OK. What race was I at Saturday–Gross Eel or Gross Aisle?
Anyway, as I was driving in from Jackson Saturday morning with lightning in the distance I thought I was crazy, but it turned out to be good weather and a great race. Whatever it was, it was a long drive back to a home with no power, no running water, etc. Fortunately the ‘Y’ was in an electrified pocket of the city and I was able to get a shower at all.
Some people got some serious money though!! Those were quite the homes on the bike course. My other question is–what was that nasty diesel exhaust smell at the far end of the island? I didn’t hear any generators running, but it was nas-tee.
The smell might have been from the chemical plant on the mainland across from Grosse Ile.
Yup, almost all of the bigger houses we passed were seven figures. Awesome.
I’ve always pronounced it Gross eel. It is a strange name.
Sorry about your power situation, aren’t you glad you decided to race. The weather definitely looked a little dicey in the morning, and I had to take a few detours to and from the race to avoid flooded roads, but the race went off without a hitch.
efernand,
It is the English translation/bastardazation of the French Ile, I believe. Very common on nautical charts. Pronounced “gross eel”.
There is an abandoned light house west of Mackinaw City and Wilderness State Park in Lake Michigan called Ile aux Galet (a seagull paradise). Named by the French and pronounced, “eel ah gahlay”. It was then “bastardized” by the English into skillagallee.
The French were primarily responsible for the Western European exploration of the Great Lakes area. The English then came along and displaced/drove out many of the French and renamed many landmarks with the English spellings for French pronounciations of these landmarks. A familiar example is Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island. Mackinaw is the English spelling of how the French pronounce Mackinac. They are both pronounced the same. Mackinac is not pronounced Mackinack as many pronounce it trying to anglicize the French spelling. In French, the “nac” is pronounced “naw” with the “c” being silent.
Ile and Isle are similar. French and English spellings of something pronounced similarly.