September 15, 2025 (Mon.) - Rest, chores
After a whirlwind of activity lately, today was all about rest and catching up—especially on the blog. Lynn was up early at 7:15 AM, ready to dive into photo sorting and writing, but by 8 AM, Starlink dropped out, putting blogging on pause.
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Kirk was also up early, making calls to RV technicians and checking if our Good Sam membership would cover the leaf spring repair. No surprise—it didn’t. So far, that membership hasn’t delivered a single benefit.
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Once the internet came back mid-morning, Lynn got back to blogging and chores while Kirk went full-on RV repair mode: calling techs, contacting the manufacturer for part numbers, and eventually ordering the parts himself. Thanks to some savvy internet sleuthing, he found leaf springs for $75 each, compared to the manufacturer’s price of several hundred—and a 5-week wait. The company he found can ship in just a few days, so he ordered two (one as a spare or perhaps change the other side also). Worst case, Kirk may end up doing the replacement himself.
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In the afternoon, Lynn got sidetracked by a scam call pretending to be from American Express. It sounded legit at first, but after some digging, she realized it was a scam—complete with a fake story about illegal firearm purchases and a transfer to the “FBI.” That was the red flag. We hung up, but lost 20 minutes we’ll never get back. Ugh.
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The evening wrapped up with a peaceful walk around the campground. Lynn got another aurora alert at 9:45 PM, though it said visibility was “unlikely.” Some users had reported sightings nearby, so we stepped outside just in case. No luck this time, but it was still a lovely, low-key day.
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Weather – High 71*, Low 59*. Wind 6-17 mph. No rain, no humidity.
Traffic – None.
Food – Nothing notable.
Notable – Finding RV parts cheaper and faster than direct from Grand Design.
September 16, 2025 (Tue.) - Mackinac Island, The Grand Hotel
Today was our long-awaited trip to Mackinac Island. We’d bought ferry tickets a few days ago and heard Tuesdays are the least crowded, so we planned accordingly. Ferry tickets were $37 each, round trip.
Lynn was up at 6:00 AM, Kirk at 7:15, and we were out the door by 8:00 to catch the 8:30 Shepler’s Ferry. We got a little turned around trying to find the right day-use parking lot and ended up in a permit-only lot for employees. But it was spacious and fit the truck, so we parked anyway—fingers crossed there’s no ticket waiting for us. A quick call summoned the shuttle, which arrived without issue and we made the 8:30 ferry! Walked right on without any waiting!
Lynn’s main goal for the day was to visit The Grand Hotel, but we were open to exploring whatever caught our eye.
She took her Less Drowsy Dramamine before leaving the RV, and the 15-minute ferry ride was smooth—though a bit brisk with temps in the low 50s at departure. We chose seats on the open-air upper deck to help if Lynn started feeling queasy. With a forecast in the 70s, we packed light to avoid hauling extra layers around the island.
First stop: breakfast. We found a cozy lakeside spot called Watercolor Cafe. Kirk had a chorizo breakfast burrito, Lynn a breakfast sandwich. Kirk definitely won this round—the burrito was spicy, flavorful, and delicious.
After breakfast, we stopped at the Visitor’s Center and decided to take a carriage tour to see the island’s highlights. We chose the “best value” package ($73/person), which included multiple stops and admission to several attractions. Our tour was scheduled for 10:50 AM, so we wandered Main Street, did a little shopping, and got in line early when they called for our group.
Fun fact: There are no cars on Mackinac Island. Transportation is limited to walking, biking (not Lynn’s favorite), horse-drawn taxis (must be called, you cannot hail one), and horse-drawn carriages (group tour, private tour or self-ridden).
