I need more time and a lot more energy to do a proper write up of today’s race; that will come tomorrow.
In the meantime, here are some photos from the day.
There aren’t a lot from the race as in the back half I channeled my inner Lincoln Hawk. He’s Sylvester Stallone’s arm wrestling trucker in OVER THE TOP. In the movie, Lincoln explains to his estranged son that when getting ready to arm wrestle, he turns his baseball/trucker cap around “because it’s time to go to work.”
But as I re-read that it dawns on me I wasn’t running in a hat. So maybe I was channeling Luke Skywalker during his trench run on the Death Star. He switched off his targeting computer and the Yavin war room was abuzz and agog trying to find out what was wrong — “Nothing,” Luke says. “I’m all right.” He is, because he’s going to “use the force” and hit the exhaust port just like when he used to tag womp rats in Beggar’s Canyon back home.
The point is I put my camera away in the back half, not thinking about snapping pics and instead I was going to work, using the force, and all that jazz. Of course, unlike Sylvester and Skywalker, I didn’t ultimately win the arm wrestling finals or destroy the Empire’s ultimate weapon… yet for my heroic quest, I came close. More on that tomorrow.
For now, just know that I finished and enjoyed a complimentary ice cream… 
…and then I took a leisurely drive out to the 45th Parallel.
As a Roadside Attraction, it was nowhere near as much fun as the World’s Largest Pie Pan. Sure, sure. It WAS the 45th Parallel… but where was the razzle dazzle? Where was the huge black line indicating the longitudinal marking so you could straddle, sit, or just generally pose at the halfway point to the North Pole? The sign they had was so… pedestrian. Low key. Meh.
Maybe it’s very Northern Michigan/Canadian to underplay and undersell. But these Michiganders could learn a thing or two from the Four Corners folks. Or the Key Westians.
From Wikipedia:
In Michigan, the Old Mission Peninsula in Grand Traverse Bay ends just shy of the 45th parallel. Many guidebooks and signs at the Mission Point Lighthouse describe it as being halfway betw een the equator and north pole. When the Grand Traverse Bay recedes below normal level, it is possible to walk out to the exact line.
My google review – 2 stars, no more.