Day One: It's a long way to Gitchi Gummi

We packed and left early Friday morning for our trip to the Porcupine Mountains on Lake Superior. I was losing my breakfast only minutes before we left our house, so I was worried about how the drive would go. I managed to survive the entire way thanks to prayers and a lot of Tums. We enjoyed a beautiful picnic lunch on a lake in Michigan on the way up and we were very surprised that it had warmed up to 81 degrees even that far North!

A fun post-lunch photo with Nee-Gaw-Nee-Gaw-Bow in Wakefield, MI!

It was a long drive with Lil' Man not napping as much as I would have liked. The girls that were riding with us were saints for patiently handing toys and snacks to him and having him shake them awake when they would try to nap!

When we arrived at the Porcupine Mountains we split up. Paul, Lil' Man and I took the less steep 3 mile trail to Mirror Lake where we were all staying for the next three days. The ranger informed us that we weren't allowed to take the stroller with us (later we found signs that said no motorized wheeled vehicles and I think the woman had misunderstood that it was just a stroller- oh well!), so we had to coax Lil' Man into walking as much as we could.  Not a fun task!

Like Linus from Peanuts, Lil' Man carried his blankie the entire time. After he tripped and scrapped an elbow and his arm, Paul had to carrying him for at least 2 and a half mile along with his 55+lbs pack. Lil' Man is not so little! He currently weighs somewhere over 35 lbs. and had all his weight on Paul's neck, so Paul got him to sit on top of the pack!

 

Lil' Man enjoyed his throne (for the most part!) and was fascinated by the chipmunks!

I wasn't really as prepared as I should have been. In my mind, three miles is nothing and I really didn't think I'd have any trouble, but with my pack and being pregnant I really had to be careful. Even relatively mild inclines left me drained and puffing, so I stopped a lot to make sure I was getting enough oxygen to the baby. When we got to a difficult area, my wonderful hubby insisted on carrying both of our packs! The man is a saint! He had to carry mine across his his chest. He is hard-core. :)

It was such a relief to arrive at our cabin. It was so cute and well off the main path (unlike the two other cabins on the lake). We couldn't believe how nice it was for a rustic cabin! There was a bunk bed, beautiful wooden table with benches and a chair, a wood stove with a supply of firewood, a hatchet, bow saw, buckets, and pots for cooking. We had packed in all those things (well, not the firewood) not knowing that their would be anything in the cabin. It even came with a canoe, paddles and plenty of life jackets- even a tiny one for Lil' Man! 

After unpacking, we paddled out onto the lake to find the rest of our group. We didn't know where they would be, so we just enjoyed paddling until we found several of the girls filtering water out of the lake for dinner.

I wonder how they got the name "Mirror Lake"????  : )

After catching up with the rest of the staff from camp, we paddled back to our cabin to pick up a few things. Paul ran up to the cabin while Lil' Man and I sat in the canoe waiting. Lil' Man had been sitting near the back with Paul and I was in the front. As I looked at the lake, Lil' Man and I chatted about the colors and the water. Before I knew what was happening, I felt the boat rock and turned just in time to see Lil' Man falling into two inches of mucky water that our canoe was sunk into. His feet were still in the canoe, but everything else was wet and covered in old leaves. It was sad and hysterical all at the same time. I took him back to the cabin to change him and find Paul. Paul took this video clip.

The highlight of the entire weekend, in my opinion, was when Paul, Lil' Man and I left the staff camp after dinner to head back to our cabin. There was a new moon on Friday night. It was an inky, pitch black and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Floating in the lake with out a single thing to take away from the celestial view made it the most breathtaking sight I have seen since Paul and I were working on Sequoia Lake in California. The Milky Way was indescribable. The entire night sky looked like the photographs you see in an astronomy book. 

It felt as though we were in the nursery rhyme about Winken, Blinken and Nod because not only were the stars dazzling above us, but it felt as though we were floating through them! The lake was mirroring the heavens! Every so often a huge fish would leap out of the lake startling the stillness and causing the stars to float about in chaos. We drifted in awe on the lake for so long that Lil' Man fell asleep (he swayed this way and that before plopping backwards!).

It is moments like those that make you feel the awesomeness of the power of God. I feel sorry for those who only see a breathtaking sight and have no one to thank for it.

