At least once per year my wife and I like to take a camping trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. If you have read my blog in the past, you have likely seen a post or two about one of those trips. It can be easy to forget just how big the state of Michigan is, but this trip provided a stark reminder of that fact.
In many ways, this trip was almost a carbon copy of a trip that my wife took in 2020. There were a couple of differences of course. Due to the pandemic, in 2020, the price of gas was right around $2 per gallon. As we all know, it is much higher this year. We paid no less than $4.50 per gallon and many times it was more than $5 per gallon.
We traveled a total of 1400 miles round trip and after looking back at my credit card statement, we spent about $711 in gas figuring about 8 miles per gallon towing our trailer. I was honestly expecting about $1000 total, so I was kind of happy to see the number come in lower than that.
Another change on this trip was the fact that instead of just the two of us, there were a total of eight people in our party. My wife and I brought one of our nephews, and then our friends and their kids came along on the trip.
Hence the reason for visiting many of the same places that we did in 2020. We wanted to show them all of the cool things we had found on our first trip to this part of the state.
You know that saying "getting there is half the fun"? In this case, that was definitely not the case. It was quite windy on our trip up and that posed a number of challenges for us hauling our trailers. If you have never hauled a trailer in high winds, it basically turns into a giant sail and it can be a "white knuckle" experience driving in those conditions.
In fact, this was the first time that I have had to travel the high wind speed on the Mackinac Bridge. Usually the top speed is 45 MPH crossing the bridge for most vehicles. On this Wednesday they had a warning that trucks towing trailers needed to only travel 25 MPH due to the high winds.
We did so and it seriously felt like it took forever to travel the five miles across the bridge. However, I would much rather make it safely than quickly. Here is an example of what can happen if you don't travel the correct speed:
In fact, it took us a total of 10 hours to reach our final destination. For reference, we made it home in exactly 8 hours, so due to the wind, construction, and one other factor, it was a lengthy trip up to the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan.
In case you were wondering what that other factor might be, it was lunch of course and really the key focus of this post. In the past, we used to stop and get lunch directly across the bridge in the town of St. Ignace, MI. Unfortunately, that town can get a bit busy with travelers heading north and south across the bridge, so it became necessary for my wife and I to find a new favorite place to stop for food.
We absolutely found that in the Cut River Inn. It has become our go-to place for lunch after crossing the bridge into the Upper Peninsula. It is just short drive up US 2 along the coast of Lake Michigan.
It is a beautiful drive if you ever get a chance to take it. I highly recommend it. During nice days people park all along the side of the road and cross the sand dunes to play down on the beach.
Back to The Cut River Inn... It sits right off US-2 just past the Cut River Bridge. If you blink you will actually miss it, but that would be a huge mistake. I have yet to have a bad meal at this place. The food is absolutely fantastic and the staff is always friendly and welcoming.
Per usual, I went with the Whitefish basket. It is basically fish and chips, but Lake Superior Whitefish is some of the best fish you can get (in my opinion). It knocks the socks of cod, or pollock any day. They cooked it perfectly and the portions are quite large. It was a bit of a struggle to finish it all. I did though.
My wife's friend got the turkey Ruben sandwich which is basically like a regular Ruben, but instead of pastrami or corned beef they use turkey and instead of sauerkraut they use coleslaw. She raved about how good it was and I can attest to the fact that the homemade chips (crisps) were as good as they look in this picture.
My wife got a chicken wrap and while many times most wraps are pretty much like any other wrap, she felt the wrap at Cut River Inn was above and beyond what she has tasted at other places. The rest of the group got burgers and I regret that I didn't get any pictures of them.
Especially give the fact that they wrote Cut River Inn on the top of the but in ketchup and mustard. It was pretty cool. I could only dream of having a steady enough hand to do that!
Like I said, it was a rough start, but eventually, we made it to our final destination in Baraga, MI. This was just the beginning of what would turn out to be an amazing week in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Stay tuned for our further adventures! I promise there will be a lot more cool stuff and of course more food photos!
All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or 
