The Sunrise Coast: Alpena, Michigan

One of the challenges of life on the road is finding a somewhat peaceful spot over holidays. Popular camping locations are usually booked up far in advance, which is fine by us – we generally prefer avoiding crowded campgrounds and parties.

We looked ahead on Highway 23, did some research into campgrounds around – and found some tempting reviews for the Alpena County Fairgrounds. Fairgrounds are usually a solid barebones option for staying in cities, but descriptions of this one included ‘waterfront’.  Hey, we’re down for that!

We called ahead, and were delighted to book a waterfront site for a week over the 4th of July weekend.. for just $110. Looking at the campground map online and the satellite view on Google Maps, it seemed like even if the entire campground got booked up, it shouldn’t feel too crowded.

And that set our pace for leaving Harrisville State Park, and continuing our northward trek up the sunrise coast.

We pulled in on the 1st to discover our reservation had been lost, but no worries – plenty of availability. We were given our choice of several spots open for the week.  None of which were particularly level.

Oh darn – the only way we could get level was by parking parallel to the shoreline of the Thunder Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.. giving us amazing office views.

 

We’d have to endure the amazing sounds of beautiful swans landing on the water in front of us for an entire week. Oh, the horrors.

For our first couple of days, we had the place pretty much to ourselves – so tranquil and lovely. And amazing sunsets over the sanctuary every night.

The Alpena Bi-Path also ran right in front of us, giving us access to the entire city by foot. This was perfect for quick exercise breaks – we could stroll over and wander around the cemetery or trails on some of the nearby islands.  It also really made us wish we had bikes onboard, we really need to put some focus on finding ideal folding bikes for our bays.

And just as soon as I mentioned to Chris that this place could only get better if there was a kayak launch… we found one right at the base of the hill of the campground. Giving us easy access to explore the kayak trails through the sanctuary.

One afternoon we were strolling around the cute Alpena downtown while our laundry was tumbling at the laundromat, and had a couple come up to us and ask ‘Do you own a motorhome by chance?‘

Turns out Mark and Linda are gearing up to hit the road and have read the blog as part of their research.  Funny, I had actually seen them checked into RVillage, and was about to poke them. Serendipity was clearly intent on us meeting, and we enjoyed getting together with them for lunch.

Come the 3rd, we had two ‘parties’ surround our encampment at the fairgrounds. But with our positioning, we kept our unobstructed view.

We were rewarded that evening with a lovely sunset that transformed into a stunning double rainbow! See.. the rainbow shot for our Life Liberty & Free WiFi post wasn’t staged or Photoshopped! Simple natural perfection.

And our neighbors were actually quite nice folks – we got invited to join in both of their festivities, which was awfully kind.

The fairgrounds is also the assembling grounds of the 4th of July parade, so we were already positioned at the start. The town makes an event of the day, starting with the parade, then cardboard boat races, free music concert downtown and then followed with fireworks over Lake Huron. Such fun to be part of a small town celebration!

Come Sunday, all our neighbors had left – leaving us back to finish out our week in blissful tranquility.

Alpena was our perfect place to ride out the chaos of the 4th, and what a delightful little town. Just big enough to have fun stuff, but small enough to feel quaint.

We didn’t get a chance to explore nearly enough of it, including taking a boat tour of the shipwrecks in the area – which just means, we’ll have to visit again in the future!

Of course, our time has not been consumed with just kayaking, walking and celebrating the 4th – we’re super busy finishing up ‘The Mobile Internet Handbook’. We’ve worked around the clock adding content, polishing our research and lining up professional illustrations. We hope to integrate in Jack Mayer’s contributions and finish the manuscript to send off to the editor by the end of this week.

Whew. Writing a book is a lot of work!

What’s Next: We just wrapped up a stay at PF Hoeft State Park in Rogers City, and arrived to Cheboygan.  Our plans from here get a bit murky, and we’ll be playing it a day at a time as we balance the writing and a hopeful rendezvous with our friends Nikki & Jason to explore some of the UP together.  We’re super looking forward to celebrating getting the manuscript completed and catching up on some other projects too.