St. Ignace - Aug 14, 2007 -

Aug 14, 2007 4693

We had a little excitement this morning. As we pulled away from the dump station I guess we did not have one of the pins in the tow bar securely fastened as it came loose. Luckily we noticed it immediately, pulled over and fixed it.

Then in the next mile, we hit construction, road paving. We only had to wait a few minutes before we were on our way again. We have a short run this morning. It is less than 60 miles to St. Ignace.

11:30 We are two days early here in St. Ignace. Out reserved site is supposed to be empty but at the moment is not. Check out time is 1:00 p.m. and it is only noon. So, I guess we will sit and wait until 1:00 and see what happens.

We sit until 1:30 and go back to the park office. They finally decide maybe the guy is not leaving after all and they assign us another spot. We are on the back row in the trees, close to a bathroom. It is not bad at all, we are in the shade and the RV should stay cooler during the day.

Well we are off to explore St. Ignace and get our bearing for the next few days. This is mainly a tourist town but I do find the Curves and a wonderful scrapbook store. They have lots of things that pertain to Michigan and especial Mackinac Island and the Upper Peninsula. I buy a few things and decide to come back after I check my supply in the RV.

If anyone has ever read any of Lillian Jackson Braun's books you know about pasties (rhymes with nasty). They are a meal in a pastry. The miners wives would make them in the morning wrap them in a warm cloth and this was the miner's lunch. It is a pastry filled with ground meat, diced potatoes, onions, carrots and whatever. In some cases turnips, or rutabagas. They are then baked. You can have them with gravy or catsup. This is strictly an item from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and this is what we decide to have for dinner.

We found a truck stop that offered them. Ours were about 8" long, 4" wide and about 3" thick. Good, filling and I took half of mine home.

We then drove down to the bridge lookout. The bridge is the Mackinac Bridge. This is the 50th birthday of the bridge and was the longest suspension span in the world when it was built in 1957. It is 8600' long nearly 2200' longer than the Golden Gate.

Prior to the bridge being built all traffic to the Upper Peninsula was by ferry or the long way around, through Wisconsin. As early as 1884 a bridge was suggested and in 1934 a route between Cheboygan to Bois Blanc Island, to Round Island, then Mackinac Island and then St. Ignace. Luckily for St. Ignace this route never was used and the island is still without motorized vehicles.

We then stop by the Father Marquette Memorial. Father Marquette was a missionary in the Great Lakes area from 1666-1675. In 1673 he and a French fur trades, Louis Jolliet explored and mapped the Mississippi River. Their expedition opened the middle of North American to the fur trade and the French influence.

The memorial is in the Straits State Park and unfortunately the museum burned during a forest fire in 2000. Many of the artifacts were lost but a new museum is in the planning stages.

We spent the better part of the evening with a couple from the UP and their yellow lab, Bailey. I had promised the dog biscuits so we went over to pay our debt. She remembered my promise too.