Well, we finally made it. Friday has arrived! This week was a productive week at work but not so much at home. Things need ot be picked up and laundry needs to be done. Fridays are NOT meant for that though. :P
Nothing too exciting has happened since I last posted. We have received some rain and things continue to get greener. I have not taken an incredible amount of pictures lately. The scenery around here has not changed much since the leaves came out. I will upload some pictures by the end of the weekend to show you how quickly the leaves are coming out.
Last weekend we went to Holland. We visited the Frederik Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids. I had never been there. I was really impressed! Unfortunately they closed at 5 PM so we only had just over an hour to check everything out. We got to see a lot though. There was a lot of picture taking ability there with many exotic plants that we obviously do not see just growing on the side of the road here in Michigan.
I bought a few new 'D' coins to catch up on my quarter and dollar books. I also picked up a couple 2008 silver eagles. They keep going up in price, but it is worth having them for the collection. Nothing too new in regards to my collection.
The weather is going to remain rainy for the rest of the evening and into Saturday morning. Supposedly we will see some sun toward late Saturday and into Sunday. I just hope the warm gets here soon!
Anyway...enough for now.
Goodnight from Northern Michigan!
-Derek
Friday, May 30, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Story Part 4
FINALLY...here is part four of the story. It will be short and sweet so I can get it over with. :P
So through the remainder of the night we tossed and turned. The constant snoring and farting was enough to keep me giggling even while I was almost passing out from exhaustion. I imagine some of it was due to the lack of oxygen remaining in the cabin, but eventually sleep got the better of me and I started to fall asleep on and off. The wife was not so lucky. She was constantly tossing and turning, waking me up every few minutes. I felt really bad so I did not complain and I just dealt with it. I prayed for morning to come quickly so that we could leave. I made the mistake of wearing my watch to bed, so the hours seemed days. FINALLY, after sleeping for a couple hours throughout the night I saw a faint bluish tint coming across the sky through the window. I watched the bluish tint turn into orange and then into a bright yellow. The morning had finally arrived.
We slowly started to get up, but once up it was a full on "get the heck out of there" pace. We had the tent broken down and all of our gear packed up in about an hour. My friends started to get up while we were packing, but I was not really in the talking mood. I got the most evil glare (which I captured in a picture that I cannot share) from my wife that morning. I knew if I did not have her out of there shortly after waking, I would die a slow and painful death. We got all the gear on our backs and headed out. This time we took the "short trail" and it took us only about 15 minutes to get to the lower cabin. So much for that short cut along the river the day before. We made the walk back out to the car and we took off. We stopped in Indian River to get some food and went home. My wife took a nap and I worked outside getting all of our gear put away.
Remember the ticks? Well, as we were putting the gear away that night my wife decided that we should check our hair to make sure there were not any crawling around on our heads. She checked me and there was nothing. She bent her head down, and I started feeling through her hair down to the scalp. Suddenly, I felt what I thought was a scab from a bug bite. I look and could not believe what I saw. It was a tick burrowing into her scalp. Out of all four people out there, two of us fairly hairy, she got the tick. I picked it off and killed it. THEN we were done with that camping trip. :P
Needless to say we have not been camping again since then. I recon that will change as the summer goes on. I have some overnights to do with my friend so he can finish up his work on the book for the Michigan portion of the North Country Trail. It should be a good time. I just cannot wait to get out and hike some trails!
Anyway, that concludes my story. I apologize it took so long to post all of it. I also apologize that the fourth part seems to have lost interest. I wrote alot more in the third section than I had anticipated. If you have any similar experiences leave a comment and tell me about it! :)
The remainder of the week looks to be warm finally! We have been far below normal temperatures for the last two weeks. In fact, many places in Michigan set records for cold this morning. I heard that in the Grayling area some temperatures dropped into the low teens. It is MAY! Those temperatures are often times even below normal for December. We have been getting a decent amount of rain. Since I hooked up my rain guage at the very end of April we have received 3 3/4 inches of rain. We could use more but we will take what we can get while it stays cool out. Everything around our house is very green. Once you get off the hill toward the lake, things are still a bit behind, but they are going to quickly catch up this weekend as we jump up into the 70s. We should see some rain and thunderstorms too!
