Google trekker captures fascinating vistas of the Mighty Mac in Michigan
By Emma Palova
EW Emma’s Writings
I crossed the Mackinac Bridge many times over the last two decades. I never walked it during the annual Labor Day walk, and I haven’t been to the top of the masts or below the bridge. I am afraid of open heights, and I don’t know if the Mackinac Bridge Authority would let me climb up there.
But, other than the top or below the bridge, I’ve taken photos of it from just about any angle including from a ferry to Mackinac Island, from both shores of Upper and Lower peninsulas. The bridge is so magnificent that you get a clear view of it from the island.
And here is what Google did.
Google trekker provides fascinating vistas on the featured photo above from one of the Mackinac Bridge’s masts. Volunteers climbed through the trunk in the mast much like in a submarine to the top with the 40-pound Google trekker device. They walked around with the device on their backs, while 15 lenses in the globe of the device took fascinating shots of the Mackinac Bridge and the area, as presented in a video “Pure Michigan.”
Below are traditional photos of the five-mile long Mackinaw Bridge in Michigan by Emma Palova.
Driving on the Mighty Mac in Michigan.Mackinaw Bridge from the Lower Peninsula view.
View of the Mackinaw Bridge from the Upper Peninsula.
The last time I crossed the bridge was in November of 2014 as the first snow fell on the bridge deck. The ride across the five-mile long bridge is creepy, and many drivers take the service offered by the bridge authority, even truck drivers. Bridge drivers will take you across.
If there are high winds, the bridge gets closed.
Here are some bridge facts from mackinac.com
Mackinac Bridge
The bridge was designed by the great engineer David B. Steinman and opened on November 1, 1957. The structure took 48 months to complete with over 3, 500 workers and $99,800,000 dollars. Also know as the “Big Mac” or the “Mighty Mac”, the bridge stretches 8,614 feet making it the fourth longest suspension bridge in the world. With a total span of about 5 miles, the Mackinac Bridge connects the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan uniting the communities of Mackinaw City and St. Ignace, Michigan. The main bridge cables are made from 42,000 miles of wire and the towers stand 554 feet above the water and 210 feet below to the bedrock. The engineering of the Mackinac Bridge was designed to accommodate the high winds, temperature changes and constant changes of weight. In severe conditions the deck at center span could move up to 35 feet. Under more subtle conditions, the deck could move slowly in one direction based on the force and direction of the winds.
Fun bridge construction facts
* 89,000 blueprints and structural drawings were made
* 71,300 tons of structural steel
* 931,000 tons of concrete
* 42,000 miles of cable wire
* 4,851,700 steel rivets
* 1,016,600 steel bolts
* 350 engineers
* 522 feet tall
* 1,024,500 tons in total weight
* 7,500 men and women that worked in quarries, shops, mills
* 1951 Chevrolet Styleine Deluxe owned by Albert Carter was the first car to cross the Mackinac Bridge
The annual Mackinac Bridge Walk is held every year on Labor Day. Two lanes of traffic are closed and 50-80,000 people, all led by the Governor of Michigan walk together over the bridge. Bicycles are prohibited on the Mackinac Bridge, however the Big Mac Shoreline tour is held in June and September, which takes its participants for a trip over the bridge. During the summer months, the Mackinac Bridge has become a major diverse tourist destination for bridge enthusiasts, bird-watchers and photographers.
Bridge fares begin at $2 per axle and increase from there. Fares are subject to change without notice.
Note: This is the fourth installment in a feature series about Inspiring Women. It is dedicated to all women who are trying to make a difference and better other people’s lives, as well as their own. In putting together this feature series, I was inspired by several moments in life that in particular stand out.
No.1 A dedication of a Relax, mind, body & soul book by Barbara Heller from my son Jake: “I dedicate this to my inspiring and motivational mother.” Kuba
No. 2 While on a story before Mother’s Day, I dropped in at Ace Bernard Hardware to talk about the prizes with owner Charlie Bernard. We talked also about the Lowell Area Chamber and its director Liz Baker.
“You know what I like about Liz, she keeps re-inventing herself,” Bernard said.
