Circle Tour - Day 1

After a great breakfast with Gary, I left at 8:50 a.m. He had turned on the GPS to get me to Escanaba but I turned it off before I reached the corner.  No male voice telling me what to do!  It turned out that he had installed John Cleese's voice and I should have left it on.  I love the idea of Cleese calling me a silly twit.  Now I have to figure out how to re-program it for Sault Ste Marie.

Since I was taking Highway 54 to Highway 41 which would take me to Escanaba I figured there would be no problems, I'd been on that road so many times before though not for years.  However, I found out that things have changed.  No longer does the road go through downtown Oconto or downtown Peshtigo.  There were roundabouts that took concentration.  One time I went around twice before I got my bearings. 

The car, for guys who need to know these things, is getting 34 mpg. 

At Menominee, Michigan I stopped at the CCC log cabin that serves as an entry point.  I asked for a postcard for Evan . . . surely a Michigan tourism place would have postcards. They had a set for Detroit, Michigan and that was all. With the advent of the digital camera, postcards seem to be a thing of the past.

I decided to leave Highway 41 and take the Highway 35 lake route, much more scenic and that brought me into Escanaba.  Escanaba is celebrating its 150th anniversary.  I had no idea where but figured out if I followed the drive to the downtown area I would get to something, using Zen driving. It's served me in the past and it served me this time. 

I came to the marina

 

I strolled along the marina until I heard music.  It was rock music but I thought I could find out where Skip Jones would be performing.  Someone was sure to know.  I rounded a corner and there was Skip and sure enough Judy was there, too, in a wonderful dress.  She looks every inch the superb artist she is. 

 

Judy steered me under a canopy and we chatted about books, we admired a baby, and talked about old times.

Skip talked about his new pickup and plan to sing about water any place he can.  He is so concerned about our nation's water supply and how it's being polluted.  He has been telling his audiences about me and my travels . . . how I seem to travel on nothing.

I got pulled pork on nachos for lunch at a booth and we talked and talked.

For a while I listened to Skip and his friends singing but too soon I had to hit the road.  I had to get this blog out and get on to a campsite before dark. 

So on I go, wondering what the next adventure will be.

 

Final Preparations

This was the final day before the trip.

The first thing I had to do was finish "William" a short story for Black Coffee Fiction  http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com  I pulled the story from a novel I intend to publish in January 2014, so I could finish it quickly and get back to packing.

The cooking gear and clothes are in bins beside the sleeping area.  Again, I intend to sleep in the tent, but in a downpour, I can climb into the car instead.  There's even a little stool that Gary found that fits in the area directly under the pillow.

That hat, by the way, serves a purpose.  Sometimes, I come out of a national forest campground with grimy clothes. If I can't find a place to clean up and change clothes, I arrive at a library that way.  But I am wearing that hat and the librarians recognize that I am indeed, their storyteller.  I clean up in the wash room, put on makeup and a fancy dress and come out completely changed...and without the hat which I never wear during the performance.

Behind the driver's seat are the tent and the folding chair, my notebook computer and the autoharp.

The front seat is where I keep my records in a folding file holder, containing maps, books, cameras, bird books, books on CDs, my journal, and writing projects. The basket is for garbage I might accumulate.  Each time I stop somewhere, I throw out the bag inside.  On the floor is the "nostrum" container with first aid supplies, cold remedies and aspirin.  It has shampoo, soap and sunscreen.  Underneath that is a box with copies of the three books I've written, one of them with Wade.

My passport is in the glove compartment, along with extra glasses and instruction booklets for the car, the cell phone, and other electronic gear. I have CDs  for music on the road. 

Gary took the Subaru to the carwash and "mooseproofed" it he said, giving it the full treatment.  Then he filled the car with gas and set the trip meter to zero.  

All I have to do in the morning is pack the last items here on my desk and I'm ready to go after we go out for breakfast at Kary's.  

Packing Clothes

It was time to do the laundry and get all my clothes packed for the tour. By tonight, I was done. 

Instead of suitcases, I use bins and crates which remain in the Subaru.  I pull out what I need and go into the tent to change. 

The orange crate holds several pairs of shoes from water slippers to dress shoes. 

The first green bin is filled with camping clothes, mostly tee-shirts, jeans and shorts. Next comes performance dresses, four of them because my performances come in bunches, three or four of them during two or three days, then a hiatus of three days before plunging in again. I know I'll have to stop to do laundry mid-way through the trip. 

