Pre Labor Day Bridge Walk

Several years ago I asked my daughters to join me on a bus trip up north to walk the Mackinaw Bridge with thousands of other people. The idea was to help me overcome my fear of riding across the bridge. Walking is an awesome experience with Lake Michigan on the right and Lake Huron on the left as we walked from St. Ignace south to Mackinaw City, a total of 5 miles.

That first year was fun so my oldest daughter joined me again the next year. We bumped up the challenge that year, ditched the bus crowd and drove up with our bikes on the back of the car. When we reached Mackinaw City, we dropped and locked our bikes at the ferry terminal and then drove (gulp, yes I drove) across the bridge and spent the night in St. Ignace. Early Monday morning, we drove to the bridge, parked the car and joined the thousands crossing the bridge. After walking across, we proceeded to the ferry terminal, retrieved our bikes and boarded the ferry where we biked the perimeter of Mackinaw Island - at least 8 miles around. After our ride and visits to various fudge and gift shops in town, we boarded the ferry, heading to St. Ignace. We rode our bikes from the St. Ignace ferry dock to the bridge, loaded the car and headed home.

The two of us walked the bridge together two more years with several of her friends joining us until she graduated from college and moved half a world away. Somehow continuing the tradition isn't worth the trip home every year - I understand. My husband joined me for the walk one year and friends T & S joined my husband and me another year. I took last year off because da hubby had to work Labor Day weekend and I couldn't find any victims to join me for the walk.

This year, friends Cathy, Julie and Stephanie will join me for the walk. The plan was to have the top down on the yella jeep and head up north early Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, the temperatures have taken a huge tip - the prediction is for the warmest temps to be around mid 60's. Consequently, the top is up and the windows are zipped tightly in the jeep. We will still have fun - Hopefully I'll be back to post photos and commentary in a couple of days.

In the meantime, if you see a yella jeep heading north, wave - it is a Jeep thang!