S5, E31: Why a Michigan Road Trip Might Be the Best Way to Build a Friendship

On this episode of Unpacked, host Aislyn Greene and producer Nikki Galteland hit the road in Michigan and find epic adventures, gorgeous waterways—and a new way to connect.

Join them as they follow Michigan’s mitten counterclockwise, exploring the state’s many waterways. They paddle the Au Sable River, flying over the Lake Huron shipwrecks of Thunder Bay, ferry over to the car-free Mackinac Island, savor, the deep quiet of Drummond Island—and the sparkling-wine country of the Leelanau Peninsula.

It’s a Great Lakes road trip built on short drives, Up North history, and the kindness of strangers, and it turns into a case for why traveling this way might be one of the best ways to build a friendship.

Transcript

Aislyn: Having an experience isn’t the same thing as having a story. Like, I feel like your whole bear hide taxidermy journey could be an interesting story. And like exploration.

Nikki: it’s hard to see your own story sometimes. Yes.

Aislyn: That’s me. Your host, Aislyn Greene, in a canoe.

Nikki: And me, Nikki Galteland, your trusty producer. We were in the middle of a gorgeous national forest.

Aislyn: It was so pretty. We were on day 1 of a 9-day road trip through Michigan. And here’s something you might not actually be able to tell from that tape, at this point, Nikki and I didn’t know each other that well.

Nikki: Yeah, we had worked together for a couple of years, but I was a freelancer. I only came on at Afar full time this year, so we set off as basically friendly strangers.

Aislyn: It was really kind of an ambitious trip for that kind of a new colleagueship, right? Like 9 days, 1 rental car. So Obviously we started learning things about each other right away.

Nikki: I learned that Aislyn studied French, so she had an edge with some of the local Michigan name pronunciations.

Aislyn: And I learned that Nikki once spent a month of high school tanning a bear hide as you do. So today on Unpacked, Nikki and I are going to share that epic road trip through Michigan’s many, many waterways. We paddled a river. We flew over shipwrecks, ferried to an island with no cars, and visited the locks where the Great Lakes change height. But as epic as it was, there was no drama. Like nothing bad happened. Nobody got lost.

Nikki: Well, we did get a little lost.

Aislyn: That’s true. We did get a little lost. More on that soon, but mostly it was a gorgeous, wonderful trip. We kept saying, I want to bring such and such person back here.

Nikki: Yeah, I would love to go back with my parents. And we just kept asking, how do you make a story out of an experience that you just want to return to again and again?

Aislyn: Sometimes you just can’t see your own story. Although we did have 1 mission for this trip.

Nikki: And we’ll tell you at the end whether or not we pulled it off.

Aislyn: We kind of didn’t pull it off.

Nikki: Aislyn.

Aislyn: I know I couldn’t help it though, because I’m still so sad about it. So this is the story of us exploring Michigan and trying to find its many stories and finding something we weren’t expecting along the way. So stay with us.

Our itinerary was straightforward, but it was definitely not simple. We set out from Detroit and the goal was to drive counterclockwise around the mitten following the water.

Nikki: Yes, listeners. Michigan’s Lower Peninsula is shaped like a mitten. You may be aware, so your hand kind of becomes a handy built in map that you or locals can use to point out where you are in the state.

Aislyn: Yes, we wanted to drive the palm so we would stop in small towns on the Eastern Shore, visit some well-known and some not so well-known islands up near Canada, then end on the busier western shore.

Nikki: And because the stops were never more than an hour or two apart, we spent a lot of the drive just talking.

Aislyn: Are you an early to the airport versus like run up to the boarding gate?

Nikki: An hour before boarding starts? That makes me feel cozy.

And as we were getting to know each other, we were also getting to know the people we met in Michigan, and we noticed something kind of funny kept happening. Every time we said where we’re both from.

Aislyn: We tell people we’re from California and they’re kind of like, why are you here? But I feel like it’s because they grew up with such gorgeous nature in their backyard. It’s almost like they can’t see it anymore.

Nikki: Yeah. I mean, the whole state is covered in lush agricultural areas, forested areas. We saw so many deer, we saw beaver. The spring weather was incredible. It really was just like a magical, beautiful place to explore. But before we go too far into all of that, let’s go over some local vocabulary.

Aislyn: Yes, listeners, this is really important for all of your future trips to Michigan because it’s very tricky.

Nikki: We messed up more than a couple of these during our trip. So first, Mackinac Island is Mackinaw.

Aislyn: Even though it’s spelled M-a-c-k-i-n-a-c and you leave to go to Mackinac Island from Mackinaw City, which is spelled exactly how it sounds.

Nikki: Exactly. No Mackinac. And it’s the Ausable River, not the AU Sable. So that island is where your French comes in.

Aislyn: Yes. Sablé means sand or sandy. So the Sandy River, but also sablé is a really delicious cookie.

