Visiting Pittsburgh Stadium

 

After arriving in Pittsburgh the day before we were expecting our first baseball game on the trip! We also expected to see the city too, of course. The first thing that I did to help make that happen was to get up out of my bed and walk over to the brown dresser I had in my room near the back of the camper. A little bit of light trickled in from outside of the window I opened and I came out with my plain grey T-shirt and Jeans on with my Aviator shades tucked halfway into my pocket. I met up with the rest of the family once they came out of their rooms and into our living room. It wasn’t long before we all walked out the door and got buckled up in our seats in the back of our Excursion. I talked to my little brother as we drove out of the campsite and onto the highway way we would drive to the city of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh had a surprising amount of trees there. A conversation arose and somehow led to going clothes shopping a Walmart. How does that happen? Anyway, after the long drive to Walmart we finally got out of the car and walked in. I’m not going to waste time about talking about Walmart because absolutely everybody knows about Walmart already so I’ll just keep it simple: The pirates are Baseball and the Pittsburgh Steelers are Football. I’m not huge on baseball, but I sure do love football (American football, by the way) so I spent my money on a Steelers shirt. A couple of minutes later we were back on track, and I had switched my gray shirt to the Steelers shirt instead. When we finally snuck up behind the city we were needing to battle a large mountain in order to get up. We parked the car and got out instead. We decided to walk to the top so we would not need to be charged for parking inside of the city. After passing a couple of houses that were nice and well painted (and probably hundreds of thousands of dollars too) we were finally at the top. On our right lay a path near some of the other homes and a large statue of an Indian with a settler learning how to farm. On the left was another way back down the steep hill. We walked to the right and tried to get a passage down with THE INCLINE. THE INCLINE was a box with about 20 or so seats that rode down the hill using a large cog setup that pulled the cars on rails up and down the steep slope on the mountain. The ride was exciting and we were thrilled that we would use another one to come back up. The seats inside of the car were traditional red and yellow and were from about 100 years ago, still working today I guess! It took a lot of walking after we got past the maze of red ropes of a line and out of the building to get to the stadium. We passed a couple of shops and bridges, both of which were abundant throughout the large town that was build almost on TOP of the river there. That is actually incorrect, because there were actually THREE rivers that all connected together. When we were at the top we were able to get a good view of the green mixing with the brown. We walked across the bridge and near the lake where the boat races would take place and then past the water to the stadium. On the way we saw a historic land mark from a war and where the fort used to be, and than we got back to the stadium. We bought our tickets and went in. The stadium was huge! On the first of 4 stories we were escorted to the elevator where a man was inside, waiting for us so we could get to the top. Once we were on the 3rd stories we climbed up the rows to J where we took our seats, 09-14. We waited for the game to start as more and more people came into the stadium. We waited. And waited. And waited some more. Nothing was happening, and the storm clouds that had snuck up on us (We had no idea they were there) were threatening to destroy our chances at seeing the game. While we were waiting, I decided to call my good friend from home, Asher, and talk to him. We talked for a while on FaceTime and halfway through our chat men came out with tractors and a large white tube and set them down. They rolled the tube out into a huge stadium-wide panel of all white. They next got the tractors and drove them across the corners and then in between by each hundred or so yards, but not before the drizzle turned into a large downpour, soaking everybody. People from other rows moved up even though they had emergency rain suits anyway. I talked to Asher for a long time, almost another hour, until other men came onto the field when the clouds looked better. If they had not moved the tractors and the white sheet, an event that caused the entire crowd to cheer, all of our tickets would have been no good. I felt bad for all for those people who left, and I do have to say that I was sad because of the lack of people, even if it DID turn out alright. The game was in all postponed for 3 hours, but I don’t mean the people that left. I mean all of those people that didn’t WANT to come because of the unfortunately predicted weather! Nevertheless, the game was still greatly played. I believe by the score that we left off that the Pirates beat their other team, the Padres, because we eventually had to leave because our parents were tired. ‘Funny how that happens. We eventually went to bed and were very happy for the experience!

My Custom Shirt!

Hello everyone! Today I have brought you here with a different kind of post- I have my own T-shirt now! I’m very excited to be able to proudly wear this as I walk down the busy streets of big cities like New York City and Boston and Washington DC! What do you think about it?

