Dinner Set

That emasculating term is bar-band parlance for allowing diners to digest their Nachos Grande in peace. I'm pretty sure Clem Burke never had to put up with this.
It was a rare booking coup that I wrangled us a back to back 6 nighter on Rikers...er Mackinac Island with Sunday off. This, during the Fall off-season when folks were still coming across for bicycle rides and carriage tours around the island to take in the color change.
I recall rainy mornings sitting at the cafe window watching a town bustle in yellow rain slickers and Top Siders, while we consumed the first lattes brought stateside. I stubbornly still refer them as just coffee and Baileys.
That Sunday, Don had to run back downstate for something. Jack and I went too just to kiss the earth and get the hell off for 48 hours. We got back to the Shepler's dock just in time to see the ass-end of the last ferry headin' north just beyond the breakwater. Half laughing half skeert we weren't gonna make it back by 9 (I live for these adrenilin filled moments).
We exhausted all the other ferry docks untill someone suggested the airport in St. Ignace.
We haul booty across the bridge. Finding the airport was one thing, finding a pilot that hadn't already clocked out for the day was another. Someone was looking down on us cuz we found both. Now the only remaining dilema was if we could cough up enough jack. We were pretty well schooled in whine and dance as the bush pilot took pity on us and we were off.
A little sphinctor puckering went on in this tiny little Cessna as we flew out over the Straits close to sunset. The Island looks pretty cool from 4,000 feet.
We land, unload and hoof it the mile or so back into town. Just in time for the Dinner Set.

Photo from epa.gov