Mackinaw City & Mackinaw Island

8/29/2007
This is the Mackinaw Bridge that scared me when I had to pass those trucks on such narrow lanes. The bridge is 5 miles long so you can't see all of it in this picture. These are the main spans the rest is more like a cos way but still narrow lanes. The bridge is celebrating it's 50th birthday this year. It was opened in 1957. So far it hasn't collapsed. :-) We are camped at the Mackinaw Mill Creek Campground. It's about 3 miles down route 23 from Mackinaw City. It has 600 camp sites and is full for the Labor day Weekend, so tomorrow we must move on. You should see the RVs poring into the campground. They have a man out on route 23 making the incoming RVs pull of the road on the right to keep from blocking the highway. The RVs are backed up a block waiting to get in and register.

The Mackinaw Bridge, remember to click on it, it is much more impressive in full screen.

8/30/2007
We took the ferry to Mackinaw Island today. The campground has a free shuttle to and from the boat dock. They pick you up with an old school bus that has a small trailer on the back to load your bikes on. The ferry cost $18.00 a person round trip and $7.00 for the bike.


This is the first view of Mackinaw Island as you approach it from the Mackinaw City side. There also are boats coming in from the north side of the bridge. They are coming from St Ignace on the north shore. The picture is of course the Grand Hotel. If you remember the movie with Christopher Reeves, "Lost in Time" this is where it was filmed.

A light house at the entrance to the Mackinaw Island Harbor.

This is a view of part of the harbor with people waiting for their boat. There are about four ship lines that bring people to the island. Ships are coming in and out continuously. Our ship runs ever half hour. The trip across takes 20 minutes on a fast boat.

A view of the shore line coming into Mackinaw Island.

A view of the bike trail which goes all around the island. There are no motorized vehicles allowed on the island. The trail around the island is 7.1 miles. There are more bikes per square mile on it than in China.

Arch Rock it is about two miles from town on the bike trail.

This is a black squirrel. We saw quite a few on the island. We also saw grey and red squirrels on the island. This fellow was scrounging in the picnic area.

This was one of the picnic areas on the trail. This one was about half way around the island and had rest rooms and a small restaurant with sky high prices. Peggy bought potato chips. They didn't have any of the regular kind, they only had homemade potato chips. She got a small paper sack full for $2.00. I'm calling it a trail but it was actually a two lane blacktop road. Since they have no motorized vehicles on the island they use horses to transport the heavy items. They also have carriage rentals. There is a man who goes around with a wheel barrow and shovel, cleaning up after the horses. I don't know which smells worse, exhaust from cars or horse s--t.

I got this picture on the return trip. This type of boat produces a picturesque rooster tail. Peggy has her bike helmet on to hide her hair which after wearing the helmet all day her hair doesn't look like she just came from the beauty parlor. Woman are are such vain creatures, glad men are not that way. :-) Just kidding ladies. To be truthful I had mine on too, but I was just keeping my head warm. :-)

Sault Sainte Marie

8/27/2007
We left Marquette and drove east along Lake Superior on route 28. What a great drive. It is right on the shoreline and mostly a two lane blacktop road with very little traffic.

This was the view at one of the pull offs along the road. The Canadian Geese were grazing along the shore. Hundreds off ducks were a little further to the left and the sea gulls were going crazy near the motorhome because someone had thrown out a couple of slices of bread. I took a picture of the gulls but all I got was a blur of feathers.

This was our campground in Sault Sainte Marie. It was right along the St. Mary River which is the entrance to the Soo Locks. It was a nice campground but didn't have sewer connections. It did have a dump station.

Here is a picture of a boat going by the campground on it's way to the Locks.

This ship is just getting ready to enter one of the Locks. They have a viewing platform which is raised about 20 feet above the locks so you get a good view. The platform is right on main street and there is a visitor center there with information about the boats coming to the lock. It tells the name of the boat and the expected arrival time. It also has a TV monitor which shows the boats down stream coming to the lock. They also show four movies about the locks.

Here is one of the boats just entering a lock. There are four locks on the American side and two older locks on the Canadian side. Notice you can just barely see the top of the middle part of the boat and since my camera doesn't have a very wide angle lens you can't see the back part of the boat.

This pleasure boat has just entered the lock on it's way down stream and is tying up.

This is the same boat after they have lowered it to the level of the down stream river.

Now it is on it's way out after having been lowered 21 feet.

Here is the ore boat going out after being raised 21 feet. Note that now you can see the side of the boat. This boat was only about 700 feet long. The large boats are as much as 1000 feet long.

This is a view of the bridge to Canada from the observation platform. We only spent one night in Sault Sainte Marie. The next day we headed for Mackinaw City, Mackinaw Island and Mackinaw Bridge. I guess I'm just a cheapskate because I hate paying tolls. I think with all the gas taxes we pay the roads should be free. I always avoid toll roads when I can. However, I couldn't avoid the toll on the Mackinaw Bridge and it was $8.00. The bridge is 5 miles long. Sometimes the wind gets up to the point where they have to stop traffic from going across. The speed limit on the bridge is 45 miles/hour for cars and 20 miles/hour for loaded trucks. The passing lane on the bridge is a steel mesh and it throws you back-and-fourth. Naturally when we crossed there were two trucks in front of us. They must keep in the right lane and of course at 45 miles/hour I had to pass them. The lanes are barely wide enough and I was a nervous wreck passing two of them. I sure was glad to get off that bridge.

Houghton, MI.

8/22-27/2007
We spent Wednesday night at the Wall-mart in Houghton. Then Thursday morning we went to the Houghton City RV Park. It was one of the nicest RV parks we have camped in.

Here is a picture of our site in the park. Notice the blacktop parking and the view of the channel. It had full hookups and was only $23.00 a night.

This is the covered picnic tables and the bench to sit and watch the boats on the channel and the view across the channel. We have never had a campsite with covered a picnic table.

This is the west entrance to the channel it's about 10 miles west of Houghton.

View of the drawbridge across the channel to Hancock and the northern part of the Keweenaw Peninsula. Friday we took an 8 mile bike ride on the bike trail that runs along the channel. It is also a great trail, blacktopped and fairly level for the 4 miles out that we went. The trail then goes 3 more miles but is packed gravel, so we didn't take it.

This is one of the boardwalks along the bike trail. It's on the Nara River.

These were along the boardwalk. I don't know what they are called but they certainly added color to the area.

Another view along the walk way.

This is a view across the channel of the Hancock side and the ski lifts.

This is also a view across the channel of the abandon copper smelter. The mine was at the top of the hill. We left Houghton Monday and spent the night in the Marquette Wal-mart parking lot.