Day 46 (Full Moon over Lake Huron)

Day 46
August 6, 2006
Cedar River, MI to Mackinaw City, MI (172 miles)

We broke camp and drove back down to Menominee where we had breakfast at Schloegel’s, a landmark restaurant on the shore of Green Bay. It was a wonderful experience to be among locals, most with gray hair, overhearing the warm greetings of small town Americans spoken with a decidedly U.P. accent. Great stuff.

After breakfast, we hurried to get good seats along the parade route for the annual parade that marks the culmination of the Waterfront Festival. We were joined by thousands of townsfolk who lined the main drag through town to watch an eclectic gathering of politicians, businesses, marching bands, philanthropic clubs and fire trucks take part in a parade that went on for more than two hours. The underlying theme of the whole thing was the distribution of candy by parade participants to children lining the streets. Emily and Elliot collected about seven pounds of candy that was tossed at their feet.

It seemed like half of the town’s 10,000 inhabitants were in the parade, and the other half were watching it. We saw, among other things, a joint forces military color guard with an Army soldier in dress uniform with white socks, a cement pump truck decked out with balloons, a garbage truck, a World War II vintage Army half-track, Tripoli Order miniature Volkswagen Beatles speeding around in complicated patterns with the pinpoint precision of the Blue Angels, and a flatbed truck stacked high with produce that employees of a grocery store were busily handing out to the crowd (we received an apple and a nectarine).

After two hours of endearing entertainment, we decided to leave for points north even though we feared we might miss something really notable.

Our drive along the coast of Green Bay and then Lake Michigan was quite beautiful, especially on Michigan’s North Shore. Except for occasional small towns, the route was heavily wooded on both sides of the road. Every once in a while we would get glimpses of the lake, which had some pretty impressive waves on it. We stopped at the northern-most point and walked out on the beach to have a look. The water was an aqua color, much cleaner than we remember Lakes Erie and Ontario looking. We put our hands in the water to test the temperature and found it surprisingly warm. As it turns out, local residents later told us that Lake Michigan is as warm as it's been in their lifetimes, and they blame it on this year's drought and very high temperatures.

The bridge from the Upper to the Lower Peninsula across the Straits of Mackinac was impressive, rivaling the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in height and length. Wind restrictions for vehicles towing trailers required us to drive at 20 MPH, giving us extra time to look around as we crossed.

Our destination, Mackinaw Mill Creek, ended up being an absolutely gigantic private campground with more than 800 campsites. We were given a site right on Lake Huron and after setting up we were treated to an almost full moon rising over the water.

Just as we went to bed, we experienced a sudden and strong downpour, giving us the impression that weather can change quickly on the tip of a peninsula surrounded by hundreds of miles of open lakes.