PRO Football Hall of Fame

We almost went before Cedar Point, but sadly because of some major car troubles we were unable to go. We got worried because our car shut off just after we applied the breaks at a red light, and had to drive strait off course to the FORD mechanic as soon as we got it running again. The mechanic let us get a rental for free because insurance covered us and drove back to our camp site which we had. We needed to be checked out soon so we needed to go all the way back as fast as we could and get a truck for our rental. We walked inside and asked if there were any trucks that could pull our 31 foot camper with but there were no rentals left. When we had first got there, however, we had befriended a great man named John and gave him our blogs to follow. He was such a good person that he allowed us to use his truck, something that was not covered in our insurance and was very unexpected. Thank you John! We drove back on the highway to our campground and picked up our happy camper, which we call Beauty while our truck, which we call Beast, was still at the mechanic. We dropped of the camper and used the rental in order to get to the PRO Football Hall of Fame again. After only a couple of minutes driving passed the one or two story buildings through the moderate- sized town we got to the point where we once were the previous day. This time there were a couple of men at the entrance in orange vests that led everyone to the right past the middle school. We asked what was going on and one of the men told us it was the annual 2017 football pass. He gave us a couple of small details, but I’m not going to spoil the surprise just yet! We drove across the dirt road past the construction crews that were building and (barely) found a parking spot in the parking lot. After walking through the gates a woman gave me a shirt that read THIS IS MY GAME on the back and held a FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME patch on the right sleeve, along with the logo on the front. The event was that a football would be passed for each year, this year, obviously 2017 for me, and locked inside the football hall of fame forever. After a while It became my turn and passed it along as quickly as it came. It was still exciting and a fun experience to have. They also offered free food for everyone, and I got to meet some of the famous quarterback and other players such as LaDainian Tomlinson and Eric Dickerson while in line. In each of the boxes was a sandwich, chips, a cookie, and an apple. I also got some football cards that I now keep inside of my dresser in the camper and got to see the Football Hall of Fame for FREE! At this point we were FORTUNATE that we had car problems the day before! Sadly our car would be done in an hour and we had to be there to pick it up because WE had the rental car. We didn’t get to take our time as much and see everything so we saw what we could. I put my box of what I didn’t eat after we had ran from the diner there under a tree where nobody could see it (hopefully that included the ants) and walked inside. We took a left and read some of the boards on some of our favorite players and teams and moved on to the upstairs to see some more. We got to see an interview of one of the players airing live on the upstairs and after a little bit more of walking see the Lombardi trophy of the year. It was awesome to be able to witness history unexpectedly but sadly we needed to go. After we walked back to the car and drove to the mechanic we picked up our car and got ready for our next adventure.

Arriving at Pittsburg

 

Transitioning from our adventures at the Beach Party and Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania included a LOT of farmland. Though towns are a lot more exciting to look through and see what they had to offer, it was entertaining to watch the unusual illusions of light the rolling hills gave out. We passed through a couple of small towns but nothing big enough to be exciting. Once we did finally arrive at our campground that we would spend the night it was around 3:00-4:00 so we were able to set up quickly in the light. When my mother was a kid she met a girl named Colleen and became instant best friends, and when her mom met Colleen’s mom they immediately became best friends, too. Colleen was now a mother of two kids, much like ours, and we were soon going to be able to visit them when they arrived at our site. We got out some drinks and food and prepared a huge fire so when they got here it would be more exciting. My brother and I each pulled out an axe and chopped up some lumber that we could use for the fire. After a couple of trips we had everything we needed to build a large respectable fire. They eventually pulled up and we introduced ourselves, as did they. It wasn’t long until WE were best friends as well. We all shared common interests, and I mostly talked to Max, the older one that was my age while my brother talked more to Alex, the one that was almost HIS age. We eventually came back from our short walk (that we didn’t know we had gone on) and walked inside to give a tour. They loved my room that was in the back of the camper and said that it was so awesome that we could travel the country like we were doing. WE had some drinks and chips and they pulled up their favorite youtube channels and we showed them ours, and were both hooked on each others. We later went outside so we could have s’mores and talk with the adults and exchanged memories of our past couple years. I always loved burning my marshmallows so that the crunchy outside would contain the liquid inside. Many people don’t think it would taste good at all but it’s actually better than the original version of s’mores! Max tried it and loved it. We snuck chocolate inside and ate some of it and talked some more. Time passed and not a second of it was wasted, laughing and excited the entire time. They eventually needed to go around 11:00 but we would see them tomorrow. We laughed as our group walked to the car and we were still talking even as they climbed into their seats! We told them we’d see them tomorrow and walked into the camper for another 30 minutes after the fire was out and settled down until we fell asleep soon after. What a great start to Pittsburg!