Nikki: Oh yes. And good cookies are kind of like a hidden subplot of the whole trip.

Aislyn: Shh. Don’t give it away.

Nikki: Okay, okay. For later. Also, we’ve got Oscoda, which you might want to pronounce Oscoda, but you should not do that if you want any Michiganders to take you seriously. And we did really want to make friends on this trip.

Aislyn: We did? Yes. And I was so excited to meet all the people that, you know, you listeners are about to hear from. But I didn’t think about the fact that by spending 9 days, 9 days befriending Michiganders, we’d actually be kind of befriending each other in a new way.

Nikki: Ah.

Aislyn: But back to that first full day on the Ausable River. It’s about 130 miles long. And back in the 17th century, it was like the I-5 of the Michigan fur trade.

Nikki: We were paddling through the Huron Manistee National Forest, and it was just us and the trees and the river quietly flowing.

Aislyn: I mean, it’s just so green. It’s like all of the colors in the crayon box.

Nikki: And it’s such a cool mix of trees. We have this stand of pines, but then we have all these deciduous trees.

Aislyn: And here’s the thing about a canoe. I mean, once the guy drops you off and points you downstream, there’s nothing to do but paddle a little and talk a lot. Isn’t it crazy that we’re working right now? I mean, this.

Nikki: Is what everyone, myself included, like, imagines when you say that. Like you’re a travel writer. Exactly.

And then it got ridiculous the way that it does when you have a lot of free time and pristine wilderness.

The wind is working against us. How rude.

Aislyn: Now we’re having to actually paddle. I see why he says, don’t wander off. If you go to the shore.

Nikki: Would you really get lost when there’s this giant river? Like you wouldn’t be able to find the river again.

Aislyn: Oh, that’s a good point.

Nikki: I haven’t tested myself on it. It’s one that’s probably exactly the attitude that would get me lost forever.

Aislyn: Are you gonna test that out?

Nikki: Just drop me off here. See if I can find my way back to the canoe rental office.

Aislyn: I have 2 GoMacro bars I can send with you.

Nikki: What’s that reality show like? Naked and afraid.

Aislyn: You’d be, like, denim clad and feeling okay? Yeah, exactly.

Nikki: Denim clad and overconfident. That’s my flag that they’ll put up under my name. It’ll be my whole personality for the show.

Aislyn: Amazing.

Nikki: I did not happen to test out my survival skills. Just FYI.

Aislyn: She’s still here with us today. Not wearing denim. We also just sat in silence at times and soaked it in. And I remember thinking, it’s cool. We could just be quiet because sometimes that can feel a little weird, especially with somebody you don’t know that well.

Nikki: Totally. Yes. Eventually, we floated back to the canoe rental spot and pride ourselves away from the river and sat down to talk with Adam Hume, who runs the Oscoda Canoe Rental.

Adam: I believe this is my 26th year at the Canoe rental. Family owned for the last 17 years.

Aislyn: Do you remember the first time you were in a canoe?

Adam: Young. Yeah, we started camping and fishing trips in the U.P. when I was really young in canoes, and so I was on the water. It was always part of my life. I guess I took it for granted for a long time, until my 30s, and realized how lucky I was to be able to find a way to make a living here and watch, watch people enjoy the river as much as I did.

Aislyn: Adam was a professional walleye fisherman before this. He gave it up in part to be home for his son and so he could live in this beautiful pastoral part of Michigan where he gets to help travelers like us enjoy the peace.

Adam: Compared to the west side of the state, it’s a different culture, a little more laid back over here. No traffic jams and almost a forgotten side. But we kind of like it that way. They talk about putting an expressway in up here and I’m always like, boy, that’d be great for business, but live here for a reason.

Nikki: Adam’s connection to this place and the lovely story he has there, didn’t feel like a fluke. This kind of thing just kept coming up.

Aislyn: I mean, Kathy Erickson, right? She is one of the people who puts on this huge canoe race that draws paddlers from around the world to Oscoda. And she met us at the Hilltop Bar and Grill.

Nikki: Which is like the local Oscoda hang.

Aislyn: And she told us all about the race, which I am obsessed with, and would 100 percent watch that reality TV show.

Nikki: Oh my gosh, yes.

Kathy Erickson: It is called the Ausable River Canoe marathon. It is a 120 mile non-stop canoe race that goes from Grayling, Michigan to Oscoda, Michigan. The paddlers start at 9 o’clock at night, and they paddle straight through the night and end up in Oscoda around 11-11:30 Sunday morning.

Nikki: You know what I loved about Kathy?

Aislyn: Yes I do. This quote.

Kathy: Yes. I have never sat in a racing boat. I have no intentions of ever sitting in a racing boat. So yeah.

