9-23-2021 Essexville, MI

The black and white picture in the last
t-log was the Pere Marquette.  This is the
SS Badger.

Essexville is a bit east of Bay City, Michigan and Finn Road Park was a very nice find.  There is a lot of grass and a thick woods surrounds the park.  Unfortunately, it is raining, raining and raining.  The winds are strong with gusts up to 40 mph.  It rained throughout the night our first night at camp.  The second night, we thought the wind might blow a window out of Noobee and coming through the woods, it sounded like a locomotive was bearing down on us.  Holy buckets.  The park is covered with leaves and branches this morning and it continues to rain.  Yesterday, we stopped down by the boat dock and two local fishermen told us that the bay is 3 feet higher today than it was just a couple days ago.

 

The Real Seafood Company
Bay City, Michigan

Birthday Boy - This is what 74 looks like!

Still, it didn’t get our spirits down.  Rob’s birthday was yesterday and today is the first day of his ¾ of a century on planet Earth.  His restaurant of choice for a celebration last evening was the Real Seafood Company, a beautiful mostly-glass supper club that sits right on the shore of Lake Huron in Bay City.  After a cocktail in the wonderful bar, we were seated upstairs safe and dry behind the glass and watched the angry weather and waves crash onto the riverwalk and decks.

Would you like to be sitting on
this park bench right now?

 

Today we are scheduled to arrive at the KOA park in Ypsilanti, a city west of Detroit.  It is a quick 120 mile drive but a different route sprung into our eyepans as we stared at the map:  The scenic drive up around the thumb of Michigan along the shore.  There were reports of flooding, 14-20 foot swells on Lake Huron and it continues to rain.  Even our two local young adventurous fishermen advised against driving this route.  Rob contacted MDOT and their concerns weren’t too dire.  I left the call up to my beloved and after much deliberation, he said, “Let’s go for it!”  I was so glad!  We packed up and battened down the hatches in a downpour and we are on the not-so-dusty trail.  There are tiny patches of blue sky up ahead.  Could that be a promise?

 

We know what happened at our camp last night but what in the world happened to all of Michigan’s lower peninsula?!  My God!  We were detoured twice due to fallen trees.  There were branches and limbs strewn everywhere, uprooted trees, big trees split right down the middle, whole villages with no power (No seafood lunch anywhere for Lindy and Rob.) and Lake Huron was a stirred-up, brown, angry mess.  Don’t misunderstand.  It was a real one-time experience driving around the lower peninsula thumb.  We really wanted to do this.  And I even got a chance to dip my fingers into the waters of another of the Great Lakes so I can say, “I been in there.”  (One to go:  Lake Erie.)  But the drive could have been much more beautiful on a clear, sunny day.  I’m sure those living in the homes along the shore are nervous.  We saw waves breaking on the grass in their yards.  Like the unforgiving oceans, I have a healthy respect for the Great Lakes.  They tend to do unsportsman-like things such as snap ships in half.  That’s not very nice. 

 

Our home for the night is the KOA in Ann Arbor.  We are forced onto a couple of freeways to get here.  What a fuckin’ zoo.  It’s times like this, driving in the big city, that reinforce my eternal gratitude that we live in our tiny little town.  We are now cozied in with a cocktail and a warm fire to wait out this mess.  They promised it will be over soon.  (Why is it OK if weathermen get it wrong all the time but all the rest of us don’t dare make a mistake?)

Some folks think this is fun.

We think this is more like it.