Mel & Trinity

I arrived in Michigan and back into the USA on 20 June. Because my passport wasn’t stamped at Miami Airport on the day that I arrived, I was directed to go and speak to an Border Patrol Officer when I arrived at the border crossing at Sault Ste Marie.

Isn’t it funny how you get nervous speaking to Border Patrol Officers even when you haven’t done anything wrong? Or maybe that’s just me.

I wasn’t sure what all they’d need so I took my bag in that has Trinity’s paperwork. I didn’t need them. The officer just wanted to know when and where I arrived into the country and when I would be leaving. She asked whether I’d used a self checkin machine at Miami Airport, which I did, hence no stamp. After about 3 minutes of talking I was good to go. Phew!

I was now heading for Tahquamenon Falls State Park, which Eric told me about at Harper’s Ferry. I drove along Lake Superior on W Lakeside Drive and stopped off at Point Iroquois Lighthouse before proceeding onto the falls on Highway M123 via a town called Paradise. I arrived into Paradise at around 2pm so I had lunch and called Jenny. I had invited Jenny to join me in Alaska and after seeing photos of the Kenai Fjords National Park she was sold! I had made no arrangements for Alaska, so we were now planning our week in Alaska together.

Tahquamenon Falls has a Lower and Upper Falls. I did the Lower Falls first. Here I met Jeannine and Scott from central Michigan at the viewing point. I thought Jeannine was with a group of people so I asked if she wanted me to take the photo so that she could be in it. She had already done the same thing. We shared a giggle over that and once she’d taken the photo we got chatting.

Jeannine asked me where I was staying that night and I said I didn’t know – I still needed to figure that out. They were staying at a Motel in Hubert called the Handshake Motel which is run by a friend of a friend. ‘They don’t advertise but they probably have an extra room’, she said. I instantly took to both her and Scott so I thought it would be fun to join them if the timings worked out.

For a while we went our separate ways exploring the Lower Falls and then moving onto the Upper Falls, which was a few miles west. The Upper Falls were definitely the more spectacular of the two. Due to the tannin in the water, the water is the colour of Coke Cola. The Upper Falls looked like a toffee apple. It was spectacular!

Below are some photos of the falls.

I met Scott again at the lower viewing deck of the Upper Falls and I decided I’d follow them to the Handshake Motel to see if they had a room. There was no mobile/cell signal in the park so I was just going to chance it.

The motel is located on a property that consists of three buildings. The motel rooms are on the right, the owners house on the left and a business property in the centre. They were having a garage sale, so there were chairs, lamps, bookshelves and other items outside the business building fronting the motel rooms. It was very amusing!

It turned out that only two of the rooms were available (we were the only guests) and the two rooms shared an adjoining bathroom. Between us we thought it was fine so we brought our things into the rooms.

Now, where do we eat? At this point Wendy, a neighbour and also a friend of Jeannine’s friend who recommended the motel, arrived in an off-road buggy car. Wendy is a real little live wire. When we mentioned that we wanted to eat she suggested Hubert Happy Hour – a pub in town. I think it may have been the only pub in town, given that the town has a population of 250 people.

Wendy seemed to know everyone in the bar and introduced us. We chatted, laughed, ate and drank before heading back to get some sleep.

The next morning, Jeannine and Scott had coffee ready at 7am and we sat talking and laughing in their room, while drinking coffee and eating the chocolate doughnuts that they had with them. We spoke about what we were going to do for the day and they advised me to take a boat tour at Pictured Rocks, as well as giving me some other tips of what to see while in Michigan.

Jeannine invited me to stay another night with them as it’s not a long ride from where we were staying to Mackinac Island, which is where I wanted to go the next day. So that became the plan.

It took around 25 minutes on the boat before we reached the Painted Rocks but they were worth the wait. They are absolutely fantastic! There are photos below of the Painted Rocks and some videos on my Facebook page.

I arrived in Michigan and back into the USA on 20 June. Because my passport wasn’t stamped at Miami Airport on the day that I arrived, I was directed to go and speak to an Border Patrol Officer when I arrived at the border crossing at Sault Ste Marie.

After the wonderful boat tour I headed east along the lakeshore and stopped at a couple of lookout points. The first looked just like a beach so I sat on the sand for a while before heading off to my next stop, which was a lookout point across the water from a high sand dune. It was spectacular and the best part was that I was there on my own. It was so calm and peaceful. There are photos of my stops below.

It was about 7.30pm when I left the lakeshore to head back to Hubert. When I passed a Pizza Hut I stopped and message Jeannine to see if they had eaten. They hadn’t. ‘Do you want me to grab some pizzas’, I asked her. Her and Scott were utterly bemused at how I was going to bring back the pizzas. ‘Bungee cords’, I replied.

We decided in the end to head back to Hubert Happy Hour. Wendy and her boyfriend joined us for dinner along with some of the townsfolk. It was very entertaining listening to their stories. My favourite being one of the guys smacking a bear on the butt so that it would go back up the tree. It was so far removed from my life that I couldn’t help but smile and listen.

Meet Scott and Jeannine and some of the townsfolk of Hubert, Michigan.

I had laughed so much with Scott and Jeannine that it was difficult to say goodbye the next morning. I was however excited to see Mackinac Island and the Sleeping Bear Dunes.