Beach Party in Ohio

I’m back again after a short break with another post from Ohio! I am completing yesterday’s post, Cedar Point, with the night time portion of my journey. Once we were about to leave we remembered that there was a beach party on the other side of the island! We passed all of the attractions to our left and right and made it to the lit up little building that seemed to be the only entry point in the metal fence that outlined the entire area. We showed our passes to the young adult that was running one of the few operators booth. We walked showed him our passes and he let us pass into he colorfully lit sand that pushed between our toes. We got off of the short concrete platform and walked onto the sand and looked around to see what we could do first! There were strange cubed seats that were only halfway transparent, only enough to let out constantly changing beams of light. The tables were similar. Some people wore necklaces and wristbands and headphones that all lit up in red or blue. There were booths with various things they were giving out and hotels that lined the sides. There was a DJ booth that stood on one side of it all while a huge group of adults (and children too) stood around to jump and move in the beat of the music. There were indescribable crystals (that ALSO changed color, might I add) that poked up every now again through the beautiful sand that held a collection of footprints. What a beautiful sight! It was hard to take it all in but we soon decided to soon walk over to the magnificent cubes that contained foot-long Jenga blocks that were stacked up and got to work. After a lot of laughter and taunts the tower was soon double what it once was.

We had soon gathered a small crowd (part of whom just wanted to play and a couple who were interested in what we were doing) and the large tower collapsed after a huge recovery from the previous player. There was also other games that lined the beach with multiple different groups playing at once. We later rented out some cool headphones that changed brightness with the beat and they gave us some free wristbands that said Cedar point. I walked over to the DJ booth to listen to the music he was playing while the people jumped and moved around in circles. I got some sand in my eye by getting a little bit too wild with the coffee grinder… I’m not going to say much about that. I had to take my contacts out and I got a water bottle to rinse them again so that I could get the pain out of them but it didn’t work as planned. I was all right after a bit but was unable to fully experience the fireworks as they were somewhat blurred, but they were still amazing. The music was playing while large light bulbs popped in the air- wow that was a terrible analogy. Forget I said anything! The fireworks were in different shapes and sizes and amazing to watch as every body had a great time together on the beach.

Get to the Point

Cedar Point is by far the best amusement park that I’VE personally been too. From the moment that we left the camper at 9:30 or so we were excited- even before we got there. We needed to stop by a store in order to purchase some extremely cheap Cedar Point tickets. The when we got there I wondered if it were French or German. I asked my brother what he thought it was and he said it could be Spanish. I told him it wasn’t Spanish because I KNEW Spanish, and the conversation ended. Aidan was still somewhat confused. When we actually got INTO the store itself we saw the tickets placed in the middle of the entry way where a BLIND MAN might not be able to miss them. We went to check out the deals and saw that we could get unlimited drinks for only $4 extra per person (approximately  £3) That is a little less than a single drink from Cedar Point! After that we took off to go to the one and only Cedar Point. After about 40 minutes of driving we saw it. Cedar point was located very close to the beach and looked quite frankly like it had its very OWN island! When we got to the entrance we paid our short fee to get in and then entered. We had a large Bike Rack in the front and a big stabilizer in back so we asked one of the parking crew members if we could park in the truck section. He said no at first but after a second glance at the back he gave a thumbs up to OK us. We drove between a small car that shouldn’t be there and a large RV and got out. We grabbed our wallets and walked to the entrance. We soon realized that our emergency deference knife was in our backpack still and that we couldn’t bring it into the park so we put it underneath the trashcan before anything else. The truck parking was a lot closer than the regular parking so we walked to the entrance with ease. We skipped the ticket booths and gave the man out tickets to get inside and we took a selfie next to the large plaque of stone that sprung up from the ground with the words Cedar Point on it. The first thing we did was turn left to go to the drink shack and get some refreshing cold Cokes and Pepsi before we did any of the rides. After walking past some rigged carnival games on our right we looked around to find our first ride. We settled with the one called the GateKeeper (170 feet high) and got in line.

