People had asked me if I was going to blog about our current vacation and my response was always no. Not that I didn't enjoy blogging while we were in the Phillipines because I did, but I figured Florida, though it would be fun for us, may not be as exciting or interesting for our friends and family to read about. Then our travels began and I changed my mind...
Being from the Great White North, a little snow doesn't intimidate us much or cause us to panic; after all, when 4-6 months are snow-covered, your choices include hibernate or learn to deal with it. Having said that, we were less than excited to hear about the winter weather advisory in effect for the day we were to drive the 4-5 hours to catch our flight. I had lots of overtime in over the past few weeks though so we figured if we sent the kids to school for half a day and I tried to leave work at noon, we'd be fine. The joke was on us...
We saw the sign in the window of the toll booth informing us that the Mackinac Bridge was closed but not having any alternatives, short of driving through Canada and all the way around one of the Great Lakes, which was not really an option at all, we decided to press on. The further we travelled, the worse the weather got. It took us well over an hour to reach the bridge to learn that it would be closed for anywhere from 20 minutes to 4 hours. I am not sure if you've ever been to St. Ignace, Michigan or not, but it is very much lacking in the killing time options, especially in the winter. It's a cute little town but even in summer, shopping consists of small souvenir shops only; there are no malls or department stores to wander around aimlessly for an indeterminate length of time while you wait for the bridge to reopen. So, we crossed the highway to join the ever-growing line of vehicles parked in the northbound rest area. For 2 1/2 hours, we sat in the van, looking at the snow and listening to AM 530 telling us that the bridge was closed due to wind gusts of up to 65 miles per hour (not fun on the suspension bridge) and poor visibility. There came a time that our bladders got the best of us and we decided we had to leave the warm protection of our vehicle to hike up to the bathrooms. The wind was whipping at our faces, blowing snow into our eyes and mouths, and we had to grip onto the kids' jackets for fear they would blow away. The snow on the ramp was to my knees and we had to trudge through. Poor Duncan turned towards me at one point and I realized just how bad it was - wet snow plastered his face and he couldn't open his eyes with the weight of the snow on his eye lashes. At that time, I pushed his head down, pulled him close to me to protect his face, picked up Danica and pushed on. Arriving inside, my mother took one look at me and started laughing at the mascara that was now all over my cheeks.
On our way back to the car, my mother and I got side-tracked in the visitors centre by the attendants informing us that the advisory was in effect until 7 pm and the bridge was unlikely to open before then. He was even kind enough to show us the radar photos which were quite pretty but I guess that's a bad sign. He suggested we head into town for some whitefish and hang out for a while.
That advice brought us into the BigBoy which was full of other stranded travellers. The servers were very patient and understanding of our plight and didn't make us feel like we needed to rush out. In fact, it was our server who informed us that the weather advisory had been extended until 10 pm as we all kept staring out the windows to debate on whether things were improving or not.
Finally, shortly after 9, the bridge reopened and we joined the lineup of cars waiting to cross the Mighty Mac. On the bridge approach, with the snow freezing instantly onto our wipers rendering them useless, the inside of our windows flash-freezing, and the snow/wind gusts resulting in less than zero visibility, we wondered what this looked like when the bridge was closed as this wasn't looking good now when it was opened. After what seemed like hours and was likely only 20 minutes, we found ourselves across the bridge safely and thought we'd be on our merry way. Unfortunately Mother Nature had other plans as the gusting winds and blowing snow continued, and our speed on a major, 4 lane highway didn't top 40 km per hour for at least two hours (which took us only as far as Gaylord, usually a 45 minute drive). Even after that, our speed barely approached the speed limit thanks to black ice, unpredictable road conditions and high winds. At 2:30 am, after 13 hours of travel, we finally arrived at our hotel in Flint for a quick nap and shower before our 5:30 shuttle to the airport.
Our flight was without incident, enjoyable even. The flight attendants were pleasant and all announcements were funny. The flight even arrived in Orlando 30 minutes early! The worst part was that I was trying to nap on the plane but every time we hit a little bump, I relived the nightmares of the road.
But we're here, safe and sound, ready to have fun and relax!
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