More of Thu. Sept. 22: Just a few miles away it began to rain more earnestly and continued from Rogers City to the Presque Isle area. As we turned to go north towards the lighthouse, the sun came out and we were treated to a beautiful rainbow! The first lighthouse is the “Old” lighthouse, built in 1840 and restored with a small museum in the keeper’s quarters. It was an easy climb to the top to see the lens that is still in it and a nice view of the harbor. About a mile north is the “New” lighthouse, built in 1870 after there were too many shipwrecks in the area because the old one was too low and too far in towards the harbor. The Presque Isle Historical Society has big plans for the complex and we hope they can accomplish all they dream of doing. Time was getting on and so we didn’t climb the new, higher lighthouse, instead driving on down the Lake Huron coast to the Sturgeon Point Lighthouse, south of Alpena. They have a nice restoration area there, including an old one-room schoolhouse and several out-buildings, besides the lighthouse itself, which was also built in 1870. Unfortunately, while we could enjoy our picnic on the grounds and walk down to the beach, the buildings were not open so we couldn’t get inside any of them. The day was passing quickly though, and we had decided to make it home in time for choir practice, so south of Tawas City we drove west to I75 and took it to I69 and home. We bought gas in Flint, happy to find it for $3.41 a gallon but when we got home we found we could actually have gotten it for $2.98! We had traveled over 1300 miles, biked only about 17 miles, and hiked a lot. We were very happy with the Provincial Parks and especially appreciated how they seemed to have turned most of their pit toilet/outhouses into cold water flush bathrooms. Camping, beer and gasoline were more expensive than in the States, but it was a really nice trip that we both enjoyed very much.
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