Carriage tour highlights:
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Ride through historic streets and buildings
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Surrey Hill Museum: includes the Wings of Mackinac Butterfly Conservatory, Blacksmith Shop, and Grand Hotel Carriage House
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Arch Rock: quick photo stop
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Fort Mackinac: full tour included
Stop #1 of the tour begins with a smaller carriage pulled by two horses. Once you reach Surrey Hill (Stop #2), you transfer to a larger carriage drawn by three horses. After exploring the attractions at Surrey Hill, you can hop on the next available carriage to continue the tour. We visited the Wings of Mackinac Butterfly Conservatory, which was included in our ticket. It reminded us of the butterfly house in Sioux Falls, SD, but thankfully without the hot, humid “sauna” feel. From there, we checked out the Blacksmith Shop and toured the Grand Hotel Carriage House, where they keep the horses and carriages used by the hotel.
After a snack and some gift shop browsing, we hopped on the next available carriage and continued the tour to Arch Rock (Stop #3), where we had about 8 minutes to hop off and snap photos then hop back on.
Our last carriage stop was Fort Mackinac, which we toured since admission was included in our package. After exploring the fort, you have two options: hop on another carriage (space permitting) to return to Surrey Hill and catch the 2-horse carriage back to Main Street, or take a short walk to The Grand Hotel and make your way back from there at your own pace. We chose the short scenic walk (about 5 minutes).
Lynn was excited to visit the hotel, especially since it was featured in one of her favorite movies from the ’80s—“Somewhere in Time”, which we had just rewatched. We first wandered the hotel a bit, looking at the vibrant floral decor and snapping pics of the world’s largest porch. The Grand Hotel’s porch is 660 feet long with views of the Mackinac Bridge and Lake Huron. There’s also a portion of the hotel with commemorative memorabilia from the two notable movies filmed there: Somewhere in Time (1980) and This Time for Keeps (1947). The hotel has a commemorative plaque for a scene from “Somewhere in Time”, but it’s actually located on the shoreline where the actual scene was filmed, not near the hotel itself. Thankfully, the Concierge pointed us in the right direction, saving us a lot of wandering.
Upon leaving the hotel, we noticed a sign stating that there’s a $12 admission fee for non-guests, but no one seemed to be enforcing it. Oops! After a short hike to the shoreline, we found the movie plaque, took a few photos, and walked back to Main Street—about a 10-minute walk. By then, it was 2 PM, and we were tired and warm as it was in the 70s and sunny. Throughout our shopping travels, we kept looking for a big backpack to purchase to hold our jackets and Kirk mentioned they should provide lockers for peoples’ stuff. We didn’t find a decent backpack anywhere and continued to carry them awkwardly.
We grabbed a late lunch at Mary’s Bistro, a waterfront spot we stumbled into out of sheer exhaustion. Food was pretty good. We decided we were done for the day but then we realized—we hadn’t gotten any fudge! Mackinac Island is famous for it, so we stopped at Ryba’s Fudge Shops (we chose this one because it was the first one we came to) and picked up:
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Peanut butter, chocolate, and vanilla fudge
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Pecan turtles (Kirk said they were the best ever)
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Peanut clusters (Lynn’s pick)
Loaded down with fudge, t-shirts, stickers, and jackets, we headed to the ferry dock. Of course, as we walked to the docks, there it was…a full bank of lockers that you can rent for the day!! Ugh, just our luck. We didn’t notice them when we got off the ferry the first time! Our 3:30 PM ferry didn’t leave until 4:00 (delayed for some reason), and Lynn, feeling the Dramamine, slept through the ride back. Good news, no ticket at the parking lot!
Back at the RV, Otis was chilling as usual. We’d been gone from 8 AM to nearly 5 PM, but he did great. Lynn’s nap at 5 PM turned into another marathon snooze—just enough time to wake up, eat, shower, and head back to bed.
It was a long, exhausting day, but we logged over 12,000 steps and had an amazing time exploring Mackinac Island. Definitely a worthy stop.
Weather – High 71*, Low 56*. Wind 4-10 mph. No rain, no humidity.
Traffic – None.
Food – Watercolor Cafe (Chorizo breakfast burrito), Ryba’s Fudge (Turtles, Peanut Clusters).
Notable – Mackinac Island, The Grand Hotel.
