Whitefish Point to Mackinaw

After the unusually incredible find this morning at the Whitefish Point Cemetery, we made our way to the Whitefish Point Lighthouse.

It’s just amazing how quickly Don can get to the water’s edge. 

Already, Don had spotted the freighter in the distance across the silvery Superior waters of the morning.

Now I’ve really waded in the COLD water of Lake Superior.

The wind is quite strong this morning and the lake pretty rough.  It’s not hard to imagine why so many ships are sitting on the lake floor.

Notice how the waves are breaking almost to the deck.

How interesting how the stones have settled in the crevices of the drift wood.

Do you ever wonder where this wood originated and where it’s been before landing here.

The Whitefish Point Lighthouse is not open to tourist as it is still in operation.  I was saved from climbing another lighthouse!!

Don made a friend.  Shocked aren’t you?

The freighter is inching it way across the lake.

Did I mention that it was windy this morning.

I found this board walk behind the buildings that led to the…

sand dunes.  And there goes that freighter through the rough waters.

Elaine got a great picture of los tres amigos.

Our next stop was the restaurant at the Tahquamenon Falls. Say it with me… Tah.Quam.uh.non. 

But first, lunch.  I had the famous UP pasties (pronounced PAST-eez). PAST. PAST. PAST. eeez.

Wives made these beef pastry pies for their husbands’ lunch in the iron ore mines. Very tasty.

Kathy thought only Jack was getting his picture taken. I thought she knew me better than that!

Elaine and Larry.

Me, with my cold slaw orchid, and Don.

The walk to the falls is about a quarter mile.  The rust color is caused by tannin leached from the Cedar, Spruce and Hemlock in the swamps drained by the river.

It was so pretty here.

Back to the truck. Next stop. Oswald’s Bear Ranch near Newberry.

Larry and Elaine had their picture made with the little guy.  They paid $5 for a ranch worker to take your picture with the cub with your camera.The bear ranch was very interesting and I took many pictures, but this post is already too long and our day isn’t done.

It was getting late, so we decided we would spend the night back across the Mackinac Bridge in Mackinaw.

After a picnic in Jack and Kathy’s room, Larry, Elaine, Don and I decided to walk the short block to the beach to take pictures of the bridge at night.

It didn’t take long for Don to be shivering.

Elaine is waiting for it to get dark, too.

The Mackinac Bridge at night.

We can barely believe how much we have seen in the last three days!  And I think they have a couple of stops planned for tomorrow as we make our way back to LeRoy where the Q is parked.

We are so blessed and I hope you are enjoying our discoveries in Michigan.  We certainly are!

My UPer connection

(Pronounced YOU-per)

After a good night’s rest, we got ready for another day of discoveries and sight-seeing.

While waiting for everyone to get ready to go, I walked around the motel taking pictures of flowers, bumblebees, etc.

Kathy and Elaine wanted to show us a cemetery out in the middle of the woods on our way to the Whitefish Point Lighthouse.

When we first got there, I saw this plot with the picket fence and took this picture.

From there, we discovered a wealth of huckleberries.  They look like blueberries, but smaller and really tasty.

Thank you, John W. Bourne.

There was even some wintergreen growing there.

And mushrooms!  Every size, type and color.  So many that I will dedicate a whole blog entry to them.

About fifty yards from me, Don is looking at grave markers and he yells at me, “LaVon!  Come here!”  That was odd because Don never yells at me, so I immediately wonder what he’s found and start making my way around the huckleberry patches to where he is.  When I get to him, he points to this marker.  That’s my maiden name!!!  Not very common, as you can see.  I couldn’t believe what I was looking at.Louis C. DeRusha was born in 1887 and died in 1948; married Jessie E. in 1906 and had sixteen daughters and four sons before 1948 while serving our country in World War II.  Twenty children!!  And Jessie outlived Louis by nineteen years.  I know this because I found an obit on Jeanette Dunklee online.

This was an emotional discovery for me.

Kathy was in the middle of picking huckleberries when I called to her to come see what Don found.

Elaine was busy picking eating huckleberries, too.I brought a fern frond, like this, home with me out of the DeRusha plot.

Another view of the cemetery in the woods.  There was no organization to it, just graves scattered all through the woods.

Quite a few were marked “Unknown.”

When I called Mama Trudy to tell her what we had discovered, she wasn’t at all surprised and told me that my daddy’s family came to Texas from Michigan.  I knew we were of French Canadian descent on my dad’s side, but didn’t know they came by way of Michigan!  Specifically the Upper Peninsula.

And what are the chances that we would find this particular cemetery in the woods of Whitefish Point.  I just wish I knew how closely I am related to these DeRusha’s.