Miko and Me: Stoned In Petoskey

Today I have to cross the Mackinaw Bridge. An engineering marvel – it is five miles long and connects the Upper and Lower Peninsula of Michigan. The bridge deck is 200 feet over the water. It was built about 60 years ago and is the world's 19^th longest main span and the longest suspension bridge in the Western Hemisphere. We are talking serious bridge here. I am scared. When I try to research the crossing I run into articles talking about people who died on the bridge. One woman was in a small car and got blown off of the bridge. This is not giving me any comfort at all. They even have people who, at no charge, will drive your vehicle across the bridge for you if you don't think you can make it on your own.

After paying my $14 toll, I take off over the bridge. Maximum speed limit for cars is 45 and for loaded trucks is 20mph. Ok, this is good – we are going slow. Each way on the bridge is two lanes and they are working on the outside lane, so we are down to one lane – luckily it is not the lane on the edge looking down that 200 feet. It didn't really matter though because there was dense, dense fog. You couldn't see anything. On one hand, I feel sort of cheated that I climbed up all that way and couldn't see anything. On the other hand, it was super for the height phobic that I am. Before I knew it, I was back on dry land, none the worse for wear.

I needed some gas and stopped at a station that was fairly close to the Michigan Welcome Center. As I entered the gas station, I went over some of the cords that ding inside the station saying that there was a customer. A guy came out and pumped my gas. Amazing!!! Then two guys got step stools out and cleaned my windshield. What a blast from the past. It was really nice. What wasn't so nice was that gas was $2.89 and it cost me about $140. Ouch, but I still had nice memories of being waited on at a gas station.

I'm heading for Magus City Park in Petoskey, Michigan. It is a nice little park, right on the shores of Lake Michigan. At one end of the park, you have a hospital overlooking the campground. There is a constant roar from the huge HVAC system. At the other end, there is the city Waste Management System. Reading reviews on the campground, people say that if the wind blows wrong, it gets rather fragrant at the end of the park. Noise vs. Smell? I decide to let the young man who checks me in decide how I'm going to end up. I only tell him that I want the bestest site, with the best view and he certainly delivered on that. I'm at the very end of the campground – there is nobody closer to the waste management area than me. But, man o man – the view. Turns out there was no smell to worry about. The problem was that they were doing major construction on the plant and during the day there was a constant roar of construction equipment. The nights were golden though and most of the time (except for nap time), I was away from the RV so it wasn't too bad.

Petoskey is known for the Petoskey Stone which is a the Michigan state stone. They are little coral fossils etched into the stones and quite easy to find, if you want to look that is. I went down to the shore and did a quick scan for about five minutes, didn't find any Petoskey stones and called it a day. Evidently rocks are not my thing.

Petoskey is one of the little villages scattered around this area. This and a few other nearby villages became a summer place for many wealthy families. It has a downtown that is filled with a lot of interesting galleries and not-so-interesting fudge shops. Fudge is everywhere here.

I drove up to Charlevoix, the next town over and did a tour in a little open air car of Earl Young's Mushroom Houses. Earl Young was a local boy, who grew up and went to architecture school but dropped out after only one year. This is evidenced by the fact that none of his houses have closets and most of them have low ceilings. Young was only 5'4” which might explain it. He believed that houses should be organic and hence he never did any sort of grading, prefering his houses to be as one with the site. He also never made blueprints, preferring the stones to speak to him and tell him where they should be placed. He was very definitely a rock man – he collected boulders all his life to use in his buildings. He even purchased land, planning to build a subdivision of his houses. The subdivision was called Boulder City. Alas, the depression came and he was not able to finish his dream.

Probably the most photographed of all of his houses - notice the thatch roof

I spent four nights in Petoskey – mostly just hanging around watching sunsets and hanging with the neighbors – many of whom were wearing their 'Make America Great' hats.