Dale and Ambrosia didn't make smalltalk on their way to her shop, even though it would have been polite to do so. Dale wasn't confident enough in their language to carry out an idle conversation, although in the back of his mind he knew that he should be trying whenever the opportunity presented itself. He was content to walk alongside, occasionally thinking about how similar this was to Mackinac Island, where cars were banned and things were still moved by horses. In some ways, the town did remind him of touristy destinations, of places captured in the past. Most such places had normal operating hours—extended on the weekend—and the people there didn't live there, but Mackinac Island was one exception and there were probably others. Perhaps the town was full of traditionalists; perhaps in whatever research they'd done on Earth they'd decided to house him and Kate in the closest thing they had to avoid more severe culture shock. If he'd woken up in a spaceship or a city packed with flying cars, he might have had a more difficult time coping with his new reality.