After a hot, long and tiring hour-long wait it was finally time to board. I was kind of nervous from the people’s faces getting off but I was willing to do it. One man got off at the last moment, leaving his wife stuck inside. I didn’t fully want to do it so I started getting nervous and wished that the large seatbelt-ish latches would let me out after they were set. All the sudden it started slowly creaking foreword, the chain clanging against the blue metal below us. The layout of the vehicle was of two riders on the left and two riders on the right of the middle. There were a couple of rows of this design. After taking an extended 180 degree turn to the right it plunged upward at a 30 degree angle and stayed that way, moving forward for another hour (12 seconds to be exact) until reaching the highest part of the jaw-dropping 170 foot roller-coaster. Once at the top it slowed slightly and then immediately sped up as it plunged almost strait down. What it actually did is curved backwards (kind of like Lagoon’s Cannibal, for a reference) which would have made it worse if It were meant to be a scary ride. It was odd because you would expect it to be terrible- not really. It was actually very relaxing. Even as it dropped and twisted and shook at its high speeds it wasn’t anything more than excitement! Once it slowed down and parked in the station I got out glad that I did it. Once we were off we went to another extreme ride that held close to 70 people as it launched into the air while spinning. This one wasn’t scary either! In the line could have been better than the actual ride not because it was BAD but because it was hilarious looking at some of the participants faces.

After a couple more rides we wandered by the gift shop area where we looked around for something to possibly buy. We saw some very interesting designs on the shirts and hats but got nothing. We stumbled on a glass shop that was created out of bottles cemented together and were amazed by what we saw. There was a demonstration out back that was fascinating. They told us the basics about the art and showed us some examples. Don’t know what glass art is? I’ve provided a link: Click HERE if you would like to see it. Once they were finished we moved on to go visit the best part of the park: the middle. After a short while of walking we saw some people with VR headsets on as they rode! We had to check it out. What we did first was the Neck Breake- I mean the CorkScrew… But it would break your neck. It spiraled and quickly recovered and slammed your head into the sides of the seat. Not quite fun- just annoying- this was the only ride I wouldn’t recommend. We next saw the VR ride and the reviews were good but sadly after that terrible Br- I mean CorkScrew I was too shaken up to do it. My little brother, Aidan, tried to be 13 but he got the wrong date- July of 2005 so he couldn’t use the VRs. I guess that’s kind of how the world works though. Anyway, night was setting and we were almost done for the night… but not yet! Our dad decided to get on the fastest/worst ride in the park. Luckily for him (and us) the ride shut down so he couldn’t ride it. He got off and we started to walk back but remembered… Cedar Point always holds a party on their private beach! If you are interested in reading my second post, click HERE to see the Night-time party portion.

Travelers Award

I have seen a lot of different awards created by some unknown user at the beginning of the chain so I have decided to create an all-travelers award. This is just for fun so you do not need to be discouraged for not being nominated. I would like to see how many blogs are travel like mine so please only nominate people that have mostly travel in their blog. You can nominate as many people as you want that blog about their travels. With that out of the way, here are the rules that I have set up for this award:

1. Leave a link to your nominator's Home Page

2. Answer all of the following questions to receive the Award

3. Use the official blog emblem as your cover photo

4. Only nominate Travel Blogs

5. Create 13 new questions for your Nominees

Anyway, now that the official rules are out of the way, here are the questions for my very first group of Travelers:

1. Where is the most amazing place you have ever been?

2. How many continents have you been to?

3. Have you ever lived in another country than your current one?

4. What is the worst native food that you have ever tasted on vacation?

5. What is the best native food that you have ever tasted on vacation?

6. Where is the last place you vacationed?

7. What is the longest vacation you have ever been on?

8. What was the most disappointing place you have been

9. What is the longest time you have been in the car at Once

10. If you could take two people with you on vacation who would you take?

11. What is the best hotel you have stayed in?

12. Have you visited every country on your continent?

13. (Last but Not Least) What would your Dream Vacation include?

