A Hell of a Week

Well, this has been a hell of a week. I don't even remember the beginning of it too well. I just know that on Monday, I'd made the decision that we would go to The Island on Wednesday, as it was basically my only day off this week. (Mackinac Island, for those of you who don't know, is always referred to as The Island in Michigan. We have tons of islands in our lakes, but that's the one that matters most.)

I've said this before and I'll say it again: The Island is my favorite place in the world. I don't necessarily know why. (Especially when you consider the other places I've traveled.) There's just something about it that feels like home, and I know it so well.

At least, I thought I did. For the first time in years, the bf and I got all turned around and kept going in the wrong direction of the place we actually wanted to go (The Carriage Museum on Surrey Hill). All because we deviated from our normal route. Go figure.

We also couldn't take our normal route, as that leads to us walking about twenty miles on an 8-mile around island. But Ori started limping about halfway into our adventuring, and so we cut it short. Which means our usually 8 hour long excursion got cut down to about a 5 hour visit.

For the record, if you ever go to visit The Island with a dog (it's very dog friendly there), then make sure you stop at Ice House BBQ for lunch or dinner. There's a beautiful back patio area and the food is always so, so good. And Ori got a kid's cheeseburger while I ate his fries. Yes, it's expensive, but if your entire business is supposed to exist next year after only four months of traffic, your prices would be in the same range, too.

Anyway, my friends alerted me earlier in the day that there was a 'danger avocado' extending up through Michigan, indicating possible tornado activity. I told them to take their avocado and shove it, because I was going to the island. Well, by the time we reached Mackinaw City (notice the spelling difference), it was overcast and there were these evil little bugs (midges, I guess?) coating everything. Including the walls inside the bathrooms. Bleh!

The Straits of Mackinac on Wednesday, June 10, 2026

Anyway, it was overcast and a little chilly by the time we got on the ferry, but not as bad as I was expecting. Then, as we got out onto the water (it takes 15 mins to get from the city to the island), the bf noticed that we couldn't see anything. Not the city behind us. Not the island ahead. Not even the bridge. (Again, the bridge=Mackinac Bridge. Only if you get down by Port Huron does 'the bridge' mean the Blue Water Bridge heading to Canada.) But yeah, it was a sea of fog thick enough to star in a Stephen King novel.

As we started out, someone was sitting in our usual seats on the middle deck behind the pilot's house on the ferry. Unbothered, we chose to sit on the bench to the right. Ori, however, decided that he needed to sit in his normal spot, and promplty hopped up on the bench that houses the life jackets. This has been his preferred seating zone for about three years now.

As we pulled into the bay, it was still noticeably foggy across the island, which I loved. But that changed by the time we'd finished eating lunch at the Ice House BBQ.

Again, we wandered, got a little lost, and called it quits before dinner because of Ori's limp. (That's a conversation for another time.) Before we left, however, I got one of the best pictures I'm ever likely to get on The Island: a picture of the freshly planted flowers in front of The Grand Hotel.

Honestly, it could be a postcard.

The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Wednesday, June 10, 2026

Anyway, so we headed home. Stopped in Roger's City for fast food and homemade sausage from a local business whose name I cannot remember/pronounce to save my life right now.

Then we get home. All is well. We let the cats out for Family Outside Time. Then we go to his mom's house and hang out there for a bit until it's time to close the Ice Cream Parlor. Wouldn't you know it, as soon as we get home from closing the parlor, a freaking tornado warning comes across our area.

Now, I want to preface this with the fact that 1. tornados in northeast Michigan are rare and 2. they're weak. The most they typically damage are the trees with shallow roots. You know what else damages trees with shallow roots? Ice storms. Of which we've now had 2 major ice stormes in 2 years. The weak trees have been turned into firewood by now.

With that in mind, while the alert was going out that people should take shelter ... I stepped outside. Mind you, the wind was only projected to be 45mph. (Yes. I said 'only' and I meant it.) It was supposed to be a severe thunderstorm before and after the rotation seen on radar.

This was the lamest thunderstorm we're likely to get all summer. Saw about 6 flashes of lightning. Heard maybe 3 peals of thunder. The rain started light, finally moved into a downpour, and then went steady again. There was no tornado. There was barely even a storm.

So, imagine my surprise when I woke up the next morning to NO POWER. Mind you, the only thing I was concerned about was a branch taking out a power line somewhere and disrupting it for the rest of us. Joke's on us; apparently a transformer at the dam caught fire and took out all the power heading into town. We were out from approximately 6:45am to 5:50pm. I was supposed to work 2pm-8pm. I only had to work 6pm-8pm. And the one rule we had was: Don't Open The Freezer Doors!

Y'all, we didn't lose a damn thing!!! Our ice cream is still good. No popsicles melted. We found one skeptical tub of Snickers ice cream. That was it. I cannot tell you how much of a bullet we dodged. If you understood the cost of products and the insurance crapola... We got so damn lucky. Which is more than we can say for the Dollar General in town. They lost all of their frozen and dairy products.

After all of that, I get to go home and enjoyed some leftovers. Only for the power to go back out at 10pm. I went to bed at about 11pm, so I don't know at what point it finally came back on. But at least it was on by morning. And just when you think that's the end of things, we jump to Friday. Where the internet decides to go out right as I'm coming in for my shift. Which means we can't run credit cards and no one can use the ATM. Cash only, baby. Well, the internet finally came back up at about 7:30pm, but by then I already had a massive brick of 20s in my drawer. Damn, that was a good day.

Anyway, I'm tired and have to do this all again in the morning. Let's see what fun things Saturday has in store for me.