Aislyn: I mean, Kathy just loves the river and the race. I mean, she told us it takes about 50 thousand strokes from start to finish and it takes 19 hours to finish. It’s also known as the world’s toughest spectator sport.

Kathy: There are people that actually are at every single checkpoint watching for their team, cheering people on, and some of them are quite difficult to get to. I mean, because it’s what? You’re along the riverbank. I think people don’t realize that once you see the excitement behind it, it’s something that just kind of gets in your blood and you either want to be involved or you want to help out, or you want to watch it every year.

Aislyn: I was so taken with it that I’m going to go back and do a whole story on the marathon this year. Actually, it starts on July 25. Nikki, you want to join?

Nikki: Um, yes, but maybe I’ll just meet you at the finish line.

Aislyn: That night, we stayed at the Sweetwater Bed and Breakfast, which is right on Lake Huron. We were so lucky. We each had a view of the lake from our room.

Nikki: Yes. And let’s remind people that lake is an understatement for these waters.

Aislyn: Yeah. It’s really a vast inland sea, as people kept telling us.

Nikki: So we were looking at this vast inland sea from our rooms and feeling small in the best possible way.

Aislyn: It was just water as far as the eye can see. And there is a name for this coast, by the way.

Nikki: Yes, the Sunrise Coast.

Aislyn: And the next morning I actually watched the sun rise while I was in bed, which is just such a treat. And then I walked down to the beach and just soaked in the rays.

Nikki: MM. So nice. But there wasn’t too much time to linger because we had to head north to Alpena.

Aislyn: This was our biggest, most ambitious day of a pretty ambitious trip. We would get on the water and above the water twice, all before dinner.

Nikki: It started with a glass bottom boat at the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

Richard Biffle: Good morning everybody. Welcome to the new, improved landing Michigan.

Nikki: Our captain was Richard Biffle.

Aislyn: It is such a great name. And Captain Biffle invited us onto the bridge so that we could see the map of all the shipwrecks we’d see that day.

Richard: So we’ll go up there and we’re going to come back down, and we’re going to see the red right here on a clear day, which it should be really clear over there. You can see the whole boat is the largest of the shipwrecks that we have.

Aislyn: I don’t think either one of us really grasped how many shipwrecks were out there, at least not until we met our new hero, Stephanie Gandulla, a maritime archaeologist.

Nikki: Love, Stephanie, and she gives a great presentation.

Stephanie Gandulla: Thrilled to have you here in the nation’s very first freshwater national marine sanctuary, the very first in the Great Lakes.

Aislyn: There are about 100 known shipwrecks in this one stretch of Lake Huron.

Nikki: And archaeologists think that there are at least 100 more out there.

Aislyn: It’s 4,300 square miles. And the reason it exists is a little eerie.

Nikki: Is that a Great Lakes pun?

Aislyn: Not intentional, but it should be.

Speaker 6 Any guesses on why so many shipwrecks here in the Great Lakes? You can shout out your answers. Weather, fog. Somebody said fog. So weather indeed. I like to say they don’t call it Thunder Bay for nothing. The great storm of 1913 took 12 freighters to the bottom of the lake, and over 250 sailors lost their lives.

Aislyn: Stephanie said another reason was the shallow, rocky shoals where boats would try to ride out bad weather, And.

Nikki: I have a sinking feeling about this, Aislyn. Wait. I can’t believe you wrote that bad joke and just made me say it.

Aislyn: I had the keyboard. So yes, they would sink. Another reason was that the Great Lakes were just so busy. I mean, ships were much smaller than the freighters we use today, so there were way more of those ships out on the lakes, and basically they’d crash into one another.

Nikki: I think we were both blown away by how amazingly well preserved they are. And that’s because of the cold, fresh water.

Stephanie: That is a wooden schooner that sank in 1875. That’s what it looks like. Yet today, with those masts, those wooden masts still standing upright. So the preservation possible here in the Great Lakes is really 2nd to none around the world.

Aislyn: And here’s a fun fact about Stephanie. She’s from Montana.

Nikki: A woman who grew up inland and now works underwater. And she said something that really stuck with me.

Stephanie: We harken back to that famous Jacques Cousteau quote, people will protect what they love. And how do you love something if you can’t connect to it and access it and understand it. And so accessibility is very much key.

Aislyn: She said it a couple different times and a couple different ways. But you know, we protect what we love and you can’t love something you haven’t experienced, right?

Nikki: Oh gosh, I didn’t know we were going to get so philosophical about it.

Aislyn: I mean, there’s just something about being on the water, right? You have to get philosophical when you’re reckoning with the sea.

Nikki: That’s very true. And so after a day of peering down at shipwrecks, we did, I think, the best thing ever.

Aislyn: That is the sound of our 1975 Cessna 172. It’s this tiny yellow plane that was flown by a guy who learned to fly in the same building we were about to take off from.

