The beauty of Northern Michigan: Fall edition

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As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, this past weekend my friend and I took a road trip from the middle of Michigan to Wisconsin. We had three ways we could travel:

• We travel south through Chicago and then back up to Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
• We travel north through the upper peninsula of Michigan and then back south to Eau Claire
• We take the ferry across Lake Michigan which is pretty much a straight shot.

While option three probably would have been the most exciting, it required us to be at the ferry dock at 7:00 AM in the morning. Which is a good two and a half hours away from where we started our trip. Each of the options took pretty much the same amount of time, just shy of ten hours to reach our destination.

@a4xjeeper said he would rather take his chances with the traffic in the UP than the Chicago drivers, so north we headed!

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Heading north also meant we got to take in some of the beautiful fall colors that Michigan has to offer. We are just a little past the peak season depending on which area you are visiting. The ride up Interstate 23/75 was relatively uneventful with the exception of some light construction.

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As you can see, the colors were nothing short of amazing. Good thing my friend has a clean windshield so I could get some of these awesome shots!

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I was telling @tattoodjay in an earlier post that I used to think the red leaves were my favorite, but there has been something in the orange leaves this fall that is absolutely breath taking.

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I mean would you just look at that? Talk about amazing right?

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I made sure to take advantage of the sunlight while I could. As you can see, there were clouds ahead and that meant the chance for sun-kissed autumn trees would be few and far between.

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Things were really starting to cloud up by the time we made it to the straits and started crossing the Mackinac Bridge. Usually I am driving when we cross the bridge, so this was one of the rare occasions since being a child that I got to be the passenger.

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It gave me the opportunity to get some pretty cool shots with my smartphone.

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I feel like there is always some form of construction happening on the bridge. Whether they are painting it or doing something else, there is always maintenance to be performed. The Mackinac Bridge is one of the largest suspension bridges in the world. It is five miles long but doesn't hold the distinction of being the longest. Most suspension bridges are measured by the distance between the towers. So while the total distance of the bridge is five miles, the distance between the towers is shorter than that of the Golden Gate bridge, some bridge over in China, and a couple other ones.

Actually, according to Wikipedia The Mackinac Bridge sits at 27 on the list of longest suspension bridges when you just consider the distance between the towers.

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They hold many events throughout the year where special groups of enthusiasts get to convoy over the bridge. For example Jeep owners or VW Bug owners or Mini Cooper owners. Every Labor Day they also shut down a portion of the bridge so people can walk the full five miles across it. My grandma made the walk more than once while she was on this Earth.

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Just across the bridge we stopped to stretch our legs and to swap places so I could drive for a bit. It's safe to say @a4xjeeper's Chevy Silverado 3500 turbo diesel is a pretty sweet ride. I've never driven a diesel before and I have to admit it was a lot of fun. Not much different from driving my gasoline powered 2500 honestly, but having that turbo boost when you need it to pass people is really nice. Especially for such a large lumbering vehicle.

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We stopped in the small town of Manistique to get some lunch. This ended up being just about the halfway point for us on our trip. Clyde's is a local favorite that we stopped at for lunch. I think it was kind of an unspoken agreement that this is where we would end up for lunch. There are only three Clyde's locations in the world. All three of them are in the upper peninsula of Michigan.

One is just across the bridge in St. Ignace, but that one is usually quite packed with tourist traffic. The original one is further north in Sault Ste. Marie, but I think they close that one down after Labor Day.

The one in Manistique is probably my favorite one. It is usually far less busy than the one further east and the food is honestly just as good.

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All of the locations are very tiny inside. In fact, I think the original one doesn't even have interior seating. The other two have a short diner counter like you see here. I didn't want to be too obtrusive with my photos. Especially since the flat top they use to cook the burgers is right there past the napkin dispenser.

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This is it. The thing that keeps people coming back again and again. It may not look like much, but I promise you, this is one of the best burgers you will ever have. Skip the fries, they aren't worth it. If you have a big appetite, get the "Big C", .75 pounds of hand formed beef between two buns. It is heavenly!

I got my cheeseburger with everything minus the relish. They use a sweet relish with I don't really care for.

I think we set a record with how fast we were in and out of Clyde's. I virtually inhaled my burger and we were back on the road within 20 minutes of stopping.

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Eventually, we found ourselves on the back roads of Wisconsin. We actually ended up being really close to Poniatowski, WI which boasts a location that is "the exact center of the northern half of the western hemisphere.

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It's funny because many small towns in Michigan seem to follow the same blueprint: local store, church, post office, bar. That isn't the case in Wisconsin. Being the land of cheese and beer, you are more likely to see three bars in each small town and no church or post office.

I'm a big fan of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, so when I saw this sign by the side of the road, I had to stop and get a shot. Since PBR was born in Milwaukee, WI I am sure there are plenty of signs like this kicking around the state.

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Our ride home took us a slightly different route. We traveled through the twin towns of Marinette, WI and Menominee, MI. They are separated by the Menominee River that we are crossing in the photos above. If you look really closely, you can see some large gray military style ships docked in the river. My friend said they were coast guard ships, but I don't remember the coast guard ever having anything like that.

To me these looked decidedly more military. Something in the vein of a Freedom Class Littoral Ship if I had to guess. Actually, after zooming in on the higher quality photos, I am pretty positive that is what these two ships were.

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Lake Michigan was looking a bit choppy with some heavy winds and a significant snow storm rolling in. We kept the pedal to the floor and stayed ahead of it though.

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Just outside of Escanaba, MI I took this photo of the Little Bay de Noc. I can't remember if it was this bay or the Big Bay de Noc that @dswigle used to have a place on, but I figured I would get a shot just in case.

There you go! A marathon trip to Wisconsin and back. Twenty hours on the road across two days! I still have a couple of restaurant posts to share with you, but hope you enjoyed the pictures and seeing the autumn beauty of northern Michigan!

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Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports

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All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or @mrsbozz unless otherwise sourced