Mackinaw or Mackinac - Which is it???

Toronto is a city of 2.5 million people and I actually believe a majority of them were on the freeways the day we drove through. It took us a 2 full hours to get through it all. We drove at a snail’s pace, bumper to bumper from one end of town to the other. Now, I’ve been in traffic before and I’ve even been in bumper to bumper, not-going-anywhere-anytime-soon traffic, but this was hair raising since we were trying to navigate roads unknown but also pulling the 5th wheel. And if that wasn’t the worst of it, it was the fact that it wasn’t even rush hour traffic!! My advise if you ever decide to go to Toronto?? Fly!!!



A beautiful day in Spanish, Ontario, Canada

 We weren’t in Canada for any length of time since we were mostly using the route as a short cut to see our grand daughter who lives in the upper part of Michigan. We spent a couple of nights in a small town by the name of Spanish which is just above Lake Huron. It was raining and a little cold for my blood but it was a beautiful and peaceful area which was a much needed change after the drive through Toronto. I checked us in to a local campground where I ran back to Brian, “I’ve never heard anyone say, eh? at the end of each sentence as much as the lady who checked us in! You‘ve GOT to go talk to her while we‘re here!” Sure enough, over the course of the next few days, he got his chance. And the funniest thing was the fact every time she put, eh? at the end of her sentence, I felt I had to respond with some sort of answer which made the conversation twice as long.

One thing we noticed about this part of Canada is that towns aren’t very large. I guess I’ve been a city girl too long because I was in total shock when we walked into the local grocery store. I’m used to the mega stores and this one would have fit into the produce section of the grocery store I used when living in Phoenix. Brian was in the mood for chili so we were trying to find ingredients for his craving. Needless to say, we struck out in the little grocery store in Spanish. “There’s a bigger store down the road which should have the stuff you need.” So we headed down the road to the larger store. I’m not sure what they had in mind when they were thinking the “store down the road” was larger but we were out of luck in finding all the ingredients needed. Is it possible the residents of Spanish don’t eat chili, eh? Even though we thought it cold and chili weather, maybe the residents of Spanish didn’t see it the same as Brian in thinking it was chili weather. Regardless, we bought as many ingredients as needed, improvised with the ingredients we couldn’t locate and Brian had his chili that night which I paid for the next day… if you know what I mean, eh? ;o)

We left Spanish and re-entered the States at Sault Ste. Marie. It was much easier navigating the 5’er through the lanes at this point of entry than at the point of entry at Niagara Falls, Canada where we mistakenly drove through the area for semi trucks and was reprimanded by the Canadian border crossing guard. Ok, in our defense, it really didn’t look like the lanes for automobiles was wide enough to accommodate our truck and trailer and as we debated, we remembered a time we re-entered the U.S. from Mexico when a friend of ours tried to maneuver their motor home through the narrow lanes and large concrete barriers set in a zig-zag to deter anyone thinking about running the border. Needless to say, it was concrete barriers… one. Motor home: zero. But that was another trip, back to this one.

We crossed the Mackinac Bridge which connects the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan. At 5 miles long, it’s the 3rd longest suspension bridge in the world. The thing with the Mackinac Bridge is you can actually see the lake below through the grates in the bridge’s road. We were told if we were afraid of driving across the bridge ourselves, they actually have drivers that will drive your vehicle across the bridge for you. Every Labor Day, they close a couple of lanes to traffic and open them to walkers for the Mackinac Bridge Walk and wouldn’t you know it, we missed it by one day!

We got up early the next morning and caught the ferry to Mackinac Island. The island is somewhat famous for the movie, Somewhere in Time, which was filmed at the Grand Hotel, which by the way, charges $10 a person just to walk onto their porch. Apparently they decided to charge tourists who wanted to see where parts of the movie had been filmed and no, even though I’m sure the view was very nice, we didn’t pay. We did however, take a carriage ride which is a must if you’re ever on the island. Our tour guide, John, was hilarious! He was an “upper” (meaning from the upper peninsula of Michigan), and when he wasn’t working as a tour guide or tending to the horses, he was attending college to obtain his degree as a high school history teacher and was also recently engaged. He made the trip so interesting that any high schooler would be lucky to have him as their teacher. But the island is most famous for it’s ban on almost all motor vehicles since the late 1890’s with the exception of snowmobiles during the winter months, emergency vehicles and service vehicles. In fact, the afternoon we were on the island, we did not see any vehicles at all which was a nice break from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the world.

The day started out to be a beautiful one. The
ferry ride from Mackinaw City to Mackinac Island was smooth and uneventful. After our carriage ride, we ate lunch on the patio overlooking the lake, strolled through shops and of course, bought fudge at not one, but two of the 17 fudge shops on the island. Ok, not exactly sure the reason for so many fudge shops but apparently, Mackinac Island is also famous for their fudge.

The start of nasty weather!

And as we were enjoying our day, the weather took a turn for the worse and became rather nasty. I’m not talking a mild nasty, I’m talking an all-out, mean and nasty nasty. The clouds rolled in and the temperature dropped so much that Brian had to buy a jacket. It started raining and the wind picked up so much that the ferry ride back to the mainland was rather quite bumpy. I love roller coasters and airplane turbulence doesn’t bother me but this ride was a bit scary. All I could think about was how the boat was going to capsize and I was going to be thrown into the water along with every one else trying to swim back to shore. I was more than happy when we arrived back at the dock in Mackinaw City, safe and sound! But according to Brian, who’s an old “Swabby” the ride was a cake walk.

Oh... the question of Mackinaw or Mackinac. Mackinaw is spelled two different ways but pronounced only one way… Mackinaw. It’s Mackinaw City but it’s Mackinac Island. From what John, our carriage driver told us, the French came in long ago and used their version of the original pronunciation, thus, the spelling of Mackinac. This was about it for the Mackinaw area, our next stop was our visit to our grand daughter in Traverse City. See you there!