Jared: I got my first license in this building. In that airplane.

Aislyn: That’s really cool. In that same airplane?

Jared: Same exact airplane.

Nikki: Our pilot’s name was Jared, and Aislyn, you rode up front as his co-pilot. Were you scared?

Aislyn: You know, you were so kind to let me have that seat. And I was scared. I was really just like, it’s gonna be fine. It’s going to be great. But the plane was so small. I mean, it’s smaller than the average sized car now. And Jared was very calmly telling us how fast we were about to go.

Jared: Top ground speed. Today, we’ll probably see about 150 mph and the slowest speed we’ll see while we’re flying over the shipwrecks is probably around 100. We can fly lower, slower, and we can really get up close and personal with a lot of these ships, of course, with safety in mind as well. Okay, cool. So okay. All right. Are we ready? All right, let’s fly.

Nikki: Let’s do it.

We don’t have much tape of what we were seeing from the plane, because even though it’s very small, it makes a huge amount of noise.

Aislyn: But it was so, so cool. I mean, it was just such a special way to see the lake, especially since we’d been down there. Like the water looks like the Caribbean. It’s so clear. And then there would be these outlines of shipwrecks.

Nikki: Yeah, exactly. Like you said, there were the same shipwrecks we had just seen a couple of hours before from the boat.

Aislyn: Yeah.

Nikki: We also flew over these sinkholes. And you can see the color of the water change and how like it sort of gets muddy and then clear and then like really deep blue and just imagining how deep that goes, I think it’s very fun.

Aislyn: And it really helps you understand like that water is such an important part of the Michigan story. So such a cool day.

Nikki: And then because cruising on the water and air wasn’t quite enough for us, we also climbed a lighthouse.

Innkeeper: And this is the 5th tallest lighthouse on the Great Lakes, but it’s the tallest one the public can climb and actually go out on that catwalk. It’s 113 feet high, has 130 steps, and it’s like going up a 10-story building.

Aislyn: So that voice you just heard, that is the innkeeper at the new Presque Isle Lighthouse.

Nikki: Not to be confused with the old Presque Isle Lighthouse, which we also visited.

Aislyn: Yes. And you rang the huge bell that people around all of Michigan heard that day, I think.

Nikki: It was a very, very loud bell.

Aislyn: It was a loud bell. And I have such a romantic idea of what it means to be a lighthouse keeper, you know.

Nikki: Yes. We though, weren’t too romantic about it.

Aislyn: Yes, we huffed and puffed and stopped multiple times as we climbed these 130 steps to the top with our new friend Sarah, who was our guide to Alpena for the afternoon.

Nikki: Yes, and at the top we were rewarded, thank goodness.

Aislyn: One of the nicest views I’ve ever seen from a lighthouse. Yeah, just because it’s so panoramic.

Sarah: And this is all Lake Huron around us. There’s a shipwreck right out there. You asked me my favorite earlier. Yeah, it’s right out there.

Aislyn: Oh, that’s the one. That’s the one you can paddle to. Yeah, yeah.

Sarah: So like that’s North Bay. This ship sank because there’s a bad storm. And 14 ships. Picture 14 ships went in there to get shelter.

Nikki: You really wanted to paddle out to that shipwreck or snorkel, right?

Aislyn: I did, I did. I wanted to be in the water, on the water, above the water. I just thought it would be such a cool story because you can like, you can get in the water there. You can paddle board or snorkel or scuba dive and see the wrecks. And I kept trying to make it happen.

Nikki: Yeah, it would have been really cool. but also really chilly. We learned that the dive shops were all closed because it was too early in the season and the water was too cold.

Aislyn: So, you know, I took that as a sign, but I still would have done it if somebody had just given me some flippers.

Nikki: If we had been able, I would have been pretty down as well. But there was a part of my mind that was a little relieved when we got told no.

Aislyn: Yes. Yes. But still three ways to meet the same lake in a single day.

Nikki: Yes. And as much as we love Stephanie and Sarah and Thunder Bay, we had a different type of boat that we needed to catch.

Aislyn: That’s after the break.

Announcement System: If the captain has pointed out the areas on the top deck that are taking on spray, and if they know what they’re talking about, and you will get wet.

Aislyn: So we’re just pulling into Mackinac Island. There’s a strong smell of hay that just hit us, which is pretty cool. Lots of horses. I’m excited to see the horse drawn carriages. I’m excited to like, get on a bike and go find some fudge. Yes, we arrived on our first island, Mackinac. It’s one of Michigan’s most popular spots and it is completely car-less.

Nikki: You arrived by ferry and everyone moves by horse or bike or their own two feet.

Aislyn: It’s so charming. It is all these beautiful flower baskets. And there’s real tulips. Wow, those are amazing. Yeah, like we’re in a movie right now. Like we’re doing a backlot tour through a set. Yeah. And we’re entering Americana. Yes.

