Seems impossible that this was the Labor Day week and the "end" of summer. Like the rest of the year, the weather was a major player this week. After a windy Monday, Tuesday afternoon brought what looked like an approaching storm.
This thing looked pretty nasty as it rolled over the Straits.
It looked bad, blew a little, then pfft, nothing...and we enjoyed a sunset.
So another breezy day Wednesday, then a rerun of the storm event on Thursday. The clouds rolled in just like a day ago.
The skies blackened...
...and seemed to swallow the marina.
Then once again, pfft...it was gone and the sun appeared.
Finally, on Saturday the winds eased and we fired up the V-8's and headed north.
I was using a little handheld compass to troubleshoot what I thought was an issue with the compass mounted in the dash. While the in dash compass needs to be reconditioned, it does seem to be relatively accurate. What I've discovered is the iron I-bars used as the structure in the spring poles at the marina affect the compass so it reads about 30 degrees off in the slip.
We continued north across the Straits on the usual wake filled water.
The ferry boats keep it pretty stirred up in this area. We chugged along at a breakneck speed of about 8 mph.
In 30 minutes or so, we pulled into a slip at the St. Ignace marina.
This was my first docking with this boat unassisted by marina staff...NAILED IT! I got this.
This weekend was "Arts and Crafts at the Marina".
This was my favorite booth.
So after strolling through the booths and buying my LARGE Kettle Korn, we found our way back to Mackinaw City.
Sunday was an uneventful day. A little necessary shopping and loads of relaxing filled the day.
Monday is Mackinac Bridge Walk day.
We boarded Shepler's ferry for transit to St. Ignace at 5:30 am so we could walk the entire span and end in Mackinaw City. The bridge is closed to all traffic all morning so the walking choices are: start here in Mackinaw City and walk round trip (10 miles), walk to the middle and turn around (5 miles) or shuttle to St. Ignace and walk the span south (5 miles). We like to walk the whole span so picked the final option.
We were at the start point about 6:30 am and waited for the governor to give her pre-walk pep talk. Thank you governor for leaving the politics in Lansing.
After a little 2 minute speech we were off.
It had rained a little earlier so the bridge deck was wet when we started. Fortunately, we never got rained on.
We continued on toward center span with just a few friends. We later heard the attendance at the event was something north of 30,000 that walked the bridge this morning.
We passed under the north tower with the US flag hanging. They hang the flag on the three summer holidays.
The Great Lakes cruise ship "Pearl Mist" passes under the bridge with USCG escort on its way to Mackinac Island.
The sun even made an appearance. The view from center span is magnificent. This view looks east with, left to right, Mackinac, Round, and Bois Blanc (called Bob-lo locally) Islands in the distance.
Past the second tower, we are on the home stretch. By this point, we had met the northbound walkers out of Mackinaw City on the opposite lane.
About 1:45 later, we crossed the finish line and earned our certificate.
We have an end of season "potluck" at the marina tonight. Then will pack up, head home, and prepare for the next retirement event.
Can you say "cruise ship"?
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