I'm now in Brighton Michigan (just down the road from my childhood home in Howell) visiting with my sisters - Anne lives in Brighton and Chris is visiting from Vermont. Nothing really exciting to report as this will be a little break from the almost everyday travel of the last three months.
Getting here from Canada entailed crossing two toll bridges. First, the Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge, which crosses the Saint Marys River and the Soo Locks (which enable ships to travel between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes). This is a border crossing and my entry to the USA was uneventful, but did entail about a 30 minute wait because of the volume of traffic.
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| Line for U.S. Customs - we're waiting on the bridge |
Once in the UP (that's short for Upper Penninsula for those of you who are not Michiganders or Yoopers) I headed toward Mackinaw City 60 miles away - 167 miles later I got my first glimpse of Big Mac, the Mackinac Bridge (the longest suspension bridge with two towers between anchorages in the Western Hemisphere or more simply - the third-longest suspension span in the United States). The center span is 200 feet above Lake Michigan - a height that causes problems for some drivers, so the bridge authority will provide a driver if you are among the faint of heart.
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| Prior to Big Mac opening in 1957 we traveled between the upper and lower peninsulas by ferry. Back then you could spend hours waiting in line. |
