Cruising into Marquette

I woke up to the sound of waves slapping the beach and the squawk of sea gulls.  Lake Huron may not be an ocean, but it sure acts like one.  What a great alarm clock.  After a great breakfast at Darrow's Family Restaurant we crossed over the Mackinac Bridge, officially entering the upper peninsular area of Michigan.  The weather was pleasant, mild and mostly overcast.  The view from the bridge was excellent.  Once on the other side we followed RT 2 along the shore of Lake Michigan.  It was easy driving and things were going along fine.  Any traffic behind us could pass easily, although, according to the GPS we were moving along at 52MPH.  Not bad considering the speed limit was 55.

We were traveling along and I was just checking out the scenery when Mike radioed that he thought his alternator was acting up.  We pulled over at a small convenience store and Mike noticed the fan belt was loose.  He tightened the alternator and we were back on the road with everything getting back to normal.  However, within a few minutes I heard a funny sound and soon noticed my temperature gauge creeping up.  It wasn't long before I had to call Mike to tell him to pull over as something was wrong.  It didn't take long to see the broken fan belt.  I was able to grab one of my spares and within short order we were back on the road.

When we made the turn to Marquette on RT 28 we found out how rural this part of the country is.  We traveled for many miles without any signs of civilization.  We eventually pulled into Munising and made a strategic stop at the Frozen Flamingo for a well deserved ice cream break.

Leaving Munising we were now able to get our first view of Lake Superior.  We followed the shore for most of the way to Marquette.  Arriving at the hotel we parked under a sign welcoming us to the MAFCA convention and got settled into our room.  Dinner was next door to the hotel at Hudson's, which is a restaurant that has a Hudson car/garage motif.

Tomorrow we will do some laundry and get registered for the convention.