Mackinac Island - Michigan

Sunday July 19

You may be thinking as you follow this that I missed the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn or that back in North Dakota I missed Mt. Rushmore.  It wasn't an oversight. I've seen those places and am getting too old and running out of time to repeat stuff. This trip is  about new experiences.  Every day there is something new so that I feel like I'm not taking the trip but the trip is taking me.

Drove into Mackinaw City where a ferry goes across to Mackinac Island. I'll do that tomorrow, but for now looked around in this awful little town for lunch. It's main purpose seemed to be to separate tourists from their money. There was nothing on the main street but t-shirt and gift shops, snack bars, and ice cream and fudge shops.

 Back at Mill Creek Campground made friends with my neighbors, four young women from Indiana. Rebecca, Shelly and Kathy are nurses and Kim is in IT. We sat around their campfire and had some laughs and gabbed away about travel and more serious discussion of the Supreme Court decision just the other day to allow same sex marriage. I was happy for these two obviously committed couples to finally be able to have the same rights the rest of us enjoy. If you are lucky enough in this life to find someone who loves you, it shouldn't matter what their plumbing is.

On the ferry going over to Mackinac Island the next morning the retired couple on the right were anxious to tell me about their trip around the US.

  They are from Florida and are mostly car camping in their SUV "with a little tent for good weather". It has restored my faith in Seniors to know that some of us are still young at heart enough to not need a motel every night to enjoy travel.

Not many people upon first arriving at 9 a.m. but that soon changed.

Thee are no cars allowed so plenty of bicycles and horse drawn carriages.




One of the women on the ferry told me she and her husband were here 15 years ago and he would never come back because there was nothing but horse crap and bicycles everywhere. She was here alone now and said it is much cleaner. Before they never picked up after the horses. Hard to imagine.

The island  only covers 8 square miles so not a long bike ride around.

I decided not to rent a bicycle because I knew I would be stopping every minute to photograph something and had also heard there are a lot of hills outside of town where you end up walking the bike anyway.

So took a carriage ride instead.

 There are no autos here so 500 horses are used for the heavy work.
They use Bays and Percherons instead of Clydesdales which aren't as strong. They just look prettier hauling that Coors beer wagon.

Ended up at the very Victorian Grand Hotel which sits perched up on a hill like the queen she is.
Built in 1887  when Mackinac Island was the hub of shipping on the Great Lakes, it has hosted many famous people as guests.

I was willing to pay the $10 non-guest fee to enter the lobby but somehow was overlooked as I wandered in with a group of French tourists.

The front porch at 660 feet is the longest of any hotel in the world and looked like the perfect place to set aspell and visit.

The woman next to me was from Alabama and traveling with her granddaughter.  When I told her my story she said a woman from her hometown did a similar trip and wrote a book about it called Revisiting America.  She was just featured on Good Morning America. Can't wait to get to a bookstore to check it out.

The swimming pool at the Grand was built especially for Esther Williams for the 1949 movie This Time for Keeps with Jimmy Durante which was filmed on the island.

Big sailboat race this week so the harbour was crowded as were the bars with the sailing crowd.

Is that you, Fran?!

Many wealthy industrialists like John Jacob Astor built summer cottages here. Astor was the one who tried to buy his way onto a lifeboat as the Titanic was going down, at least according to the movie version.

Every house in town was picture pretty with flowers all around. Many had been converted to B & Bs. If you can't find a place to stay on Mackinac Island it isn't the island's fault.

Even the post office is charming altho it doesn't deliver mail.

It's motto is:
Rain or sleet or snow or hail,
come and get your own darn mail!

All that moseying around made me hungry so stopped at a snack place on the beach for a Walking Taco. This is now my favorite food, and so simple.  Take a small bag of Fritos, dump in some chile and pour melted cheese on top. All you need is a spoon.  I will load up on Fritos, chili and Cheez Whiz at the first opportunity.

There are 12 fudge shops in town. If you had a sample at each one you would end up with a pound of fudge. I was afraid to try it.

Love the tights!

All of those tourist shops on shore at Mackinaw City are here, too. But catering to tourists here seems to have a more genuine feel. It's history gives it a life apart from a tourist destination.

The next morning before leaving I chatted with neighbors Darcy and Dan and their dog, Daisy Mae. They are from Texas and have the unfortunate Kennedy assassination as part of their family history.
Dan's uncle was the policeman who was shot and killed by Oswald before he killed Kennedy. Last year they had done the entire East coast and gave me lots of good ideas.