If any of you are in the Northern Michigan area drop by Northern Michigan Rare Coins in downtown Petoskey. They have a great selection of new and circulated coins, gold, and silver. I just picked up my 'D' mint coins for 2008. Those are tough to come by around here unless they are atleast a year old. I prefer to get mine pre-circulation so I buy them from the rolls that they get. They have a small selection of old collectable swords and daggers as well. Very cool. If you need collecting supplies just drop by their store. They carry blue books, plastic sleeves, valuation books, and more.
That about sums it up for now. I will update more frequently with shorter posts now that my story is done. Summer is going to kick into high gear soon so there will be many pictures! I apologize I have not uploaded any pictures to Picasa. I will update it soon...so please keep looking! http://picasaweb.google.com/dallerding.
Have a good one!
-Derek
So through the remainder of the night we tossed and turned. The constant snoring and farting was enough to keep me giggling even while I was almost passing out from exhaustion. I imagine some of it was due to the lack of oxygen remaining in the cabin, but eventually sleep got the better of me and I started to fall asleep on and off. The wife was not so lucky. She was constantly tossing and turning, waking me up every few minutes. I felt really bad so I did not complain and I just dealt with it. I prayed for morning to come quickly so that we could leave. I made the mistake of wearing my watch to bed, so the hours seemed days. FINALLY, after sleeping for a couple hours throughout the night I saw a faint bluish tint coming across the sky through the window. I watched the bluish tint turn into orange and then into a bright yellow. The morning had finally arrived.
We slowly started to get up, but once up it was a full on "get the heck out of there" pace. We had the tent broken down and all of our gear packed up in about an hour. My friends started to get up while we were packing, but I was not really in the talking mood. I got the most evil glare (which I captured in a picture that I cannot share) from my wife that morning. I knew if I did not have her out of there shortly after waking, I would die a slow and painful death. We got all the gear on our backs and headed out. This time we took the "short trail" and it took us only about 15 minutes to get to the lower cabin. So much for that short cut along the river the day before. We made the walk back out to the car and we took off. We stopped in Indian River to get some food and went home. My wife took a nap and I worked outside getting all of our gear put away.
Remember the ticks? Well, as we were putting the gear away that night my wife decided that we should check our hair to make sure there were not any crawling around on our heads. She checked me and there was nothing. She bent her head down, and I started feeling through her hair down to the scalp. Suddenly, I felt what I thought was a scab from a bug bite. I look and could not believe what I saw. It was a tick burrowing into her scalp. Out of all four people out there, two of us fairly hairy, she got the tick. I picked it off and killed it. THEN we were done with that camping trip. :P
Needless to say we have not been camping again since then. I recon that will change as the summer goes on. I have some overnights to do with my friend so he can finish up his work on the book for the Michigan portion of the North Country Trail. It should be a good time. I just cannot wait to get out and hike some trails!
Anyway, that concludes my story. I apologize it took so long to post all of it. I also apologize that the fourth part seems to have lost interest. I wrote alot more in the third section than I had anticipated. If you have any similar experiences leave a comment and tell me about it! :)
The remainder of the week looks to be warm finally! We have been far below normal temperatures for the last two weeks. In fact, many places in Michigan set records for cold this morning. I heard that in the Grayling area some temperatures dropped into the low teens. It is MAY! Those temperatures are often times even below normal for December. We have been getting a decent amount of rain. Since I hooked up my rain guage at the very end of April we have received 3 3/4 inches of rain. We could use more but we will take what we can get while it stays cool out. Everything around our house is very green. Once you get off the hill toward the lake, things are still a bit behind, but they are going to quickly catch up this weekend as we jump up into the 70s. We should see some rain and thunderstorms too!
