October 1, 2021
PUBLISHER’S CORNER
By Eloise Graham
Trips and Vacation Traveling
One of the perks of doing this magazine is that I get to read the articles before sending them on for the magazine format. Mary Schricker Gemberling’s article on page 14 brought back memories of our family trip to Mackinac Island.
It was August of 1971. Jim’s parents (Mary and Bob) and brother (18 year-old Richard) had come to visit us. They were traveling with a pop-up camper. After a few days parked in our yard, it was decided we should all go exploring Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. So the seven of us set off for some summer adventure. The seven would be Mary, Bob, Richard, Jim, 3 year-old son Jimmy, 4 month old Janie and myself. First stop, Mackinac Island.Now the adventure, or some called it FIASCO, began. We parked the car and pop-camper in a designated lot in Mackinaw City and boarded the ferry to take us to the island, just a short 20 minute ride. Upon our arrival to the port area, we were aware of the wonderful sweet aroma of caramel, fudge, popcorn. We had entered into the “Tourist Trap” of Mackinac Island. I don’t mean that as a derogatory term. That was the loving title given to the island by celebrities in the early 1900s. We were in the bustling streets filled with tourists, candy shops, souvenir stores and the like. We walked around for a while seeing the horse-drawn carriages and bicycle riders. Yes, we saw the Grand Hotel.
Someone decided we should rent bikes and ride the perimeter of the island. Great idea! We rented five bikes, Mary, Bob, Richard, Jim with Jimmy seated behind him and the diaper bag in the basket and me with a basket we lined with blankets, then placed the four month-old Janie. We took off for our leisurely ride around the island. Headed out of town, the path soon became a little narrower and slightly rough. But it was a beautiful day, the weather was perfect and we peddled on.
Then catastrophe. The chain on Richard’s bike broke. I don’t mean it just came off the sprockets, I mean it broke and fell to the ground. Not knowing how far out of town we had traveled, we didn’t know if we should turn around or keep going. After all, we might already be more than half way around. Alas, we were not. But not knowing, we kept going onward. Bob found a long straight branch and holding one end of it had Richard grab the other end, towing Richard behind him. A lot of this was uphill, but we kept going. We did stop a few times for a rest. It was getting hotter, and we were all tired. We had been told that the ride around the island was an hour to an hour and half. We had already spent over two hours on our bikes, but we kept going. Finally, we started going downhill, a slight slope, but it was still downhill. Trees were now lining the bike path. I am sure it was probably very pretty, but by now we just wanted to get back to “civilization”! There were more bikers on the trails by now. As Bob, with Richard in tow started down the incline he yelled, “Gangway, cripple bike in tow!” It was quite a scene as bikers moved to the side to allow Bob and Richard to pass. At times the bike in tow, weaving side to side on the trail would almost overtake Bob.
Well, we made it back to the rental shop and returned our bikes. They wanted to charge us extra for breaking the chain. Mama Bear, Mary, got her dander up. You don’t mess with Mama Bear and her Cub who had a broken bike. She spoke privately with the owner of the rental place. We all got our money back.
Not quite the leisurely bike ride we had intended, but it sure was memorable.
