Why, you might reasonably ask, would I plan to spend the night in Alpena, Michigan? Before I answer this question, I want to introduce this trip’s music identification contest. Beginning with the previous entry, each post will have one or more references to a song written or recorded by a single artist relevant to at least a portion of this journey. Your challenge is to identify the artist and as many of the songs as you can. There may be other musical references and you may be able to find other artists who have covered the song or find different songs that have the same title but only those by this lone artist are relevant to the contest.
The rules and prizes will be akin to those of past challenges.
- Submit your entry within 48 hours of the publication of the final post via email or Twitter (X) DM.
- I will make a donation (amounts to be determined) in their honor to the U.S. charitable organization designated by the top three finishers.
- Lyrics and titles might appear as exact quotes or they might be modified but the source should still recognizable. Keep in mind that the message of the song from which the lyrics are drawn might or might not be directly related to the content of the post. (Special note: The four closing posts detail my visit to the Motown Museum and trace the history of many of the artists associated with that label. Songs tracing their careers are not part of the contest. Contest references are hidden in the text of the posts.)
- Finally, there is one song reference that I won’t reveal but will use in the event of a tie. Here’s a clue, though: the phrase appears more than once throughout this series.
- If you’re new to the site and don’t have my email or X, post a comment and I will respond to the email shown there.
Now, as for why Alpena, much of the answer has to do with timing, logistics, and having an incomplete picture when I made my initial reservations.
My flight from Baltimore had its scheduled arrival a little past 14:00. Add to that the time needed to deplane and ride the shuttle to the car rental lot to complete that transaction and I anticipated my optimal departure from Detroit’s airport would be between 14:45 and 15:00. According to Google Maps, driving directly to Mackinaw City from Detroit requires four and a half hours which would make my optimal arrival at 19:30. (For me it would have been even a bit later because I anticipated needing at least two rest stops and because I’d drive a bit slower than the posted 75 miles per hour speed limit.) On the last weekend in October, the last scheduled ferry to Mackinac Island, my true destination, departs at 17:30. Thus, even if every connection and transaction transpired optimally, I’d still have to spend the night somewhere on the Mitten’s mainland.
(According to The Map Room, “The lower peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan is often called the mitten, for its resemblance to a human hand, and apparently Michiganders indicate where they’re from by using their hands as a rudimentary map of the state.” A chap named John Nelson made this clever and slightly disturbing explanatory video.)
Finding things to do
Regular readers know that as I prepare for a trip I use the internet as a resource to find places I might like to see or visit. One of my favorite such sites for trips through the U.S. is Roadside America (RA) and, of course, Atlas Obscura (AO) is helpful both at home and abroad. For this trip I discovered a site called Travel the Mitten. These three became my main mapping resources.
Knowing I’d have to return to Mackinaw City after my stay on the island, and believing I’d be able to see what I wanted to see there at that time, I sought a different place to stop that might have some points of interest. Sometimes, these websites lead me only to a single photo op and RA suggested two such places in Alpena – this 3D fish mural in the city center
and the giant bald eagle head in front of the Besser Museum –
a museum that itself looked like it could be worth visiting.
But, for me, the real attraction Alpena held was the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center inside the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. (The latter also bore an imprimatur from AO.) In the previous post, I mentioned that the Great Lakes often behave like oceans and, while the Gordon Lightfoot song memorialized the famous 1975 Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior, the area of Lake Huron called Thunder Bay has been nicknamed “Shipwreck Alley. Nearly 100 shipwrecks dating from 1849 to 1966 have been identified within the area of the sanctuary. According to RA, ‘The Center’s featured exhibit is “Exploring the Shipwreck Century.” It promises visitors that they can “feel a Great Lakes storm, and touch the massive timbers of a boat resting on the lake bottom without getting wet.'” Between this and the Besser Museum, Alpena seemed like a worthwhile place to stop.
But…
If I composed the sections above well, the ‘but’ that heads this new section should have been implied and come as no surprise. I’d initially hoped that because Michigan is closer to central time than Washington I’d arrive in Alpena with enough daylight remaining to take the photos you see above. Alas, a combination of highway construction, rain, and rest stops delayed my arrival until well after the sun had set.
However, I’d already received a notice that prompted a change in my plans. By the end of the first week in August, I’d secured all the arrangements for this excursion – flights, rental car, and hotels. While I knew the Somewhere in Time (SiT) event at Grand Hotel was scheduled for Friday and Saturday, I’d assumed (a mistake I should have learned not to make from Benny Hill)
that the activities would begin sometime after lunch Friday. (The assumption was based on Grand Hotel having a two night SiT package and a check-in time after 14:00.) However, on 20 October, I received and email from Grand Hotel showing that the SiT events began at noon Friday. Had I known further in advance I might have left a day earlier, done my Alpena sightseeing Thursday, and either arrived on Mackinac Island Thursday night or taken the early ferry Friday morning so I could have had the full experience. Alas, like my planned visits to the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center and the Besser Museum (which I didn’t decide to fully eschew until I awoke Friday morning), this was not to be.
After driving to the center of Alpena to take the photo of the fish mural, I parked my car near this chap.
And, seeing a few others like him as I walked through the downtown area, I wondered why the town seemed so keen on celebrating Halloween. Perhaps the town has skeletons in their closets itching to come outside. Likely it made more sense to view Halloween as the last chance to have an outdoor celebration because by Thanksgiving there would almost certainly be no tourists in the area and weather would likely confine those celebrations indoors.
That morning I reaffirmed my decision to skip the museums, took my photos, and went directly to Mackinaw City where I’d park my car for the duration of my stay on Mackinac Island. Although I’d see an ambulance while I was walking about the town Saturday, the general rule is that cars and related types of motorized transportation aren’t allowed on the island and haven’t been since 1898. Thus, when I disembarked from the ferry, I was (as you would be, too) greeted by this sight or something similar
and, at least for much of my stay there, the prevalence of a strong scent of horse manure. (I was told that during the high season, the streets are cleaned more frequently and assiduously.) Visitors and residents traverse the island by foot, bicycle, or horse drawn taxi so once you step off the ferry you are, in many ways, stepping back into an earlier era. Of course, cell phones, computers, and some of the other trappings of the 21st century are present but, if you permit yourself the leisure, you can feel transported to a slower more serene time.
Knowing that the hotel would pick up my suitcase from the ferry dock, I chose, despite the light rain, to walk along the shore of Lake Huron for a bit before proceeding to Grand Hotel and beginning the SiT segment of this journey.
I’ll begin reporting on that in the next post. Meanwhile, you can amuse yourselves with the rest of the photos I took by using this link.