Michigan, Part 10 - Munising, Part 2 [240617]

We had to do a little vehicle maintenance on the T42 before continuing on with our sightseeing in Munising.

(Editor's note:  don't forget to check out our latest trailer Trailer 11 - Great Smoky Mountains National Park [241118-24], if you haven't already!)

-----

We started getting a "Change Engine Oil" message right around 10,000 miles on the odometer, which seemed a little suspicious since the ProMaster oil change interval is "up to 10,000 miles", and Tom had changed the oil right before we left on our trip at 2,050 miles.  He had performed the oil change warning reset procedure, but since we were changing the oil early and no warning was active at the time it was impossible to tell if the procedure was actually having any effect.  The manual also states that the interval "can vary depending on your driving style as the system is duty-cycle based" so when the indicator came on we weren't quite sure whether the reset after the first oil change simply hadn't registered, or the high wind / mountain driving we had been doing since that change necessitated another after only 8,000 miles.  All our other vehicles have always had a warning that came on briefly after the car started and then went away after a few seconds as you approached the oil change mileage, and then stayed on constantly once you crossed over the oil change boundary; the ProMaster indicator had been going away.  But after a few hundred more miles it became clear that that's just how the ProMaster indicator works, and it really was time to change the oil again.

As part of that initial oil change, Tom had replaced the stock drain plug with a Fumoto drain valve that allows you to easily drain the oil into a container and without tools.  Since the ProMaster oil filter is accessed from the top of the engine, the valve makes it fairly clean and easy to perform oil changes on the road (provided you bring the wrench necessary to open the oil filter housing, which we did).  The oil and filter can be purchased at most any Walmart or auto parts store, so we picked those up and just needed some time and a place to do the actual change.  We checked the rules at the City of Munising Tourist Park Campground, and there were no specific prohibitions against doing vehicle maintenance there so we had the "place".  Monday morning was the "time".

Tom would actually have liked to have done the oil change after getting back in the afternoon (when the oil was warm and would drain smoother) instead of first thing in the morning, but rain was forecast for later in the day so it seemed prudent to do the oil change as early as possible.  We drove the front tires up onto leveling blocks to give Tom a little more room to work under the van, and he got to work.  Everything went as planned, and we were done in about half an hour.

The only task left was getting the oil recycled.  Back home, most every auto parts store will take back used motor oil for recycling so Christine called the Auto Value store in Munising.  They said they take used oil, so we dropped ours off there on our way out.

-----

With our chores taken care of, our first fun activity for the day was a "hike" to Munising Falls - with "hike" in quotes because it's only an 800 foot walk from the parking lot to the falls.

-----

Then we drove out to the Miners Castle area to see the sights there, starting with the 1.2 mile round-trip hike out to Miners Fall.

Then we walked the trail along the bluff for views (from land) of Miners Castle (which we had seen from the water on our cruise the evening before) - all the while keeping an eye on the storm that was blowing in.

After seeing some of the Pictured Rocks from land, we had to agree with the "best seen by boat" claim made in the tourist brochures.

-----

It started raining as we were leaving Miners Castle.  Our rainy-day plan had been to go to the Munising Library to use the WiFi, but it turned out that the library was in the basement of the high school and had a narrow little parking lot that was much too small to park the T42 comfortably in so we headed back toward the campground.

On our "regional cuisine to try" list for Michigan was "smoked fish", so we decided to stop at a smoked fish shop we had seen on the way to/from camp.  However, in the pouring rain we went down the wrong driveway and ended up at a different smoked fish shop than intended - which was fine, since it had more of a "where locals probably shop" sort of mom-and-pop vibe to it than the more touristy looking shop we had originally been targeting.

We ended up buying both a piece of smoked whitefish and a piece of smoked lake trout (photo from the next night, when we actually started eating them).

Back at camp, as we made-do with the wimpy, inconsistent WiFi available:  this mother bird and her three little ones came walking across our camp site - no doubt looking for worms and insects that had been driven out of the soil by the rain.

The rain stopped in the later afternoon, so around 5 we went back into Munising for the "Farmer's Market" we had seen advertised.  It was a laughably dinky little thing, with less than dozen little tables set up - and only a couple of them actually selling anything edible.

On the way back to camp, we decided to stop by Muldoons Pasties - a favorite among the local sasquatch - for dinner.  Not surprising, perhaps, because according to a 2016 Kalamazoo Gazette article they ranked #4 in the list of the UP's 13 Tastiest Pasties.

Although they weren't quite as pretty as the ones we had bought at the Yooper Pastry Shop in Sault Ste. Marie, the Muldoons pasties were actually tastier with a better crust and moister filling (Tom had opted not to get the gravy this time, since it was a $2 (!) add on, but his pastie didn't really need it).

We arrived back at camp before dark, so went down to the beach for a last look at Grand Island, since tomorrow we'd be leaving the Pictured Rocks area for good...