Mike and Roxanne travel east

Mackinac Island Aug 16, 2007

Aug 16, 2007

We are headed to Mackinac Island today and do the tourist bit before we have meetings to attend tomorrow and Saturday.

We get our tickets for the ferry and in just a few minutes we are headed toward the island.

Mackinac Island is a step back in time. There are no motorized vehicles on the island except for emergency vehicles. There are two fire trucks, one police car and an ambulance. In the winter you are allowed to run snowmobiles because the horses are taken back to the mainland in October and it is difficult to ride a bicycle in the snow.

Bike rentals are everywhere. You can get one speed, three speed, 7-spend, mountain bikes, and children's bikes, bikes with kid buggies plus tandem bikes for adults and tandem bikes for an adult and a child. We even saw one for four people. Prices are by the hour and are charged by the quarter hour on return. You can also rent by the day or week. There are thousands of bikes on the island and they are everywhere.

The other mode of transportation is horse and carriage. Surrey's taxis, closed in carriages for the Grand Hotel, large carriages that hold 16-20 people and ones even larger than hold 40-50 people. Either one, two, or three horses pull them. There are over 600 horses on the island all watched over by two vets and lovingly cared for by their drivers.

The carriages are used for everything, deliveries, UPS, garbage, or luggage you name it.

We head for the Visitor Center and get our tickets for Fort Mackinac. This fort was built in 1780 and replaced the fort in Mackinaw City. This fort is built on a bluff and was thought to be better able to be protected. It has been restored to 1875 during the Revolutionary War. One of the original buildings from 1780 is still standing and the rest are from the 1800's.

There are tours led by a soldier, a court-martial reenactment, songs and dances of the time as well as self-guided tours of most of the buildings.

The court-martial was from an actual case from the files and dealt with a private, the tailor, who was charged with disobedience of orders. He was order to his quarters for his wounded hand to heal. Well it seems that to escape his very talkative wife he went out into the forest to cut wood. He knew this was wrong but thought is he could be arrested he would at least escape his wife's nagging for a short while.

It did work for a while but even though he was found guilty his punishment was once again being reminded to quarters and this time for an even longer period of time.

Another aspect of the island is the fudge shop. There are six different candy merchants and each has at least one shop in each block on each side of the street. All of them offer samples so you can eat your way down one side and back up the other before deciding on the one to buy. They all have at least 12 different types of fudge. Even though fudge was not invented here it has become a regional favorite. In 1887 Harry Murdick opened the first Candy Kitchen. Making the fudge on marble tables in full view of the customer and leaving the doors open with kitchen cooling fans spreading the smell to the outdoors turned this into a spectator sport on the island.

In the 40's Murdick sold his business to Harold May an all ready famous fudge maker. Soon other began to open other shops as the demand for the fudge grew. Harry Ryba was next and then Joann's Fudge and Kilwin's. The Murray Hotel fudge may have been one of the last to start but they have over 50 flavors and some of the best on the island.

People have begun to arrive for the meeting this weekend so we just visit for several hours until it is time to catch our ferry for the mainland.