Nikki: Downtown is charming, but it is busy.

Aislyn: So busy. But we stayed at the Inn at Stonecliffe, which is about a 40-minute horse and buggy ride away from all that in this very kind of pristine part of the park.

Nikki: Yeah, it was beautiful. And the horses were so impressive pulling all of the heavy people and luggage up the hill.

Aislyn: I know, I know. You remember what the cart that they pull is called?

Nikki: No, but that feels like key trivia night information.

Patrick Conlon: We call it a Dre. It’s technically what the term is, but all of our food comes up every day by horses. All of our UPS packages come up pulled by horses. We kind of get used to it living here year round. But for other people, it’s kind of they stop in their tracks and they say, oh my gosh, is that UPS that’s rolling by with horses pulling it? And yes, it sure is.

Aislyn: So that’s Patrick Conlon, he’s the general manager at Stonecliffe, and he’s one of only about 500 people who live on the island year round.

Nikki: I definitely want to hear more from Patrick. But what does he do in the winter here? Like, how do people get by?

Aislyn: I know I had that same question because it’s so fascinating, right? Apparently they use snowmobiles to get around and when the lake freezes over, you can actually snowmobile back to Mackinaw City, which I want to do someday. So can I play you one of my favorite quotes from Patrick.

Nikki: Of course.

Patrick: The summer so busy. And it’s just like, go, go, go, go, go. And there’s people everywhere, which is great. We love it. But then the winter comes and it’s like everything just stops. Like it’s dead quiet. You could shoot a bowling ball down Main Street without hitting anyone. And yeah, it changes rapidly.

Aislyn: So listeners, I got that little gem because I went on a tour of the property while Nicky worked in her room and got to sample the cookies they give you on arrival.

Nikki: Oh my gosh, they were so good. And that’s when you learned that I like oatmeal cookies with chocolate and sea salt. What an obscure new friend fact. Yes.

Aislyn: It was so obscure that I had now forgotten it until you reminded me just in this moment. But while Nicky was eating her cookies and Patrick and I were wandering around the huge lawn and the orchard, he shared his path to the island.

Patrick: One summer when I was in college, I started working for Shepler’s, the ferry company. Fell in love with it. I was outside, I had the best suntan in my life. I was valet parking, you know, gorgeous cars. I was working with a lot of really fun people and meeting people from all over the world. And, uh, it kind of stuck. I never wanted to leave, so that ended up developing into a year round position at Shepler’s. And then after about 7 years there, I went to Grand Hotel and I met my wife during that time, and we left the island for a few years. And then the Stonecliffe opportunity presented itself.

Aislyn: The Grand Hotel, by the way, is the really iconic hotel that’s located on the island. You may have seen it or heard of it. It was built in 1887, but the Inn at Stonecliffe also has a more than century old story.

Patrick: A man named Michael Cudahy immigrated to the United States from Ireland in 1849, when he was 8 years old. With his family. They fled the potato famine and he started working for a meat packing house. When he was 14 years old, he was making $6 a week. His brothers eventually joined him at that job, and then in 1890, he and his brother John, founded the Cudahy Packing Company in Chicago. And by the end of the 1800s, he and his brothers were all multi-millionaires.

Nikki: And like a lot of wealthy Chicagoans, then they summered on Mackinac.

Patrick: So Michael Cudahy ended up purchasing the lot here that Stonecliffe is built on for $3,400 in 1903, and the mansion was built that winter, 1903–1904. Michael died a few years after that, and the mansion changed hands a few times.

Aislyn: And here’s where it gets a little wild.

Patrick: It ended up selling to a televangelist minister whose name was Rex Humbard, and he decided that he would make Stonecliffe home to a winter sports program. And by December of 1971, they had completed the project. It had several ski hills, a chairlift, a rope tow, cross country trails, a toboggan run. But as amazing as this sounds, it was a complete failure financially. The ski runs were very short. It was facing the wrong direction, so the sun melted the snow almost immediately, and some of the island residents who were around at that time said there were really only two good weekends for skiing during that winter of 1971–1972. So it ended up selling again in 1973.

Nikki: I’m not much of a skier, and I actually had never thought about factoring in the sun that way.

Aislyn: I know, same in 2000. It changed hands again, hopefully for the final time.

Patrick: Bill Pulte Sr. and Doctor Michael Bacon purchased the mansion and that was when it was renamed the Inn at Stonecliffe. And then in 2021, Stonecliffe became completely owned by the Pulte Family Charitable Foundation, and they took on a very ambitious renovation project. The hotel was closed from 2022 to 2024.

Aislyn: The renovation is a big part of why it feels the way it does now.

Nikki: The part I kept admiring was the landscaping. There are lots of lovely trillium in the forest, and then tulips in full bloom and all the garden beds, and there’s a big grassy lawn with a view of the water and a giant American flag. It all felt sort of like the postcard idea of a wholesome American summer.

