2023.05.27.Traveling in US: Sleeping Bear Dunes

Special thanks to my colleague Pax, who is very kind, since he gave me a lot of suggestions for the places we can go during the holiday, and after he knew that I took his suggestion for this Sleeping Bear Dunes, he wrote me a very long email telling me all these scenery spot, and with a description for recommendation reason.

But we didn’t get to the dunes until the afternoon, and it was our first time there. If Celine comes next time, I’ll take her to experience it well. I don’t know if she wants to walk the 5km hike to the river. I want to go.
We chose to stay at Gaylord’s place (location 1) this time because of the accommodation price (we stayed for 2 days, and the accommodation cost 300 dollars in total). It’s still quite far from Lake Michigan on the west side (location 2, Sleeping Bear Dunes), which is a 1.5-hour drive away. It’s an hour’s drive from Mackinaw City on the north side (location 3). It also takes an hour to get to White Fish Point (location 4) from 3. We went to all four places, so we basically drove all the time (we added two tanks of gas, about 120 dollars):

Driving here is very easy, except for stopping at big STOP signs, there are not many other requirements. You can’t change lanes randomly, and you have to wait for the cars on both sides to pass before you get on the road. You can’t make others slow down involuntarily.

Another different thing is that there are a lot of animal carcasses on the road, some of them are deer. Along the way, I saw signs like this (Deer Xing Next 4 Miles, crossing):

A deep feeling is that there are a lot of pickup trucks on the road, and many pickup trucks are towing a trailer, or something else, such as a boat. A sedan like a Ford Focus can also hang two bicycles. So, the towing drive cycle is very important, no wonder the F150 lightening has to advertise that it can tow a train car full of cars.

We drove north along M-75 Michigan Highway 75 from Dearborn in Detroit for four hours and arrived at Gaylord at noon. The hotel was right next to the highway. I didn’t expect the hotel to be a Hilton. I registered as a member by the way and earned more than 4,000 points for two nights. We ate burgers (the name of the store is Five Guys) here first, then slept for half an hour, and then set off for Sleeping Bear Dunes. I was not sleepy at all after waking up.

On the way, we passed through the position 5 in the picture below, which is along Lake Michigan. We just stopped by the lake for a while and rested. The scenery by the lake was pretty good.

This is what we took by the lake near position 5: 

We saw a lot of American flags along the way. Many people’s homes had flags on the roadside or on the wall (just like our National Day in 2019). I thought of the factory I work in, there are also flags hanging everywhere. I understand now that patriotism education is not only in our country, but everywhere. They are all the same.

Another feeling along the way is that it seems that there are not many farmlands in the United States. Large areas of trimmed grasslands, but not many are used for growing crops. I don’t know why. I don’t know if it’s just the way we go. But in the farmland, you can see long hanging things like infusion tubes that can move large tools. It feels like they can spray water or pesticides or something. But this kind of thing is suitable for working in large pieces of farmland.

We saw a better angle (lake view) along the way near position 7 in Traverse City. We wanted to find a parking spot to take pictures, but the place we found that looked like a park actually charged a fee, 11 dollars per person, which was too expensive, so we left. Something happened here. When we wanted to enter the park, there was another car in front of us. He stopped there. James didn’t want to wait, so he wanted to go in from his side, what is what we do normally in China. As a result, the person in uniform next to him (like a police officer or a security guard) signaled us to follow the rules and queue up. It’s better to be honest when you go out.
Another parking lot seemed to have someone copying license plates. It felt like collecting parking fees in China. We also just went in and came out. Helplessly empty pockets, we had to continue driving to position 6.
When we got to position 6, which is Empire, there is a trail here. We parked the car, and there is no charge here~ I don’t know if this trail charges or not. I can’t understand it. Then we walked along the trail. The trail was built on a small hill. Along the way, there were large areas of woods. The trail did not have artificial stones or wooden boards or anything like that. It was very original. After walking for about 20 minutes, it suddenly became clear and we could see Lake Michigan from afar. It was here:

Going forward, we walked to the edge of the mountain. I didn’t expect that there was also a beach on the mountain. We could have lunch here, or practice yoga here (bring Celine next time), because I saw a girl who seemed to be practicing yoga here.

I felt like there was nothing ahead, so we walked back and wanted to go to the other side to take a look.
We drove over and found that the sign was that the parking lot was charged. We drove further and stopped at a place that felt free and walked over. But when we got there, we found that there seemed to be no one collecting fees there, so we didn’t know if it was really charged or just by conscience. We couldn’t figure out if Americans were very conscious…
I walked on the beach for a while and asked James to take a picture for me. Then we went to look for the real Sleeping Bear Dunes.

There were a lot of people by the lake. Some people were playing in the water. The water temperature was still very low. Some people were playing beach volleyball together. Some people were enjoying sunbathing in the lake breeze. Some people came with boats towed by cars. There are special facilities for trailer boats to go into the water.

