August 18, 2009
St. Ignace, Michigan. We're ate the southern edge of the Upper Peninsula. Tomorrow when we leave here, we will get on the Mackinac Bridge and cross the Strait of Mackinac, which is the point where Lakes Huron and Michigan come together. We're at the eastern edge of Route 2, which we picked up in Duluth, MN a few days ago. It has been a very beautiful portion of the trip, with plenty of wildflowers, big trees, lots of green, and even the beginning of the fall colors. We have enjoyed being in some rural areas and driving through small towns. There were many “For Sale” signs on various tourist-related businesses, so I guess the economy is having an impact.
The campground here is nice. It's very quiet, which is appreciated after the noisy, chaotic mess that was Hayward. And it's clean, which is something we all appreciate much more after Moorhead! I am reminded of Fairbanks, because the leaves are changing, though they are probably farther along up there than they are here. We have lots of birch trees around us here, which is what we were surrounded by at our house in Alaska, as well as pine trees. When we lived there, I would start sticking my head out the door every morning at around this time of year to see whether that nip was in the air yet. I knew fall was coming. And so I am reminded here that summer is passing and soon we will be in a new season.
The town of St Ignace is very pleasant. It is apparently the 3rd oldest city in the US and was founded by father Marquette. It seems that the French were big colonizers around here. We drove downtown earlier today, parked and spent a few hours walking around. The main street is State Street and it borders Lake Huron.
There's a boardwalk that goes along the lake and one that goes out to a lighthouse and a fishing dock—at least, fishing is permitted in a corner of the dock. Along the boardwalk is a public marina and a little park with a couple of picnic tables and grills. I was happy to see this. One of the things that struck me as we have been looking at various downtowns on this trip is the lack of public community space. There are plenty of places to buy things, and even places to gather if you want coffee or food. And revitalization always seems to mean putting more stores in so people will come downtown, buy stuff, and leave. I understand this and think that it can be a positive thing, since usually downtown areas consist of small merchants who are local and not giant chain stores. On the other hand, since I am not a fan of mindless consumerism, and many of these places need to encourage that to stay in business, I am uncomfortable with that being the only focus. I think there need to be more places where people can come together and just be without having to buy something.
And to their credit, the people of this community seem to have done some of that with the public areas by the lake, and the summer activities like music in the park a few nights a week, and fireworks downtown every Saturday.
It's been interesting to see how the available food has been changing as we've come across the country. Here it's pasties. For those who don't know what these are, they are little pies filled with meat or fish, potatoes, onions, and sometimes rutabagas. As far as I know, these were common food for miners in Wales and other parts of Britain, because they were cheap, filling, and the miners could bring them down into the mines and eat them there. I was kind of surprised to see them as a big thing here, because when we started out in Iron Mountain, we were in Scandinavian territory—the next town was Norway. But there are pasty shops and stands everywhere—much like you see salt water taffy everyplace in a coastal town. Somewhere in the midwest—I think it might have been Moorhead—I noticed the summer sausage. I had forgotten all about that. It's a big thing here and I remember it from my days in Illinois as a child. As I recall, I used to eat it once in awhile, but I never liked it as much as Italian sausage. And somewhere in Montana or maybe it was in Bismarck, I started noticing how hard it was to find chicken and stuff like turkey sausage. When I could find it, it was outrageously expensive. At that point, it was practically all beef and pork. In the store in Hayward there was a section near the deli with premade sandwiches. One of the selections was a pork roast croissant. I thought that was interesting. And food simply seems more expensive. Maybe because I am not shopping the way I normally would, but it just seems like everything costs a great deal more.
I got a sad email from a friend yesterday telling me that her dog had died. Kiki was 15 and a wonderful 4-legged-furry person. She was very important in the life of my friend and I felt so bad for her. I was remembering my own pain at the loss of my dogs over the past couple of years and I wish I could do or say something to make it a little less painful for her. I know she will get through it, but it's hard. I met Kiki when she was just a puppy back in 1994 when my friend was living in idaho and we went to visit her. It seems like she's just always been there. She loved to play ball and would go get it and bring it back for you to throw again and again and again.
We are enjoying what will probably be our last rural stop until we get to Vermont in a couple of weeks. We are heading back into congestion and crowds and all of that. I imagine there will be some space in between cities as we are driving, but we will zip right by it. We are also supposed to be getting rain and thunderstorms, so we will be moving along a bit faster and planning to stay in motels for a few nights. Tomorrow we will be in Flint, Michigan. The next night we will be in Streetsboro, Ohio, just outside of Cleveland. We found a good deal on a room there—only a few dollars more than the campground, and the campground looked most unpleasant. Based on the map they provide on their website, it looked like a small city unto itself. And it was expensive. So we will stop, sleep, and move on. On Friday we will be somewhere in Pennsylvania. And on Saturday we will go to my aunt's house in New Jersey. I am looking forward to that. I have not been there or seen her in over 12 years. She was very important to me when I was a kid and I spent lots of happy times in the house where she still lives. She is going to show me how she makes sausage and peppers. My Nana always made ravioli and Aunt Marie always made sausage and peppers. I do love sausage and peppers—especially hers! So it will be great to be there and see her!
