It’s COOL way up this far north but at least now the sun is shining most of the time. High temps are barely into the 70’s. When our chores and errands for the day were finished, the boat was slid down the ramp and into the clear water and the bow was pointed to Mullett Lake and then along the western coastline of the lake where the water was calmer. Topinabee is the small town that is half way along the 10-mile long lake that has a public park with a new boat dock and play area. Across the street are an old hardware store and the local gas station/snack store. Too bad it wasn’t time for ice cream yet. According to some of the natives around here, Topinabee is so named because the “B” line train from Detroit Michigan used to end there – the “top” of the line. And we’ve been advised more than once that the correct pronunciation is: Top-nah-bee and NOT: Top-in-AH-bee.
Back at the “mobile motel”, I baked a peach crisp and we took to meet Joel and Carol, our friends we met on South Padre Island, Texas. (See our past Texas blogs and from our trip up north last fall!) They live in the UP but have a sweet little cottage out on Mullett Lake but by road it is just across the bridge (right here by the campground) and down a dead end road a mile or so. It was so good to see them again and renew our friendships. We ate and gabbed and ate and gabbed some more. The dinner, ofcourse, was delicious!
Thursday was cool again, but still sunny. H drove the half-mile up to Rt 27 and filled the tanks on the boat and the Jeep. This time on the water, we headed straight across Mullett Lake and H was calling the depth markings like a boatman down on a Mississippi river boat- only these sounding had 3 digits – like - 110! Our outing took us to downtown Indian River where, as always, we docked the boat and walked the few blocks to shop a bit. Out on Burt Lake, it was windy with quite a chop so it was back to the quieter rivers!
Friday, Mel and Donna (Mel is ANOTHER one of H’s school buddies!) were finally back home from their trip south – to Swanton, Ohio - so we spent a delightful day together. Donna and I always need more time to catch up but we gratefully took what we had! I love riding in the stern of the boat with a lady friend while the 2 old codgers in the front seats do the heavy work of driving the boat and getting us secured at any dock. This time in Topinabee it WAS time for ice cream and a stop at the local 2nd hand store for some gently used treasures. Back at the campground the day was finished off nicely with a cookout and more conversation.
Saturday was the 1st leg of the 61st Top O’ Michigan Marathon Nationals which is rated as the World’s Toughest Outboard Race and we were going to watch it from the RR bridge (right next to the campground that crosses the Cheyboygan River. The morning was gray and cool and the rain stopped just in time. The gracious owners of the Waterways Campground put on a lovely hotdog, chips, fresh veggies and homemade cupcake picnic for everyone in the campground and before we were done chowing down, we heard the whine of the 1st boat in the race. There was plenty of room on the broad span of bridge for anyone willing and each would have a good spot to see the race. We could see up and around the curve as they approached, sometimes skidding around the bend and thru a patch of weeds. We just had to turn around and look downstream, towards the Rt 33 bridge and Cheyboygan, to see then racing back – sometimes with only the bottom of the motor being in the water!
The 1st leg of the race is 45 miles long, starting in Burt Lake and running thru the entire length of Indian River into Mullett Lake and across the western shoreline. From there it is up the full length of the Cheyboygan River to a turnabout by the city dam and then returns over the same course to a finish line in Burt Lake. On Sunday, they run the opposite direction!
