Northern Exposure III - 2011 - Day #1

The two words for today have to be "miles" and "rain"!

We pulled out of the driveway at 7:20 AM under gray skies but no rain and with a promising brightness soon to be visible to our north. Getting coffee and breakfast burritos at Taylorsville we turned north and just hammered away. Despite rush hour traffic we made good time and crossed the Michigan border before making our first stop. Marissa took over the driving and we continued racing north, although by now through intermittent mist and occasional rain.

However, we reached Uncle John's Cider Mill complex about 12:30 during a dry period. We walked around a little, doing the necessary, took turns in the gift shop, returned Zoe to the car and headed into the real store to pick up Honeycrisp apples, fresh brewed cider, cheese curds and assorted delicious cookies. Marissa returned to the van with the stuff while John ordered home-made tomato soup & grilled cheese on apple bread - odd but delicious! Since it started pouring with serious rain she returned with a golf umbrella for the lunch run back to the van. We headed out though more intermittent precipitation but a low gas reading coincided with a sleepy period for Marissa so we stopped, filled up, and changed drivers again.

From then on it was just miles, pretty miles, but miles, seriously degraded by ever more continuous and heavy rain. For the first time in all our crossings we traversed Big Mac in wind and pouring rain, which didn't do much for views or photo-ops! Once across we reached our hotel, in the rain, in about one minute. We have the first room closest to the doggie exit. Within a half hour the rain ceased, for good as it happened. John and Zoe went exploring on foot for a while. A little later we all got in the van, went to Pere Marquette National Memorial Park (where over the years the trees have grown largely obscuring the one-time excellent view of the bridge). We had a nice walk there and then ran down the hill to almost water level for another view and a little exploration. Having found Susie's Pasties closed (for the season?) we headed down into the old town of St. Ignace for a little tour and on our way back stopped at what was virtually an old-time diner to get two pastie dinners to go, which we thoroughly enjoyed back in the room. We have enjoyed the hot-tub/jacuzzi but found the main pool a little two chilly for us. We have both posted some pictures on Flickr and Marissa has done a pictorial blog as well. Finally parked for the night the van odometer shows an even 547 miles. The JFP Flickr pictures may be found at here