Rainy Days and Mondays.....(June 18)

Okay, so we woke up to thunder, rain and humidity but that's okay. My personal weatherman decided we could avoid the unfavorable weather by heading to Mackinaw City first thing this morning. So, I packed us some sandwiches, loaded up the pups (they could've NEVER lasted in the camper with a storm) and we headed for Mackinaw and the bridge. It only rained on us a bit before we got out of it, and rode in mostly overcast but niiiice weather and made our way to Grayling. I remember a lot of the names of the places around here because of snowmobiling...something I haven't done in years and years and something my better half has NEVER done. Snowmobiling in the winter up here is pretty much the norm as noted by the signs on the side of the roads that say they ARE allowed on the shoulders most anywhere. Roscommon sounded familiar to me, as well as Hougton Lake (I think my BIL's grandmother used to have a cabin there maybe?), and we rode around Hartwick Pines State Park, a place that holds lots of childhood family camping memories for me. Not much there looked very familiar to me though, something my sister had already warned me not to be too disappointed about (thanks, Lyn!) so I was prepared for that. I guess it HAS been 35 years or so since I'd been there! DUH. We rode past Gaylord, saw signs for Cheboygan, and went past lake after lake after lake. Seems like every other road we passed was some kind of  lake road! Then we saw the bridge. It's really kind of funny because Steve was asking what was special about the Mackinaw Bridge. I felt kind of silly because I really couldn't remember anything really noteworthy about it other than it WAS "the bridge" when I was a kid. The only bridge, really. It's where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet as well. When people said they were heading to the bridge, that was it. In SC we have the bridge in Charleston. The Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge. Woo Hoo. It's a beautiful bridge, but I much preferred it's predecessor the Cooper River Bridge. Now THAT was a bridge. Scary looking, old and rusted, and a bit nerve wracking to cross. The Mackinaw Bridge is huge, although not quite as huge as I remember! Steve found out that it is the longest suspension span on a bridge in the U.S.. Even longer than the Golden Gate Bridge. There. Now you know what makes it special. There was some construction going on there and it cost us eight bucks to cross ($4.00 each way). We stopped in a lakeside park in St. Ignace and took the dogs for a walk. Enjoyed the view of the bridge from the Upper Peninsula, and then crossed back. I remember camping in Mackinaw City, right on the water and being able to see the Bridge lit up at night. Couldn't find a campground there anymore (also prewarned by my sister), but just being in the City brought back some fond memories. Saw Fort Mackinac near the Bridge on our way back across. That city holds lots of history, most of which my sister taught me as a kid. (SHE was the history buff in the family). After wandering around the town a bit, we headed back to Harrison but decided to make it via Petoskey. Made for a longer trip than we'd planned but decided it was a nice day for a ride. Ha! Petoskey sits on Little Traverse Bay on the Western part of the state. I don't remember much about having been there before other than they have a really neat stone called the Petoskey stone (?) that's  unique to that area. We stopped in an overlook park there and took pictures on the Bay. A beautiful place but we seemed to hit in 5:00 traffic. Made me miss our Newberry "traffic". I dropped Steve off at the door of the Odawa Casino with his walker and a roll of quarters (OOOOOh, he sounds dangerous, huh?). He only stayed 30 minutes and was ticked because machines couldn't take his coins, only paper money! Had fun and can say he was there though! The ride back to the camper was uneventful but pretty. We noticed lots more pine trees up that way, and there seemed to be a lot of trees broken off (maybe from heavy snow in the winter? That's our guess anyhow.) Didn't get back to the camper until around 8 or so and were whipped. Nice, nice day all-in-all but ready for a bit less travel tomorrow.