No. 3 Again on a story for the International Women’s Day I talked to Sow Hope president Mary Dailey Brown.
“If you want to make a difference in this world, seriously consider helping impoverished women. Helping women is the key to unlocking poverty.”
No. 4 At a parents teacher conference at Cherry Creek Elementary in Lowell in mid 1990s: “Mrs. Pala, we do not give up,” teacher Karen Latva said.
Lowell woman completes North Country Trail to memorialize daughter
Name: Gail Lowe
Occupation: retired intensive care nurse
Residence: Lowell
Hobbies & Interests: hiking, reading, writing
By Emma Palova
EW Emma’s Writings
Lowell, MI – It’s never easy to lose a parent, but to lose a child is a traumatic event beyond imagination.
Gail Lowe calls herself “Hiker Babe”, and she truly is a veteran hiker of 10,000 miles with just one fear left. And that is she won’t be able to hike anymore because of aging and related health reasons.
Gail Lowe on a mission walk in memory of daughter.
On Thanksgiving of last year, Lowe completed the most difficult hike of her life. It was “Becka’s Hike” to memorialize her daughter Rebecca Carrie Lyons, 46, who died of breast cancer in May of 2013.
Lowe is working on a book “My Best for Becka” about the end of her daughter’s life.
“It’s like opening a scar and an old wound,” she said. “It’s very difficult.”
It is Lowe’s hope, that the book will help the grieving process and foster personal growth.
“Becka’s biggest fear was that she would be forgotten,” Lowe said. “I wanted to make sure that would never come true.”
Rebecca Carrie Lyons
So, Lowe embarked on a 4,600-mile long hike of the North Country Trail (NCT) on March 18, 2014. She wanted to complete it as a thru hike which means in one season.
“It was a hike with a mission,” she said.
Lowe had previously hiked twice the Appalachian Trail which is only half as long as the NCT.
One of the most difficult parts of the hike was in the western half of the Upper Peninsula, where the trail was overgrown.
“I had to do a lot of bushwhacking,” she said. “I was attacked by a raptor. I saw two wolves and bears.”
Lowe who has also hiked in Alaska, said, the UP part of the trail was much more remote than the one in Alaska.
On the other hand, probably the easiest part of the hike was through North Dakota.
“People welcomed me immediately,” she said. “I was dreading hiking there, but it was easy and it is a beautiful state.”
Victorious Gail Lowe at the end of 4,600 mile hike.
But, what was even more difficult than the length of the hike, was the extreme solitude. Lowe said that on the other trails people camp at night and share shelters together.
“I was it, there were no other hikers,” she said. “The loneliness was overwhelming.”
To fight the loneliness, Lowe went to as many towns as she could to meet with the locals and to reach out to them.
And that was mutual, because Lowe had the help of more than 100 “trail angels.” Trail angels are people who help hikers either with shelter, food or transportation from the trail to towns and back.
“The hike was truly blessed. People took me in for the night,” she said. “It was mind-boggling. Sometimes they did meet me along the way.”
Staying in a tent at 20 F would have been hard, if it wasn’t for the Methodists who opened their doors to Lowe.
“They truly practice their faith,” she said.
Lowe had planned her hike to start and to finish in Ohio. Three couples helped her by taking her back and forth between the trail and the town, so Lowe didn’t have to carry the “rock” or the big backpack.
“I could just use the day pack for four to five days,” she said.
Even though by now after thousands of miles of hiking, Lowe has it down to a science. She carries 26 to 28 pounds on her back.
She averaged 30 to 35 miles a day, before her health became an issue. Lowe came down with mononucleosis and had to make three trips to three different emergency rooms. Her average mileage was down to 15 miles.
“I was exhausted with respiratory infections,” she said. “There really is no treatment for it. I took massive doses of vitamin c.”
Mission accomplished
Against all odds including the nasty 2014 weather, Lowe finished the thru hike in one year as the only woman in the USA. She received major publicity including TV, NPR radio and 40 to 50 articles.
“It was a combination of being the first woman to do it in one hiking season and in memory of my daughter,” Lowe said. “I asked myself how do I want to finish this hike.”
