Around the Bottom of the Great Lakes

July 23, 2010


When we planned to start heading back west we had to make a decision on whether to go north through Canada, or South through the USA to get around the Great Lakes. By my calculations, it was virtually the same distance. We talked it over and decided to go south primarily because looking at the map, there are many more interesting towns, our costs would be considerably less, and we still had some US dollars that we had set aside for our Odyssey.

We left Niagara Falls and headed toward the Windsor/Detroit border crossing. About 30 kms from Windsor we saw a black wall in the sky, and we were headed straight toward it. It started to rain, and then pour, like I have never seen before. All the cars and trucks put on their 4-way flashers and eventually we had to pull over because it was just too dangerous. We waited for about 10 minutes and then the cars in front of us decided to pull out and give it a try and we fell in behind them. Most of the time I was just following tail lights as it was coming down in sheets. By the time we got to Windsor, the rain had stopped and the sun came out. We headed over the Ambassador Bridge that led us into Detroit. The Customs officials wanted to look inside our RV so I gave them the keys. Luckily, Laurie had packed what fruit and vegetables we had left into a cooler bag and we had it in the truck. We showed them the bag and they confiscated a couple of items and we were off. Then we hit a toll booth….apparently it cost $8 to drive over the Ambassador Bridge, a nice welcome to the good old US of A.

Click on picture for an enlargement.  This is the view out the door of the RV during the flood.

We drove along Hwy 94 until just east of Ann Arbour, Michigan and we pulled over for fuel. We saw a sign for a campground and headed there. The Detroit/Greenfield Campground looked like a nice place, but the ground was very damp, presumably from the same storm system we had experienced. They assigned us a site and we set up for the night. Well, another severe thunderstorm hit and it began to pour again. What we discovered was that we were the low area of our portion of the campsite. Before long, our entire campsite was under 3-4 inches of water, our outdoor carpet was ruined and water was flowing under our RV. What we found out by watching the weather report on the news was that a major thunderstorm system was headed for the very area we were travelling through for the next few days.

July 24, 2010 One night was enough!!! In the morning we packed up, removing as much mud as possible from our lawn chairs and our blocking under the RV, and we hit the road, headed for Chicago. Again, we drove through another thunderstorm, but this one was not quite as severe as the day before.

The sun was shining as we pulled in to the Yogi Bear Campsite in Gary, Indiana, about 45 miles from Chicago. There was puddling around this campsite as well, but we were not stuck in the low area. That night, another thunderstorm hit and we had more rain. The next morning we discovered that this campsite is a happening place. They are celebrating Christmas in July, so many of the permanent sites have Christmas decorations out, they had a BBQ, they had 2 rock bands playing until 11pm, and they had a group of army enthusiasts who had military paraphernalia; jeeps, trucks, rifles and they were shooting off rounds across the lake that is there.

I called the Chicago Cubs ticket office and got a ticket for a game at Wrigley Field. It was quite an experience for me to watch a game in old Wrigley Field. I arrived at the park over 3 hours prior to the game and there was already a huge crowd, and lots of excitement on the streets.

One of the interesting features of Wrigley is that the buildings across the street from the outfield bleachers have installed their own bleachers on top of their buildings. The view is not bad as Wrigley has fairly low outfield bleachers, and of course, the price is right…free! Tickets for Wrigley are very difficult to get but because I only needed one, I was able to purchase one.


These buildings are across the street from Wrigley.

July 26,2010 We left the Chicago area and headed north into Wisconsin. We were very glad to get out of Illinois because they go crazy with road tolls. Travelling just over 200 kms, we were stopped 5 times and paid a total of $14 in tolls. We followed Hwy.43 up the side of Lake Michigan to a small town called Two Rivers not far from Green Bay. Our campsite was in a marina/RV park that is located right on the water. Once we got parked, Laurie tried to open our kitchen slide-out but it would come out properly. I climbed under the RV and checked the slide drive mechanism and found out that there was a sheered off bolt. After going to a couple of places, I found the bolt I needed and made the repair. Hopefully it will hold.

After that inconvenience, we finally got to relax and we sat and watched the small boats come in and out of the harbor. The Coast Guard station is right across the channel from us so we got to watch them doing various exercises. It’s a neat little place!

A beautiful moon over the entrance to the harbour at Two Rivers.






We have started, and plan to continue, to put more miles on between stops as we make our way back home.  We are planning on being home by the August 7 & 8 weekend, but we will see what happens.