21-24 August 2014

There is something very mysterious about Manistique, it’s almost like the town does not want to let us go. I’m writing this after spending three nights here. We are shrouded in dense fog, I can’t see the buildings past the marina. It’s as if the town knows that I don’t like to travel in the fog.

Our trip here was nice. We left Beaver Island on a pretty morning after stoking up on a big breakfast and buying shirts. The lake was calm and we puttered along at a rate to get us to Manistique about 4:30 PM and saving fuel as much as possible.

When we got to town and berthed, we didn’t have wi-fi connections. Since the wall we were on wasn’t full, we slid forward until we were next to the building and had a decent connection. That problem solved we headed into town.

One of the things that has been absent from the “Food we have eaten” page is Chinese food. There was a new place in town, so we though we would give it a try. The chicken and mixed vegetables was very good. Tender chicken, vegetables that were cooked but still crisp. The House Special LoMein was also very good. The only problem was the hot and sour soup. When I showed it to the staff the cook went “Oh, I forgot to put the hot spices in!” Sigh.

We wandered back to the boat. I was very tired after the long 5 hour trip on the water so I crashed to bed early.

In the morning we got fuel ($4.18/gallon!) and pumped out. We were planning to spend the next few days on the hook. It was a gray day, and my shoulder was bothering me so I declared a snow day. We headed into town and got some more fishing stuff and an American flag for the boat. Susan cleaned the inside of the boat, I cleaned the outside and we both got naps! Perfect snow day.

For dinner Susan made pasta and sausages, one of her specialties. There is a winery across the marina basin, they have live music on Friday and Saturdays. After dinner we went over and tried a few different wines and listend to the duo playing. A nice way to spend Friday night!

Saturday morning it was raining. No problem we would out wait the rain before heading west to Fayette, MI. At noon I called the day’s travel off, it was still raining and from the radar it was not going to end soon. About 4PM it did clear off and started to become a nice evening.

Since we were staying (again) Susan had started a slow cooker with beef short-ribs about 1 PM. So we had a great dinner of the beef with the tomato / vegetable gravy over mashed potatoes. We ate with a really nice sunset starting on the horizion.

After dinner we played Ticket to Ride, a board game that you build train routes across the US. It was a lot of fun. We then played Bananagrams that Susan won by one point. It was a fun evening.

Sunday started off gray as we got showered and ready to leave. By 9:30 the fog rolled in and by now (11AM) it’s very dense. We will need to wait until it clears, I’m not up for another trip like we had leaving Mackinac Island. Hopefully it will clear soon, but it’s almost as if Manistique has some mystic hold and does not want us to leave…..

Updated to add: We finally got away on the 25th (Monday) There was a light rain and it looked like it was going to clear, so we took the chance and headed away…