Lowe wanted a quiet finish just between her and Becka. That’s why she planned the last two miles on Thanksgiving Day.
“I could sneak in under the radar and have the type of finish I wanted,” she said.
But, Lowe also wanted to know that Becka was with her all along.
“I told myself if I find a quarter on the ground I would know Becka was with me,” she said.
On the last two miles of the last day, Lowe looked down and found a quarter.
“That was a message she was with me,” Lowe said. “The outcome of the hike is that the entire nation is aware of Becka. The mission was accomplished.”
Her major motivation for a hike that took 8.5 months to complete remained Becka.
“I consider myself a bad ass in hiking,” Lowe said. “I almost drowned, had a surgery and encountered a man with a gun. But knowing that it was in Becka’s memory carried me all along.”
Lowe’s advice to those thinking about hiking the trail is not to tackle it in one season.
“The mileage is daunting,” she said. “There are unmarked areas and the solitude, it can be overwhelming. Give it at least two years.”
Because northern Michigan still had snow in May, Lowe had to turn back to Ohio and hike east and wait for Michigan to thaw.
How did Lowe succeed in spite of all the challenges?
She trained for two months before the hike walking 10 miles a day with an over weighted backpack.
Lowe turned 65 on the NCT hike on Sept. 4th, and she still wants to hike the Continental Divide trail to be the first woman with a quintuple crown award.
Gail Lowe shows a quarter as a message from her daughter
“Hiking is my passion, my church,” she said. “I feel closer to higher power. It has given me strength, freedom and confidence. It has come with tears, sorrow and joy. My trail name is Chosen. I am living out my destiny.”
Lowe said she will do the Continental Divide trail ASAP, before the aging process takes over and makes it impossible.
“My hiking days are numbered,” she said. “I have learned that it’s not the best motivator just pounding out miles, but the most inspirational was the kindness of the people and making lifelong friends. I could feel love coming over me like an ocean of love washing over me.”
Lowe says about herself that she is not religious, but she is spiritual.
“None of us does a hike like this alone,” she said. “I can picture a chain of people holding hands and those are the people who came out. I didn’t do it alone.”
Lowe calls her hikes pilgrimages.
“It’s a time to reflect, it gives insight and introspection,” she said. “The greatest fun is succeeding at your goal, finishing what you start. It gives me incredible accomplishment and confidence.”
Lowe ignores negative people in order to accomplish her goals.
“It’s my responsibility to step over them and keeping my eye on the goal and not let them affect my ability of moving forward,” she said. “I’ve become strong mentally, physically and spiritually.”
Lowe’s final advice:
“Don’t quit, no matter what.”
However, as far as the grieving process itself, Lowe says there is no closure on grieving, ever.
“Becka was my best friend, and when all was said and done, we both forgave each other everything and loved each other dearly,” Lowe said. “I miss being able to do the simple things with her like talking on the phone, going out to eat together, going “thrifting” at thrift shops, travelling together, and listening to her sing at karaoke. She lived for music and had an amazing voice! I miss being able to touch her and kiss her face.”
NCT runs through Fallasburg Park in Kent County, Michigan.
Since the establishment of NCT in 1980, only five men have completed a thru hike of the trail and Lowe was the sixth person, and the only woman in the USA.
NCTA executive director Bruce Matthews said Lowe’s hike elevates the awareness of the North Country Trail.
“It fires people’s imagination and makes the trail more accessible to women,” he said. “It expands the horizon. It is unusual to complete it in one season.”
Matthews hopes that the experience Lowe has had will inspire other people to follow in her footsteps.
“You have to be prepared,” he said. “NCT is different from the Appalachian or the Pacific trails.”
What distinguishes NCT from the other trails is that it runs through different environments, and it does not follow a mountain range.
“Trail angels will be looking for you ready to help,” he said. “You can share experiences and volunteers make the routes more scenic.
On the theme of the extreme solitude on the trail, Matthews said:
“Solitude is part of the NCT experience,” he said.
