Wednesday morning, July 13, we awaken to a bright sunny clear day. It is time to pack up and move on. Our breakfast is made with boiling hot water, again done in the campground office microwave. Then we head east on M28, south on 66, and east again on US 2 towards Mackinaw and the small town of Oden. There is where we are to meet our friend at a restaurant around 1:30 p.m. While we dine on delicious food, we spend 2 ½ hours catching up on our lives. All too soon, it is time to move on and say Good-bye.
We need to travel just a few more miles to Petoskey to locate our home for the next three days. It is to be a rustic cabin deep in the Michigan woods complete with an outhouse. The proprietor is waiting with a gator to haul our possessions back a minimally maintained field drive through the woods. To me, it looks a lot like the trail we took back to the yurt in northern Minnesota last year. A sign at the opening declares, “Emergency Camp vehicles only beyond this point.” The lady tells us that it is just a five-minute walk back to the cabin, but Dave and I really are not interested in walking in and out each day with supplies and other items. My car will become a “Emergency camp vehicle” once we are alone.
The little cabin sits amongst shady trees with the Bear River meandering by. It has a king size bed, a wood stove for heat if needed, and an outdoor cooking area replete with a gas cooking grill and all the utensils needed to cook. But where is the water? There is no running water and no coolers or receptacles storing water ready for our use like at our prior summer yurt. I am a little confused as to why you would supply every other necessary essential but no water. We certainly aren’t going to drink water out of the river. The situation calls for some planning. We finally decide to make a trip to town to purchase gas, water, and cold items that can be eaten on our drive to Mackinaw City tomorrow for the 7:30 a.m. lighthouse boat tour we have scheduled. It is a good thing I have an “EV” for delivering the jugs of water through the woods to our little home. The evening is filled with a quiet supper and reading by a crackling fire.
farmgirlwriter 