Ferry to Ludington

leaving port at Manitowoc aboard the SS Badger. Take a 4 hour cruise across Lake Michigan (really an inland ocean) no land in site, your car down in the ship's bowels, you stretched out in a cruise chair.AAAAAAAAAAAAAh.

Dairyland Surf Classic

...yep S U R F Classic. It happens every autumn on the shores of Lake Michigan. 10' to 12' waves with at least 23 breaks, some rival the Pipeline. See the indie movie "Step Into Liquid." So Moondoggie grab Gidget and your board for the Saturday Night Surf Party. September 4th through the 6th, 2004.info 920-457-1209 Be there or be square.

4th of July, 2004

Our traditional 4th of July at the cabin didn’t happen this year. Other relatives got first dibs, so we did an end-of-summer fireworks festival last week.

White-hot…it was fun. First, we went for a whole week instead of an extended weekend. The traffic was far less than the usual holiday crush. But, haha, this has been an unusually chilly August and at night the temps went down to 38 degrees. Actually it was the kind of weather you find in the mountains and desert…hot hot hot during the day and cool after dusk.
No problem. All of us came prepared clotheswise. Basically if you layer yourself you just add and subtract as needed.

Since we had so much time we got to do more.
The first two days we stayed at the lake. That was decompression time when you get out all of your city/suburban crappiness. You rock in the swing, go fishing, take out the pediboat or a canoe or the fishing skiff, you eat a lot of food, you sit by the fire.

There is no teevee at the cabin, on purpose. We listened to CDs that everybody brought until we found a radio station we all liked. Believe it or not Alice Cooper is the deejay! Yep that Alice Cooper “School’s out for summer…” He was at the local softball game on Saturday, so we went. Too funny. I don’t know if he lives in the U.P. or if the show is a telecast. Oh, and they were having a Blues Fest coming up in two weeks. Cats from Chicago, Memphis and New Orleans (along with some local bluesmen) were going to play. I started thinking…move here? It could be great! I’m finding I have less of a necessity to be cityish.
Life has a better pace up in the Northwoods.
After I saw an ad in the local Advertiser about Bear Bait I awoke at 7 every morning trying to see one lumbering through the woods. Then everybody said I shouldn’t do it because bear can swim and climb trees and they could charge me. They just said that because everyone wanted to sleep until 10. Ack. No I didn’t see one. Next time, maybe.

One of the days we went to Piers Gorge. What an amazing place. I have pics!

It is like a medieval forest…deep and dark, full of ferns and streams that juts out into sheer rock cliffs made of blue rocks…iron ore? Then down to the rushing rapids of the Menominee River. Tree roots stand up high and gnarly on the footpaths and I found an unusual aspect…many of the trees are twins. Well, they are single trees that have grown together at the base. Odd. And the forest is unmanaged in that many trees are half fallen, just resting on other trees. They look like they could fall at any minute and clobber you dead. I liked that part. Not so sanitary and safe.

Oh and it smells marvelous…piney, algaey, woodsy, fertile. You could walk right out on the “piers” (rock slabs) and fall right into the violent river if you wanted to. One kayaker was rushing at a small falls, dipping deep under the crush of water, surfacing and doing it again and again. I’d like to do a movie here, capture the magic of the forest. It was just sensational.

On another day A and I went to the town of Niagara to be part of the “Celebrating 90 Years Festival” at the local church. This tiny town of maybe 500 people was 90 and they were celebrating all of the townsfolk who were 90 years old or older. Well I was curious. The tea-and-cake event was interesting. Guess how many people were celebrants? 18! And eight of them had showed up. A and I chatted up the people. They were still sharp-minded! We congratulated them, ate some poppy seed cake and left.

That’s when I went wandering and found this:

Woman Disappears While Walking Dog

One of the nights we found the games down in the basement. Did you ever play Scattergories? Too fun. Okay I did get challenged…often. For cold things I answered …a kitten’s paws after he walks on ice. Which I thought was a GREAT answer but they gave me thumbs down because it was too long and I was writing stories instead of giving one or two word answers. Still whipped them, so HA!

