I had a dead engine one morning in a deserted campground and had to flag down on a stranger for a ride to the gas station and then another stranger took me back to the campground and gave the car a jump.  They expected nothing in return and I told them I would pay their kindness forward.  Is this becoming less common?  Gee, I hope not!

Notice the ruts behind the picnic table

After my appointments we went strolling around Escanaba, where we basked in the sun but didn't break a sweat.  We even saw what looked like a mink run across the lawn near the lighthouse right after I took the picture below.

Escanaba has a great little marina, and the locals told us that the Michigan harbors charge less than half what you would pay in Wisconsin.  The harbors are run by the State of Michigan and therefore must be non-profit.

We even spotted a sea plane, which generated much discussion with our new friends on the boardwalk who offered cherries to us along with marina slip rental advice.

They had just bought a boat but it sat unused in its slip due to some mechanical issues.  I laughed at the name, but the new owners had to be clued in on the joke, if you can believe that!  Who knows what TV show this made me think of?

The Regal Beagle was the name of the pub where the gang from "Three's Company" used to hang out!  Since the owners were older than us I couldn't believe they didn't know this...maybe they weren't the Jack Tripper fans that I was in my youth.

Even better, the sea plane left harbor the same time we did so we got to see it go over, though unfortunately not the take-off.

Miss Jewel and Miss Celia enjoyed some shenanigans on the lakefront, including a long session of "Stare Down the Crazy Chipmunk".  The one time I didn't bring my iphone is when a chipmunk stood within 6 feet of Jewel and inched up and down a tree trunk chattering at her and taunting her.

Our site may have been ugly but the view was pretty good, I must admit.

I'm going to try to catch up the next few days because Cory and I are taking to the road!!  We are off to Pennsylvania to meet friends of his.  I'm going to spend some time at the museums in Philadelphia if anyone knows of any "can't miss" finds (especially murals, chocolate, and boutiques!) while I'm there besides the usual museums which I plan to visit please comment below.  I'm really interested in the Rodin Museum, I hope it meets my expectations!