The Toast Family Blog: First Wildlife Siting

We left St. Ignace and headed for Munising, MI, along Lake Superior. Our hope was to get a campsite and possibly do some lake kayaking. Unfortunately, it was Labor Day weekend and all the lakeside campsites were full. It was also very windy, so open water kayaking was out. We decided to just drive around a bit and then head south to Widewater NF campground, a bit farther inland. After site-seeing, we pulled into a self-serve carwash to try and clean the accumulation of bugs off the RV. It was a tight squeeze, but the RV fit, and we cleaned it as best we could. Upon entering the cab to leave, my daughter screamed that a bat had flown in. I looked back, and sure enough, a bat was clinging to the cabinet above our bed in the back of the RV. After a brief moment of panic (i.e. screaming), we quickly drove to a pull-off area so we could figure out how to remove the bat. Luckily, my daughter is a bug lover so I used her bug net to catch the bat. It bit me a couple of times, but I had wisely put on some gloves. We then released it (after shutting all the RV doors and windows) and watched it fly into a grove of pine trees.

The black square above the door is a bat.

The next couple days were nice, with some frog catching, bike riding, and even a canoe trip courtesy of some fellow Alabamians that were working as the campground hosts.

Cookin fajitas in Widewater NF

Say hello to my little friend

Our next goal was to put some miles under our belts and head West as quick as we could. This had us driving from the U.P. of Michigan to the center of S.D. in 3 days. Along the way, we had a very nice stay at Interstate State Park on the WI/MN border, rode a roller coaster at the Mall Of America, failed at procuring a walleye dinner (one of Travis' favorites), and had our first night stay in a truck stop parking lot.