Sunday, October 1

Trip from Bayfield, WI to Silver City, MI
In the late afternoon, we left Bayfield for our next destination, Silver City, MI, stopping first at an apple stand to buy some locally grown apples and, always on the lookout for more information, to chat with the proprietor of the stand. It took nearly three hours to get to Silver City! We had booked our stay there at the AmericInn, which was easy to find as Silver City IS the AmericInn. There is no city. The only restaurant in “town” was the one affiliated with the hotel. The gas station up the road, apparently thinking they had a gas monopoly, was selling gas at the outrageous price of almost $3 per gallon when everyone else was selling it for around $2.30. They didn't get our business. Since we would be staying two nights, we saved the AmericInn restaurant for the next night, and drove 12 miles to Ontonagon to get gas and to eat at the Harbor Town Cafe, a small, casual restaurant populated mostly by locals. Ontonagon is a very tiny town of 100 souls.

Monday, October 2

Silver City, MI
This was the first time we stayed put for more than one night. We wanted to spend the day hiking in Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park (the "Porkies"). It was a good decision. The weather was spectacularly beautiful—warm enough for short-sleeved shirts (most of the time) and sunny all day long. We went to the park’s info center first (no lunch involved this time), then made our plans. We had time for seeing Lake of the Clouds (from the viewing platform), hiking the east and west side of the Presque Isle River with its three waterfalls (Manabezho, Manido, and Nawadaha), and climbing ½ mile up to the Mirror Lake Summit (from which you cannot see Mirror Lake). It was a lovely walk through the woods. Because the vacation had so far been pretty sedentary, we were tuckered out by 6 PM.

We had dinner at the AmericInn restaurant, called Porkie’s Pub, or something like that. They ran out of the inexpensive special by the time they got to us, but the food was okay, if rather more expensive (they did not offer the special discount for the alternate choices). They needed more help in the dining room. The kid clearing the tables seemed beleaguered.

The people in MN, WI, and especially here in MI are extremely friendly. Most, if not all the tourists we met around Lake Superior were from these three states, with a few from Illinois. Almost everyone said "hi" in passing, and nine times out of ten, would start a conversation spontaneously. Most seemed very perplexed to see tourists from so far afield (and from so far south) as Virginia. Most thought we were from Virginia, Minnesota until we explained that no, we were from the Dominion of Virginia.