Wednesday, 10 July 2019
This is a much nicer campground than the previous two, so I asked for 2 more nights here. The owner's daughter has a lab/boxer mix that, she says, acts like my dogs so she well-understood my need for being able to get the dogs to a place where they could walk without meeting many others along the way. She showed me on the campground map which sites I could expect to see a dog before I made it to the common areas, and even warned the other dog owners that I had a pair of over-exuberant dogs that meant no harm. I sure can't ask for more than that.
The campground seems very well run; it's clean and organized. There's a pond in the middle, that my campsite backs up to and, because they keep it stocked with catch-and-release fish, they keep it aerated with a fountain that runs 24/7. This morning when I woke up I thought it was raining at first till I realized I was hearing that fountain.
Michigan license plates
 |
| standard plate since 2013 |
 |
| "Spectacular Peninsulas" since 2007 |
 |
| 2013-2014 |
 |
| "Mackinac Bridge" since 2014 |
The standard plate is the one I see most often, but the others are quite common.
The "Spectacular Peninsulas" image is busier than it might appear: it includes pieces of the skylines of Detroit, Grand Rapids, Lansing and Flint, as well as Michigan forests, all 5 of the Great Lakes, and the Mackinac Bridge.
The yellow version of the "Mackinac Bridge" plate replaced the orange version - done for greater visibility. But the orange version is still around. Michigan replaces its plates every 10 years, so the orange version still has 4 or 5 more years to go before they're phased out.
By the way, for those who don't know, "Mackinac" is pronounced MACK-in-aw. (You'd be amazed how long it took me to work that out - I thought they were 2 separate words - one pronounced -nak and the other pronounced -naw.)
Speaking of the bridge, it occurred to me that I might want to get some advance information about it, after that truly terrifying experience I had crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Maryland (5 months later and I still haven't forgotten). And sure enough, the Mackinac Bridge is likely to be much worse. It's more than a half-mile longer - almost 5 miles long - and I am really not at all sure I could make it across such a distance safely. I could try driving only in the left-hand lane, but I'm still not sure I could do it.
It's hard to describe the sense of terror this situation brings on for me, because I know it's irrational. I'm not thinking the bridge will collapse or anything like that. I have this problem in tunnels, too. There's just something about driving at any speed above about 25 mph while trying to stay in one traffic lane with little to no shoulder (i.e. margin for error) for a long distance that I find difficult.
I don't really have this trouble on ordinary bridges, because I can see that the end is literally in sight. But these ultra-long ones - can you see 5 miles ahead? (We're not talking flat west Texas landscape here.) And of course I can't go anything remotely like 25 mph - I'm not sure with the traffic it'd be safe to go even as low as 40 mph. And I can't take the method I used crossing the bridge at Cape Cod where I straddled the lanes, because that was a short bridge and the traffic could wait that long. I can't take up parts of both lanes for 5 miles.
So I did some more research and found that Michigan has realized there are people like me in the world who must be more pitied than censured*, because they offer a Drivers Assistance Program that will drive you across for free. I hope they offer it to RV drivers too. I'll check on it later.
* That phrase is from a song my momma used to sing, that's clearly a song from when she was young. The lyrics go something like this:
She is more to be pitied than censured.
She is more to be helped than despised.
She is only a lassie who ventured
On life's stormy path ill-advised.
Do not scorn her with words fierce and bitter.
Do not laugh at her shame and downfall.
For a moment just stop and consider
That a man was the cause of it all.
No comments:
Post a Comment