Made It To St. Ignace

We left Lyndhurst at 7:10 this morning.  Here's the starting mileage:

We drove through some pretty bad thunderstorms from Avon to Maumee, but slow and steady was the way to stay safe.  We've been getting lots of news updates so it looks like the storms took a toll on Northeastern Ohio.  Glad we made it out just in time!

One of Cheri's famous state welcome sign photos

We stopped for lunch and gas (for the MINI) in Standish, MI.  We pulled into a place called the North Forest Cafe.  It's one of those places we would have driven right past but Yelp is our friend and it looked like it might be ok.

No ducking under the velvet rope.

They must have a huge advertising budget.

Always an appetite stimulator when this is on your placemat.

The unisex bathroom had ambiance.

I was surprised we didn't see a bunch of MINIs on the drive up but we did meet up with some unknown MINI driver near Gaylord, MI.
His license said "Rocket J" and that should have been a clue
that he was a frustrated Formula 1 driver.  We kept pace and crossed the Mighty Mack at 2:40.  In a word we were fast.

That's four dollars please

Can you read this sign?

We checked in to the Best Western Harbor View in St Ignace and then went over to the Little Bear Arena to pick up our registration swag.  That is arena as in ice arena....don't forget where we are.

The view from room #180

The goods....2 stylish tees and other stuff

We walked through town and and since it was about 66 degrees with a wind chill of -22 we stopped for ice cream.  Cheri had Michigan Pot Hole and I had Mackinaw Island Fudge.

Michigan Pot Hole...in a waffle cone...and pink nails.

We landed back in our room for a bit of a rest.  The town is crawling with MINIs and it is very cool to see so many in one place.  We got tired of waving!!

The NEO MINI group are here in force but they are scattered all over.  It became clear that trying to organize a group dinner was not going to work so we headed off on our own.

We found a place a bit outside of town called Timmy Lee's Pub.  It was 100% Michigander.  The menu was interesting.  Cheri had the whitefish basket and I had a whitefish reuben sandwich.  We had some local beers too!  Yooper to be exact!

When we got here the lot was getting full. By the time we left it was packed.

What can I get ya?

I did NOT have the Broke Back Burger!

That's enough for one day.  We have an early start tomorrow......