HELLO AGAIN


There is a special place in Michigan for those who want to experience something unique for our time. Detroit, aptly dubbed The Motor City, rightly earned the name as the birthplace of the automobile. The fascinating trip down memory lane that is the Woodward Dream Cruise, the glitzy, well-heeled Auto Show, and the countless people who toil long hours in the auto manufacturing industry, help keep alive a city hot hot hot with car fever.
Sometimes a summer getaway from the traffic of the city and going to beautiful northern Michigan fuels a sense of adventure and gives pause for reflection, introspection, and by the end of the stay, a fresh perspective on life. The creative and hard-working business owners of Northern Michigan present to the traveler a wide variety of summertime activities that surprisingly have little to do with the automobile. Leave the car in the parking lot and enjoy canoeing, fishing, biking, cherry turnover tasting, swimming, camping, kayaking, cherry pie buying, lighthouse exploring, shipwreck diving, roadside stand fresh-cherry-out-of-hand eating, wine tasting, morel mushroom soup savoring, bicycling, Mackinac Bridge crossing, and- last but not least- the bliss of partaking in the warm, beefy, vegetabley goodness that is the Michigan miners' pasty. This is by no means an all inclusive list but it is a good start, and doesn't even touch upon winter's activities!
I worked all summer and at the same time dealt with some family tensions and sorely needed a quick getaway, and I decided spur-of-the-moment to book a hotel and head north to Mackinac Island  where the strict rules of locomotion allow only for foot traffic, horses, and bikes. Ah, peace, I am coming!

On Mackinac Island I rented a sturdy, thick-boned, experienced bike that possessed the preferred-by- middle-aged-women-almost-everywhere padded seat which I literally found in the end, to not be nearly as comfortable as my forward facing sporty, streamlined, ready- for- action seat that waited for me atop my stylish powder blue bike in the garage at home. I hope it is not mad at me for that. Note to self: get a bike rack for car!
 A feeling of peace floated around my head, a feeling synonymous with the creamy fresh fudgy perfume that melted in between the buildings and out screened shop doors into the streets. I made my way through the traffic jamming draft horses pulling carts of soft fudge eaters and bicycles through the main drag of town. Yes,this is a Dream Cruise of a different sort, I thought, as I alternately braked and pedaled following draft horses' behinds (they have the right of way) in stops and starts into my quiet journey around the perimeter of the island. My bike gained speed whilst the clean blue sky and puffy clouds passed contentedly above the ever changing chop of Lake Huron waters. The town diminished behind me, the road emptied before me and the air became muted then silent.