Aislyn: That’s such a perfect way to describe it. And the mansion itself, it kind of stops you in your tracks. I mean, I remember being in our horse and buggy and pulling up out front and just seeing this huge gabled building painted all white with these gorgeous stained glass windows. And then you walk out back and there’s this lawn with a view of Lake Huron. And yeah, it was a little hard to leave, to be honest.

Nikki: Very peaceful.

Aislyn: Plus the hotel, which has 52 rooms, by the way, it gives back in a really cool way.

Patrick: So the Inn at Stonecliffe falls under the category of a humanitarian hotel that the Pulte Family Charitable Foundation owns. All of our profits go back to charities. So, you know, by staying here, you’re helping fund soup kitchens in Detroit to villages in Africa.

Aislyn: And this may be my favorite part. There’s a candy cart that they roll out every night at 7:04 p.m., which is 19:04 military time because the mansion was built in 1904. So, you know, this island is full of tourists, but it’s also full of surprises.

Nikki: Like the many fudge and ice cream shops.

Aislyn: Yes, I did ask Patrick about fudge.

Patrick: You get off the boat and you can smell fudge and fresh air. There are a lot of different fudge companies downtown where you can go in and get free samples at each one. I won’t name my favorite because I’ll probably make enemies in the process, but they’re all really good.

Aislyn: You don’t want to make enemies with the chocolate people.

Nikki: And we needed to stock up on chocolate because our next stop was a little bit more off the grid.

Aislyn: Yeah. Should we, uh, start with the gas station?

Nikki: Oh my gosh, we were so confused. So we were on our way to Drummond Island, but we needed to get gas before we caught the ferry.

Aislyn: Basically, we got out of the car and went to pay first with our card, like you do at every other gas station, and there was nothing there.

Nikki: We were both just looking blankly up and down the pump all around, and then the voice of God comes over a speaker and says, you don’t have to pay before you pump.

Aislyn: And I just didn’t know that was a thing anymore. And I said so to the attendant when I went in to pay. And I said that he must see that blank look all the time.

Gas Attendant: It’s a look I recognize very well. Look, everyone. You stood in front of the pump looking at it for too long. We’re kind of in a unique spot. Yeah.

Nikki: That’s when we first realized that this lake was going to feel a little different.

Aislyn: Yeah. Because, you know, up until now, even though we were on what is called the quiet side, it still felt kind of vacationy, like you might run into somebody from Chicago, but we were headed to Drummond Island and that felt much farther out, like it was a true small town experience we were having where people actually, like, trust each other.

Nikki: Yeah, the Mackinac Island ferry was big and freshly painted, very posh. It was like a big production in the parking lot, with different colored gazebos and luggage carts and a big ticket booth building.

Aislyn: And then there was the ferry to Drummond Island, which is just very utilitarian. This is a ferry that knows who it is. You know, its purpose is to take you from one side to another.

Nikki: We were not entirely sure that we were in the right place. And then someone else waved us over, and we were thinking they were going to give us directions, and they just asked us directions if we were in the right place.

Aislyn: So yes, it makes me wonder if we’re going to the right place. But of course there’s only 1.

Once you’re on the island, though, I my blood pressure just felt like it dropped. Like you’re driving through these quiet, sunlit, dappled roads and there’s water peeking through here and there.

Nikki: Yeah. And when we finally unlocked our A-frame cabin at the Drummond Island Resort. I really felt at peace.

Aislyn: I know, me, too. I mean, even though we were technically working, it was a much slower pace there.

Nikki: Yeah, I could have parked on that porch for like a month.

Aislyn: But we decided to explore. We wanted to find a beaver dam that someone had mentioned, and it was in the Maxton Plains, which are these rare grasslands that are actually only found on Drummond Island, but it’s more of an ambitious trek.

Nikki: Yeah, I don’t think we quite had the right gear. I feel like I’m outdoorsy adventurous in an LA context, but maybe not in a Drummond Island context. I’m like, Oh, actually that’s quite a bit of mud.

Aislyn: But the hike turned out to be where Nikki and I shared some deeper stories because, you know, once you’re walking through grassy, marshy plains with nowhere to be, really, you start telling each other the scary stuff.

I was into rock climbing for a while, but I was climbing all in the gym, and then a friend was like, well, let’s go out to, you know, Eastern Washington. And so that was where he’s like, you can do your first kind of outdoor climb. I didn’t know that I would have to get up there and then re-tie myself so I could belay down. And I’d never done that before. And so I’m standing up there and I was just like, I can’t I mean, I really, I don’t like heights. Like I just pushed myself to do these things. I sat there for a long time. I was just like, I don’t trust my ability to like, do the correct thing so that I can safely belay down. And there was no other option. Like nobody could come up and I just had to do it.

