St. Ignace, MI
Sunday, October 1, 2023
Our last morning in Canada called for Tim Horton’s Timbits donuts, per Tory and Aden’s request. Tory insisted she come along this time to make sure we got all the right flavors, so Andi woke her up around 8:00am and the two of them scooted off to the coffee shop to secure breakfast. Thirty minutes later, they returned with a box of 40 donut holes in a variety of flavors: birthday cake, sour cream glazed, old fashioned, and chocolate glazed. Nobody wanted the jelly-filled donut holes we accidentally ordered last time.
The four of us ate our donut holes with coffee and juice around the RV dinette, and then packed up to hit the road again. Today’s final destination was St. Ignace, Michigan but we first needed to cross the international USA/Canada border at Sault Saint Marie, Ontario. It took us about an hour an a half to drive there, and it was an easy commute. The fall colors along the way were absolutely beautiful.
In Sault Saint Marie, Ontario, we joined a long line of cars waiting to cross into the United States. I forgot it was Sunday — likely the busiest day to cross the border as travelers come and go. We waited in line for at least 30 minutes before finally reaching the checkpoint around Noon.
Once again, crossing the USA/Canadian border with our RV wasn’t an issue. The border agent was a little confused by our entrance and exit stamps in and out of Canada the past few weeks, but Andi simply explained we’ve been touring the Great Lakes.
Back in the United States, we drove south from Sault Saint Marie, Michigan to the town of St. Ignace and checked into our campsite at the KOA there. St. Ignace is located on the Upper Peninsula side of Mackinac Island. We wanted to drive across the famous Mackinac Bridge to the Lower Peninsula side of Michigan, but the line of cars waiting to cross the bridge was even longer than it had been at the border. The front desk employee at KOA said cars were waiting roughly 5 hours to get across the bridge. Wow! Change of plans for us then. We didn’t want to wait that long just for the fun of driving across the bridge.
Instead, Andi and I decided to take the kids out to lunch at Jose’s Mexican Cantina in St. Ignace. This was a typical Mexican restaurant with a humongous menu and free chips & salsa. The restaurant was big and our service and food were excellent though.
It rained off and on throughout the afternoon, so the four of us hunkered down in our RV for a few hours and hung out. I think we were all worn out from traveling. The kids watched their iPads and Andi and I worked on our computers. Finally around 4:00pm, Aden convinced us all to go outside to play a round of golf at the KOA mini golf course. Andi and I drug our feet about it at first, but we all ended up having a fun time. This KOA had a lot of amenities for guests to use during their stay including mini golf, free bikes to ride, a dog park, and other sports equipment available.
The mini golf course, located at the entrance of the KOA Campground, had a front row view of the miles-long traffic waiting to cross the Mackinac Bridge. Andi said the backed-up traffic was giving him anxiety, so he wanted to go back the RV to make dinner. I decided to help him while the kids stayed to finish their round of mini golf. Twenty minutes later, the kids returned on their bikes.
We pieced together a meal of grilled chicken, green beans, and bread. The four of us ate outside on our campsite picnic table at the encouragement of Andi. “Should we eat outside for once so we can say we actually did during our camping trip?” he asked the rest of us. That isn’t quite true — I think we ate outside one or two other times during this trip. Usually though, for convenience sake (and to avoid bugs), we eat instead our camper at the dinette table.
After we cleaned up dinner, Andi and I went on a walk together around the campsite while Tory and Aden each took showers in the RV. We ran into the same couple from Rhinelander, WI that we met on the Bridal Veil Falls trail in Manitoulin Island yesterday and they invited us to sit by their fire and have a drink with them. It was fun chatting with them about their RV travels and life in Wisconsin. When Tory and Aden started hanging out of our RV door trying to get our attention, we knew it was time for bed. Andi and I walked a few sites down, tucked the kids in their beds for the night, and then got ready for bed ourselves.
Tomorrow, we’re excited to explore Mackinac Island — a destination that’s been on our travel list for years.
