Brocation '25, Pt. II

(contd.)

The next morning came pretty quickly, but everyone in my room had slept well and behaved themselves the night before, so we all got around without issue.

As usual, Yours Truly supplied our band of adventurers with a crate full of Bloody Mary crap (vodka, mixes, hot sauces, condiments, etc.) Once I made mine for the morning I threw it out to the Brocation group chat that the stuff was set up and ready for anyone who wanted to come up to our room to make one. Collier was the first to show up, followed a little later by Erik, then Rob (who, according to his account, had been up drinking until after 2am, and both him and Tom were running on about three hours of sleep.)

The three rooms slowly trickled down to our designated meeting spot in the hotel lobby, awaiting the arrival of stragglers.

Tom sat by himself, he didn't wanna sit next to anyone.

Loading up in the Battle Wagon for a second day of Brocationing.

Waiting (yet again) for everyone to pile into the van.

Setting off west across the Upper Peninsula. Today our goal was Copper Harbor, at the northernmost part of the state of Michigan (outside those random islands floating around Lake Superior.)

About an hour or so outside of Marquette, we stopped off at some mom-and-pop joint that Erik new about for some breakfast.

I was good with a protein bar and a bloody mary for breakfast, so I just stuck to black coffee.

Collier, ready for his close-up.

The dudes, tearing into some breakfast. The food - when it finally arrived - was pretty good, according to them, but the service was ridiculously slow and everyone got pissed. Erik assured us this was the first time he's eaten there that the service was so bad, so who knows. Must just be our luck, I guess.

Back on the road, heading up the Keeweenaw Peninsula.

Seriously don't know how Tom and Rob are still awake and functioning at this point, considering their lack of sleep and hangovers.

Halfway up the peninsula, we passed through the city (more like town) of Houghton. . . .

. . . . and then we of course crossed the bridge that leads to its northern, sister city of Hancock.

(I don't know the name of this river, my bad.)

Somewhere near the old Quincy Copper Mine, which we checked out years ago with Rita and Smitty.

After awhile on the road, we pulled over for some more gas (the Battle Wagon sucks it down to like a dime store hooker.)

Holty, being helpful, cleans off our windshield.

Mitch and Lon-Dog, not being helpful.

Some lake.

After a couple hours of driving, we closed in on the most northernmost point in the state. . .

Erik, who had planned out the day's itinerary wand was assuming his usual role as group navigator on this year's trip, had us starting our adventuring in Copper Harbor, then bar-hopping our way down the peninsula on our way back to Marquette.

First stop: historic Fort Wilkins.

The Kings of the Hill venture assault the fort.

I won't dive deep into the history of the fort and the area and whatever - if you're interested you can read the frickin' sign.

LBB and Collier, educating themselves.

Left to Right: The Colonel, Lonnie Big Balls, Baby Driver, Big E, Pro, (someone I can't see), and Robert the Bruce.

We hit the men's room before setting off on our tour of the old fort, and inside they had like Hobbit-sized sinks, which was weird. Never seen something like that before.

Waiting for stragglers to finish draining their collective lizards.

Like Fort Mackinac and others, this fort is a Michigan Historic Site and has been consequently restored (well, reconstructed would be a more accurate term.) These buildings are actually outside of the fort itself, and served a variety of purposes.

There you go, gang - the history of the fort. Zero battles fought here.

It sure does.

Walking through the various buildings of Fort Wilkins was like waking through any other old, historic fort you can think of. Each building was set up to be educational, with artifacts used by people that lived there (behind glass, of course), reproductions of items and recreations of how rooms were set up  showing what life was like for the people that lived there, etc. Some folks might not like stuff like this, and those people are called 'douchebags.'

I'm sorry, I thought this was America. . .

Steven and some random-ass old guy in short shorts, watching some kinda educational video.

(This must be where the women worked.)

Recreation of an officer's private quarters.

After a couple buildings - mostly residential quarters - you crossed through the palisade and into the fort itself.

Rob and a wall full of fake bread loaves.

In some kinda bakery (with Mitch staring in menacingly from the open doorway.)