If any of you are in the Northern Michigan area drop by Northern Michigan Rare Coins in downtown Petoskey. They have a great selection of new and circulated coins, gold, and silver. I just picked up my 'D' mint coins for 2008. Those are tough to come by around here unless they are atleast a year old. I prefer to get mine pre-circulation so I buy them from the rolls that they get. They have a small selection of old collectable swords and daggers as well. Very cool. If you need collecting supplies just drop by their store. They carry blue books, plastic sleeves, valuation books, and more.
That about sums it up for now. I will update more frequently with shorter posts now that my story is done. Summer is going to kick into high gear soon so there will be many pictures! I apologize I have not uploaded any pictures to Picasa. I will update it soon...so please keep looking! http://picasaweb.google.com/dallerding.
Have a good one!
-Derek
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Story Part 3
Sorry this has taken so incredibly LONG!
As I had mentioned...we had found our camp for the night. We took a few minutes to snap some pictures...take some video...and enjoy the scenery that the upper cabin provided. You could see forever from the top of that hill we just climbed. You can see pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/dallerding.
After sitting around a resting for a few minutes I decided it would probably be in our best interest to setup the tent and get ready for the evening. I again picked up my ridiculously heavy pack and hauled it up a small hill to where a decent tent spot appeared to be. The wife grabbed hers and followed me up. I unpacked the tent and had it pitched in near record time. We were ready for the night!
Shortly after the tent was put up and the gear was all shoved inside...we heard voices. Not the kind inside our heads...but real voices. Soon after a rather toothless couple and their child came strolling into our camp. They politely asked if we were staying in the cabin...my friend spoke up since he and his friend were going to sleep there rather than in a tent. There was a momentary look of disappointment on their faces...but they soon got over it and made other plans...to make it down to the lower cabin. That is where we had seen all the gear hanging over an hour ago. This couple seemed very confident when they told us that all that gear had been there all winter and that they had stayed there while all of it was in there. I am not one to get incredibly angry...but if that gear had been there all winter...and I hiked to the top of that demon hill for nothing..."I cannot believe I just walked an extra mile and climbed this hill for absolutely NOTHING!!!!!" I said to myself. While talking to myself my friend asked where they had hiked up from. "There is a parking lot about 10 minutes from here...we came up that way." the man said. I swallowed the lump of anger in my throat and decided to start whittling on a chunk of wood. The couple wanted their child to see the view from the cabin...and the interior of the cabin. They walked to the wrap around porch and seemed like they were next going to ask if they could stay there too. Luckily after about half an hour of talking with my friend they decided to take off...but not before their little girl could ask me what I was doing. "Whittling...I might turn this into a fork if I can figure out how to do it." I got a glazed look in return. It dawned on me at that point what kind of people we might encounter up on this hill. They left and we again were alone on the top of the hill.
I made a few toothpicks out of the stick I was whittling. The fork never did pan out. (I figured they would not steal my toothpicks.... ;) ) I think it was primarily lack of patience at that point. I snagged the wife and walked up onto the porch of the cabin to take some more picture. We hung out there for quite some time just sitting around listening to the radio and occasionally talking about random things. We again heard some voices. My wife alerted us of them on her way back from the tent. The next thing we knew...five people were standing on the porch of the cabin. Five very strange people. Three guys...two girls. One older guy...two younger guys...and two younger girls. It did not take much time at all for all of us to come up with the same conclusion...but we kept it to ourselves. They explained that they were staying in the lower cabin (atleast there was an explanation for all of the gear left there...though it made me VERY happy we did not tent camp down there!) and they had been out there for a week or so already. My guess is the truancy officer was after them...so they just went missing. Their plans included staying for another week and check out the remainder of the area. The big dumb looking guy had about an eighth of a fifth of Kessler in his hand...and was stumbling around asking if anyone wanted any. The last thing any of us wanted was hippie backwash in our mouths...so all of us respectfully declined. There was one in the group that loved to talk. He was the guy that kills porcupines and raccoons for entertainment. With a shovel. About half of their stay revolved around him talking about his experiences killing animals with shovels. They left after a while and I just sat there thinking about what had just happened. I guess people would possibly consider me a city boy since I have never killed an animal with a shovel. Call me crazy too...but that just is not my idea of a good time. Unfortunately my wife heard every bit of his conversation and got scared to death. Her fear started crawling toward me...but I kicked it away. Afterall, I had my 9mm and my friend had his pistol. We waited for about five minutes before the shooting started. He racked off a few rounds...so I joined in with my Ruger 9mm P95DC. I bet the hippies ran for the cabin REALLY quick. I shot off a couple clips...and put my gun away.