And now for my favorite travel bloggers that I want to nominate as the pioneers:

UsaThroughOurEyes

Rose Hunter

The Italian Guest

Aidan

Jennifer

I enjoy all of your blogs so much, thank you for sharing your adventures with me. That is all I have to say about that, I hope to see some of my readers possibly create their own award as well, thank you all so much for reading! PLEASE also go and check out my nominees if you are looking for a great travel post to read! Stay tuned until next for some more of my magnificent adventures or another post like this one that may apply to you!

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IF YOU ARE NEW to my blog, and you would like to learn a little more about my long adventure, come to my ABOUT section by clicking HERE

#New Award     #Travelers     #Travelers Award

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The Detroit Ford Museum

One day of travelling after our visit to Mackinac Island we were finally in Detroit. We did not want to go into the big city because we decided that there wasn’t enough there to do that was worth the risk. It started to be filled with crime after 2007 when it never recovered after the economy dropped for the recession where all of its people lost their jobs. What we did, however want to see, was the Ford Museum. We had heard AMAZING reviews of this place and really wanted to check it out. After checking into the area we would be spending the next few days we set up the trailer and left. On the drive we didn’t see much; just a couple of houses and trees along with the occasional train-tracks that divided our road. We drove past the buildings that they were building self-driving cars, and some buildings that were research centers. No matter what they were, all of the buildings were in amazing condition. They all had giant glass windows covering the entire sides of the buildings. We finally found a parking spot where a lot of cars were parked and got out. We walked for a long while until we got to the grand entrance of the museum. There was a gate to our right but the 3 pairs of double-doors was strait ahead of us. We already had our tickets so we walked past the long lines of people waiting to get theirs at various other booths. I held the door open while my family walked behind the small group of strangers entering and then walked in myself before it gently shut behind me. Once inside there were chandeliers lining the ceiling and very interesting designs on the left in right. There were museum item collections such as old (but in perfect condition) toys that you would have played with in his time (around the 1900’s) in glass cases underneath the large windows that let golden light into the covered hallway where you ACTUALLY entered the museum. We walked past a modern diner that was on our right and to a counter where a man stood waiting behind the counter. We gave him our tickets and walked inside to see museum artifacts EVERYWHERE.

The first thing that we saw was a huge set of trains to the right. One of them was just a regular locomotive but it was impressive that they actually had one inside of a museum. The cool part was that you could go inside of it. After climbing up a couple of stairs you could walk into the compartment where the conductor would shovel coal into the fire that powered the train. The train on the right was not accessible but the front was very odd. It was a snow plow from the 1900’s. After we had seen our share of the trains we saw some old auto coaches and very old cars. We saw a section on camping that we enjoyed, and even though the motor homes they had were old and small, they look nicer than the average one today! We eventually even saw the car that Kennedy was assassinated in. After walking around and seeing all of the cool things the car section had to offer we went into the theater and sat down to watch a couple of looping 7-13 minute productions. The first one was about how cars became popular and how that effected hotels and things like that. The next one was The Need For Speed, and it walked about people that set records for speed and how they developed jet engines to fit into cars and how it helped them win. After a couple of other short films about technology we calmly exited the theater and walked around to see what else we could find. One are talked about planes, and I was very interested in it. I was somewhat sad that we were not able to stay long enough, but it is what it is. Some of the exhibits talked about the earliest planes to the more modern ones today including the Write Brothers plane, trick planes, water-landing planes, and arctic planes, to name a few. When the others wanted to leave the exhibit I went with them too. We decided to split up half and half and we walked around to see some other stuff that the others might not find as interesting. What we did find was more than we expected. We found one of the oldest McDonalds diners that ever built and it was INSIDE of the Museum! We we looked inside and saw the prices- only 30 cents for almost everything! One of the people running the register (dressed as a REAL chef of that time) chuckled a bit and he said “Sorry, those aren’t the actual prices.” We laughed a little too and then met up with the other half of our group.

