L&K Take America

As Eric, Erin & I were planning my next stop after Clarkston, I had this overwhelming feeling of “holy moly…I haven’t gone very far…I need to get moving!” All of a sudden I realized that I had 11 days to get 3/4 of the way across the country. I had been on the road for 9 days and had only made it to Michigan. This was also all uncharted territory for me, and to top it off, I got this message on my GPS screen:

Woohoo! Let the adventure REALLY begin! As a result of my new anxiety, I decided to make a couple of long driving days on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. On Thursday, I drove from Petoskey, MI to Hayward, WI. This was about 420 miles and should have taken me about 8 hours to drive. I set out relatively early from Petoskey, and stopped in Mackinaw City, MI for some coffee and I really wanted a breakfast sandwich. Let me tell you, someone could make a killing if they opened a breakfast sandwich place in that tourist town. It was impossible to find. So, I settled for coffee and figured I would stop and get lunch along the way.

Most of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is a two lane highway along the coast, dotted with gas stations, jerky huts and signs for “pasties”. Not knowing what these were and passing about 25 places that claimed to have “the best pasties” I decided I needed to know. First of all, don’t pronounce it “Paste-ee” like the nipple accoutrement. It’s pronounced “past-ee” like it’s in the past. Oops…my mistake. So…pasties are meat pies and they are pretty damn good, and very different from the other pasty. Made up for my lack of breakfast. Luna seemed to like them too.

There were also a lot of signs about not moving firewood. Apparently in the Upper Peninsula, it’s illegal to bring in your own firewood. I had no idea what this was about, so clearly I googled it at the next rest stop. Transporting Firewood Harms Campground Forests. You learn something everyday.

When I arrived at my campground in WI, I was almost immediately greeted by two little girls, probably 3 and 4 years old. They were obviously interested in Luna, not me. I looked around for a parent, but didn’t see one. They were petting her and squealing with delight when this Amazonian gorrilaesque old man came marching toward them. He didn’t even acknowledge me or the pup and growled at them. Seriously…he growled as he told them to get back to camp. I was scared and I was almost half his size. Can’t even imagine what those tiny girls felt like. This is a common occurrence though. I will be swarmed by tiny people. Well, not me, but Luna will be. Often times there isn’t a parent in site. Very odd to me. I suppose it should make me feel better that parents feel safe enough to let their kids roam free. Doubt anyone would bother me if there are easier targets. The lesson here is, don’t let your kids go talk to people, no matter how cute their dog is. Teach them that cute dogs could be like candy, just bait. Really makes me uncomfortable. I want them to all hold hands and we will march around the campground until I return them all to their parents. You know I would do it.

While at the campground, I had to empty my grey water (from the sink and shower). I have done this a couple times now, so I’m as comfortable as I’m going to get with the whole process and it’s definitely better than the black tank. So I go over to unscrew the top for the hole in the ground and I jump back. There are millions of little larva things in the pipe going down to the ground. Some of them were flying or jumping. I don’t know what they were doing exactly but they were disgusting. I just shivered again just now thinking about it. Really really gross. The stuff nightmares are made of. Needless to say, I took some extra cleansing measures for my supplies and myself after this episode. Blech.

The ground at the campsite was all sandy dirt and it was all a little damp in the morning when I was packing up, so all my gear, and all of my exposed skin was covered in sand upon leaving. I guarantee I’ll be traveling with a little bit of Wisconsin for the rest of this adventure, no matter how much I try to get rid of it.

My time in Wisconsin was short, but I did stop and get some cheese curds on my way out of town. Not sure what the hype is about, but maybe I didn’t get the really good ones.

On to the next stop!

Lesson of the day: Not all baby things are cute (larva is a baby something, more or less).

Watch your children. Don’t let them talk to strangers with cute dogs.