Highways of Memory

Well here I am, somewhere in the wilds of Michigan. For once in my life I have literally no idea of my exact location. We drove and drove yesterday on progressively smaller roads until we were winding through the woods on a graded dirt track, and that's how we got to the deer hunting cabin. There is indeed no Internet here -- at least, not yet. Apparently the infrastructure is in place but the cabin hasn't been hooked up.

My Internet connection is being provided via a "hotspot" through my sister-in-law's phone -- which I think basically means my computer is being channeled through her cell phone connection. I have no idea how these things work. But thank goodness they do!

We spent almost all day yesterday in the car. We left Detroit and headed north, passing near the mythical Saginaw of Simon  & Garfunkel fame, and through Tawas and Oscoda. The funny thing about this trip is that it's a nostalgic blast from the past for me. Back in 1998 I went to Michigan from my then-home in Florida to see some friends I'd known in the Peace Corps, and we spent a long weekend at my friend Natalie's vacation home in Oscoda. Well, yesterday, not only did we drive the same roads I took way back then but we even passed my friend's house! (I don't know if her family still owns it, but still...)

What are the odds of that?!

 Here I am in 1998 with my friend Jeri, in front of Zanner's ice cream in Au Gres, near Tawas.

And here I am yesterday, 24 years later, in exactly the same place.

I just find it so strange. I had only a tenuous connection to this part of the world back then, and I certainly never expected to be back again someday with a husband in tow. You just never know where life is going to take you.

Anyway, the drive up was smooth and we eventually arrived in Lincoln, where my sister-in-law Dawn runs a restaurant called the Backwoods Bistro. We all stopped there for lunch -- a mushroom-swiss burger with sweet potato waffle fries for me -- and caught up with family.
 

We had a quick tour of the kitchen. There's a tiny sticker of Elvis on the wooden door frame of the walk-in cooler. No one knows why. He's an unofficial mascot.

Then we were all back on the road and headed into the wilderness. I haven't had a chance to look around here too much, partly because I'm wary of getting ticks in the grass and underbrush around the cabin. But today I'll put on some insect repellent and long pants and make a go of it. Life is risk, right?

That tiny sign above the window says "There is no app for a day at the cabin." That is certainly true. I feel like I'm tethered to the World Wide Web (is it still called that?) by only the most tenuous, spider-web-like filament. This post has taken ages to write and frankly I'm amazed it has worked.

Now let's see if there are any deer browsing in the grass out there. (Although this is a deer hunting cabin, it will surprised none of you to know that I'm not hunting anything. Not only is it not season, but the only shots I'm ever likely to take are with my camera!)