We wandered into Iron Mountain that is a big town with all of the services and shopping one could want. I mean if you can survive with Wal-mart and K-mart and Fashion Bug and Goodwill, well you’ve got it.
We did a lot of cooking out at the lake. Went for an amazing fish fry at Double D’, Thai food at (oops forgot the place) had amusement at T & T’s Supper Club, one of those old-school places where you get a 7-course meal for $15.95!

I was official videographer for the fireworks. I got to be cheerleader too which means I catch myself oohing and aahing while taping. I know that annoys later viewers, so I’ll say sorry right now.

We lit up the lake and brought out all of the other folks who were up at their cabins for the week. We could hear cheering from a half mile away.
Speaking of sound…ooooooh! When the fireworks exploded the sound would flip over the ridge of pines, hit back toward us and zip down the length of the lake. Wow. You had to be there! Echooooooooooooooooooooooo.

My best day at the cabin was the last evening when I walked down the hill to the lake an hour before dusk. The water was just below the pier so you feel like you are floating on the water. The sun was glowing and hot so I took off my jacket, then my sweatshirt. I wrapped the sweatshirt into a ball and placed it on the bench (it’s two boards wide) and lay down. No one else came down and I actually fell asleep! At first I was thinking of the hoboes who sleep on benches in the city, then I was seeing colored lights behind my eyeballs, and whoop I was drifting off. Oh it was nice. I don’t remember ever being so relaxed. I did jerk awake when I started falling sideways. If I lived here I would put some straps on the bench, then just strap myself on and fall asleep there every evening. Then I would awake when the sun went down and my body started to chill out.

One night during our fireside time we all divulged details of our ghetto periods. Hoooooo! I can’t reveal a word of it, but try it yourself and don’t tell me you never had a ghetto period, we all do. Well except for O. She claims she waiting for hers to happen.

Driving home was good. We stopped in Sheboygan for our customary brat with kraut, mustard and onions on a special Sheboygan bun. Next door was a Harley Store. We wandered in. Very shiny motorcycles everywhere, which reminded me of a man I knew from Milwaukee, We would fly the freeways on his hog. He was such a gentleman despite his rugged exterior.

There was a 50-year-old customer in khaki shorts with shaved legs. ICK! I HATE shaven men. I like monkey men like the one I have now. From my research they are far better lovers. They are firmly in touch with their animal selves.

Later we went over to the John Michael Kohler Art Center. I have wanted to go there for 6 years. It’s billed as an outsider art museum. Well it is that but it’s more contemporary art with a bit of outsider, self-taught. There was the recreation of the Rhinestone Cowboy house, a man from Alabama who did glitter paintings all over his walls and put masses or Christmas globe ornaments all over the ceiling. Another exhibit was a room “wallpapered” in gigantic insects in decorative patterns. A woman did ceramic sculptures called “Domestic Ironies.” I really liked the boy portraits. The chess pieces by artists all over the world were interesting. Interactive art is always good. I added my piece to the clay wall and colored in some of the Japanese animal piece, but my fav was the elliptical minigolf course that had spheres made of Styrofoam. You could actually play the course with the last hole being conceptual. When you reached the end you would be centered, at “one” with yourself.

Give me the woods and give me art and I am one happy girl.

Time for me to close. I need to get back to my screenplay. Talk again when I go to the bluffs in September, oh…and Millennium Park in the city is going to happen soon too.

