Autumn is flying her colors!

We crossed this bridge this morn. It is the Mackinac Bridge....I did not realize it until my best friend/sister-in-law mentioned it that it is 5 miles long. I knew it was long but had not really estimated it. It was opened November 1, 1957....the height of the main towers above water is 552 feet. The total length of wire in the main cable is 42,000 miles! Hard to imagine. But if you want to read these and more figures, go Here.

Most of the drive today was along a road which at times had Lake Michigan on one side and woods on the other. The closer we are to the lake, it seems the more cedar and pine trees there are with just a few hardwoods thrown in. All the dead trees are some kind of pine or softwoods. The day was overcast a big part of the day, with a slight haze to it a big part of the time.

My pictures aren't the greatest but maybe you can still get a feel for what it is like. We are now in Green Bay, and it is quite a bit warmer than it was in Michigan. One of the highways we came in to Green Bay on is being widened, and where we could see the soil, it looked like good, rich loam...the kind you would like to have for a garden. The kind that is pure joy to dig into.

And there were these...I have had no opportunity to get a really good picture of them...we saw so many going into Mackinaw City the day we arrived but we were on the interstate, so no stopping there. I got this today from the car, but I still like it. I think they are paper birch, but not positive. A lot we seen over in Michigan had yellow leaves.

I just had to throw this one in simply because I like it...I would love to know what it was/is used for with that chimney. I wondered if the chimney was for a forge or something.

That is about it for tonight. I don't know why, but I had a hard time connecting. But now that I am connected, things seem to work fine.

Churches...

The above is a church we ran across yesterday at Cross Village here in Michigan. It is so beautiful and so well crafted. One thing, we have seen several buildings made of local stone. Lots more than we ever see in Indiana, or Tennessee for that matter.This morn we went to Mackinac Island and the church below is one of the first things I noticed. I did not get any more pictures because we went up to the Fort Mackinac and spent almost the entire day there.Trinity Church was right near the entrance to the fort...I took pictures from street level as well as from up at the fort.



There was another church I seen in the distance but did not get to visit because we were running out of steam....

Favorite things today

We are having a wonderful time...these are just a few of the things I seen and liked today.We toured an ice breaker that is docked just down the way from us a little ways. As we were leaving the area I glanced up and what did I see? And eagle! I could hardly believe my eyes, but if you enlarge this you can see its white head. It was just so awesome.We toured the ship and then took off on a rambling drive. I first heard the geese, then finally spotted them. I only had one good shot of them before they disappeared again behind trees. The gulls were walking along the edge of the water at this public beach area that is out away from town. This is the first picture I took of these two and did not realize till I downloaded it that I had caught them both preening themselves.

This was on farther down the road...we came around a slight curve in the road, and there it was. I was so thankful that there was no traffic behind us! We pulled over and I got out to try to compose a few pictures...these were my favorite two from there.

I sort of like the name--Just a Plain Farm.That is all for tonight...I want to touch base with a couple of my childhood friends and then settle down for the night.