For the fourth time in my life I was not able to drive across the Mackinac Bridge. This was the second time the bridge was closed when I was headed south; two other times it happened when I was returning to the U.P. I left Grand Marais last Thursday at 9:30 am. The Bridge Authority closed the bridge around 10:00 am due to ice falling off the towers and cables. The ice chunks that fall can be large enough to break car windshields. I arrived in Saint Ignace around 11:30 am and waited with hundreds of others to see if the bridge would reopen. Around 4:30, I was concerned that the town would sell out all motel rooms, so I secured a room. Apparently, when temperatures dropped causing the ice to refreeze, they reopened the bridge late that night.
I woke up at 6:00 am on Friday morning, quickly ate breakfast, and headed over the bridge as soon as I could. Good thing because soon thereafter they closed the bridge again when warmer temperatures caused the ice melt to continue.
The night before I left we had freezing rain, which coated all the trees. Thankfully, the roads were in great shape.
When I first arrived, I parked down by the MDOT bridge view area, which was closed for the season. I parked in front of the barrier chain. Every once in a while I could see the bridge authority trucks checking for new ice falls on the bridge's roadway.
After a few hours I decided to get in line with all the other cars.
Here is the view out of my motel window. The dark colored truck and the red truck were still in line.
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