From Cheboygan I went back to the west side of the state for a week. Enjoyed meeting up with Brett & Shelley, Fred & Annette, Cal & Beth Thursday thru Sunday for lunches, dinners and beers while they were visiting the Petoskey area. Friday we took the ferry over to Mackinac Island for a quick walk up to the Grand Hotel and along the quaint streets with very cool homes facing the lake. The next day we also got pretty jealous driving by the grand homes on Lakeshore Drive in Harbor Springs. Beautiful properties.
Monday I took the backroads to Wilderness State Park on the northwest corner of Michigan’s southern peninsula. I’d plotted out a 10 mile hike but about 15 minutes in I’d had enough of the biting flies & sucking skeeters to cave. Turned around and tried a drier looking trail but it, too, was insect infested. Since I didn’t have any DEET (wouldn’t have used it anyway) I bailed again and drove over to Lakeshore Road and turned south to Cross Village.
Michigan state highway M119 runs between Harbor Springs and Cross Village and is known as the Tunnel of Trees. I continued south from tiny Cross Village onto the narrow, twisty lane which calls itself a highway. It’s really cool. About 10 feet wide, very curvy and accommodating two-way traffic, the 20 miles between the two towns takes about 40 minutes to cover. It’s a wonderful road with beautiful homes and a few glimpses of the big lake through the forest. Quite a few homes for sale along the way. Hmmmm…
Once the Tunnel dropped me into Harbor Springs I realized the small town offers more than we saw a couple days before when we had lunch at the cool marina. Very quaint downtown and relaxing-looking neighborhoods. Pricy, no doubt.
Back in Petoskey, got cleaned up and headed to the Side Door Saloon for a meatloaf sandwich and a couple Michigan brews. Didn’t get the exercise I was hoping for today but I did get another NatGeo best drives onto the trip resume. Looking forward to heading into the Upper Peninsula Wednesday. Tuesday (today, as I write this) is gonna be a maintenance and provisioning day since the pantry & reefer are bare. I’ll be staying in less populated areas for the next weekish so I’ll need some food onboard. There’s some cool points of interesting coming up so stay tuned!
I left a comment already but somehow it got lost!! I enjoyed this Island a lot, seeing the town and the videos/ S0 glad that I am able to enjoy and read about these states that I have never been too. It is so very HOT here, around 104-105, not good!! They say that it will continue into next week. Sounds like you had a great time with your friends. “It is Right & Just”, Lee
I have always wanted to go to Mackinac Island. They supposedly have wonderful lilacs earlier in the year. Keep on having fun.
Mackinac island is DEFINITELY on my bucket list.. Cool movie “Somewhere in Time ” was filmed there.. I wish iI was there..sounds like a good time with friends,as well…enjoy!
Glad you are having a good time.!