Beyond the End

We took the scenic route up toward Copper Harbor, stopping at every place that interested us. We took lots of pictures. At Sand Bay I climbed down to the beach and had fun chasing waves to pick up stones, some of them might even be agates. It was a gorgeous sandy beach, we should have stayed there since all the other beaches we saw were rocky and in harbors so the water was still. The scenery along the state highway was beautiful but not as lake-y as I'd hoped. We only got glimpses of the lake and we stopped wherever we, well, I could get close to it. Our motel looked like a low rent version of the Bates Motel but the room was very clean and comfy. (They had the best Wi-Fi connection of anyplace we'd been before but no 3-prong outlets. Drat.) After hauling in the luggage we took off to explore. We needed to buy an $8 day pass to visit Fort Wilken State Park and we weren't interested in seeing it eight dollars worth, so we moved on up Hwy. 41. In a very short time the highway made a loop--we were at the end, or rather the beginning of the highway! From there it was all south all the way to Miami, 1990 miles to the other end of Hwy. 41. I just realized something, I have lived my entire life along US Highway 41. I was born in Evansville, Indiana, Hwy. 41 goes through there. I live in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Hwy. 41 is so close to my house that I could spit on it (if I could spit without drooling on my shirt). We found a bench to sit on just across the road from our motel that overlooked the harbor. The bell buoy in the harbor entrance was clanging and tiny wavelets were lapping on the rocks at our feet. It was so soothing that we both nearly fell asleep. After supper we went back down to watch the night fall. Glorious. Sleeping was good at the Bates Motel North.

October 4--Southern Netherlands, The Unicorn Defends Itself. I hated that tapestry when I was a kid. It hung in Grandma and Grandpa's stairway so there was no avoiding it since we lived there. We walked up and down those stairs at least twice a day and every day my eyes were drawn to the sight of the men with spears charging at a unicorn and the unicorn goring one of the dogs. Dogs bit the unicorn making it bleed. Why were they trying to kill it? I wanted to know. No one could give me an answer. No one believed in unicorns, they said there were no such things and when I said that they were extinct because men like the ones in the tapestry set dogs on them. Grandpa said it was an allegory, that the unicorn stood for purity. I said that was bunk and spent an hour in the corner for my sass.

We're coming to you from the Cafe Rosetta in beautiful downtown Calumet, MI. Adios.
--Barbara