Mackinac Bridge

June 03, 2014

Mackinac Bridge

Tuesday, June 3 (Day 18)

Distance: 34 miles

Average speed: 10.1 mph

Max: 28.6 mph

Total: 1076 miles

I had a lovely start to the day after a wonderful bath, a good night of sleep, and a filling breakfast.

I headed straight to the post office to pick up a package from home.

As I entered, a man said "I bet you get good gas mileage with that thing."

"Yep, for the price of free!"

I'm going to need to fall a lot more to use all those band aids!

I felt like a mini celebrity, sitting in front of the post office. A man approached me an introduced himself as Bill Bowman, ex-fireman. He said "You're something else, I'll tell you. That amazes me. You're a brave young woman."

Another few people passed and one said "That's amazing. I'm going to have to take a picture, that's Facebook-worthy."

After many embarrassed thank yous, I moved on to cross Mackinac Bridge. I had to call the bridge authority (they have a small building with a phone) who sent a pickup to transport me and my bike across the 5-mile bridge that connects the lower and upper peninsulas of Michigan.

They also have to transport pedestrians and quite frequently drive cars over for people who are too scared to do so themselves.

The man who took me across said the craziest one was a helicopter pilot who could fly his helicopter "Straight up into space, and back down one foot from the water", but couldn't drive a car across the bridge.

He said sometimes people get frozen halfway over and he has to go and talk to them until they let go of the wheel so he can get them across. People are afraid for different reasons like heights or water.

I rode very leisurely once I arrived in the upper peninsula, stopping to read every sign a and lingering in the visitor center for the Hiawatha national park, which is over 800,000 acres large.