800 Miles

There were whitecaps on Little Traverse Bay. I could see them as I rocked on the porch of the Stafford Bay View Inn. It is on the main drag to and from Petoskey, MI so it is a little noisy, but the grass is green, the English garden is in bloom and the trees (birch, cedar, pine and maple) are old. There was a warm breeze with hints of the cool lake water a few miles to the west.

Charlotte and I had tea with the end of the Japanese tea sweets that resemble ancient multi-colored ice crystals. The bay’s water is deep blue-green and lightens as it approaches the shore; browning in the shoals. A sailboat makes headway — sails sheeted in tight — against the wind blown waves. We walked down to the ever-expanding beach to look for Devonian corals trapped in rounded pebbles.

Once back on the porch my eyelids start to droop. Neck muscles give way and I nod. The road noise turns white except for the occasional Harley-Davidson. We have begun to backtrack the 800 miles Carrie Rose cruised east this year. Lake Huron’s North Channel and Georgian Bay, the Trent-Severn Waterway, the Bay of Quinte to Kingston, ON, and then a short lock up and down in the Rideau Canal finally turning NE into the St. Lawrence River’s Thousand Islands.

To get to our ending point in Alexandria Bay, NY required two months of concentrated motion. To get back to Chicago required a borrowed car, a ride to the Syracuse, NY airport, two commuter jets, one bus and our car for the final 400 miles home from Mackinaw City, MI.

Now it is summer in Chicago and the cicadas are singing in the 90-degree heat. We spent the first day back clearing the garden of weeds and watering the trees. Not bad for three months of neglect. An American kestrel has moved into the neighborhood while we have been gone and there are still some raspberries on the bush . . . amazing!


Say good bye


Stafford's Bay View Inn


Little Traverse Bay sunset


Stocking up on Michigan produce and milk shakes for the ride home


Weeds galore


Kestrel sighting