Day 9: Friday, May 23rd, 2008
Indianapolis, Indiana to Mackinaw City, Michigan

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The next day, I bid farewell to my parents and drive north, through my first bad weather of the trip, towards the personal terra incognita of northern Michigan. Imprisoned by the rain, I drive all the way through Fort Wayne and Lansing without stopping once, and feel almost certain that I will make it through the entire day without taking a picture until I finally arrive at Mackinaw City, on the very tip of the lower peninsula, and go out for a walk right before sunset.

According to my Dad, I have been here once before, in the summer of 1977, but I can't seem to recall anything from that trip.

My Dad, however, claims that I got very excited when we drove over this bridge.

It spans the straits connecting Lake Huron (which you can see here) and Lake Michigan.

I wind up walking out onto the rocky beach and slip into the photographic bad habit of taking more than one picture of the same thing, again and again.

Go America.

This place is a tourist destination, and so I cross paths with small groups of happy people, scattered across the beach on a Friday night, hanging out underneath the bridge. They are all waiting, like me, to watch the sun set over the waters of the Great Lakes.


I speak to none of them but just take pictures and watch, like I did in the Badlands, for the Green Flash. But the sun slips seamlessly into the night and the nature of the universe leaves me, once again, feeling disappointed.

I walk back towards my hotel, trawling the streets of Mackinaw City in search of fudge. On that score, I meet with unqualified success.

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