Mackinac Island

On the way from Port Huron to St. Ignace, we stopped in Flint, MI—home of Michael Moore-to hit the Target store for some microwave-safe, plastic bowls. I wondered if Flint would be as desolate as Moore portrays it in his films, but it seemed solidly middle-class inside Target. Lots of tanned, thin, blonde women shoppers. Flint?

We arrived at the Makinac Bridge around 5:30. It takes a lot to terrify me, but driving on this bridge in high winds, with the T@B, and construction forcing me onto a steel deck was enough to do it. I looked out over the water to stay calm and was fascinated by the rich blue and turquoise color of Lake Michigan. I was expecting dark grey and blue like Lake Champlain, not a Caribbean palette. With colors like this, why are there so few people around St. Ignace?

We checked into the campsite at 5:45 and I knew that if we were going to get to Mackinac Island that we would have to do it that night. The staffer told us that the next ferry was at 6:30 and if we wanted to catch the shuttle we would have to be back at the office at 6:00. I made a decision to give it a try, since the ferry after that wasn’t until 7:30 and it had been a long day. We drove to the campsite, plugged in the T@B, grabbed my camera, sweatshirts and pocketbook and made it back in time for the shuttle. The kids were asking a lot of questions, where are we going, what’s the rush, why do we have to do this? I should have explained our plans ahead of time, but they were caught up in the DVDs that we got at the Blockbuster in Flint, 4 for $20 and they didn’t say a word to me the whole day.

The ferry moves fast. We were at the island in 15 minutes. The Harbor was lit up by the setting sun and the white church and buildings were gleaming. We had a great dinner with fast service at Goodfellows and made it back for the 8 PM ferry. Mackinac Island will not suffer from rising gasoline prices, since no cars or trucks are allowed on the island. The bicycles and horses are not an anachronism as I see it, but the way of the future. Now, just how to deal with the smell of horse piss everywhere?