Today marked a number of milestones, so it’s hard to know where to start. First, we arrived in St. Ignace, where I lived the first 16 years of my life. It’s a city of a little less than 3,000 people, attractively situated around the edge of Moran Bay on Lake Huron. I’ve already had an opportunity to see a bit of the town and revisit some old haunts. This afternoon I even rode my bike up “convent hill,” which was somewhat of a rite of passage for young boys in town. Tomorrow is a layover day, and tonight and tomorrow we’re camped at the Straits State Park, directly across the road from the Straits of Mackinac, with a great view of the Mackinac Straits Bridge (a magnificent structure, not done justice by my photo).
This is the first time I've been in St. Ignace since 1988, and only the second time since my family moved away in 1962. Both times I've visited, I've been struck by the beauty of the setting of this town. I was not enamored of St. Ignace when we moved away, but now I see the beauty that I took for granted back then. It is truly a special place.
Second, we passed the 3,000 mile mark today – only about 1,000 miles to go! If all continues to go according to schedule, we’ll be finishing in Portland two weeks from tomorrow.
Third, we had a newspaper interview today. Yesterday the St. Ignace News (weekly) published a brief article on our trip. Today they photographed and interviewed us, and promise a full article next Wednesday. Check it out at http://www.stignacenews.com/.
Today was a long day, about 90 miles campground to campground, including the visit to the newspaper office. The ride included a number of normally spectacular miles right on the shore of Lake Michigan. Unfortunately, it was raining much of the day, and otherwise heavily overcast, so it wasn’t a beautiful as we had hoped for – and we didn’t stop for a swim, which I had envisioned.
We passed many well-remembered places along the way, and saw many mailboxes and businesses with familiar names. For a major treat, I had a pasty (a Cornish meat pie) for lunch today, purchased at a roadside café. Tomorrow I plan to look up some old friends and look around town some more. Also to get some smoked fish at a local stand. It was standby in the old days, and now that the Great Lakes fisheries have been restored, it's made a comeback.
It is a privilege to be here.
No comments:
Post a Comment