Day 2: Cadillac, MI, to Sault Ste. Marie, MI

July 8, 2007
215 day miles; 415 total trip miles

This morning we woke to a forecast of rain - strong thunderstorms and 60mph winds in the afternoon for the Upper Peninsula. We decided to go as far as possible and try to get across the Mackinac Bridge before bad weather set in. We left the motel shortly after 8:30, and about 20 minutes into our ride we encountered rain drops. We stopped to quickly don our rain gear. Last year my boots filled with water in a rainstorm, so I put plastic bags on my boots this time. Fortunately we had only light rain.

As we rode in the rain, I listened to A Prairie Home Companion on NPR – a delightful antidote for the gloomy weather. They had a really funny skit in which Hester Prynne got up in church and announced that the letter “A” she was wearing was really Rev. Dimmesdale’s college football letter from Amherst College, and that, yes, Dimmesdale was the father of her child. Rev. Dimmesdale got kicked out of his church and decided to go to Harvard and become an English major. Who writes these things?

The thunderstorms stayed ahead of us, so we were able to cross the bridge. Mackinac Bridge is 5 miles long and is 200 ft. above the water at its highest point. The view was not as spectacular as when I crossed two years ago, but it is still a wonderful sight and experience. We rode on to Sault Ste Marie (U.S. side) and got a motel for the night. The clerk recommended a nice local restaurant “two traffic lights” down from the motel. We decided to walk, but the distance was two country traffic lights – we walked 25 minutes. That gave us a good appetite, and also provided an opportunity to walk off our dinner. We each ordered whitefish cooked in tin foil with lemon and spices. Oh, Johann ordered a steak in addition to his whitefish dinner. I’m glad I don’t have to feed that guy!

Crisis of the Day: Just before getting on the Mackinac Bridge, we stopped at a rest area, and Johann laid his rain jacket on the back of Dale’s bike. Dale didn’t notice the jacket, and as we got on the 4-lane highway to start over the bridge, Johann’s jacket blew off Dale’s bike and landed in the middle of the road. Johann was behind us, saw the jacket blow away, and called us on the CB radio. We stopped, but there was no way to get off the highway and go back. Johann had to run back and dash into the middle of the road to retrieve his jacket. The picture shows Johann on his way back after picking up the jacket.

Highlight(s) of the Day: (1) Lunch at Java Joe’s Cafe . What a find! Next time you are in St. Ignace, check it out.
(2) The Comfort Inn receptionist told us we had a room with 2 beds and a pull-out couch. When we got into the room, there was no couch, but there was a Jacuzzi!! We called the front desk and said we appreciated the Jacuzzi, but that Johann wasn’t excited about sleeping in it. As it turned out, the receptionist had looked at the wrong room description. The Jacuzzi room was the only one left – so we got the Jacuzzi room at the regular room rate, got a cot for Johann and got a $10 discount to boot!!