On the psychology aspect of the strenuous hike, Dr. Daniel Ehnis, professor at Cornerstone University, said that taking on this challenge aids the healing process in a few ways:
“First of all, it helps the mother to do something extreme and distracting, rather than sitting by helplessly.
Second, the mother’s agony and suffering helps her transfer her psychological pain into physical pain. The physical discomfort can be easier to manage than the emotional turmoil from the loss.
Finally, her daughter’s wish to not be forgotten would take something extraordinary to honor that request.”
Lowell, – I make my home in Lowell, a small town in the Midwest. It lies at the crossroads of two major waterways, the Flat River in the northeast and the Grand River in the southern part.
What I’ve always liked about this hometown is the people who live here. They are down to earth folks who earn their living the hard way. Many of them work two part-time low paying jobs with no benefits.
The median family income is around $40,000.
Lowell rowing team on the Flat River.
But, what is most fascinating about Lowell are the people who care about each other. They get together to rejoice and celebrate their successes as in the annual Lowell Area Chamber membership gathering that awards the Person of the Year.
They mourn together when a great citizen passes such as recently Ray Zandstra, and many others who have made a difference in the community.
And in order not to forget community giants like Ivan Blough, the people of Lowell establish foundations and scholarships. The one that honors this truly down to earth man is called the Ivan K. Blough Vocational Scholarship.
The KDL Engelhardt Library in Lowell sits right on the Riverwalk.Being fortunate enough, the town has received bequests from local philanthropists such as Mr. E., that is Harold Englehardt.
In May of 1996, Englehardt’s will set into motion a legacy that benefited the Lowell area community forever. Known as a low-key, humble man who lived his life simply and without fanfare, Englehardt was a self-made millionaire who chose to give back to the community he loved.
Another area philanthropist was late Peter Wege who donated money for farm preservation and nature education in the Wittenbach Wege Agriscience Center.
Wittenbach/Wege Agriscience nature center
The community also fights together; in the fall it is the annual Pink Arrow Pride game that spreads awareness and raises money to fight cancer.
The community honors its veterans, late and alive, in the annual Memorial Day parade.
Main Street before Pink Arrow game.
It stepped up in an uprecendented effort to fight hunger and poverty when local churches created the Flat River Outreach Ministries (FROM) in 1998.
The community collects food for the FROM pantry throughout the year in different food fights like the north side against the south side of the town. Residents bring cans of food to the annual Riverwalk parade in July.
“Can you imagine, all these people bringing cans to the parade,” said former pastor Roger LaWarre of the First Congregational Church of Lowell.
The community loves the arts and it has named the gallery inside Lowell Arts after another philanthropist King Doyle.
It preserves history as local businessman Greg Canfield saved three buildings on the bridge from demolition and turned them into the Main Street Inn,
People of the past, present and the future make up the fabric of this resilient community that is bound together by love and caring.
Lowell, MI- Two years ago, on this day, I published my first post on WordPress. It was my author’s bio that I had later moved into About section. I introduced myself in a story with an author’s photo.
One hundred and ninety-six posts later, I am grateful that I had chosen the WordPress platform. It was a pure coincidence. I wanted to like and comment on the Hawkins Chamber of Commerce in Texas, and I was directed to the press site.
I wanted a blog anyways after Writer’s Digest suggested that every writer should have a blog or a website. At the time I started writing memoir “Greenwich Meridian” and I needed the exposure.
Rediscovering treasures on the Mississippi River
And I fell in love with WordPress for its finesse, sophistication, the variety of themes and the community in general. I found Rumanian colleagues Valeriu dg Barbu and Cristian Mihai, French photographer redstuffdan and many others, whose work I admire. They inspire me in my writings.
I started learning the ropes. Coming fresh from the print media, it was very different. I must say that I like new things, and this was right up my alley.
The constant challenge of change, new themes, new ways of posting, the speed and the prompts delight me.
I feel like I am being pulled deeper and deeper in. Like today’s prompt in The Daily Post “Connect the Dots,” Open your nearest book to page 82. Take the third full sentence on the page, and work it into a post somehow.
100 Posts on WordPress
While sitting in a folding rocking chair in front of the wood stove, I reached into the library and grabbed “The People’s Chronology” and the third sentence on page 82 is entertaining in itself. For once I got lucky.
