Day 11, 08August2025 - Sprinting Home

We need to be back home on Monday at the latest to get back to the Marina. Gabe will be gone for a week starting on the 12th, so we need to be back to help brother Don at Bridgeview Harbour. In addition, Emily and Travis are buying a farm, closing is on the 12th, we don't need to be there but would like to be. 

Steiner to Jaquish

So, with about 1300 miles to get there we are doing three long driving days to get home. Since we were already in northern MN, we decided to take the northern route through Canada; it avoids I90/I80 and the Chicago area which always seems to be a problem. The only major city we need to skirt is Ottawa.  

Friday morning we said our goodbyes and pulled out of Kris and Mike's lake house about 08:30, it was pouring with lots of thunder and lightning. By the time we reached Duluth the rain had pretty much subsided. As we passed through Wisconsin the weather continued to improve, and as we entered Michigan, we had very nice views of Lake Superior. We passed through Ashland, Marquette and many small Michigan towns and stopped for the night at a Harvest Host. It is easy to see why people from Michigan that we meet at home often say Vermont and Northern NY remind them of home.  Rural Michigan has similar landscape, sans the mountains, it is a very scenic countryside. 

We stayed at the "End of the Road Winery". Unfortunately, we arrived around 19:00 and they closed at 17:30, so we could not patronize their business.  We did message them around mid day and they graciously said, come and stay anyway; there are nice people in this world. 

End of the Road Winery

It was at the end of a dirt road, but a very nice place. 

Parking at the End of the Road Winery

They had 4 RV spots that had nice gravel parking, there were two other RV;s on the property but we each had our own space. 

We were sitting outside enjoying the breeze when our friends we met in Germany, Lisa and Nate, called because they saw on FB we were in Michigan.  They have a condo on Lake Huron and happened to be there for the weekend, unfortunately we have to get home, so could not swing by...maybe next time. 

The Winery is quiet and peaceful, but we turned in early because our longest driving day is tomorrow, roughly 600 miles and we are unsure how the roads will be in Canada. 10 years ago when we did this, they were not great. We will pass into Canada at Sault Ste Marie and we did not bring our passports, Doh!  I checked online and it says an enhanced drivers license is good enough, we will see.