After a lengthy goodbye and a lot of hugs I hit the road. I had my GoPro on while crossing Mackinac Bridge, the 4th longest suspension bridge in the Western Hemisphere. The weather was perfect so I took the opportunity to walk around Mackinac City a bit before boarding the ferry to Mackinac Island, which is a state park and does not allow any motorised vehicles on it.

The island is very quirky and full of bicycles and horse drawn carts. This does means that it smells a little of horse manure but that’s mostly along the Main Street near the shops. Once you move away from there you don’t notice the smell.

I decided to explore the island on foot rather than by bicycle as I’m on my butt most days. It was great to stretch my legs and wander into different shops in the town and viewpoints along the shoreline. The island is stunning with its rock outcrops and crystal clear water. I thought of Tom and our day on the bicycles on Centre Island in Toronto as I was walking along the shoreline path, which was full of bicycles.

It was a beautiful day and a trip I would happily do again. Below are a few photos of my day on Mackinac Island.

That night I stayed just outside of Charlevoix.

The morning of the 24th June started with a stop at Torch Lake before heading onto Glen Arbor via Sutton Bay. I was getting very excited to see the dunes.

I stopped at a bakery in town for a coffee and bread pudding and asked the owner what I shouldn’t miss while I was there. He gave me some advice and then a lady in the store told me about a trail where she loves to take her dog for a walk. ‘It will be less touristy’, she said. Great, I’m heading there then.

The trail was called the Sleeping Bear Point Trailhead. I took my boots off and put my trainers on ready for a walk. After chatting to a family in the parking area about my trip, I hit the trail. I soon realised this was a sand trail and not a gravel trail. ‘Hmmm…not sure how long I’ll last on this’, I thought.

I decided to just head to the lakeshore and not walk the trail, which was a great decision. I walked up onto one of the dunes which had a great view over the lake and the local topography. I took a video on the sand dune which I posted on Facebook before walking down to the water.

I didn’t stay at the water long because there were a lot of black flies. They are a pest and also bite you, so I was well covered up. I was glad I made the trip though.

From there I went to the Dune Climb, which I thought was just the dune that I could see but turned out to be a much bigger walk. I did not have water with me so I only walked about 30 minutes of the climb before turning back. It is incredibly tiring walk of these sand dunes but so much fun.

After a call with Jenny I headed for the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive, which has various lookout points onto the dunes. The best by far, however, was the Dunes Scenic Overlook. I have never seen a sand dune like it. It’s 200m in height and drops down at nearly a 45 degree angle. It takes 5 minutes to go down and anything from 45 minutes to climb back up. I mean climb – you’re on all fours.

I was still contemplating where I wanted to go all the way down the dune when I reached about half way and there was a little boy sitting on the dune crying. It turns out his name was Adam and he was 8 years old. He had climbed down by himself and was struggling to get back up. Well, that made my decision a lot easier.

I sat with Adam for a while asking him questions so that he would stop crying and making sure he wasn’t hurt. I asked him who his favourite superhero was but he didn’t have one, so I started running through the list just to keep his mind off him being tired. We decided we’d be like Spiderman and climb back up the dune. It took us about 20 minutes but we got there, greeted by a bigger brother and very grateful and slightly tearful mother. She said he was very strong willed. I could see that. It’s exactly the type of thing I would have done as a child, so I could relate. I told her maybe one day he’ll be a great explorer. It made her smile and with that we parted ways.

Below are some photos and a video of the dunes.

After a bit of further exploring I was off to Manistee for the night.

When I woke up the next morning the weather wasn’t great. I was also tired so I decided to have an easy day. My guts been struggling with my ‘on the road diet’ and I was feeling it.

I rode to Muskegon where I would be catching the Lake Express Ferry to Milwaukee the next morning and looked for somewhere to stay. As I would be there all afternoon I wanted somewhere a little nicer so I picked the Shoreline Inn and Conference Centre which was on the harbour. I arrived there too early to check in so I had an amazing lunch at the Lake House Waterfront Grille before checking into the hotel.

While I was unpacking Trinity a guy came over and started speaking to me. His name is Lazareth and he has two Harley’s and a BMW. What a lovely guy. We spoke for a while and then I went into the hotel to have a shower. It was nice to actually put on some ‘normal clothes’.

As I was (and still am) behind on my blogs, I sat in the hotel bar writing my blog about New York State. This is were I met Pam – a kindergartener teacher who has a passion for rollercoasters. Pam has ridden 313 rollercoasters and aims to ride 600. I don’t like rollercoasters but that is fantastic!

We were talking and then Lazareth arrived and bought me another drink. It was a good night.

Meet Pam and Lazareth.

I left the hotel around 9am on the 24th June to catch my ferry at 10.15am. It was a 15 minute ride away but I wanted to get there in good time. The ferry cost €171 so I did not want to miss it!

It was a smaller ferry than I had images but it was very nice. As I was waiting to board the ferry I started chatting to a lovely Canadian guy who lived in South Africa for a while, as well as the Harley rider, who was parked next to me. Rich was a retired Civil Engineer who was with his wife from Texas. At the age of 65 she had just completed her 101st marathon. Wow! That’s 2,664 miles just of races. I was slightly in awe of this.

Shortly before we were about to start boarding another Harley pulled up. This is how I met Doug. Doug and I ended up riding together until we hit South Dakota but I’ll leave that story for the next blog.