Suddenly my wife jerked and brushed something off of her arm. She said, "It's a TICK!" I have lived in Northern Michigan for all but three years of my life...I have never seen a tick before. Leave it to her to find one crawling on her arm. Sure enough...it was a tick. They burned it and threw it into the woods. She decided it was time to go sit in the tent and talk on her cell phone. She was in there until dinner time came rolling around...about three hours.
I had made pasties for us to eat...the wife was not a big fan. More for me. :) I gave one to my buddies friend since they had not brought a lot of food along. Shortly after eating a group of three people showed up. They had some beers but never offered any...so I did not take kindly to them hanging out with us. I was a bit weirded out by the number of people that had chosen to stop by that day...but this last group seemed "normal" compared to the rest. They were our age...two girls and a guy. They had come up to take pictures of the sunset and pour back a few brews. They drank their beers...very slowly...and made themselves right at home. We all talked for a bit...about the area particularly...and their past experiences with the cabin. They apparently were frequenters of the place. They had quite a few good stories to share! One of them, the oldest girl in the group, is a part time photographer for a studio in Petoskey apparently...she was the most outgoing of the three. We started to discuss the hippies that had dropped by earlier and our experiences with the guns. She seemed very interested in them. So my friend let her shoot his gun...and reluctantly I let her fire off a shell in the 9mm. From that point forward that was pretty much what the conversion was about. :P They were a fairly cool group and left shortly after dark.
Once they left we migrated indoors and hung out by the fire for a bit. It was getting close to bed time...but there was still some good times to be had. Unfortunately the good times were not enough to keep everyone awake. I took the wife up toward the tent...the other two got their gear rolled out and were ready to sleep. We decided on the way to the tent...that with all of the people that had come by...we should probably be closer to the cabin. We dragged it along the ground closer to the cabin and decided that better than close to the cabin...we'd put it on the porch of the cabin. ;) That seems weak I know...but geez...with those drunk hippies down the hill I really did not feel like getting clubbed like one of the raccoons. We setup the tent on the porch and got ready for bed. We both got into our sleeping bags...when suddently I heard a loud "PFFFFFFTTTTT". It was loud. Very loud. I honestly could not help but to laugh...so I shouted "I love you too!!!" and my friend said "I was just blowing you a kiss goodnight!" I did not think much of it after that...and everyone got quiet. I was whispering "Goodnight" to my wife...and we heard a noise underneath us...like something scraping the underside of the porch. "I did not hear a thing....I did not hear a thing..." I kept telling myself. Then I thought "If I don't say anything...maybe she didn't hear it..." I rolled over trying to ignore it and I heard a faint voice "Did you hear that?" Silently I swore...but slowly turned to her and acknowledged that I had heard the noise. I gave in to my manly side and asked my friends if we could come into the cabin and sleep. A few moments later we were laying on the floor next to the fire.
Sleep did not come quickly that night...
This is about double what I had typed for the third entry of the story...I should finish it up in the fourth. I will REALLY try to have it done by Wednesday. That way I can start blogging about things that are not related. :P
Stay tuned for more this week! Please leave comments if you have read the story...or leave comments if you have not. Let me know what you think of my blog. :)
Anyway...goodnight from Northern Michigan!
-Derek
As I had mentioned...we had found our camp for the night. We took a few minutes to snap some pictures...take some video...and enjoy the scenery that the upper cabin provided. You could see forever from the top of that hill we just climbed. You can see pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/dallerding.