Couldn't resist. Everyone seems to stack rocks like this anymore, especially in the Upper Peninsula, so why not and overturned and fake, dollops of dough?

Continuing our way into the fort. . .

Rob and some handsome guy. . .

A blacksmith's forge.

Erik tells a goose to mind it's own Goddamn business. . . .

Looking back towards the palisade (all the interior pics you've seen thus far have been inside these half-dozen buildings lining either side of the pathway.)

The inlet in front of the fort.

Steven and Damn It Tom (who had his GoPro with him today.)

Fighting my way through a gaggle of geese.

Some of the guys take a break to gaze out on the waterway (assuming Injuns used to canoe down this back in the day and trade crap with the white people.)

A cannon guards some of the bigger, more important buildings (the jail, the armory, infirmary, barracks, etc.)

Erik, looking pensive.

. . . . you knew this picture was coming, c'mon.

Collier and I played around with this cannon for a bit, trying to adjust it's trajectory angle, but since it was a repro a lot of the parts were like welded together and didn't move correctly. Which totally sucks.

Lonnie and a cannon.

Another shot of the courtyard.

Heading into some more buildings. . .

Shut up, sign.

Morgan and Steven, learning more about. . . archaeology. . . I think?

Looking down into some kinda dungeon pit.

We split off and wandered through these buildings in no particular order. Basically had the place to ourselves, which was kinda nice - can't imagine a lot of tourists drive all the way up this far north just to check out a fort, you know?

Jail cells.

Looks cozy.

If you share a jail cell with Thomas Richard Sheahan, bad things will happen to you .

The remains of the original door from the actual guardhouse/jail.

Poor dude. . .

Backside of the fort (perimeter wall would be off to the bottom and right of this frame.)

Collier and Mitch head towards the powder room.

Gunpowder and black powder was usually stored in a separate, isolated building due to its instability (it goes boom when introduced to fire.) 

(Obviously, none of this is real.)

Just a couple of dads, taking pictures of fake munitions.

Kinda wanted to steal these, they look awesome.

No idea what this says.

Tom scopes out the shitters. . .

These were actually functional, if you can believe that. Kinda gross.

Reproduction of the old palisade, which encircled three sides of the entire fort

The side of the fort not lined with wooden stakes.

Supply room of some kind (I assume.)

The infirmary (or barracks.)

Some office crap.

Collier peruses the commissary.

No quartermaster on duty today so we had to go without molasses and cider vinegar.

Some period uniforms on some faceless mannequins/dummies. Kinda looks like a Union uniform here, which tracks with the post-Civil War era in the fort's history.

Tom, Mitch, Rob, and some dummy off-loading barrels for some reason.

Swords are pretty cool.

They had this interactive thingy in one of the rooms where you pressed a button and it would start playing this marching song, and you could drum along with it. Couple of the guys tried it but couldn't keep time with the tune, so then I hopped on and showed them how it's f***ing done. . .

Still got it.

A scaled model of the fort (built to Beetlegeuse proportions.) 

Erik, Rob and Collier, learning tons of ole timey crap this morning.

One, last shot of the fort on our way out.

Mitch and Rob walk up the ramp on the way back to the Battle Wagon.

Collier, Tom, Erik, and Rob consult a map of the area as we plot our next move.

A short drive later, we found ourselves back in Copper Harbor.

We stopped off at a local brewery to have a pint - our first of multiple stops on our day-long drive back towards Marquette.

There was a large, outdoor seating area under a pavilion but we didn't want any part of that, we wanted to check out what it was like inside. 

Brickside Brewery

Saw this sign by the front door - good timing on our parts, I guess.

We were able to snag a table inside the considerably small bar, but had to pull up chairs from other tables in order to fit us all.

The usual local brewery offerings - nothing super exciting. 

Settling in with a round of pints (Morgan, not a beer drinker by any means, opted to abstain.)

This was just okay. Not terrible, but I wasn't wowed by any means.

We only hung out for one beer then decided to move on to the next stop.