Nikki: That’s really scary.

Aislyn: And then Nikki, you told me, I think probably the best/most terrifying story ever. It’s such a great story and also kind of my worst nightmare.

Nikki: Yeah. So Drew and I went skydiving and we chose to do the one where you like, do the full day training and you are connected to the plane. So your chute deploys automatically. Like there’s not a lot of freefall, but you’re by yourself. Like you don’t have an instructor with you to glide the parachute down. So we’re doing the class and one woman in the class was so scared, like the whole time in the class, she was so nervous, but she, like, eventually cleared all the skills that she was supposed to do. And she went up in the plane before us. And so Drew and I are on the ground. And we have our radios, like, basically like the headsets that the pilots would have or whatever. They’re like hearing sort of the open communication channel. They put these helmets on. We’re starting to hear a little bit of things. And the instructor, that”s with us, like takes our helmets back, turns off the radios and these like, it’s fine. Don’t don’t worry about it. And we go up in the next plane. We don’t really know anything about what’s happening. We have a great jump. Drew proposes when we land. So we’re engaged? And this other woman, apparently, what had happened is that, like when you jump, you’re supposed to kind of arch your back and, like, keep yourself open. Yeah. Um, and she curled into a little ball and so her chute tangled and she had to, the instructor, like walking her through it in her ear. She had to cut her chute and deploy her emergency chute. And she landed. She was fine. She landed like six miles off course. They, like, went in a car and went to go get her. But the scariest thing I can imagine happening to this poor woman who was already so afraid.

Aislyn: So we were really enjoying swapping stories and walking through the grasslands.

Nikki: Yeah. And because the hike was pretty easy, we were like only half paying attention.

Aislyn: We kept thinking, surely we’re almost there.

Nikki: Absolutely. Any second. And then suddenly we approached a car.

Aislyn: Is that our car?

Nikki: No, no.

Aislyn: It’s a car.

Nikki: If that’s our car, I’m really lost. That must be so confusing.

Aislyn: It just looks so much like.

Nikki: Very much like our car. It doesn’t look like a car. That should be here. Did you get here? And maybe. Did we go in a circle somehow? I think that’s our car. I think we went in a circle. Oh, no. What did we do? What do we do? I thought there was just one trail to stick to. What the heck?

Aislyn: But because basically the right. If we’d gone right, we would have just continued walking out because we.

Nikki: Would have just, like, walked back to town. Oh my God.

Aislyn: Drop an island, you fool!

Nikki: You are trickier than you appear. We hiked an hour and a half through three feet deep mud to end up right back at our car.

Aislyn: It just still makes me laugh because it was such a pretty hike. And at first you were like, there’s just no way that can’t be our car.

Nikki: I was stunned.

Aislyn: Yes, I wish we could have watched ourselves from above, just like blithely wandering way off trail. Oh. So good. But it was kind of beautiful. Like, maybe it represented the whole trip where we’re searching for something big and wind up right back where we started, but a little different.

Nikki: Yeah, I think the wrong turn was kind of the point.

Aislyn: But as much as we loved Drummond Island and we really did, we had wine to taste at a place called MAWBY, which is on the Leelanau Peninsula. And it’s named for the founder, Larry Mawby.

Emily: This is Mawby sparkling wine. We are, I believe, now, at this point, the oldest winery in operation on this peninsula, at 53 years old. Now we make exclusively sparkling style wine. There’s a cider thrown in there, but it’s got bubbles, so it counts.

Nikki: Yeah, that’s Emily. We sat outside with her at tables overlooking the vines and learned that she naturally used to sell…

Emily: Collector car insurance. Really? I know, so it’s quite, quite a pivot. I have a good friend who was in the wine industry here. She asked me one day if I could come and help on a weekend day. She’s like, all you have to do is pour a little welcome, pour and check a name off of a list. And, you know, it’s a lot of fun. And I had a blast. I was hooked immediately.

Nikki: Emily explained why Michigan, of all places, makes great bubbles.

Emily: Sparkling wine needs those cooler temperatures in order to have enough acidity in the fruit. To make good sparkling. You need a lot of acidity with our climate, with where we fall on the map, we’re kind of right along the 45th parallel. So he was like, I think we can make world class sparkling wine. And so that’s what we’ve been doing.

Aislyn: So the 45th parallel is halfway between the equator and the North Pole. And it’s the same line that runs through some of the great wine regions of Europe.

Emily: I think it surprises people to know that we’re producing the same type of varietals that old world Europe is doing just as well, and competing at world competitions and taking home awards and medals that reflects the craft and the care that. And the quality that’s being put into the wines here.

Nikki: And then Emily said the thing that closed the case for me.

Aislyn: Is that a wine pun.

Nikki: Again, Aislyn, you wrote this. I’m I’m just reading the words.