When we found them they were in an area all about electricity. I didn’t have a lot of interest in that section but I went along with what they were doing. We soon left and tried to find something to eat. I mentioned the McDonalds that we had JUST went to but nobody remembered it… How do you forget something like that THIS soon? I led them to the McDonalds that we had just went to and they still claimed that they hadn’t seen it until they walked inside. We actually sat down to look at the menu this time and we saw that the prices were not great for what they had to offer. It was cool, and the place was original, but being original also means they didn’t have a lot of options. We got up and decided to find somewhere else to eat. We had heard that they outdoor exhibit was very well done so we decided to eat out there. We walked to where we first came in and got our hands stamped before we walked out of the museum and through the gates. There were a lot of houses scattered everywhere and a diner to our left. In front of us was a large playground where a lot of kids were running around and climbing on things. We went to the diner and they had more reasonable prices and they also had exactly what we wanted. We took some fries and burgers and sat down to eat them. While we were eating we got the chance to look around and see what we would do next. We saw horse drawn carriages everywhere! We wondered where we could be able to ride one, so once we were done we looked around. We also saw some old vehicles that were a little more advanced than horse drawn carriages but were still not really cars.

We finally found the place but sadly the line was extremely long and it was $8 per person in order to ride. We decided to move on and look at one of the strange olden-day buildings that were scattered around the park. The first place we went had a nice little window in front and a casual door standing to its right. We walked inside and one man told us that this was where the Wright Brothers created their first airplane. How could that be? We talked to a tour guide and apparently our old friend Henry Ford had a very large collection. Of houses. We thought that was insane. We had just walked into the ACTUAL building where the first plane was created! The carpet and wood was the exact same as it was when they were building the plane long ago. The guide told us how they figured everything out and that 90% of the original plan of the right brothers house was still being used today in modern planes. We next wandered over to the next house which didn’t look anything like the one before. It was large and it had a huge gear on the right side of the room that turned every one of the devices. Large cords hung from the top of each of the rotating poles hooked up to the gear which powered the machines that were used by Thomas Edison himself. We next went to Noah Websters home, the creator of the Websters Dictionary. He had a huge retirement home and he apparently spoke 20 languages. He was an extremely successful writer and he rewrote some sections of the bible to try and make it easier to read. Nobody wanted it even though he thought he would become famous for it. The creation he lest thought to be successful was the one that was actually the MOST successful of all- the Websters Dictionary. He created more than 15,000 new words to separate the real English language from the new “American Language”. He thought that if america actually wanted to go somewhere he would have to make new additions to characterize america as, well, america. The only bad part was that it cost a terrible $20 in order to produce- instead of making money he actually lost a lot of it. After he died he was still wealthy but the world didn’t quite know his name. Two brothers thought they could recreate it because he did not have a copyright for his book so they made the same book which was highly successful for only $6 instead. They renamed that book the Merriam-Webster dictionary (Merriam was the last name of the two brothers that recreated it, but Webster was added generously so he could have the credit- they didn’t have to do that). After that we saw the famous Robert Frost’s home where we learned that all of the houses were taken brick by brick with Ford’s money and replanted into his museum. We couldn’t go very far into it for whatever reason but some of his poems were displayed inside including his most famous one, The Road Not Taken.

We next visited Heinz’s home where we saw all all of the ketchup and mustard that he had ever made. After leaving the Heinz home we saw a person on a very old bike. He was doing a demonstration so we stopped to watch. He gave us some history on it and he showed us how he got onto the bike. He used a little metal part sticking out of the bike to hop onto and jump to his seat. How funny it was to watch him do it! He pedaled off and we waited but we started to chuckle when we realized he might not be coming back. He went to the end of the road and as we were walking away he took the entire intersection to turn around. It was hilarious to watch him do it! He came back and said goodbye and took of the other way again, finding somewhere else to do a demonstration! We looked at some more houses including Thomas Jefferson’s house and Henry Fords home itself. We were done looking at all the houses so we walked back into the museum before it closed and saw the most exciting stuff (kind of) of all. We walked in and went to the Black History section where the one and only bus that the famous Rosa Parks protested and was arrested. The renovation of it took a whopping 300,000 dollars, not including the amount of money that it took to buy the historical work itself. We walked inside and learned about it a little bit and one Japanese woman asked us to take a picture. The guide for that station to us that she was actually sitting in THE spot that Rosa sat in when she was pressed with her unfair charges! The very last thing we saw was the chair that Abe Lincoln was assassinated in. It was sad to see the blood that was stained into that old seat that he was sitting. After that we left to go home. They started closing when we walked into the gift shop. We couldn’t find anything that we liked so we left amazed at what Henry Ford had let us experience. Like I said, we weren’t going to downtown Detroit, so I guess that was the end of our trip there. If you have stayed with me this entire time thank you so much for reading, it took me an entire hour to type this adventure! Thanks!