A short drive to the end fo town got us to this scenic overlook, looking out over the 'town' (village, more accurately) and Lake Superior.

Decent view to be had from this viewing platform. . .

We had another couple of tourists snap a group pic of us while we were up there. Kinda have to with a bad-ass view like this.

We often have Morgan take a selfie of us, since he has like a 12-foot wingspan.

After loading back up into the Battle Wagon, we drove a little further down the peninsula and found a little roadside pull-off right on the coast where we could check out more of the coast.

Baby Driver and Lake Superior.

Venturing out onto the rocks.

(I forget the exact location of this spot.)

Collier and I, as stated before, take about 80% of the group pictures on this trip.

Clouds looked dicey, but it never ended up raining, fortunately.

Collier adjusted the shutter speed on his phone to blur the movement of water, something I've never played around with on my phone's camera (yet.)

The rocks and water look like something straight out of dinosaur days.

Handsome defined: Baby Driver, LBB, Colonel, and Big E.

Collier, off by himself, admiring that big-ass lake.

The Kings of the Hill, probably talking about golf.

Dammit Tom. On a rock.

Mitch took this pic. Like one of the eight he took this weekend.

After admiring the scenery for like 10-15 minutes, we assembled and headed back to the van.

Our next stop was about a half an hour away at some exclusive jelly spot. Yes, jelly spot. I don't know what the proper name for something like that is, but they sell a lot of jams and jellies (I don't know the difference between the two and I don't care to look it up.) 

Jam Pot, as it's called, is run by an order of local monks. Seriously.

Only a handful of people were allowed inside at a time, due to the small size of the store, so there was a line of tourists snaking around outside. Erik was pissed, as this wait was throwing off his itinerary.

We ended up waiting outside for like 20-30 minutes, during which time we'd take turns wandering off into the woods to pee and grab snacks from the van.

When we finally went inside, it was a little disappointing. They were sold out of most of the exclusive jellies and what-not that Erik had been wanting to snatch up, and the shelves were pretty bare (and over-priced.) While I was in there, I felt it necessary to take a pic of whatever the hell this statue is supposed to be.

Some bread. Nobody ended up getting anything I don't think, the whole stop was a bit of a let-down, but fortunately that was the only 'meh' moment of the day.

After stopping off at the van, we decided to walk about 100 yards up the road to check out a roadside waterfall. 'Cause when in Rome. . .

Jacob Falls. Small, as far as U.P. waterfalls go, but hell - it was literally right there.

Collier and his slowed shutter speed strike again.

Tom was the first guy to climb up the side to check out the hilltop stream. Shortly after his ascent, Collier and Holty followed suit.

Collier and Tom farther up the hill.

View from the top (that's the rest of us, standing around below.)

Coming back down. Turns out there wasn't much up there in the first place.

Heading back down the hill towards the Jam Pot parking lot, where we once again loaded up and continued our drive south.

Coming in to Calumet, which is some small town Erik wanted to make a pit-stop in.

Erik points out our next stop (which - surprise, surprise - was a bar.)

Shute's: a historic salon in a historic, copper-mining town.

Inside of this place reminded me of the Horn's Gaslight Bar on Mackinaw Island (as seen in Brocation '22.) Love the aesthetic of these late 19th century watering holes - if I ever won the lottery, I'd theme a bar just like this. In my frickin' house.

The Men's room - or Gent's room, since we're being fancy - likely hasn't been updated since 1890, though. That was kinda gross.

That trough off to the left there is the urinal, folks. Wish I was kidding. I've seen these before in older bars, but still - they always disgust me. Might as well piss in the alleyway behind the saloon, for Christ's sake.

Another angle of the saloon interior.

The bar was pretty busy (despite being in the middle of the afternoon, not like peak bar times by any means), but we were able to snag two tables and like five or six chairs along the wall.

Tom, Mitch, Collier, and Lon-Dog

Rob, Morgan and Erik

Huge murals covered the walls, probably over a hundred years old. I could've set up shop in this joint for the rest of the day, but sadly we had to leave after our one drink - we had more stops ahead of us on our drive back to Marquette. 

