A Blog To Remember: The Road To 50/5
And now, on to Mackinac! Not just the island, but Mackinaw City, the famous bridge I heard about from my HS math teacher Mr. Maurice McNeely in the same year the bridge opened—1957, and across the bridge to St. Ignace, MI and beautiful views of Lake Huron. Mackinaw City had this wonderful 4th-generation bakery with the finest doughnuts I’ve ever tasted—and I’ve tasted many! Not even a hint of a grease smell! We kept wanting to go back, even 100s of miles and 3 states away!
We went to the island the next day, didn’t spend a long time there, rainy and chilly. But, visiting and touring causes one to understand more history and realize why it is such a tourist attraction. A worthy visit—after all, the French came there, the English, the Native Americans and finally us Americans. Heck, we thought, why not us, too?! Mackinac Island has a wondrous history. (And 500 people, permanent citizens, as well as 500 horses. Zero cars. One doctor for the 500 people, 3 Veterinarians for the horses.)
The trip continues: Saturday, Sept. 21st.
Leaving St Ignace, we travelled a long, long way across the U.P., that’s the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, much like a separate state entirely, but somehow they have thought better of it. Quite interesting and quite beautiful. The views of the lake, the stunningly gorgeous and unique sandy beaches, all endearingly enjoyable to see!
We truly enjoyed being in and again finding a unique restaurant (busy at late lunch time, yet courteous, friendly and serving great food), in the city of Escanaba. The city is not very large, but more than normal shopping areas and heavily trafficked by industry. Turns out upon a short study, it’s only 12,000 people, but they provide and serve about 33,000 in the surrounding county area. Well done.
Our stay was once again on the grounds of another vineyard; just beautiful. A wedding was just finishing when we arrived and what a sight! The wine store we checked in with was very busy, and the personable young lady attending (Ruth) said, “Oh just pick out a place to park anywhere you like!” I liked that—we parked so no one would hear our generator.
Talking with Ruth later I found out she was raised by missionaries in Africa, has been back in the states 11 years and is married to a young preacher. she knew a lot about grace and eternal security having come out of IFBC, and into the simple gospel of Christ. Hopeful for another future and longer connection.
Sunday, the 22nd, we took a leisurely morning, then drove very long (with a nap about half way) across the UP seeing many surprises. I expected to see forests, but it seems it is crop-farmed, and as we were told, another beautiful drive, into and out of and into and out of and into and out of Wisconsin (Most of the time we didn’t know if we were in Michigan or Wisconsin) till we reached the city of Superior, WI, another of the surprising cities filled with industry and no doubt a support to Duluth, Minnesota, just across the St. Louis Bay bridge.
We stayed on the WI side of the bridge (a bridge actually on I-35, for all our Texas friends!.) Then the next morning, there we were eating breakfast in Duluth, MN, with a gorgeous view of Lake Superior! Now, Barb and I have visited all five Great Lakes! Having read recently about the superiority of Lake Superior, its beauty and size was breath-taking. (Added bonus to the trip.)
But, the formidable few days left take us to the Dakotas, Nebraska and Iowa before heading home—off we go. So we’ve now driven from Duluth, Mn to Brainerd, MN to see Paul Bunyon’s giant Babe, the Blue Ox: it wasn’t there. No, it wasn’t stolen. The huge replica of the legendary story was put into a theme park outside of town and we would not pay their entry fee—we don’t play on kids toys very well anymore, ahem!
Brainerd, however was quite nice, very pretty and complete as a regional shopping center should be, built to provide for many more than the actual population. Then, on to Fargo, ND for the night. On arising, we decided to not venture further into ND, but to take a Southern route through ND to get to Sioux Falls, SD. We did see a lot of N. Dak. on the way. Again, somewhat surprised by the enormous crop fields, yet we saw some other loooong views at lookout stops, capturing the enormity of this land!
Sioux Falls, SD is a lovely town. It’s metro area encompasses more than 30% of the state’s whole population. We really enjoyed the actual “falls” of Sioux Falls. A downtowner’s dream for a tourist draw. Many people exploring the falls and the really odd but beautiful rock formations.
Well, maybe one more session of this story to get us back home, thanks for reading, the Elder.
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