DAY 37
Week 6
GREEN BAY (Wisconsin, USA) to DETROIT (Michigan, USA)
Thursday July 27th, 2006
TODAYS MILEAGE – 554 miles or 892 kilometres
TRIP MILEAGE – 5095 miles or 8200 kilometres
Detroit rock city - we'll see!!! 
I think today's was the longest leg of the trip so far. I covered over 550 miles fairly easily, without taxing the Man Pad too much. I think the drop in ambient temperatures is agreeing with the RV.
The first leg of the trip was from Green Bay (Wisconsin) to Mackinac Island (Michigan), about 250 miles to the North. I was on the road by about 7AM, which I reckon is a great time to be getting up to watch the countryside waking up. It also helps that there was no traffic out as well.
To get over to Mackinac Island, you need to take a ferry. At $20-00 per person, and $7-50 for a bicycle, I thought that this was one of the most expensive 15 minute ferry rides I've ever taken. Rip off would be more closer to the truth, but you generally charge what the market will bear.
Mackinac Island was first settled in the 1600's and shortly there after became a fort and defensive position. There are no motorized vehicles allowed on the island, so you either hoof it on foot, ride a push bike or use the old horse and cart. It's the only island I've ever been on that this is the case and I like it.
The powers that be have done a great job on making the visit to the Fort as realistic and authentic as possible. I also enjoyed checking out the period homes that surrounded the ferry terminal, they were immaculate.
The other side of the coin is that it's a real tourist trap. I read somewhere that you should go and check out the Grand Hotel. I was looking forward to a spot of lunch a the hotel, but after I was accosted by the person at the gate who demanded I pay $12-00 just to walk through the gates, do you want to hazard a guess as to what my reaction was???
Who ever heard of paying an admission to look at a hotel, not me. The rest of the island was like that as well. I got the impression that the soul purpose of the traders on the island was to extract as much as they could from ones wallet. Disappointing really.
A highlight of the day was that inadvertently I had stumbled across the worlds longest main span bridge that stretches 8614 feet (2.62 kilometres), the Mackinac Bridge, that joins Michigan's two peninsulas.
From there, I pushed on and covered the 300 odd miles into Detroit through some rain storms. By far, Michigan has the best roadside stops that I've ever seen. This is tempered by having the rudest drivers I've shared the road with.
I'm was more than a bit nervy spending the night here at the Livonia Walmart Supercenter on 7 Mile Road. I got situated and then turned the news on and watched the lead story. 3 people were shot and killed on their front porch about a mile away from here. I thought "great, I've landed in a fuckin' war zone". It didn't help that while making dinner, a rent-a-cop knocks on the door asking what I'm doing. I told him that Walmart allows overnight RV camping. He say's I'm the first one he's seen in 5 years of working the night shift.
He did also say that the police come by quite regularly. My reaction??? I slept with my Glock pistol on one side of the bed and an attitude adjuster on the other. I ended up tossing an turning all night and was up whenever I heard a noise, talk about a restless night's sleep. One good thing was that it was raining lightly all night which tends to keep the crims indoors.
That's it for the day, check ya tomorrow.
• MACKINAC ISLAND (Michigan, USA)
• MACKINAC BRIDGE (Michigan, USA)