Chapter 26...And North to Petosky... July 11-July 14, 2015

Saturday morning, your lazy Captain slept late...8:30 AM.  Then he began the ritual readying of the Beast.

This nominally includes:

Checking all 8 Tire Pressuess.
Now get this...Your master of preparation and owner of innumerable tools has 3 tire pressure gauges.  The best (and costliest one, the digital one,  died while on duty this morning.  No worries, mon, we'll just use one of the backups.  The backups widely disagreed with each other,  reminding your Captain of contemporary politicians debating the meaning of the word "is".  Dispirited, but unbroken, your sturdy Captain relied on other means and soon finished the tire checking task.  (Is it just me, or do you also believe that even the smallest ritual never goes smoothly??)

...moving on...

Satellite antennae down and locked?  Check.

Engine, generator and transmission fluids?  Check.

Puppies walked and on board?  Check.

Wife on board?  Check.

All four slides (room extensions) stored?  Check.

Drawers, Cabinets, & Refrigerator closed and locked in place?  Check.

Jeep connected to coach?  Check.

Jeep transmission set to neutral?  Check.

Auxiliary brakes connected PROPERLY and tested?  Check

Etc., etc.

By 11:00 AM we had the Beast in the wind and on the interstate eating up the northbound miles.  Here is the path we took...

What your Captain learned today:

1.) No matter how well trained and capable she is, Commodorables drive only when they want to.  Today mine didn't want to.

2.) Michigan is a really beautiful state.  They should sell (or give) Detroit and its denizens to a deserving third world nation, and thereby balance the Michigan budget, while simultaneously removing the United States from the list of high crime countries.

Reaching the southern edge of Petosky, we saw the shoreline of Lake Michigan...

While your Captain has seen Lake Michigan from the helm of yachts he has delivered from here to Florida, he has never seen it from the shore.  (It is smoother here on land)

As your Skipper was managing to make the Beast move toward our destination, the Commodorable busied herself with the tasks of ...

...Taking "selfies" while wearing her well-earned Spartan "graduation cap"...

...and managing our posse of Westies...

After about five hours we arrived at the famous Hearthside Grove...

Hearthside Grove entrance...where we were met and led to our space for the next five days...

Nice spot...

The boys christen the new spot in Petosky.

Tomorrow we shall explore and determine the difference between " Mackinaw" and "Mackinac", and no doubt, unravel additional timeless mysteries of this region.

Early the next day, Sunday, to be precise, Leslie took her shower only to find that our Aqua-Hot system had joined in the mounting mutiny of things and systems which are uniting to drive your normally sane Captain crazy.  

Needless to say, your dutiful Captain jumped right in and after mere hours had:

muttered hundreds of curses, 

skinned 10 knuckles, 

wrenched one back,

serious misgivings regarding the parentage of the brain dead designer of the needlessly complicated hot water heater.

Finally got the Aqua-Hot system making scalding (126 degree) hot water once again.  

(The repair is only temporary until we can get a Aqua-Hot specialist to give it a complete service, or burial service as needed). For this we will visit Goshen, Indiana this coming Sunday.

The next day, nothing having broken during the night, we jumped into the once again TRUSTY Jeep and headed north toward the Canadian border.  No, we didn't actually go all the way to Canada...just far enough to cross...

The Mackinac Bridge or as the locals call it, Mighty Mac 

Factoid: This is the longest suspension bridge in the Western Hemisphere.  Third longest in the world.

On the north side of the bridge is the Upper Penninsula of Michigan or UP as the locals call it.  We ventured northward until we saw a large blue ox and thought it best to turn back before the trip got weirder...

...large blue ox with bearded companion.  The rock formation in the background is called Castle Rock.

Going back across Mighty Mac, we entered Mackinaw City.  Immediately upon entering this fine village we encountered a gi-normous  HOT DOG...

...Ok , in the south we offer "foot long" hot dogs.  Here they are the size of our bus!!!  Maybe bigger, as I have absolutely no experience in estimating the length of snack foods.

Setting aside our misgivings about a place characterized by giant frankfurters, we ventured onto the passengers-only Sheppler's Ferry which took us over to Mackinac Island, where motorized vehicles are not permitted...

Mighty Mac as seen from our boat...

We took a "selfie" on the ride...

The world famous Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island...

Mackinac Island Lighthouse...

This Mackinac carriage was pristine...

You'll never see one of these in Florida.  Look Ma, no wheels...

Leslie meets a local...

You're kidding right?  This is our ride for the next two hours???

...the limestone rock arch...

The Commodorable with the arch...  In Virginia, we call ours the Natural Bridge...jes sayin...

Next we saw...

The old Governor's retreat...now a private residence.

A great view of the harbor from here...

Behind us is the island called Bois Blanc...that's French for "white wood".  Beyond that, I know nothin'.

Back to Mackinac...RV History was made here on this isolated island...

Here is an early model of what became the AIRSTREAM camper.  It would have been more successful, but the wheel had apparently not yet been invented...Timing is everything in the invention business

Next, we visited a little known portion of the strategic defense for northern Michigan, namely...

...Fort Tickets.  Your historian/Captain was unable to confirm this, but he believes the famous battle tactician, General Admission, was the commander of the fortress in the early years.  While no shots were ever fired in anger, rumor has it that several were fired while feeling peeved.

As evening fell, we ferried back to the mainland, sneaked past the giant hot dog and headed back to our camp at Petoskey.  BUT, not before making the obligatory purchase of homemade FUDGE.  

Factoid: Mackinac Island has a year round population of around 500 humans, 500 horses and some number of squirrels.  The primary industry there is the daily replenishing of the approximately one point six jillion FUDGE SHOPS....

...There are seven fudge shops in this picture.  There is no fire department here.  In case of an inferno, they just throw fudge until the fire is extinguished.

By now, those readers who do not hail from Michigan must have noticed that your dutiful narrator/Captain has spelled the city as Mackinaw, and the bridge and island as Mackinac.  A typo you say??  Nope that's the way they do it here.  Both are pronounced Mac-in-naw.  To pronounce it Mac-in-NAC is to invite the mirth of the locals who, noticing the mark of a tourist here  (bag of fudge) will ruthlessly call you a FUDGIE.  We were forewarned and thus pronounced the name correctly.  Moreover, we avoided the mark of the tourist (fudge bag) by cleverly placing our fudge purchase in a package clearly marked "XXX This Material Is Not Suitable For Viewing By Minors XXX".  

Our next foray into the wilds of Northern Michigan will take us into the village of Harbor Springs.

We hope that you'll scroll to the bottom of this page where, if you've not yet done so, you can fill in your email address and have all new entries here sent AUTTOMATICALLY to you.  This will insure that you miss nary an adventure and will be the first in your crowd to learn of each new Factoid as it is discovered (or occasionally, contrived) by your noble Captain.

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