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IF YOU ARE NEW to my blog, and you would like to learn a little more about my long adventure, come to my ABOUT section by clicking HERE

#Ford Museum     #History     #Museum

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Mackinac Island

Mackinac Island was for sure one of the highlights of my current 6 month adventure. After getting up early I opened my closet and got some fresh clothes to start the morning. Once I was up I met up with my family, all of whom were already up and sitting in the living room of our camper. I was very excited to go to Mackinac Island but I didn’t fully know what it was like there- no cars at all. I walked over to the cupboard and pulled out cereal and milk from the fridge and in only a half hour later everyone was ready to go. We walked outside and put in the password for the bike lock and pulled it from the bikes. We rode our bikes a short ways through the insanely large campground to the entrance. where we parked our bikes on the dirt. Only two of our bikes had kickstands so we leaned the others against a tree or a large rock. It took a while until the first bus got there bus got to our station but it was full and only two people could get on. Another 15 or 20 minutes went by before the next one came, and it was empty. We were the closest ones to the bus so we pushed our bikes towards the back trailer where the driver stood to put them onto the platform.

We were the first to get on the bus. When everyone got there bikes onto the platform and got seated (or stood wherever there was room) then the bus took off on its leisurely stroll of only about 30 MPH until it got to its seashore destination 20 or so miles away. We were the first seated so we were the last to get out, same with our bikes. My bike (the shiny gray one) was the very last one to be taken from its open compartment. After that we walked our bikes to the line that held somewhere close to 500 PEOPLE! luckily each of the giant boats held 200 or so people each. When the line finally narrowed down we put our bikes in and walked up 3 flights of stairs to get to the top. There were only 4 seats left, and exactly four seats left, and they were all next to each other so we all got lucky. On the 30 minute ride through not only Lake Michigan but also Lake Huron to get there. The water was constantly changing colors from greenish to bluish. When we finally got there we saw through the Hawaii-clear water that there used to be a dock were we were standing- Planks and poles made of wood were lying on the bottom! It was cool watching them slightly sway with the sand on the floor of the somewhat deep water that our boat was on until it was our turn to get off. We walked down the stairs with the crowd of people, all 3 stories, and then met up by the bikes on the gently-swaying dock we stood on. Once we had our bikes we explored. Not a single car. It was amazing and it was VERY hard to explain which why I chose the thumbnail (picture) that I did for today’s post. The basic version? It was amazing everywhere. All of the mail was picked up by horses and shipped off by boat. The island was modern day and it wasn’t a recreation, but it was the EXACT same as it would have been some time in the very early 1900’s.

The first thing we did was obviously bike around. We looked at the town, passed all the million dollar homes that were on the right (each one with their own beach) and to the 2-mile long bike path that went past all of the clear water that let the rocks be seen fully. After a while of biking past the trees and piles of stacked rock creations we finally hit a large stairway that we would need to climb up to in order to see some sort of island landmark. One of the signs pointed up and read GRAND ARCHWAY.

On the way up the very steep stairs my shoes started to start slipping; my shoe laces no longer stayed together. After all this I would NEED some new shoes. At the time it wasn’t really that bad, however it was annoying. Every couple of seconds my shoes bugged me so much I took them off and retied them. When we were finally at the top we saw some horses going down another road and the bridge over the arch on the left.

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#Mackinac Island     #Island     #Horses     #Biking

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