There are days on the road that you spend months planning.

Then there are days like this one.

I was leaving Canada and making my way toward Chicago. The sensible route would have taken me through Detroit before continuing west. That was the plan.

Then, somewhere along the way, I changed my mind.

The Upper Peninsula had always been on my list. I figured, “I’m this close. Why not?” Instead of heading south, I turned north toward the Mackinac Bridge. I’d cross into the U.P., spend a little time exploring, and then drive down the western side of Lake Michigan to Chicago.

It was nothing more than a last-minute detour.

As I got closer to the bridge, traffic slowed… then stopped and I started noticing people everywhere. Thousands of them.

That’s when I learned I’d unknowingly arrived on the day of the annual Mackinac Bridge Walk.

Once a year, the Mackinac Bridge closes to vehicle traffic so tens of thousands of people can walk across one of the longest suspension bridges in the world. I hadn’t planned it. I hadn’t even known it existed.

I’d simply stumbled into one of Michigan’s biggest annual traditions.

I Double Crossed the Mackinac Bridge

Instead of driving across the bridge, I spent the day walking it.

Standing high above the Straits of Mackinac with thousands of other people wasn’t something I could have scheduled. It wasn’t on my bucket list because I didn’t even know it was possible.

Yet there I was.

It’s funny how often that happened during my five years on the road.

People would ask how much planning went into my travels. The truth is, I planned enough to know where I was headed. But I also tried to leave room for the unexpected.

Some of my favorite memories came from places I’d researched for months.

Many more came from turning right instead of going straight.

A roadside festival.

An unexpected concert.

A conversation with a stranger.

A restaurant I never intended to stop at.

Or arriving at the Mackinac Bridge on the one day each year you can’t simply drive across it.

Had I followed my original route through Detroit, I never would have known what I had missed.

That’s one of the things travel taught me.

Sometimes the best experiences aren’t hidden in guidebooks or carefully planned itineraries.

Sometimes they’re waiting just beyond the decision to take the road you hadn’t planned to travel.

I’ve crossed the Mackinac Bridge that day twice. I drove to the Upper Peninsula later in the day, but the one I’ll always remember is when I walked across the Mackinac Bridge with 1000’s of other people.