Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
LIFELONG MICHIGAN residents Brock Inglehart, left, and Leola Walker visit Ironwood Township's Black River Harbor on Wednesday for the first time. The couple, originally from southeast Michigan, have been all around the country traveling for the past two years in a motorhome, but realized one spot they hadn't visited was the western Upper Peninsula region in their home state.
By RYAN JARVI
Ironwood Township - Brock Inglehart and Leola Walker are originally from southwest Michigan near Kalamazoo, but they have an official mailing address in Box Elder, S.D.
The reason for the "mailing address" is because the couple has been living life on the road for the past two years as "professional RV'ers," Inglehart said.
Driving around a motorhome, with a truck in tow and a motorcycle secured in its bed, Inglehart joked, "He who dies with the most toys wins."
Inglehart, who's retired from sales, and Walker, who worked as a registered nurse, were former neighbors and got married about eight years ago. They vacationed together for about 10 years, but decided to become "professional" travelers two years ago.
"Life is to be lived," Walker said, mentioning the number of places they've visited.
They've been as far north as Labrador, Canada, and as far south as the deep reaches of Florida and Texas.
Last summer they spent most of their time in the Canadian Maritimes, the eastern region of the country that includes provinces Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
The summer before that they toured the Atlantic Coastline with an extended stay in upstate New York and the Adirondack Mountains.
Being lifelong Michigan residents, though, they realized they had never visited the western part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
So they took off for a five-day stay in the Porcupine Mountains, and on their last day in the area on Wednesday stopped to visit Black River Harbor in Ironwood Township.
From here, the couple is headed to Ashland, Wis., then to Minneapolis to visit relatives. After that they'll make their way south again and travel with the weather.
"We're not going anywhere in a hurry," Inglehart said, adding that the couple had no schedule to keep or jobs to get back to. "We're not on vacation."
