Michigan had been on our list for a while. In particular, Hendrika wanted to visit Holland, a town on the east shore of Lake Michigan.
Without any firm plans, we headed west on a Thursday afternoon and arrived at Sarnia, Ontario, and discovered it was really nice. The beach was attractive and the cell service was solid, so we decided to stay Friday. The first night we boondocked at the casino. The second night there, we tried staying in the parking lot near the bridge to the USA. There were no prohibitive signs and the lot was empty, so we were surprised when someone came by and told us we had to leave. A little too official I suppose. No problem, we moved to the casino parking lot, which the nice man had suggested.
We left early Saturday morning for Holland, Michigan, and spent the morning at a museum and enjoying Pride Day.
Then it was off to explore Lake Michigan's eastern shore. We had a great swim at Windsnest Park and boondocked at a boat launch a little further north in Grand Haven.
We continued to explore parks along the coast and ended up at Ludington State Park and Lake Michigan Recreation Area. The beaches there were great but they all had a major problem. Millions of dead fish (alewife) washing up on shore. Blech!
This was also our inaugural trip with Starlink. I first tried it in a parking lot with a lot of trees around when there was absolutely zero cell service. It would drop the signal for a minute or two, but it was good enough to look at a map and plan our next steps. The next time I set it up it was with open sky, and it rocked. An iffy cellular would have been a pain for my work day, but Starlink delivered a fast and reliable connection.
The cycling was consistently really good in Michigan. There were lots of paved bike paths, and many roads had wide paved shoulders.
To escape the dead fish, which seemed stretch all along the northeastern side of Lake Michigan, we headed to Lake Huron's western shore, staying at a Walmart along the way. We stayed a night and couple of days at Tawas Point State Park. Then we boondocked at a Cracker Barrel and spent the day at Bay City State Park. The southern part of Michigan seemed to be more built up with a fair amount of traffic.
While we parked at Bay City State Park, a warden came by. I guess we looked kind of dug in with Starlink up, chairs outside the van and in the day-use area. He came by right when I was changing, so I was in my underwear — which I guess could pass as a Speedo. It was in that state that I explained that I was working as a digital nomad and we were leaving that evening. Hendrika was having a hard time not cracking up during the conversation because she had the song "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK" stuck in her head.
Wanting to be back in Canada for Canada Day, we crossed the border that evening and boondocked at a beach parking lot at Ipperwash.
Then it was off to connect with friends in Wasaga Beach where we caught the fireworks for Canada Day and spent a couple of days in the area.