It reads: “Canon of Medicine by the Arab physician Avicenna (Abu Sina) follows the thinking of Aristotle and Galen but is so well written and organized that it will be a major influence on medical thinking for centuries.”
I couldn’t ask for a better prompt.
EW blog on Gatehouse Media 10 million reader market
Ironically in my Internet discussions, I asked, “Where will the Internet take us?”
Today I realize the real question is, “Where will we take the Internet?”
I took it to the next level. In July, I started my writing and blog design company on WordPress, Emma Blogs LLC. It is a portfolio of 10 blogs that covers a range of topics from health, outdoors, homes to brides and farming suited for advertising, whether affiliate or traditional.
I have great writers like Sarah Harmon who bring their unique style to the blogs, and salesperson Ed Donahue.
EW writer Sarah Harmon in Paris
EW Emma’s Writings also feeds into the Gatehouse Media, a 10 million reader market including the Ionia Sentinel-Standard.
What I like the most about writing on WordPress is that it does have an impact on people and it gets the message out.
Friend Tina Sicialiano Cadwallader asked me when is the book coming out at a Christmas party at the Fallasburg Historical Society.
“We’re going to take a selfie with the book at the Lowell museum,” she laughed.
Last Saturday, I ran into Betsy Davidson, owner of Addorio Technologies, LLC.
“Have you been travelling?” she asked. “I am really enjoying your stories because I don’t get to go to places like that.”
Vizovice, where old meets new.
Longtime friend Ruth Hall said, “I absolutely love reading your posts.”
Comments and advice on the posts are also very gratifying and informational. Following is a comment by Herbal Weight Loss Remedies & Tips at http://url.darkillusion.us/weightloss748972
“Great articles you post on your blog, I have shared this article on my twitter.”
I find the happiness engineering support team very helpful at times when I pull her from my head.
And as I ask in my story interviews, “What don’t you like about so and so?”
Off the top of my head, I really can’t think of a single thing that would stand out that I don’t like about WordPress. I might think of something later as I toss in the bed in the wee morning hours with my chronic insomnia.
Editor’s note: This is the third and last part of the 25th anniversary mini-series “25 Years in the USA.” I published the first part on Dec. 22 on the exact date of the anniversary of our arrival to the country. I published the third part on Jan. 9th.
By Emma Palova
EW Emma’s Writings
Lowell, MI- While working the second shift at Meijer, I wrote the most short stories in the morning. People working at the store inspired me.
My husband Ludek and I started looking for land to build a house in 1994. We found Lowell, a small town in West Michigan. And as we drove past the old Parnell store in the middle of nowhere, I knew I was going to like it here.
25th anniversary of arrival to the USA
“This is it,” Ludek said as he showed me the land. He built the house himself with a few contractors.
Hometown Lowell before the annual Riverwalk Festival.
Once we had the house, I started feeling more at home. I got us two dogs. On top of the job at the store, I started selling real estate for Westdale. That was a unique experience where I met my business guru late Larry Combs.
“How many sales phone calls did you make today?” he asked.
I lied when I said 50. I actually made more like seven or 10.
“Call whenever you can even if you’re waiting for food in a restaurant,” he advised. “I want to write a book “My friend Emma.”
I wrote for American Lists, a Czech newspaper based in NYC.
Larry never wrote the book. He got Parkinson’s disease and shot himself.
I was homesick and every Christmas drove to the Gerald Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids to watch the planes take off.
I was still writing for American Lists, former Czechoslovak Newsweek based in New York City out of nostalgia. I was writing in Czech. The paper does not exist anymore.
The first time I went back to Czech Republic was in 2000, and that was a mistake. It brought back memories and old friends even though it was a different country than the one I had left.
I vowed never to go back again.
“Never say never,” told me the store manager.
During my five-year long stint with the Ionia Sentinel-Standard, I finished my first book “Fire on Water” about the communist experience in 2001. Because as they say, “There are three big experiences in this world: communist, capitalist and catholic. I lived them all.
