Retracing Our Past Through Travel - Day One

     In May, my mom died at the ripe old age of 99 years. She was a marvelous woman far ahead of her time and she lived life to the fullest. She passed away in Pennsylvania but she needed to be buried in Minnesota. She told us she wanted to be cremated and then taken to where she was born in Minnesota to be buried next to her parents.
     This first installment on my blog follows the trip that my sister and I are taking to take our mother's cremains to their final resting place. This trip is retracing a trip that we took countless times to our grandma's farm in Minnesota when we were children.
     So...we begin with my sister calling me a few days before she was to arrive telling me she traded in her gas guzzling mini van for a gas sipping Toyota Prius. Well, I thought to myself, there goes my packing list. You see, I take after my mother and take everything but the kitchen sink with me when I travel. So now I had to repack everything into a smaller sized load. Let's see...slide projector and slides to show to relatives along the way, computer in my Swiss backpack, good camera in my Lowepro backpack, suitcase, survival bag and cooler for drinks. Check!
     I looked out the window as she drove in the driveway and almost fell off my chair. An ORANGE car and a small one at that! Oh No!!! It's a clown car from the circus! Everyone is going to laugh at us!

Here it is!

     I'm thinking to myself "another yuppy car..." but little did I know what the future held for me.

     We packed the car and...well, you better take a look at it...

The full car

     Yes my friends, it is packed to the gills with all our things along with Mom and the back seats are even down. I thought to myself, "Man, the mileage is going to go to hell with all this weight."

     Our first stop on the trip while retracing the drive we took so many times was to Mackinac City, MI to take in the 5 mile long Mackinac Bridge. It's a suspension bridge over Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. 

Here's me in front of the bridge

     Next, you will soon find out that FOOD is at the top of my list so you will most always see pictures of food. We looked up a good restaurant and while on the way, I hit the brakes pretty hard. We heard a loud BANG! when something slammed into the center console. I said "What was that!". My sister calmly said "That was Mom." We had a good laugh. Here's a picture of my fresh Michigan Whitefish dinner.

Whitefish

     After dinner we walked to a local fudge shop and bought 4 slices of fresh Michigan fudge. Boy was it good. 

Fudge

     Last thing I did for the day was venture into a local saloon for something to cool off with. I was enjoying my brew and when I looked up, I saw something familiar; a toilet seat with some writing on it.

1st Place

     The bar entered the 1st annual Outhouse Race in Mackinac City in 2013 and they took first place. Apparently 1st Place was awarded a toilet seat! I should know something about Outhouse Races. They are built on skis and pushed 500 feet on hard-packed snow. I should know; I was the official photographer of the Trenary Outhouse Races for ten years. The races are held every year in Trenary, MI. 

     End of Day One