Day 2

Say two and on to Ludington.  There is a lighthouse at Ludington state park that we wanted to see.  We were up at 8:00 am, drive an hour north and had 6 miles hiked by 1:00.   The dunes were great. The lighthouse was very cool. The hike out and back was nice but windy and chilly (gray skies again).  We had a delicious lunch at an Irish Pub in downtown Luddington. Tried to find a flat penny machine but got the Farry port only to be told the machine is on the boat. 

We took off for Traverse City, MI aroudn 3:30 and again, drove north for a couple of hours under cloudy skies.  We were  run off the road by a truck who pulled out across traffic and decided he wanted to be in the right lane.  It was one of the OH FUCK moments. Very close call. 

Did I mention we way way waaaaaay over packed?  I tried to bring some food to help me make good choice and it's helped so far, but still, we brought so much stuff!

Our budget for this trip was $300 a day, including hotel costs. 

Day 1 was $200
Day 2 was $100 - we bought a MI state park pass for $31 but our hotel was free using Hilton points.

So far so good

Day 1

Day 1

Saturday Oct 3, 2015

We spent the morning dropping off the dog and the cat for their extended stays at different bording places  I was a bit stressy but I think it was mostly because I don't trust the place  we left the cat. I'm sure he will be fine. There is no medication for him.

Then we spent two hours waiting for laundry to dry. Look, I just didn't want to leave dirty towels sitting for 10+ days while we were gone. So, we waited.

Finally, about 3:30 we left. It was an uneventful drive north into Michigan.  But let me back up.  We had been planning for several months to head east to Asheville, North Carolina, then drive up the Blue Ridge Parkway to VA to stay with Mom an Stan for a few days.  But the Wednesday before we were to leave a hurricane was headed up the east coast PLUS a separate rain event was supposed to also hit the Carolina/Virgina area.  Rain was forecast to be between 8 to 12 inches with, needless to say, lots of flooding.  

We watched the weather closely for the next 36 hours and nothing got better, so we canceled all our plans to go east.  I  would have been stressed beyond belief driving through that kind of rain and everything would have been very wet and possibly closed to hiking.  We felt bad to cancel on Mom and stan but we bailed.

Instead we headed north and decided to drive around lake michigan.  We landed in Muskegon on Saturday night through cloudy skies and rain showers. 

Why does it take so many days to shake off work and other stress before you can relax into vacation?  I'm glad we are taking two weeks and while we won't be gone from home all that time it's still nice to have the days needed to decompress and enjoy the time.