AN & JFP – U.P. 2014 – Day #10

Friday did not quite follow John’s Plan A, although it started that way.  We made a good start (although on Central Time) and started running east.  Once past Escanaba we had occasional glimpses of Lake Michigan but continued sailing along until just past Manistique where memory served correctly and we stopped at what claimed to be the biggest tourist store in the U.P.  They did indeed have a lot of stuff and Annie looked at all of it!  In the end we walked out with a nice pair of footwear each plus a jigsaw puzzle of the U.P. which we will enjoy in due course.

We continued on for a while and found one of the nice beach-side rest areas with full facilities.  We went down on to the sand to stretch our legs and get a couple of pictures with Lake Michigan in the background but we cut short that activity and literally jogged back to the van in order to get away from the swarms of horrid flying bugs (mosquitos?) that were in veritable clouds.

In due course we crossed Big Mac, this time in brilliant sunshine.  We took the first exit on the south side and immediately found the Mackinaw Pastie Company where we stopped for a late lunch so that John could have his last pastie of this trip (Annie had ravioli).  We then made a slow tour of the little tourist town of Mackinaw City and eventually stopped and parked on the main shopping drag.  We toured many of the shops, bought a sun hat for John suitable for golf, some stuff for Priscilla and also Annie and finally our last three all-U.P. mementos.

Then we began the long trek south with home as the ultimate destination.  After an hour or two Annie became just like John’s previous U.P. traveling companions and made a strong case for skipping one more night in a motel in favor of one long dash for home.  After we stopped to fill the gas tank to the brim Portia predicted we could make it just before midnight, and we did (just before the low gas warning light came on).  We took turns at the wheel with Annie and her younger eyes driving the last leg in darkness.  Needless to say unpacking the van was minimal before we crashed into bed.

Altogether, door to door, we put 2,120 miles on the van with no more troubles than the loss of a front turn indicator light two days before the end.  It was great trip and we both enjoyed it thoroughly.

The weekend went well with the usual unpacking, laundry, grass cutting, some flower planting, shopping for food and so, however two “disasters” set us back a bit.  Comcast had a major area problem and we had no Internet for at least the first 3 ½ days, and we had garage door opener problems that required an expensive service call to fix.