High Season in Mackinac

Does homemade beef jerky count as healthy? Maybe if you’re a cowboy or fur trapper with little access to refrigeration on the open range or in the northern woods. I thought about this as I paid for my 1/2 pound of BBQ dried and cured beef from the highly recommended (by our generous host in Grosse Point) at Narski’s in Alger, Michigan.

Best thing about our mandate of NO FAST FOOD was that it has forced us to not simply take the easy way out like caving into drive-thru McDs demands from our kids. It has also prompted us to become food-resourceful, plan ahead, or simply try the local restaurants and food stores. In all cases, this has proven to be a far superior way of eating while on the road.

For our travel days, we simply stop to make sandwiches out of the back of the car. We had organized a large, rolling cooler that contained nut butters, cheese, mayo (for tuna sandwiches), condiments, pickles, olives and the like. A smaller, portable cooler for drinks is stowed on the floor behind the front seats. Paper bowls, cups, disposable flatware, paper napkins and towels have been very useful as well. Essentially, we have everything needed to turn the cooler top into an ad-hoc cutting board (something we should have also brought). Sitting at a picnic stop at a scenic overlook or beach has been so much more pleasant than wolfing down chemically laden, overly salted fast-food while hurtling down the interstate. Plus, the kids have had a chance to run around a bit before squeezing back into the Acura.

We’ve also kept a well-stocked Trader Joe’s bag full of health(ier) snacks; things like granola bars, natural crackers, low-salt chips, nuts and other on-the-go dry foods. That way, even if travel targets get delayed (as is usually the case), we can keep the kids from hunger mutiny long enough to get to our destination, and the next meal.

If the opportunity presents itself and we hit a local restaurant, the ‘mandate’ has also spurred me to order the healthier option. For instance, the whitefish tacos on Mackinac Island offered us a taste of the Michiganion penchant for this fish (you can find it in stews, or pickled, or jerkied) while keeping things healthier than say . . . Burger King. (The well-made dark and stormies also lifted our moods a bit). After dinner, a luxurious stroll around the island yielded dreamlike moments as the sun set behind the Mackinac Bridge, reminding me of what might have been in Walt Disney’s mind’s eye as he conjured his own version of the American Main Street.

To learn more about our thirty day adventure across America, check out our other publications WHERE DO WE FIT IN? and 30 CUPS ACROSS.