Aislyn: I know, I’m sorry, not sorry. So what did she say?

Emily: What a lot of people from this area might tell you is that if you’ve grown up here and you leave, it will always call you back. It’s really hard to, to go other places and then see the world and not realize what a little slice of heaven we have here.

Aislyn: It’ll always call you back. That’s what we heard from everyone Adam, Kathy, Stephanie, Patrick, Emily. And it’s kind of what we ended up saying too. So if you’ve been waiting for us to tell you the story of this trip, here it is. And there are two of them.

The first story, of course, is about Michigan and all the ways it can surprise you and all the ways that it surprised us. You know, from great wine to flying over shipwrecks, islands that are mysteriously the fudge capital of the world, and islands that offer a place to quiet down and just watch the world. Creative cities and even more creative food. But whatever you do, I recommend you drive the slow side. You sit at somebody’s table and you just let it be an experience that seeps into you and pulls you back.

Nikki: Yeah, it’s an invitation to go make your own story.

Aislyn: And here’s the second story, the one I didn’t see coming for sure. A Michigan road trip might be one of the best ways to get to know someone, and I think I know why, right? Like, you’re never driving more than an hour or 2, so you’re not wrung out. There’s water and woods everywhere, so there’s always something to do and nothing you have to rush. And the people you meet are so kind and they’re so willing to tell you their story. So after a few days, you just start doing the same thing with one another.

Nikki: Yes. And we had so many more adventures than we could even tell you about. We drank cider in Traverse City.

Aislyn: Stayed in a retro motel in Saugatuck, the gay art Mecca of Michigan.

Nikki: And tasted more world class wine in the fruit belt. We just came home with so many inside jokes. I mean, denim clad and overconfident is with me forever. There were zombie pirates. Don’t even ask. And the e-word?

Aislyn: The e word, I forgot Nikki. Can we end with that?

Nikki: Yes. Let’s end with Euchre.

Aislyn: So, listeners, Euchre is spelled E-u-c-h-r-e. Never would have guessed the pronunciation on that one. And it’s a 4 person card game, one that we thought we would convince people to teach us to play. I actually thought it might be the spine of this whole episode. Like we’d meet people. We’d talk them into teaching us, befriend them for life, and become champions.

Nikki: That’s where you thought we were going to end up.

Aislyn: I, I don’t know. I had a big vision, I guess.

Nikki: I love it. I can’t say that I had quite the same amount of hope, but that’s a very nice idea.

Aislyn: You were more down to earth than than I was. Because here’s how the week went. Boiled down to about a minute. This isn’t related to canoeing at all, but we’re on a quest to learn how to play Euchre while we’re here. Do you have any thoughts about that?

Person 1: Yeah, it’s not hard. It’s. I started at 5 or 6 years old on Cedar Lake and my 8-year-old plays.

Aislyn: All right, we’ll come back. We’ll buy you a glass of wine and play some music.

Person 2: Okay. Happy to. I will warn you, it can get a little can get a little intense. People in euchre, we don’t mess around.

Person 3: I was telling my friend, um, about my day. I’m like, yeah, they’re going to learn Euchre because I just taught her and her husband.

Aislyn: Oh. Did you?

Person 3: She’s like, it takes more than a day.

Nikki: That’s fair.

Person 4: Be patient with yourself. Actually, it’s kind of funny because the senior center here, they play euchre every week, and they’re always looking to teach people.

Aislyn: Shoot, we missed our opportunity.

Nikki: So we did not learn euchre. 9 days with Michiganders and we can still not play their card game face palm.

Aislyn: I mean, I guess that just means we have to go back. Yes. Because, you know, I’m going back for the Oscoda Canoe Marathon. 50,000 strokes, baby. Woo! Plus, there’s a winery porch where somebody promised to teach us if we buy the 1st round.

Nikki: Is this a reunion tour?

Aislyn: I’ll make the t-shirts. I mean, they’re going to be denim, of course.

Nikki: Of course.

Thanks, everyone for joining us on this Michigan road trip. We will link out to our full itinerary, including all the places we stayed and the businesses we visited in the show notes.

Aislyn: If you’re ready for more travel inspiration and intel like this, visit Afar.com and be sure to follow us on Instagram and TikTok. We are at @AfarMedia.

Nikki: If you enjoyed today’s exploration, I hope you’ll come back for more great stories and interviews.

Aislyn: Subscribing always makes that easy, and be sure to rate and review the show on your favorite podcast platform. It helps other travelers find it.

Nikki: This has been Unpacked, a production of Afar Media. The podcast is produced by Aislyn Greene and Nikki Galteland.

Aislyn: This podcast is part of the Airwave Podcast Network. Visit AirwaveMedia.com to listen and subscribe to their other fine shows like Culture Kids and The Explorers podcast.