Things look so much better today. Called the mechanic first thing and he said he’ll have the clutch replaced by the end of the day. Weather’s gorgeous. We’re able to stay at the Holly Rec Area, just need to change sites, which is fine because we have to dump/fill the tanks anyway. After a few more whiffodils to get our car back and get the rental car returned to the airport, we can head north.
Keeper taught Firebolt to whittle in my absence, and I just had to include those pictures up above, because she whittled… a… hm… what is that exactly? I feel like I’ve seen something like that in Washington, or maybe Amsterdam. Anyway, she looks proud, or at least coy.
And this was great, we’ve tried to make pre-breakfast family exercise of a part of our routine, and it turns out Holly Rec has some decent single-track, so Keeper and I grabbed our bikes and hit the trails. First time this trip, and maybe only the 3rd or so time I’ve gotten to do that with him. Hard to explain how much my heart swelled when he was gushing about how much he was enjoying riding through the woods. “Yes, exactly!!” That’s certainly something I miss about Anacortes (where we used to live in WA), having trails like that so accessible. Good, easily accessible mountain biking will be a pre-req for our next house.
We also were able to hit the “inflatable park” out in the lake before departure. TC and Firebolt opted to watch us from the shoreline, but Keeper, Woodsprite, and I had a blast.
I do want to say this about southern Michigan and the Detroit area. We really enjoyed it. I have to be honest and say I didn’t really expect that. The people we met, every one of them, were genuinely kind and helpful. This stood out. No fewer than a dozen people stopped to offer help to Tacco and the kiddos when they were stranded at the side of the road. The police checked on us 4-5 times and offered anything they could. The mechanic did a fantastic job, and went above and beyond to get the car running again in a day so that we could get rolling. And on top of that everywhere we’ve been has been borderline gorgeous. Lakes and forest everywhere, mild weather (other than the occasional thunderstorm), and lots of flowers and wildlife. There’s even a solid beer geek scene! I hear the scenery is even better up north; we’re ready to go!