Tee Pee – Mackinaw City

On Friday September 9, we left Marquette at 10am with 93,951.5 miles on Acey, 106,006 miles on Thor and 2169 miles on our bicycles. By noon, we were driving along the shore of Lake Michigan.

Before long, we came to the Mackinac Bridge – a nice day to cross over!

Come over the bridge with us!

The water was very calm on Lake Michigan.

A freighter was heading under the bridge.

argh! The screen in the window…

There’s Mackinaw City on the other side!

It took over 3 years to build this engineering marvel which opened on November 1, 1957. The bridge is 54 feet wide and at mid-span, it is about 200 feet above the water. Currently the fifth longest suspension bridge in the world, it spans a total length of 26,372 feet, with 8,624 feet of that held up by suspension. Heavy winds can cause the bridge to sway up to 35 feet east or west. (yikes!)

We arrived at Tee Pee Campground in Mackinaw City about 1pm, got set up and had lunch. We had a lazy afternoon and after dinner, we went to go see the Jack Pine Lumberjack Show. This is our third visit to Mackinaw City, and we had not gone yet. The stage was set, and we weren’t sure what to expect!

We find out this a competition between 2 lumberjacks! The host divided the crowd in half to cheer for “their” lumberjack. The first job is to chop through a log with an axe while standing on top of it!

Next was an axe throwing contest!

A sawing contest…

The next contest involved placing a springboard into the side of a tree to use as a platform, stand on it and chop through the tree!

The speed climb event was FAST! Our guy Dalton was like a squirrel climbing the pole.

Then came the boom run; run over the logs, back forth till one of the guys falls in…

Eventually. this guy fell in!

Next was the log roll where the guys spin a floating log with their feet and try to make their opponent fall in! Dalton lost this one…

It was an entertaining show seeing these guys show their skills! After the show, we returned to the campground and walked down to the beach. There is the Mighty Mac all lit up!

And there were fireworks, put on by Mackinaw City!

We packed a lot into one day!

We looked at the weather forecast – we had planned to go to Mackinac Island on Monday, but there was now rain in the forecast, so we decided to go in the morning. Saturday turned out to be a perfect day to go, but a couple of activities also were planned for the day that we didn’t know about! Shepler’s Ferry had a shuttle bus that picked us up at the campground. We loaded our bikes and headed out. There were a LOT of folks in line to go to the Island, but we were able to get on the ferry and not have to wait for the next one. We found seats inside on the lower level, so it we could not get photos like we did last time. The morning ferries pass under the bridge on the way to the island, right by one of the huge concrete piers where the suspension cables are anchored. As we got closer to the bridge, we could see antique tractors crossing the bridge! Hundreds of tractors are involved in this parade that first happened in 2008. Look here to see a video about the Mackinac Bridge Antique Tractor Crossing 2022.

Today was also the 51st anniversary of the Mackinac 8 Mile Road Race there were about 2,000 runners and walkers registered! The race started at 9am and the first runner finished in 44:54 – we passed many runners and walkers as we rode our bicycles around the island. We had just passed the finish line, so these runners are nearly done!

It certainly was a great day to visit Mackinac Island!

We finished our circle of the island and stopped to have lunch at the Great Turtle Brewery.

 The island got is name by shortening Michilimackinac, a Native American word that represents “the Great Turtle.”  The island is somewhat turtle shaped and is high in the middle.

It was just past noon when we finished lunch, so we went for a second ride around the island. It’s such a quaint and fun place to visit! Automobiles are not allowed on the island, so transportation is on foot, bicycle or by horse! We did however see an ambulance today which may be the only motorized vehicle – well probably fire trucks and snowplows too.

This horse was fun to watch – it kept moving its head up and down – maybe it wanted to get moving?!

One of the several movies filmed on Mackinac Island was Somewhere in Time with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour.

One of the famous scenes was filmed at this location.

After our second lap around the island, we walked along the main street and looked in on the shops – lots of fudge being made on the island! There were pretty flowers in front of the shops

We rode 16 1/2 miles around the island.

Soon it was time to go back on the ferry.

It was a windy and scenic ride back to Mackinaw City.

The Grand Hotel looks quite grand indeed!

When we got back to the campground, we walked down to the beach and saw two freighters out on Lake Huron. We will see many more when we move on to St. Clair on Wednesday.

Sunday was September 11 – a day to remember the terrible attacks and all the lives lost. 

We worshipped with our home church in Nashville, Stephens Valley Church, watching the service from September 4. (bulletin) We had a guest preacher, Dr. Bryan Chapell who preached on The Power of Mercy. He said that many Muslims are coming to believe in Christ; that, almost universally, they are having a dream of a man in white robes – Jesus is calling them! What an amazing mercy of our God! In the last 15 years, more Muslims have come to Christ than in the past 15 centuries! WOW!

We Zoomed with our Sunday School class, continuing our study of the book of Acts.

We had lunch and had a relaxing afternoon and later visited the Bière de Mac Brew Works. Their taps were set up to resemble the shape of the Mackinac Bridge.

We shared a flight to sample some of their craft brews. The flight was set up on a board also shaped like the big bridge!

We got back to Acey and made dinner.

Monday was a rainy day, so we decided it was a good time to drive over to Charlevoix to get our mail and Amazon packages. We had a few things sent to Nancy and had hoped to spend some time with her, but she is battling pneumonia. When she stopped on Wednesday to see us in Marquette on her way back from a road trip, she had been having a cough for some time; after a doctor visit, it was determined she had pneumonia.  We had a too short visit and headed back to Mackinaw City, stopping in Petoskey at Aldi.

Tuesday morning Linda finished and posted Duluth/Saxon blog and wanted to see the Icebreaker Mackinaw, but found it was not open today, so we went for a walk around Mackinaw City. Shops lined both sides of the main street, we walked and window shopped.

This little statue looked like it may be a fountain, but no water was running thru it.

We spotted a poster about the Antique Tractor Bridge Crossing – a 3-day event apparently!

Retuning to Tee Pee, we need to get ready for our move tomorrow!

Another look at the bridge…

and we could see the island too! The Grand Hotel stands out in the center.

After dinner, we walked back to the beach and said goodbye to the Mighty Mack!

We head to St Clair in the morning

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