Mackinac Bridge

Before leaving the Lake Superior area, I just wanted to share a little trivia.  The average depth is 483' and the deepest point is 1,332'.  There are 2,726 miles of shoreline with a surface area of 31,700 square miles.  It is the largest lake by surface area in the world and contains 10% of the earth's fresh water.  The waves have been known to reach more than 30' high.  The surface area is roughly the size of South Carolina.  More than 200 rivers empty in to Lake Superior but there is only one outlet through the St Mary's River.  Lake Michigan is the 5th largest lake in the world and the only one of the five Great Lakes that is entirely in the U.S.

Now, on with our trip!  Saturday of Labor Day weekend finds us in St Ignace, MI, a small town on the north side of the Mackinac Bridge.  Boy, what poor planning!  The place was swarming with people. Every Labor Day, they close two of the four lanes on the bridge for the Mackinac Bridge Walk.  They were expecting an additional 30,000 - 50,000 people in town for the walk!  We decided to just see what we planned to see and move on.

The first stop was the Marquette Mission Park and Museum of Ojibwa Culture.  The museum was a little disappointing but had some great crafts made by the Ojibwa people and other Native Americans. The grave of Rev Father James Marquette who died in May 1675 was here also. (In 1673 Father Marquette and Louis Jolliet were the first Europeans to explore and map the northern portion of the Mississippi River.)

 The Museum of Ojibwa Culture

Grave of Father Marquette

From there we walked along the Lake Huron boardwalk.  

 Conrad - Lake Huron

View along the boardwalk

Another view along the boardwalk

I patiently waited for this guy to open his wings!

Downtown St Ignace

We ate lunch at Bessie's for an original homemade Pastie.  If you don't know what one is, it's a crust with a filling of beef or chicken, potatoes, carrots, onions and seasoning.  They are pretty popular in Northern Michigan.  I had the one with chicken.  It came with some gravy and slaw.  It was all homemade and really good.

Chicken Pastie (I had poked holes in it because it 

was too hot.)

Before crossing the bridge, we had one more stop in St Ignace - Castle Rock.  Rising almost 200' above lake level, Castle Rock was the ancient lookout of the Ojibway Indians.  Of course, there was a gift shop there too.  While there, we saw Paul Bunyan and Babe, his Blue Ox.

 Castle Rock

Paul Bunyan and Babe

When I was growing up, my dad was a bridge contractor and I think that's where I get my love of bridges.  I was 10 years old when our family went to Detroit, MI to pick up the exchange student who was going to live with us for a year.  Being in Michigan, my dad couldn't resist driving on north to see the Mackinac Bridge.  I don't remember a lot about it, but I do remember that it was impressive and it was SO long.  Before leaving the area, we spent some time in Mackinaw City, looking at the bridge.  I've always been interested in this bridge and it was fun to see it as an adult who understands a little more about building things.  It was a very hazy day but the bridge was still impressive!

 Crossing the bridge

Mackinac Bridge from Mackinaw City

Don't you love this bridge?  Lake Huron is on the

right and Lake Michigan on the left side of the bridge.

The Mackinac Bridge was built across the Straits of Mackinac to connect Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas.  It is the longest suspension bridge with two towers between anchorages in the Western Hemisphere and the fourth longest suspension bridge in the world.  The bridge is 5 miles long. The main bridge cables are made from 42,000 miles of wire and the towers stand 554' above the water and 210' below to the bedrock. A few other interesting facts about the bridge:

            ~ 89,000 blueprints and structural drawings were made
           ~ 71,300 tons of structural steel
           ~ 931,000 tons of concrete
           ~ 4,851,700 steel rivets
           ~ 1,016,600 steel bolts
           ~ 3,500 workers
           ~ 7,500 men & women that worked in quarries, shops & mills

Michilimackinac State Park is on the Mackinaw City side at the end of the bridge.  There were quite a few people (and dogs) wading around in the water.  The park is also home to the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse.

Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse

There was a free museum in the upstairs of a pizza place about the history of the Mackinac Bridge.  The museum has burned twice but there was still a lot to see.  I tried to take pictures of some of the newspaper articles so I can read them later.  I will definitely Google more about this when I get a chance!  After looking through the museum, we stopped at Murdick's Fudge for a piece of fudge.  It's supposed to be the best and I think they're right!  

 Inside the bridge museum

YUM!  Murdick's Fudge

Because of the crowds, we decided not to go to Mackinac Island.  We found out in St Ignace that almost all the hotels were full and those that weren't were charging outrageous prices. The same was true for Mackinaw City.  So....we were beginning to think we really were going to have to sleep in our car.  We found a motel at a reasonable rate in Gaylord, about an hour south of Mackinaw City.  We didn't have much choice so we headed that direction and decided we would back track to the north in the morning and get back on our planned route.  We had already lost 2 days with car trouble and needed to move on!

It's taken us just 2 days short of 3 weeks to get this far.  But, we're headed south so we're heading in the right direction!