I dropped the store and real estate and commuted daily 80 miles one way to Plainwell to first paid journalism job for Kaechele Publications. It was a one man office with zero training. But, the editor was an avid photographer and taught me how to shoot.
“Don’t go into a shoot with a mindset,” he said. “Keep your options open.”
Since, 2000 I went back home three times.
“Why do you still call it home?” asked my daughter Emma. “You have lived longer in the USA than in Czech.”
Yes, I will always call it home. That’s where I was born, got married, graduated from Technical University of Brno and had our two children.
And that’s just the tip of an iceberg. I am now penning our family immigration story in “Greenwich Meridian where East meets west.”
It’s like reliving all those years since 1968 when the former Soviet Army occupied Czechoslovakia. Sometimes I struggle with it, sometimes I cry, and sometimes I laugh. Just like in life.
About the featured photo: Ice sculptures in hometown Lowell, Michigan 2014
Editor’s note: This is the second part of a mini series about the 25th anniversary of arrival to the USA.
By Emma Palova
Lowell, MI – The early years in the USA consisted of me packing up my luggage and kids and wanting to go back home to former Czechoslovakia. Once it got so far that my dad Vaclav said he was going to buy me airplane tickets.
I unpacked and my mom Ella with a German neighbor friend Mrs. Gunnell brought over a fortune teller.
“You got yourself in a mess,” she said. “You don’t know where you want to be.”
25 years in the USA
I was torn between the old and the new. The new didn’t seem so great. I remember dad teaching me how to drive on a short stretch of a freeway between Big Rapids and Reed City. Both “holes” terrified me with their nothingness.
“You came unprepared,” he said.
When I think about it today, he was right, like most fathers are. I was unprepared. I didn’t have a driver’s license or a license to practice civil engineering in America, or a desire to do so.
All I could do was listen to the band “Chicago” and cry.
Everything took a turning point when my husband Ludek found a job in Grand Rapids and we could move to an apartment in Kentwood. I took writing classes at the Grand Rapids Community College.
But in the meantime I worked as a clerk in women’s department at a Midwest chain Meijer. Most people have. That’s where I started the store’s newsletter X-Files with a friend. We wrote it on a box from bras. Since Twitter or Facebook were not around, we wrote messages to each other on that same box until finally someone threw it out.
I also wrote for a Czech newspaper former “Czechoslovak Newsweek” that later changed names to ” American Lists.”That was the first time I got into trouble for writing. The article had something to do with religion. Ever since then, I follow the two major pillars of journalism; if you don’t want to get into trouble don’t write about religion or politics.
The kids were doing well in the public schools. Jake went to Challenger elementary and Emma to Kentwood High.
But, then something else transpired. Family members back home started dying. That meant flying to funerals painful flights.
When you emigrate, you don’t think about these things. You are never completely separated from your past, and never fully integrated into the present. You lose old friends, and don’t find new ones.
Gabrielle Garcia Marquez wrote in his “100 Years of Solitude:”
“You’re not home in a new place until someone close dies there.”
Lowell, MI- We arrived at the frozen JFK airport on Dec.22, 1989. I had a 20-hour trip behind me and a lifetime of memories. I was traveling with my two-and-a-half year son Jake and my daughter Emma, 10.
Long before Delta sky team, we took the Czechoslovak Airlines (CSA) from Czech capital Prague to Montreal and on to NYC.
My parents Ella & Vaclav Konecny were waiting for us with a gray station wagon. I still have the jean jacket United Colors of Beneton Tipe de Nimes that I arrived in for memorabilia purposes. And I was freezing in it. The first night we stayed in NYC at my parents’ friends, Mr. & Mrs. Herman from Vizovice.
Our hometown Zlin in Czech Republic.
A long way home to Big Rapids, MI awaited us. I had no idea how huge the USA is. Czech Republic is maybe the size of Connecticut. The car was like an ice cave. You couldn’t see outside unless you scraped the windows from inside and outside.
First Jake wanted to sit on my lap, but he had to be glued to his place by a seat belt.
After a long haul and once we could see through the windows, Jake discovered water towers along the Ohio Turnpike.