Highs and Lows

High: Yesterday Paul and I were driving from Ohio to Massachusetts and had a little time to kill. We parked our truck a truck stop and went for a walk through the woods, fields and down a little country road. It was a perfect afternoon in Pennsylvania.


Low: A week ago I had to have an MRI and found out that I have a torn meniscus in my knee. Luckily, it doesn't need surgery, but they did drain fluid off and gave me a cortizone shot. Walking over the hills of PA was beautiful, but my knee started bothering me.


High: We came out of an open field and on to a little street with a vintage ice cream stand that had just opened for the season. I LOVE little places like that!!!! They just scream summer and make me romanticize days gone by. We ordered fried mushrooms and a twirling tower of coconut soft serve from a friendly grandfather with a big smile. We sat in the sun and ate our mushrooms and licked the cone before a single drop could be lost. Such bliss!  As I finished my cone, we wandered next door to look at beautifully handcrafted wooden lawn furniture made by a tall middle aged Amish man.

Low: As we made our way back to the truck we took a short cut down a weed covered embankment. By the time I climbed into the truck I was hopping up and down and whining. The back of my shirt and jeans were covered in some kind of a stinging nettle type plant! I hate to be graphic, but looking back I can now see the humor in the scene I was making...the plant had particles falling from my shirt and down the back of my jeans. I had sat down to try to brush the back of my shirt only to hop back up because my rear end was itching, stinging and burning all at the same time. I was hopping all over our tiny space whining and howling as I tried to quickly dance around Paul to close the curtains and strip off all my clothes! I had tiny white things that looked like the ends of a cactus pricking into my fingers, shoulders, back, bottom and legs. Paul had to use a flashlight and tweezers to remove as many as he could find. Sheesh!!! Not the way I had hoped our afternoon stroll would end!


High: My dear husband did his best to remove the evil needles from my skin. He bought me some sweet treats and sour apple soda to cheer me up. Its a blessing to have someone take care of you!


Sooooo, how was your day? Hope you didn't get into any "sticky" situations!

EXPOSED! The Secret Life of Truckers

Friends are always curious about what its like to live in a truck and, too be honest, I was too before I made one my home.

I had never seen the inside of a truck's cab until Paul began his first month of driving and even then it was only a quick peek from the door as we were loading his stuff into his trainers cab. I didn't have much of a chance because as I lifted his backpack and Bible up to him a police officer tapped on my shoulder and asked for an ID. Ahhh!!!

He said that it looked a little strange seeing a young woman climbing up into a truck that was parked in a pull off on the side of the road (Paul's trainer couldn't exactly "swing by" the house to pick him up! I had to drop him off!). I was mortified and humiliated that little old moi, in my baby pink pea coat and sparkling white engagement ring, could be suspected of being, well- YOU KNOW!!! How awful!!!

Paul's trainer explained what we were doing and I waved my ring in the officer's face. He left, but not before running my plate to make sure I didn't have anything he could "book" me for!

The crazy thing is that this is not the first time I've had this happen!!!

Previously, a friend and I were pulled over for driving slowly in a truck parking lot- we were looking for the place to get diesel fuel for a four wheeler. Luckily, the police officer shined his light into my face and said," Oh, you're the little girl who works next door at the motel! You ladies go ahead and have a good night." That in itself could sound bad enough, but I was indeed the "little girl" who worked [the front desk!!!] at the motel.

The point is that the world of trucking was a mystery to me until two years ago. Honestly, it was a world that I had no interest in discovering, but when I heard about the money that you can potentially make, I immediately suggested that my (then) fiance might want to look into it as a way of paying off all our student loans so that we could start off our marriage without debt weighing us down.

Look he did and now here we are. I thought it might be interesting to write a little about the nuts and bolts (ahem!) of our day to day life.





So far, I have mainly written about the 10% of our time which we spend visiting with friends and exploring new places. The other 90% of our time seemed too mundane to recount, but I've been discovering that most people are very curious about that 90% of time.



From time to time I will write an expose on the life of a trucker, Paul, and of his lovely (*blush*)wife , me.

I am the Lois Lane of my own little Smallville on wheels. Only difference is that I'm on to my Superhusband's secret identity! (Have I ever mentioned that I am adicted to all things Superman???)

This, my friends, is where the rubber meets the road!