Wednesday July 27: Mackinaw City - Michigan!

 We left Thessalon early Monday morning - I really thought it was too early to be up but the weather looked promising for the 22 mile, 2 and 1/2 mile run to Drummond Island and the US customs check in.



It seemed to be better looking south than it did north but overall it looked like a great time to be making the final run across the North Channel!

Once we checked in at customs on Drummond Island, we continued an additional 10 miles to DeTour Village marina to spend the night.

The wind had picked up but because we were in and tied up by 1 pm it was a non-issue for us.

It was kind of neat watching the lake freighters go by headed either for Lake Superior, Lake Huron (and beyond) or Chicago.

We stayed just one night - DeTour is a very small town - couldn't even find a Chinese restaurant :-)

We left early again - initially we were going to the islands west of DeTour but then decided to just go straight to Mackinaw City instead. Glad we did as thunderstorm rolled through in the early evening on last night.

Passing by Mackinac Island, it was easy to spot the Grand Hotel (setting for the Christopher Reeves Movie "Somewhere in Time"). We stopped here 5 years ago but decided to bypass it this time.

The marina is THE rockiest anywhere! The ferries coming and going produces waves all day and into the night with no protection. Not this year! We continued on to Mackinaw City (strangely enough both Mackinaw and Mackinac are both pronounced the same with an 'awe' on the end).

The ferries were indeed crazy - running from both sides of the straits: Mackinaw City and St. Ignace on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

The ride from the island to our dock was the rockiest of the day!

This morning first on our list: breakfast out :-)  Check.


And second would have been a stop at the many fudge shops on the main drag - except Steve stopped me. He has a way of doing that :-)

Steve deciding were to go next.

We spent some time riding around and seeing what there was to see.

Steve is checking the map :-)

The small museum was on the upstairs floor of - believe it or not - a pizza place! It was all about the building of the bridge built in the late 50's over the Mackinac Straits.

Very well done both with the mechanics of how it was build and the stories of the ironmen who worked on the bridge. It's amazing the hardships they went through for $3.77 an hour - which they stated was a gold mine hourly wage at the time.

For info about the bridge, click here.

The Mackinac Bridge

There were a few strange things around town. The souvenir shop that was maybe an outdoor supply store?

And the Wienerlicious place.

We didn't try it.

There was actually some work done as well today.

A permanent fix to the screen where the raccoon ripped the screen and reinforcements for the new cover for the dinghy engine.

Plus Steve ground down the sides of a wrench so there was at least a chance of tightening a bolt whose placement was designed in a very poor way. Enough said.

Tomorrow we head 40 miles to Beaver Island in Lake Michigan!