Leslie and David's Wanderings: 10 Sept. 2018 Mackinac Island, MI

The ferry company, Shepler’s, provided a shuttle from the RV park to the dock. We bought our ferry tickets on line ($24 per person) and carriage rides ($26 per person). The ferry ride was smooth on the way out. We were on our third great lake, Lake Huron. We had a really nice view of the Mackinaw Bridge on the ride out. Once we landed on the island, we picked up our carriage ride for a two-hour tour of the island. All in all, the horse drawn carriage ride (No motor vehicles are allowed on the island) was underwhelming. The information the carriage drivers provided was the same information you could read off the signs on the street but glimpsed a few interesting sites. We stopped at the Grand Hotel, which was very grand but did not get off. 600 men built the hotel in the late 1890s in 93 days. But to go inside and walk around, would cost you $10. At the midpoint of the tour we had to change carriages and drivers from a two horse carriage to a three horse carriage. Best part of the second half of the ride was Arch Rock (see photo). The ride ended at Fort Mackinac. Built during the American Revolution when the British abandoned a fort at the present day Mackinaw City, and built the fort on Mackinac Island, a more defensible position from the American Rebels. But, to tour the fort would cost you $13 per person. Based on what we read on line, we bypassed the fort and walked back down into town. After the first half dozen Fudge shops, tee shirt shops and tourist trash shops, you have seen them all. We did buy two planks of wonderful Fudge at the oldest fudge shop on the island, Murdick. It will last us at least a month! We ate lunch at one of the pubs, which was actually fairly good. After that we walked around the town and admired the old buildings (most date back to the 1800s). Then we picked another pub for a refreshment while we waited for the next ferry back to St. Ignace. Seeing the horse drawn carriages (and associated “discharge”), the bikes, and all the pedestrians, it made you feel like you were on a main street of a 1890s town. The ferry ride back was also uneventful, but it had warmed up enough for us to sit on the open top deck. Overall, the weather was beautiful, the ferry rides relaxing and Mackinac Island is a tourist trap with some really beautiful period homes. But

Later we drove over to the Mackinac Bridge overlook, which also had a museum about the building of the bridge. David really enjoyed the descriptions of the bridge building techniques. Leslie was in love with the view. We returned to the campground and ran into our neighbors, Linda and Mike Oates, also new full time RVers (since October last year). Over the next two evenings, we exchanged experiences of full time RVing.