Our friends from Florida, Dan and Rhonda Baker have arrived in South Haven. We are traveling our first leg together as we leave South Haven and head into Northern Michigan’s Lower Peninsula.
Our first campground is the Mackinaw Mill Creek in Mackinaw City. We have a lovely site that sits on Lake Huron and shows us a beautiful view of the Mighty Mac. On Sunday we load our bicycles and head over to Mackinac Island for the day. The seven mile bike ride around the island allows us to get out of the bustle of Main Street and enjoy the beauty of the woods and the shoreline.
At the end of the day I find that my two visits to this island are enough for me. Ed visited when he was in his young adult years and I understand that it was quite different then. The shops were filled with authentic artisan wares and there were one or two fudge shops instead of 22 (or whatever the number). It was nice to visit a place where there is no noise of the automobile and only the clopping of horse hoofs but the overall experience was lacking.
The one thing that we saw, that left the biggest impression on me from our time on the island was watching the firefighters from the tiny island and some of their contemporaries from other stations. In the State Park on the island, there are 142 steps that climb to the top of a large hill. Firefighters dress in full gear and they traverse these steps to the top in honor of the First Responder lives that were lost on 9-11.
Observing this will stay in my memory much longer than the smell of fudge or the clop of horse hoofs.
