After the Air Force museum we headed back to the airport. Dayton is an air carrier airport so you would think that it would be busy. The reality was that inbound we were number one and same with outbound. This flight was pretty routine. We departed and only had a slight vector. We were cleared to 9000 expeditiously and then we were on our way direct. Other than a strong crosswind landing at Pellston Michigan, it was basically a straight line.
I was a bit surprised by the lower UP (upper peninsula). Ohio had been flat tan square farmland. and crossing into Michigan, it was more of the same. To be fair my impression of Michigan was tainted by visiting Detroit. The lower UP is a lush hilly green. It is dotted with lakes and has a quaint feel. The weather was also great, I don’t think I would like it as much with feet of snow though.
So what's with the lower upper peninsula? Michigan is non contiguous. The top of what most people think if Michigan is a peninsula with lake Michigan on the West and Lake Huron on the right. Above this is a second peninsula connected by a bridge that borders lake Superior as well as the other two. So you end up with an Upper Peninsula and a lower upper peninsula, confusing...
We arrived to Cadillac (I had reserved the mid size) which was ironic because this was the best car rental deal of the trip. We headed down to Petosky which is on the shore of Lake Michigan. We had booked the Courtyard and scored with a room that had a nice view, including the lake. It’s a cool little town and it has a river running through it. We took a nice walk before dinner and enjoyed the greenway trails. We even saw some deer. They were a bit skittish of humans but we stood still and they walked by us while chewing on the vegetation. Now I know what happens to the flowers we plant.
Weather permitting, we planned to visit Mackinac island in the morning. The wind was looking like it might be an issue but I studied the charts, airport information and then got some sleep. The morning was grey but the winds were going to be favorable earlier in the day. The runway is 3500’ which has some margin but I didn’t want to have a 20 knot direct crosswind on arrival with the shorter length.
We drove to the airport and prepped the plane. It’s a short flight, 21 miles. Basically climb to 1500 AGL and pull the power way back, prepare to land. We joined the left downwind for 26 and were soon on the ground. Parking is pretty steep at $25 just to land and another $25 for each overnight. It does cap at $125 for each week.
Mackinac island is special because they have no cars. This is apparently the big draw. First off let me say it is a lie. There are a few vehicles, we saw them. They are for emergency services, landscaping and things like the electric company. Instead of cars they use horse drawn trucks or carriages for most things. This all sounds quaint until you walk down the road with piles of manure. It was cool and with the breeze, not too smelly but I imagine July is less pleasant. You can walk or call a horse cab. As we had been eating well for the trip so far, we decided to walk.
Our first stop was skull cave which is a neat name but pretty underwhelming. I thought it had some bloody past but it is just a feature left over from freezing water.
The next sight was Arch Rock. It was pretty cool but it was surrounded by clouds of mosquitoes (I later learned these were not mosquitos but rather midge flies). I think they were thick enough to paint on my radar.
After the Arch, we walked down to town. It is cute but, it is basically a bunch of touristy stores. CC had been told that they had the best fudge in the world and we should get some. Every 3rd business was a sweets shop but they were mostly repeats of the same store. We saw at least 5 copies of one outlet. As for keeping the modern world out, they are losing that battle, there is a Starbucks on Mainstreet.
When planning the trip, I had thought it might be fun to overnight on the island but the accommodations looked only so-so. Also they were extremely expensive. In the end we both agreed it was good that we skipped the overnight. The small town we chose was much nicer, has more to do and less bugs.
To be fair we did skip the local fort and some other recommended sights. I can’t say we saw it all but we saw enough. We strolled back to the airport after main street and we’re soon airborne and headed back to civilization. If you take the ferry you can pay extra to see the Mackinac Bridge. I included this for CC at no extra charge.
Back at Pellston they had saved our space but another plane blocked the easy taxi approach. They radioed that they would push me back if needed. The twin while bigger gives you some advantage when turning. I angled in, being careful to keep my left wing well clear of the fence and then used the left engine to spin around.
I got lined up and was only about a foot forward of the perfect alignment. The line guy said good enough so chocks went in and we were done. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at DQ for blizzards. Had to replace all the calories we just walked off.
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