We first took the wrong road and drove into the mountains. There was no signal on the phone. We were very scared and turned back. Then we studied it again and thought it should be ahead. We drove a little further and followed the signs. We finally found it. It was not a waste of time. We finally understood why it was called Dunes. There were a lot of sand dunes. I feel like children can play here for a day. The biggest difference between foreign countries and China may not be the scenery, but the people. There are not many people who come to play in such places, far from reaching the level of dumplings (people are like dumplings in the water, meaning too many people).

This place should be able to take sunset photos, but we came too early and had to go to the next place. We walked for a while, barefoot, and encountered a lot of small stones and sand mixed together. It was not easy to walk, but the shoes were left in the car. We couldn’t go on, so we had to turn back. I wish I could experience this 5km trail as Pax mentioned, maybe next time.

We thought we could go to position 8 to take sunset photos. We calculated the time and thought we could make it. We drove to 8. On the way from 7 to 8, there were a lot of private territories, Private Place, Do Not Enter, a lot of signs like this. We drove almost 1/4 of the way from 7 to 8. Seeing that the sun was about to go down, we still couldn’t find a parking place. We felt that when we got to 8, there would be no sunset. We were very anxious. At this time, James said that the house next to us was not finished yet. There should be no one. Why don’t we park here? Take a picture and leave. We did that, but we were still very careful. We thought it would be better to be quick, lest someone came out with a gun and greeted us: Hey, What are you doing??? (like what happens in a movie)

The sunset was very beautiful~~

It was not early, 9 o’clock in the evening, but the sky was only about to dark. I sighed that if the people here want to work harder, they should have an advantage over others (more time). They got up early in the morning and could go to bed late at night. We were very hungry, so we went to a steakhouse, but it was actually 70% pork chops and 30% steak (under the bread). This meal was too much, and I wanted the steak to be well done, with a bit of char on the surface. It was not delicious at all. I don’t know if it was my way of eating wrong. No one taught me. It would be nice if Celine was here, since she knows quite well how to eat. I didn’t finish the pork chops either. Americans eat like this. It’s strange if they don’t get fat…

We got back to Gaylord at midnight, tidied up and went to bed. On the way back, we finally found out what was hanging in the middle of the road during the day. It turned out to be a light, for illumination. US people is very good at hanging things, the light, the traffic signal:

The next day we went north to position 3 Mackinaw City. There is a big bridge there. It feels like that bridge connects Upper Peninsula and Lower Peninsula. Charles said Upper Peninsula is very beautiful and completely different from the scenery here in Detroit.
Position 10 is an island. There are no cars on it, only bicycles. I don’t remember anything else (someone mentioned to me later, horse). Maybe I didn’t fully understand. I didn’t go there this time. I have to take a boat to get there, right? I don’t go to places that cost extra money, since I'm poor.

We first crossed the bridge. There was a toll station at position 11 north of the bridge. It cost 4 dollars. This was the first toll station we encountered in the United States. A meal costs 10 dollars. In this way, 4 dollars is really not expensive. We first rested at 12, went to the bathroom, and then there was a tourist service center there. The people inside were very enthusiastic and told us where we could go. It was a drive around, but it was a bit far away. But we still went and finally went to White Fish Point. There you can see Canada from afar and there is a lighthouse.
The old man told us where we could go to play. He also gave us a map and a few magazines. I brought them back and studied them later. I will take Celine next time.

The map of the tourist center, where people leave their hometowns on the map. You can see that there are very few from China~

This is White Fish Point. The lake opposite the lighthouse is Canada. 

Everyone was picking up stones by the lake. I picked up a heart-shaped one, symbolizing love. I brought it back to Celine, it is priceless. 

The scenery along the way was also lake view. 

There were also tall trees with very fine branches and leaves. They should be adapted to the cold, right? Is Upper Peninsula like this? It’s like seeing a lot of trees in BBC documentaries (something called tundra?). I feel like the highways we drove past and the places we passed by in the north were all covered with large areas of trees and lawns. The sun fell on the leaves and it was very beautiful with different colors, like the colorful forests in Sichuan.

We drove to find this place and found that it was charged. Forget it, don’t look at the bears, retreat!  One photo with this shall represent that we came, we stop, and we go.

When we drove back in the afternoon, we returned to position 11 and took a picture of the bridge. James also played guitar and sang there. I also recorded a sunny day by Jay Chou with him, but my voice was very small. It can be regarded as harmony, while James said I'm the human teleprompter. This is purely posing: 

I really like the picture below, where two people read quietly together. In front of them, it is the Mackinac Bridge. 

I noticed this old couple, sitting quietly by the lake reading. I walked over and asked them if I could take a picture of them. I wanted to bring it back to Celine. They have been married for 51 years. Now they can still sit by the lake and read books in the sun. Oh, they came in a convertible. Can we also come out and read books (may be in a convertible :-)  ) in the future? They also like to chat. We chatted for a long time and talked about the accent problem. We also talked about electric cars. It feels like they are all experts. The old man said that it was because he liked reading. This gave me a lot of encouragement. I hope we can be like them in the future.

On the morning of the third day, we checked out and it was time to go back.

Special thanks to New Bing Chat, which helps to do the translation work from Chinese to English, a very fluent experience. I think it is a great invention, which helps to improve the efficiency a lot.