After sitting around a resting for a few minutes I decided it would probably be in our best interest to setup the tent and get ready for the evening. I again picked up my ridiculously heavy pack and hauled it up a small hill to where a decent tent spot appeared to be. The wife grabbed hers and followed me up. I unpacked the tent and had it pitched in near record time. We were ready for the night!
Shortly after the tent was put up and the gear was all shoved inside...we heard voices. Not the kind inside our heads...but real voices. Soon after a rather toothless couple and their child came strolling into our camp. They politely asked if we were staying in the cabin...my friend spoke up since he and his friend were going to sleep there rather than in a tent. There was a momentary look of disappointment on their faces...but they soon got over it and made other plans...to make it down to the lower cabin. That is where we had seen all the gear hanging over an hour ago. This couple seemed very confident when they told us that all that gear had been there all winter and that they had stayed there while all of it was in there. I am not one to get incredibly angry...but if that gear had been there all winter...and I hiked to the top of that demon hill for nothing..."I cannot believe I just walked an extra mile and climbed this hill for absolutely NOTHING!!!!!" I said to myself. While talking to myself my friend asked where they had hiked up from. "There is a parking lot about 10 minutes from here...we came up that way." the man said. I swallowed the lump of anger in my throat and decided to start whittling on a chunk of wood. The couple wanted their child to see the view from the cabin...and the interior of the cabin. They walked to the wrap around porch and seemed like they were next going to ask if they could stay there too. Luckily after about half an hour of talking with my friend they decided to take off...but not before their little girl could ask me what I was doing. "Whittling...I might turn this into a fork if I can figure out how to do it." I got a glazed look in return. It dawned on me at that point what kind of people we might encounter up on this hill. They left and we again were alone on the top of the hill.
I made a few toothpicks out of the stick I was whittling. The fork never did pan out. (I figured they would not steal my toothpicks.... ;) ) I think it was primarily lack of patience at that point. I snagged the wife and walked up onto the porch of the cabin to take some more picture. We hung out there for quite some time just sitting around listening to the radio and occasionally talking about random things. We again heard some voices. My wife alerted us of them on her way back from the tent. The next thing we knew...five people were standing on the porch of the cabin. Five very strange people. Three guys...two girls. One older guy...two younger guys...and two younger girls. It did not take much time at all for all of us to come up with the same conclusion...but we kept it to ourselves. They explained that they were staying in the lower cabin (atleast there was an explanation for all of the gear left there...though it made me VERY happy we did not tent camp down there!) and they had been out there for a week or so already. My guess is the truancy officer was after them...so they just went missing. Their plans included staying for another week and check out the remainder of the area. The big dumb looking guy had about an eighth of a fifth of Kessler in his hand...and was stumbling around asking if anyone wanted any. The last thing any of us wanted was hippie backwash in our mouths...so all of us respectfully declined. There was one in the group that loved to talk. He was the guy that kills porcupines and raccoons for entertainment. With a shovel. About half of their stay revolved around him talking about his experiences killing animals with shovels. They left after a while and I just sat there thinking about what had just happened. I guess people would possibly consider me a city boy since I have never killed an animal with a shovel. Call me crazy too...but that just is not my idea of a good time. Unfortunately my wife heard every bit of his conversation and got scared to death. Her fear started crawling toward me...but I kicked it away. Afterall, I had my 9mm and my friend had his pistol. We waited for about five minutes before the shooting started. He racked off a few rounds...so I joined in with my Ruger 9mm P95DC. I bet the hippies ran for the cabin REALLY quick. I shot off a couple clips...and put my gun away.
Suddenly my wife jerked and brushed something off of her arm. She said, "It's a TICK!" I have lived in Northern Michigan for all but three years of my life...I have never seen a tick before. Leave it to her to find one crawling on her arm. Sure enough...it was a tick. They burned it and threw it into the woods. She decided it was time to go sit in the tent and talk on her cell phone. She was in there until dinner time came rolling around...about three hours.
