After a great night on the hook, we had a smooth-as-glass start to our day to Petoskey. Once again, we were on a schedule. Owen had a business trip, and I made plans to go home to buy a car for our post-Loop life, which is screaming toward us at an indescribable pace. So, off we were to Petoskey, where we would catch a ride to Traverse City and to our separate destinations.

What a smooth, pleasant cruise in Lake Huron! We were excited to see the Mackinac Bridge in the distance. We were entering an area with which we were quite familiar. We cruised past Mackinac Island, with its fudge-y goodness, imposing fort with a less exciting history (really), its horses and carriages, and bike trails. To the south, we saw Mackinaw City, with its fun campground and the lumberjack show and cheaper everything. We also took a peek at St. Ignace, which is a reminder of a very embarrassing and funny family story that we’ll just keep to ourselves (MOM!).

We loved going under the Mackinac Bridge, which sounds underneath just the same as it does above. This was another of the “I can’t believe we’re doing this” moments of the Loop. The bridge was also our reminder that we were close to home. There was a large Virgin cruise ship passing toward us under the bridge. It seemed like a tight fit, but they made it under just fine.

We entered Lake Michigan!

Lake Michigan was in a foul mood, and the waves churned up almost instantly. There were very few boats out, and they were bobbing about just like we were. Owen did the best he could to keep us turned the right way to make the waves more bearable, and we were eager to turn into the bay that led to Petoskey.

Ugh. That little paragraph does little to convey the discomfort of those few hours of the journey. If we had not had flights to catch, we probably would not have gone as far as we did today, but we did need to get to Petoskey. It was uncomfortable, but not unsafe. If it were unsafe, we would not have gone.

Little Traverse Bay was much more comfortable than the Big Lake. We were surprised to see a large number of sailboats in the bay. They were preparing for some kind of race, and we were more than happy to get out of their way. There were dozens of boats!

The wind picked up as we got into the marina. It made for easy dockage at the fuel dock: make sure the fenders are in the right place, align the boat parallel to the dock, and let the wind do the work. Boy, those fenders are worth their weight in gold!

After getting fuel and a pump out, we were pointed to our slip for the night, which was on the other side of the fuel dock. So we had to pull out, turn around and pull into our slip. The wind was not our friend at this angle, as the wind was pushing us far from the dock on the other side. Owen handled this brilliantly. He turned the boat around, aligned it parallel to the fuel dock and let the wind push us to the right slip. When we were aligned with the slip, he pushed us forward and I was able to hand our lines to the waiting dockhands. We don’t have to mention it took us a failed attempt at a more conventional docking style before coming up with this one that worked so perfectly, do we?

We took some time to clean up some of the mess inside that the rocking boat made, and then we went to explore Petoskey. What a great town! Too bad we won’t be able to spend more time here! We packed our bags and got ready to leave for Traverse City.

And now for a time out: We booked our flights out of Traverse City, Michigan, which is a city we LOVE. Three of our kids were in marching band, and we spent the weekend after the 4th of July there for seven summers for their awesome parades at the annual Cherry Festival. “The Best Bands Play Here” is a sign that was at every single Cherry parade our band did, and it’s true!

We hoped when we booked the tickets that we would be able to make it by boat to TC, as the cool kids call it. In the end, we would have needed another day to make it. So we ended up in Petoskey, about an hour away. Surely, in this resort area there would be plenty of Uber/Lyft or airport transport. Surely not, it turns out. Owen called from the list of transportation providers on the airport’s website and finally found a woman who would take us to the airport for $225 and take us back to Petoskey for $250!

Eventually, Owen contacted an AGLCA Harbor Host to see if they knew of any other options. We were shocked to see their email response: they were going to that airport the very day we needed to go! We couldn’t believe it!

Bill and Jane picked us up on Monday, and what a treat to spend an hour-long ride to Traverse City with them! They completed their Loop years ago, and we loved hearing their stories about their favorite places and adventures. We were so grateful they generously took the time to help us get to the hotel we were staying at the night before our flight. Thank you, Bill and Jane!

And then we took a Loop time-out to do non-Loopy things for a few days.