Posts Tagged ‘st ignace’

Not ALL people are turds

Wednesday, 12th August 2009; 9:06 am - Location:

Not ALL people are turds. This morning I chatted with the leader of a trio of boys camped between me and the Afraidofthedark family. He didn’t comment on the previous night’s exchange (if he was there he was in his tent sleeping) but struck up a friendly conversation. He’s from Marquette and was there with his son and two nephews as a reward for helping him plant some trees. We talked about the scooter, my itinerary, etc.

No rain (or hint of it) last night, but a heavy dew this morning. This is why I put a rain cover over everything left out of the tent overnight (except the scoot). It was cold last night, to the point that I had to mummy-up in my sleeping bag, compared to a sleeping with the bag unzipped in Ludington. It’s largely the northern Lake, I’m sure. The forecast for today specifies two high temps: one inland (79-84) and another along the shore (75).

My ride for today is pretty simple. It maps out at just over 100 miles, 80 of that on US2. Really no way around that, ad in this part of the state there isn’t much point in building lots of back roads. There isn’t any place back there to go.

I’m doing laundry before I leave this morning. The rain gear is exempt, and I’m wearing my shorts and riding jacket. Everything else got dumped in the machine at a laundromat on State Street by the water.

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Mackinac Island

Tuesday, 11th August 2009; 10:13 pm - Location: ,

My site at Straits State Park is only a treeline and some marsh/shore from the Straits themselves. I have a view of the Bridge from it. Probably the only state park where proximity to an Interstate is a major attraction. 🙂

After a quick but thorough shower (my first since Saturday night), I grabbed a 4:30 ferry (Star line, first one I came to from the state park) for Mackinac Island. This only gave me few hours on the Island, for the same price as for a full day, but one takes what one has time for. On the ferry I realized that I’d left my keys in my scooter, but the folks at Star (contacted by phone from the dock) pulled them and held them for me.

The promised “partly cloudy” finally came through, and in fact it was mostly sunny from mid-afternoon onward.

Mackinac Island was mostly alright. Very touristy, but that’s the whole point of the place. I walked out to Arch Rock, which I overheard a guide say would probably be gone in another 40 years. Kinda like me.

I stopped at Fred’s Burger Joint for a quick meal, but the nitwit working the counter forgot my order. He took it, charged me for it, gave me a number to be called when it was ready, and… nothing. They weren’t even busy. I waited patiently at first. It was a chicken sandwich; maybe the meat started raw and they needed to cook it thoroughly? When about twice the reasonable amount of time had passed I asked if I could at least have my drink while I waited. “Sure… now what did you order?” He got it for me, mumbling halfheartedly that he was sorry. Not good enough. I didn’t clear my table. I was tempted to make an extra mess, but instead I just wrote FUCK U in ketchup on the wrapper for my sandwich, and left it for him. (They were getting ready to close by the time I left.) Because of this delay, the visitor center was closed when I got there, so I couldn’t get a map, so I couldn’t find and get to the Grand Hotel and back before the 8pm ferry left. Not entirely the nitwit’s fault, but he made it happen. Fortunately I had just enough time left to get a beer, so the last hour wasn’t a total loss.

I got back to St Ignace with plenty of time to get sunset and nighttime photos of the Bridge. I’m not really equipped for this kind of photography (the autofocus on my new Olympus sucks in these conditions) so don’t hold your breath, but I’ll add some when I get home. (The only photos appearing here “live” are from my iPhone, which couldn’t take a nighttime Bridge photo to save my life.)

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