Well, it’s been 11 days since I put up the first half of my journal from a trip to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, and I should probably go ahead and finish that story. Before I get to it, however, I might as well catch everyone up on things that have happened in the last 11 days.
For starters, I’m now officially free of credit card debt, having paid off the last one earlier this morning. Technically, I’ve still got an ongoing one, because I set up a few monthly utilities to be paid automatically by my Discover card, just to see what type of cash-back kicks I get. If it works out, I’ll leave it that way. If not, I’ll undo the auto-pay and call that one done, too.
In other news, I’ve been fighting a head cold for the last week, and it’s really getting on my nerves. Particularly considering that I had a brass band performance yesterday, followed immediately by a wind orchestra rehearsal. Thought my head was going to explode.
The performance went well, anyway. And we sold a good number of our brand-new CD. So there’s that.
On the home front, I switched from U-Verse television to DirecTV a couple weeks ago – mainly because my employee discount is so much steeper for DTV. I was paying around $25 for U-Verse and I’m getting DTV for $10. So that’s nice. I’ve learned, however, that DTV is *worth* about $10/month. What a piece of crap. Leave it to ATT to push something that’s terrible while trying to get people off of the one really good product that they have. Pathetic. And now they want to buy Time Warner? Seriously? Ugh.
Enough of that. It’s depressing me. Lessee…what else has been going on in the last couple of weeks? Oh! I got a meatloaf from Publix the other day, and DAMN was it good! I may have to do that more regularly. Or, you know, learn how to make meatloaf.
But enough. Moving on to the conclusion of my Superior Week:
10/6/16@11:20 – Hot dogs didn’t happen. I made some freeze-dried Beef Stroganoff and a couple of cheese sandwiches in the tent and then crawled into bed at around 19:00. Slept okay for the most part, although I lost my blankets at some point and woke up at around 02:00 due to the cold – and because I had to pee.
Ended up getting up for good at around 05:30, at which point I put on a sweatshirt and a headlamp and set off for the lighthouse in the dark in order to accomplish a number of tasks. I needed to check my bank balance (today is pay day), shoot the sunrise, download some new podcasts, and book a hotel for Friday night.
Think about that for a second. I checked my bank account and booked a hotel – in minutes – in, basically, the middle of nowhere. It wasn’t long ago that, when taking a long trip, I drove until I got tired and then started looking for a hotel, hoping for a vacancy. Cellphones really are kind of amazing, as intrusive as they are.
I had hoped that the cold last night would be enough to kill of the flies, but they seem to be worse this morning than they were yesterday! Ugh! If I do this again next year (assuming I still have a job), I may wait until November. Stupid global warming.
[Note: The featured image at the top of this entry is one of several that I took of the sunrise that morning, using my phone’s camera. I didn’t bring a DSLR with me on the trip and wanted to figure out if I could use the phone’s “pro” settings for low-light stuff. I thought it worked okay.]
10/6/16@16:21 – So after getting back from the lighthouse this morning, I had a breakfast of freeze-dried Mac & Cheese (good stuff!) and then began pre-packing for the trip out tomorrow. Put all the stuff that was in the tent into the car and then setup my mattress in the tent. If all goes well, in the morning I can just deflate the mattress while in the tent, put it in the car, strike the tent in a few minutes, and hit the road. Hopefully, it won’t rain tonight. It’s been sunny all day and my stuff is dry. I hate packing out wet stuff.
Going to start a fire in about 30 minutes and try the hot dogs again tonight.
Forgot to mention that I walked over to the Twelvemile campground and back this afternoon. It’s a nice place, with several campsites very near the lake (almost said ocean!), guaranteed to have a non-stop breeze, though maybe a little sandy. They look quite nice, though, and the wind would keep the flies away!
10/6/16@20:47– The hot dogs were excellent….but I forgot to use the relish!
10/7/16@18:47 – Lima, OH – And so I’m halfway home, staying the night at the same Carlson In that I stayed in on my way up to the lake. Same room, in fact. The ride down was largely uneventful, although I had about 100 stowaways in the car: the flies.
By driving with all of the windows down through most of the upper peninsula, I was able to lose most of them, but still had a few in the car when I hit the only traffic jam of the day – which happened less than 20 miles from this hotel. Try as I might, I couldn’t get the last hangers-on to flee, so they’re still in the car tonight. Maybe tomorrow.
Planning to have some noodles in the hotel room tonight and hit the road early tomorrow – after a shower that is going to feel amazing. One cannot appreciate how awful one can smell until one goes a week without bathing.
And that, friends, Romans and countrymen, is the end of the journal regarding the trip. I did indeed leave the hotel very early on Saturday the 8th and made it home by around 2 in the afternoon. Spent some time emptying out the car, watched some football, and hit the sack.
Should you be wondering, there was one final fly left in my car when I went to work on the 10th. It got out with me in the office parking lot. So I’ve probably brought an invasive species to Georgia.
These things happen.