Collier peaked into here briefly, on our walk back to the Battle Wagon, but the rest of us didn't stop. Ain't nobody got time for dat.

Erik consults his trusty map to figure out the fastest way to get back towards our next stop (another waterfall.)

Lonnie and I, brawling in the second row, on the drive back towards civilization (figuratively.)

This next waterfall was about a mile-long walk from the side of a dirt road, through the woods.

Not a hard walk at all, and fortunately the mosquitoes weren't too bad either (those little sons of bitches love me.)

Morgan and Lonnie, bringing up the rear.

We came across a couple miniature falls as we made our way towards the main attraction. I assume they splintered off from the same source or river or whatever. However that works. 

Collier, Tom, Rob and I stopped here for a sec so Collier and I could properly document the sight.

Continuing on through the woods, this trail kinda ran parallel to the river.

Stopping to check out some more falls.

Tom likes posing with waterfalls.

We stumbled upon the main falls from behind, and had to walk around a cliff in order to find a way down to check out the falls from the front.

Descending from the ridge above to check out the falls. A hand rail would really clean up around these parts. 

Behold: Hungarian Falls.

Pretty badass we have stuff like this in our home state, folks - don't take it for granted.

Collier and his slowed shutter speed.

The Kings of the Hill

We attempted to get a group pic on Steven's phone (using a timer) but he couldn't get the camera to stay upright, so he just took this depressing selfie with his phone and said 'screw it.' Way to go, buddy.

Yuuuuup.

Steep walk out of that ravine, I'll tell you that much. . . .

Heading back towards the van, our last nature experience of the day checked off the list.

On the road again, our next stop was Houghton/Hancock, for dinner. The drive was long enough for Mitch to get bored and throw on a Tigers game on his tablet.

After driving through Hancock, we reached the bridge that leads south towards Houghton.

Parking sucked so we had to hoof it a few blocks to get back up towards the downtown area where all the restaurants are.

Another view of the bridge.

Collier, Lonnie, Mitch, and Tom.

The Ambassador, probably the nicest (and oldest) restaurant in town. Erik and I had our hearts set on this place for dinner - I had eaten there before, back in 2021 - but there was like a 45-minute wait, and nobody was really wanting to wait that long for food. Everyone by this point was starving, having not eaten since breakfast and without any snacks to speak of in the car.) Bummed and downtrodden, we turned about and began walking down the street int he opposite direction, looking for other restaurants.

A couple blocks down the road, we found a seafood joint that looked promising, and Lonnie and Steven went in to inquire about a table. Always a challenge finding open tables that can accommodate a party of nine.

Joey's Seafood & Grill. After a short, five-minute wait, they had cleared a table for us and we were led inside. 

Cool-looking ceiling in this place (I'm a big fan of that 1920's aesthetic.)

Picking out food was challenging, everyone changed their mind like two or three times, but our server was awesome and kept bringing us drinks so we were happy (and obviously we tipped generously.)

Some ship that stood above our table.

Breaded cod , shrimp, fries, and green beans. Sooooo good, and my only real meal of the day.

Dudes tearing into their food.

After our meal, while we were waiting for our checks and using the bathrooms, I helped myself through a cracked, back door in the restaurant and found a weird staircase off the back of the building. Curious, and not really caring about the whole 'trespassing' thing, I followed it down a few flights and found a wide open door to some random guy's apartment. I got super creeped out and, hearing people inside approaching, ran up the stairs and rejoined the other dudes. Probably not the best move on my part, buuuuut whatever.

After dinner, we got back into the van and continued our drive back to Marquette. Forgot how long that took, but we didn't have any more stops to delay us from reaching our old hotel. Everyone was exhausted, and a lot of guys slept on the drive back. When we arrived back at the Ramada, everyone dropped off their crap in their respective rooms and convened down in Erik, Lonnie and Colliers room to have a nightcap (or three) of high-end bourbon (and to watch some kinda game.)

So there you have it, folks - Day 2 of Brocation 2025. Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion. . .

- to be concluded. . .