I had made pasties for us to eat...the wife was not a big fan. More for me. :) I gave one to my buddies friend since they had not brought a lot of food along. Shortly after eating a group of three people showed up. They had some beers but never offered any...so I did not take kindly to them hanging out with us. I was a bit weirded out by the number of people that had chosen to stop by that day...but this last group seemed "normal" compared to the rest. They were our age...two girls and a guy. They had come up to take pictures of the sunset and pour back a few brews. They drank their beers...very slowly...and made themselves right at home. We all talked for a bit...about the area particularly...and their past experiences with the cabin. They apparently were frequenters of the place. They had quite a few good stories to share! One of them, the oldest girl in the group, is a part time photographer for a studio in Petoskey apparently...she was the most outgoing of the three. We started to discuss the hippies that had dropped by earlier and our experiences with the guns. She seemed very interested in them. So my friend let her shoot his gun...and reluctantly I let her fire off a shell in the 9mm. From that point forward that was pretty much what the conversion was about. :P They were a fairly cool group and left shortly after dark.
Once they left we migrated indoors and hung out by the fire for a bit. It was getting close to bed time...but there was still some good times to be had. Unfortunately the good times were not enough to keep everyone awake. I took the wife up toward the tent...the other two got their gear rolled out and were ready to sleep. We decided on the way to the tent...that with all of the people that had come by...we should probably be closer to the cabin. We dragged it along the ground closer to the cabin and decided that better than close to the cabin...we'd put it on the porch of the cabin. ;) That seems weak I know...but geez...with those drunk hippies down the hill I really did not feel like getting clubbed like one of the raccoons. We setup the tent on the porch and got ready for bed. We both got into our sleeping bags...when suddently I heard a loud "PFFFFFFTTTTT". It was loud. Very loud. I honestly could not help but to laugh...so I shouted "I love you too!!!" and my friend said "I was just blowing you a kiss goodnight!" I did not think much of it after that...and everyone got quiet. I was whispering "Goodnight" to my wife...and we heard a noise underneath us...like something scraping the underside of the porch. "I did not hear a thing....I did not hear a thing..." I kept telling myself. Then I thought "If I don't say anything...maybe she didn't hear it..." I rolled over trying to ignore it and I heard a faint voice "Did you hear that?" Silently I swore...but slowly turned to her and acknowledged that I had heard the noise. I gave in to my manly side and asked my friends if we could come into the cabin and sleep. A few moments later we were laying on the floor next to the fire.
Sleep did not come quickly that night...
This is about double what I had typed for the third entry of the story...I should finish it up in the fourth. I will REALLY try to have it done by Wednesday. That way I can start blogging about things that are not related. :P
Stay tuned for more this week! Please leave comments if you have read the story...or leave comments if you have not. Let me know what you think of my blog. :)
Anyway...goodnight from Northern Michigan!
-Derek
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Part 3 and updates are on the way...
I am very sorry for not having much time to update the blog. Between work, the wife graduating from college, and having family around the house for the last three weekends, it has been a busy few weeks.
I do have part three of the story almost ready...I just want to verify some of the facts again before I post. I believe I may have switched the timing of two of the events...but will make sure it is fixed.
CORRECTION: While looking at a map, I realized that we were on the Sturgeon River...not the Pigeon River. I should have checked that before my prior posts.
We spent the bulk of the day yesterday cutting wood for this fall...we have a GREAT start now that we cut some of the trees around the house down. It will give our pool enough sun to stay warmer now! Yay!
Anyway, stay tuned for more now that things are starting to calm down about around here.
-Derek
I do have part three of the story almost ready...I just want to verify some of the facts again before I post. I believe I may have switched the timing of two of the events...but will make sure it is fixed.
CORRECTION: While looking at a map, I realized that we were on the Sturgeon River...not the Pigeon River. I should have checked that before my prior posts.
We spent the bulk of the day yesterday cutting wood for this fall...we have a GREAT start now that we cut some of the trees around the house down. It will give our pool enough sun to stay warmer now! Yay!
Anyway, stay tuned for more now that things are starting to calm down about around here.
-Derek
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