“I want to go and sit on it,” he kept repeating. “I want to sit on that ball.”
“Alright I will stop and you can climb on the ball,” my dad said angrily. And slowed down.
We arrived exhausted in Big Rapids, Michigan on Christmas Eve at night. We had to pick up my brother Vas at his mobile home in Rogers Heights. I haven’t seen him since 1976, when he left Czechoslovakia with mom Ella to join dad. Since then, after the Velvet Revolution and breaking away of Slovakia in 1993, the country changed names to Czech Republic.
25th anniversary of arrival to the USA
I was surprised at the huge reflector lamp on Vas’ home that almost blinded us given all the snow.
Mom had the Christmas Eve dinner ready in the fridge. In Czech Republic, Christmas Eve is the main holiday. It is also known as the Feast of Adam and Eve. That is when people open their presents, eat fried carp or other fish, mushroom soup and potato salad. On that evening the good ones, who had fasted, may see the golden pig on the wall, according to a legend.
Our Christmas tree 25 years later in Lowell.
I still remember the feeling of that night. I was confused and uncertain about what I was getting myself into. Big Rapids is a small university town compared to where we lived in Czechoslovakia in a 30,000- people apartment complex known as the Southern Slopes. These enormous apartment complexes, spread around the country,are one of the few successes and remnants of socialism.
The fear of the unknown and a new reality kicked in suddenly. I was in a foreign country, even though I spoke English and had relatives by my side. What will the future bring?
My husband Ludek was in Canada because that’s how the visa process worked out. My parents sponsored me to the USA, while Ludek got immigration visa to Quebec.
I am an engineer by trade with a bachelor’s degree from Technical University of Brno.
Since my parents were both working at the Ferris State University, I took classes there in Computer Aided Design (CAD).
I hated engineering. It was the only university I could get into considering my American past. We had already lived in the USA in the 1970s in Texas, when we left communist Czechoslovakia illegally. And we were punished for that in many ways.
Note: The Straits tales continue from Nov. 19 under the title of the Tale of Three Cities. Come and explore the magic of the Straits of Mackinac, its history and lore.
Mackinaw City, MI – I usually make my base camp in this town south of the “Mighty Mac,” which is the longest suspension bridge in the USA. Maybe it’s because of the fear of crossing the bridge that sways in the wind over the Straits of Mackinac. This is where Lake Huron joins Lake Michigan.
Not long ago, the bridge authority designated some employees to transport the fearful drivers across the bridge for additional $5. Even truck drivers take advantage of the service.
Mackinac Bridge in Michigan
I have visited the Straits area in all seasons and I’ve done everything from swimming, hiking, skiing, shopping, studying history, bird watching, smelling lilacs to bar hopping.
What keeps me coming back is the unique combination of nature and human achievement, much like the NASA area. The Mackinaw Crossings village was added to the human achievement side recently.
Mackinaw Crossings
In spite of the hotels, souvenir and fudge shops, as well as high speed ferries to the Mackinac Island, the three communities are not the usual tourist traps.
The Mackinac Island is one of few inhabited islands in the North with 200 year-round residents, a school and the Town Crier. There are no motor vehicles allowed on the island, only horses, bicycles, feet, skis and snowmobiles. Even old ladies ride their snowmobiles to the Saint Anne Church.
Saint Ignace on the north side of the bridge is a gateway community to the Upper Peninsula and further to Canada. It’s already a charming “Yooper,” a new word that made it into the dictionary designating anyone who lives in the UP (Upper Peninsula.)
The orientation in Saint Ignace is easy, either you continue on Highway I 75 to Sault Ste. Marie and Canada or you hang a left onto Highway 2 along the lakeshore to inland UP and to the amazing Tahquamenon Waterfalls. Soo with the locks for the tankers is only 40 miles away.
What binds these communities together is the rough weather. Sometimes they still have snow in May.
But, it’s a paradise born to be loved with its lighthouses, shipwrecks, maritime Icebreaker and bridge museums, endless snowmobiling trails, hand-crafted breweries, pasties and smoked whitefish.
Here, the nature at its best leaves you in awe and keeps you coming back.
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