#4 - Walking across the Mackinac Bridge

#4 on my list this year was to walk across the Mackinac Bridge ...

They only allow pedestrians on the bridge one day a year, Labor Day, which fell on September 1 this year. So I made plans to come up for the walk.  We flew into the Hancock/Houghton airport which is close to Eagle Harbor, but about 5 hours from the bridge.  We spent the night in Houghton on Saturday, and then drove down to the bridge on Sunday.  We had time on Sunday for me to take a dip in the two lakes and then we drove across the bridge for dinner on Sunday evening.

(nice, healthy dinner, lol).

 

and then we drove back ...

So we got up bright and early on Monday, drove to a parking lot, where we took a bus to the starting point, and then, with around 40,000 of our closest friends, we started the walk.  It's about 5 miles from start to finish.
 

Here we are on the suspension part of the bridge where you look down through the grates to the water below.  I didn't get a very good picture of the water.  Interestingly, I found it easier to walk across the bridge than to drive. 

Me and Nevada (selfie)!!

 

After the walk, we wandered through town (Mackinaw City) -- mostly because the buses to return to the other side were strategically located on the far side of town, forcing everyone to walk past all the shops.

Here's a picture from the bus window on the return trip.  The bus ride took over an hour because traffic was so slow (due to half the bridge being shut down for the walkers -- that and probably 10-20 times more traffic than normal (or even more than that)).  I have to give the people who run this event credit -- it was super organized with lots of police and other people directing traffic, telling people where to go, where to park, how to get there, how to get back, etc.

My certificate for completing the walk ..