Stepping Out, Down & Around

Saturday night I traveled a million miles from here. Here being the heavily-wooded river valley where my quintessential Cape Cod is located. I live among the deer, raccoons, 4’ tall spires of purple wild phlox, great blue heron, snow-white egrets, iridescent hummingbirds, bright red cigarette boats, and black Jaguars.
I didn’t realize how small, confined, and “removed” my little part of the world was until that evening, that particular Saturday in early August.
I jumped into his pick-up truck and he blindfolded me. “Trust me.” he said, and I did.
Without eyes to see, my other senses picked up. I felt every bump in the road. The motor had an insignificant ping every other minute; the brakes made a slight whooshing whispery sound. I could smell the soap residue on his skin and when his hand touched mine it was warm, soothing, and electric.
Even though I could not see I could figure out the direction we were traveling…east, north, east, north, then we turned onto a gravel road. I could hear the crunching and the ditches were tossing me up and down in the seat. Thank God I was belted in. For a moment I was frightened. You know about the recent rash of men killing the women they supposedly love? Maybe we were going to some desolate place for nefarious reasons. Nah, this is a good man and I’m not pregnant.
Still there aren’t many gravel roads anywhere near where I live. I was stumped.
I heard him say SSSH to someone when we stopped for a moment. Then we crunched along again, turned left and leap-frogged over some small bumps.
“No peaking.” He said as he unstrapped me from the seat belt, took my hand, and lead me outside. “Stay right there.” I felt a whoosh of air as his body turned and walked away. He returned, made some noise, something I was unsure of, then he picked me up and placed me in a lawn chair, the kind with a footrest, and tucked a pillow under my head, and a blanket up to my neck. As I heard other vechiles crunching gravel, he reached behind my head and removed the blindfold.
We were at an outdoor theater.
It was tremendous! I was staring up at the stars. There was so much sky. I felt like I was inside a snowglobe. It was so open and big that I felt like I might detach from the earth and go flying off into space.
We were in the very last row, all alone, snuggled into lawn chairs, watching the Perseids, a night of shooting stars.
I’m not certain why I haven’t been here before. This is one of the last remaining outdoors in the country. I guess I have been waiting for him, a man who would give me this moment.
As dusk turned into night the sky became inky blue-black with flares of white from the last bit of light backlighting the clouds.
The movie (The Village) started on the gigantic screen, but I was distracted by the scent of Queen Anne’s lace in the air mixed with buttered popcorn. Someone in the distance shot off two mortars of fireworks in the shape of white chrysanthemums, shadowy figures dug into the gravel as they strolled to the concession stand in the middle of the lot. My man rubbed his hands together and placed them over mine to keep me warm (it was in the 60s) and nearly scalded me. He was piping hot!
Even though the speaker was on full blast it sounded kind of echoy, like the whole world could listen if they were very quiet. It added an eerie effect to the movie, a film about people who had removed themselves from the world and created a threat of false monsters in the surrounding area to keep the citizens from venturing out.
At intermission we walked hand-in-hand to the concession stand. (Those crazy dancing 50s-style hot dogs and Raisinets made us hungry!) Inside there was a weird and wonderful mix of people…teenage lovers still flushed pink from sexual adventures, young married people with kids in tow, a couple in Harley leathers, a beautiful black girl in a white lace dress smooching a pale chubby guy with lots of tattoos, several teenage boys in black t-shirts playing video games, a middle-aged man licking his lips and leering at every woman in the place, a little blonde-haired girl picking her spilled popcorn off the concrete floor, hordes of people in line for candy and popcorn, and a line of women waiting for the restroom that snaked out of the building and around the back. When I finally got in to pee, I was met by a striking Latin woman who grimace at me with an expression that said she would shiv me if I didn’t look away…now.
Snuggled back in our chairs with the second movie ready to begin, one of the cars parked ahead of us had the brake lights on, bright red glaring to the left of the screen. My man when and asked the fellow to please take his foot off the brake.
The sky was flashing lightening now, not big icy white bolts, more like a light show happening behind a layer of deep purple clouds, a pinkish white flare to the north, them the west, dancing lights.
As Bourne Identity started so did the raindrops.
We quickly packed up and quietly inched out of the lot.
What a splendid night. Give me a man with a pick-up every time. They give a girl experiences she never even dreamed of…earthy and astral, RealLife.

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