We packed up our stuff and departed Timberlake RV in Mears and took off for St. Ignace, MI, near the Straits of Mackinac. The straits are actually a really wide (5 miles!) opening between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron without any locks or dams in the way. The strait is crossed by driving over the Mackinac Bridge, which is a big hefty Jose with 8900 feet between the cable anchorages making it the longest suspension bridge section in the western hemisphere. With the causeways and cantilevered sections thrown in the bridge is just a couple hundred feet shy of 5 miles.
St. Ignace, a name that somehow has mutated into “Saint Ignatz” in my tiny, jumbled brain, sits on the eastern side of the Upper Peninsula. Just a couple miles away to the east is Mackinac Island. South of the bridge is a town called and spelled Mackinaw City. According to the locals, both Mackinac and Mackinaw are pronounced identically as Mackinaw. I am starting to suspect that spelling and similar conventions within the English language have scant attention paid to them here in Michigan and that spelling bees must be a source of continuous disappointment, contention and frustration. To make things worse, there is an old fort preserved on the outskirts of Mackinaw City that is called Michilimackinac, about which I can only speculate on the pronunciation.
After about a five-hour drive, we crossed the M(pronunciation deleted) Bridge and turned into the Castle Rock Lakefront Campground at the north end of St. Ignatz. It is a nice little privately-owned campground with full hookups, good access to highways, no cell phone service through our beloved provider nor TV reception of any type. There is a nearby casino and the town of St. Ignatz starts about a half mile from the park. St. Ignatz has a quite pretty main drag with a full selection of tourist-related resort-type amenities designed to separate visitors from their dollars in an expeditious fashion. It is $18 to take a passenger ferry ride to Mackinac Island where the tourist/dollar winnowing machine kicks into high gear. We found pretty reasonable fuel prices but there is one viable grocery store in town so bring your own vittles if RVing on a budget. Better yet, if RVing on a budget, go elsewhere and have a better time. There is a tendency of the locals to overstate the brilliance of their local attractions so people will come to this place. The terrain is repetitive and sort of monotonous. The architecture is nominal. There are large distances between things, like stores, towns and attractions.