31 July 2017, Monday

Alger, MI

We settled down to sleep shortly after 9 pm last night. O fell asleep quickly. I had seemingly just managed to fall asleep when I was awakened by a resounding thud sounding nearby. The thuds were repeated at irregular intervals. I woke O who passed me his bright flashlight. Across the road, on top of the dumpster, I could see two glowing golden eyes. I could just make out the pointy ears above the eyes – raccoon. I did my best to get back to sleep, but I lay awake for quite some time, listening to the crash of the trash bin lid. O snored gently beside me. A couple of hours later I heard squeaking noises very near the open, mesh-covered side door of the van. Beneath us there were some rattling metallic sounds. Time to take down the Skeeter Beater and close the door, before our masked visitor(s?) discovered how much yummy food we had stashed inside. I finally drifted off to sleep.

This morning as we stow our boxes and sleeping system back in their proper places, we look out of Vincent’s front window to see not one, but four raccoons, two parents and two babies, waddling into the culvert next to our campsite. The trash bin looks as if it was the victim of a very localized tornado.

We now take the road towards Cleveland to find Canary’s Family Restaurant where we are to meet O’s sister and niece (recently moved from Tucson,) for breakfast. As Canary’s was already in our GPS, O entered it as today’s first destination last night. We find the location easily, and I text C that we have arrived. She replies that they are already inside. O and I enter the small establishment and look around at the patrons. No familiar faces! We ask the hostess if there are two Canary’s restaurants. Of course the answer is yes.

Fifteen minutes later we arrive at the proper venue, where we enjoy a delightful breakfast and catch up with one and other. It has been almost two years since we have all been together. After breakfast and a tour of Vincent, we part ways. O and I promise to return to Cleveland on our way home in late October. Now we drive west and then north into the mitten of Michigan. Once again our drive is uneventful except for some vigorous thunderstorms just south of Alger.

We check in to Greenwood Family Campground around 5:30 and cook our dinner of peanut butter spaghetti as we listen to the occasional rumble of thunder off to the west. We have intermittent light sprinkles as we eat, but nothing significant enough to send us into the van or the nearby picnic shelter. We are hoping for fair weather in the morning so we can bake a breakfast muffin without needing to hang the tarp.

(We find the still air this evening to be a good opportunity to try our new thermacell mosquito repellant. I believe it is working!)