Okay!  I finally have 2 seconds to rub together, so it’s finally photo blog time!  In case you haven’t seen my latest posts on Buzznet or Facebook, you don’t know that on last Friday evening, Tom took me flying in his Cessna 150!  It was AMAZING!!!  I consider it one of the greatest days in my life!  It is just SO much fun up there!  I was really worried that I would be nervous or get scared, but I didn’t at all!  Tom agreed that if I was scared he would bring me right back down!  It wasn’t necessary!  So, anyways, let’s get started!

Here is Tom bringing out the plane!

This is the dash board and all the instruments!  It was cool watching Tom inspect everything before take off!  It was also cool when he was talking to other planes and pilots on the ground to let them know where we were and that we were up there too!

Here we are on the tarmack waiting to take off!

Here is the city of Cheboygan!  In the last photo you can see the privately owned grocery store, Family Fare, and Walmart beside it!

This photo is of the shore of Mullet Lake!  You can see the mansions and boats!  Most of these are vacation homes that their owners only use a few weeks each year!  There are a number of celebrities that have vacation homes in this area!  Mullet is one of the largest inland lakes up here!

While over Cheboygan, Tom saw smoke coming from Indian River, which is about a 45 minute drive in a car!  We were there in minutes!  He said, “that is a lot of smoke!  It has to be a house fire”!  So we flew down to take a look!  Sadly, he was right! You can see all of the fire and rescue vehicles too!  Later on that night, I found out on the news that the fire started with an explosion in the garage!  One man was badly burned!  I am so very sorry for these people who were both injured and the lost their home! This was one of the worst days of their life!  I debated whether or not to even post these photos!  As you can see, I chose just this one! They have been in my thoughts and prayers all week!  I have been through a fire, and although no one was inured, it was rough!

After seeing the fire, we headed back up the country side towards the Straits!  We flew right over Tom’s place!

This is the shore of Lake Huron, and I was fascinated by what we could see under the water! You can also see where the sand bar ends!  There are logs down on the bottom from when this area was being logged and settled!  It was very cool!  The land in front of the photo is my first shot of Bois Blanc Island!

Here is the BEAUTIFUL Bois Blanc Island!  Most of the homes are on the shoreline!  There is a road that runs through the middle, but it was hidden by the trees!  To get there you have to take a car ferry boat or fly in!

The green roof down there is Tom’s parents home!  He has one too, but you can’t see it clearly from up in the air!  I did get a really good look at their beach, and was impressed!  One day Tom is going to take me up there and we are going to hike the 5 miles up to his house!  That is a very long hike for me, but I am really looking forward to it!

We happened to fly over a freightor carrying ore!  It was a huge boat, but you can’t really tell that from the photos!

Here you are looking at Bois Blanc Island, Round Island, and Mackinac Island all in one shot !  If you look at Mackinac, you can see the Grand Hotel, as well as the fort !  Mackinac Island is one of the most exclusive vacation spots in the United States!  People come from all over the world to vacation there!  There are no vehicles with an engine there!  You have to go everywhere either by horse, horse carriage, or bicycle!  It is really impressive!  Back when we had our business, my dad and brother put our equipment on a barge in the off season, but before winter hit, and drilled several wells up there!  I was very nervous about our rig and water truck falling off the barge!  Oh, I should have said that you can reach Mackinac Island by taking a ferry boat from either Mackinaw City or St Ignace!

Here is an attempt at a selfie with Tom!  He looks great, but I am blurry! It was fun wearing and talking through the head sets! He is so handsome! ( :

These are all shots of Mackinaw City!

This shows all the hotels that border Lake Huron as you are going north into Mackinaw City (we were flying south when I took this)!  They are VERY expensive in the summer months!  Many close altogether as do many businesses in the winter months!

I will end with my favorite shot of the day! I know you have seen this one already, but I want you to see it again! (:  Here is our Mighty Mack with the freightor going underneath in the shipping lane!

Well there you have it!  I apologize for this being so long!  I took over 300 photos, so it was very hard to choose which photos to include!

I also have to say THANK YOU, TOM!!!  It was so very nice of him to take me!  I hope to get up there again soon! ( :