The last bin is filled with underwear, pajamas, and swimwear, topped with a towel. I carry moist towelettes instead of a wash cloth and soap.  

The bins and crates of clothing go behind the driver's seat, beside the sleeping area I wrote about yesterday.  

Tomorrow, I work on the tour paperwork and pack it in a big canvas file bag with books I intend to read, Sibley's bird book, binoculars, my journal, a sketchbook and pencils, the notebook computer and the cameras.  That will go on the floor on the passenger side of the Subaru where I can get at it whenever I stop for a while.  The maps will be on the passenger seat along with my purse. I'll tune the autoharp and slide it behind the driver's seat. 

On Saturday morning, I'll place toothpaste, shampoo and other toiletries in a bag which goes behind the passenger seat.  I'll put dried food, tea, cappuccino mix, and instant oatmeal into another crate.  Then I'll stop at the grocery store for fresh fruit and veggies to nibble on as I drive, fill my water bottle, and I'll be on my way.  

Camping Gear

Today, Gary and I packed my camping gear in the back of the Subaru. Most of it has been stored under the desk here in my office, but I had to locate bits and pieces from elsewhere in the house.

First we set up the sleeping gear. The tent and a chair are in the space behind the front seats. The tent cost me $29.95 about fifteen years ago and still serves me well. Gary checked to make sure the waterproofing he applied two years ago is still working. I bought the chair two years ago when I realized my back needed more support than a boulder at a camp site could provide.

The inflatable mattress is another innovation I added when I got old and couldn't throw a sleeping bag on the ground and expect to sleep that way any more. The fully inflated mattress went into the back of the Subaru after the back seats were folded down.

There are three sleeping bags on top of the mattress. Why three? Because I can't be certain what the weather will be. I've camped in freezing temperatures in mid-July in the Rockies. I've camped in a Utah desert in 100 degree heat. So I try to be prepared for anything. There's a heavy winter sleeping bag on top of the mattress. Even if I never have to use it, it makes my bed softer. Next comes a lightweight sleeping bag, the one I will likely use most of the time. On top of that is a zip up Coleman blanket. On the warmest night, that will suffice. A light pillow completes the set up.

When I set up a tent, the entire sleeping arrangement slides in with no great effort. If it rains, I sleep in the car. I hate packing a wet tent on the morning I leave a campground.

The rest of the camping gear fits in a storage bin. A one burner stove screws onto a propane tank. I have a little kit with three nesting pots of various sizes and a teapot. I have one fork, one spoon, and a couple of paring knives. I have a few other disposable plastic knives saved from fast food places. I sometimes use these to spread peanut butter on a piece of bread in the morning.

I have an electric teapot to use whenever I have electricity. It also plugs into the cigarette lighter. That comes in handy during exceptionally bad weather. I can make tea and instant oatmeal in the car and then be on my way.

I have clothespins and a clothesline so I can wash clothes out by hand. If I need more line, there's my collection of bungee cords. Bungee cords always come in handy in so many ways.

There's dish detergent, but I don't have a dish pan. I use the smallest of the nesting pots to cook then wash up using the biggest pot. I don't have a wash cloth, just a Chinese pot scraper. The dishes dry in the air, no towel needed.

There's a three inch tall lantern with an LED light that hangs from the top of the tent. Add in a few bags, and that is the extent of my camping gear.

Tomorrow, I do laundry and pack clothes.

Books to Go

I'll be on tour for two weeks, driving around 1,500 miles and spending nights in campgrounds.  That requires books.

For the drive, I'm taking three books on CD:
Hunting Season, by Nevada Barr.  It's the only one of the Anna Pigeon series I've missed.  It also fulfills a requirement for the adult summer reading program.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.  I've already read Hosseini's The Kite Runner, so I expect I will like this one, too.
and Anne Lamott's Imperfect Birds.  I've read Lamott's non-fiction, so thought I should try one of her novels.

That's 35 hours of literature to get me through the miles and miles of driving.

For night time reading, I have my Nook, which has back lighting, so I won't need to worry about lanterns.
I have an eclectic collection of e-books:
Zadig by Voltaire
Queen Lucia, by E. F. Benson
The Round House, by Louise Erdrich
House of Earth, by Woody Guthrie
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, by Frederick Douglass

One library book:  Fighting Bob LaFollette, The Righteous Reformer, by Nancy C. Unger. I did a book report on LaFollette when I was in high school.  High time I caught up on the literature about the man who was Wisconsin's great progressive Governor.

Finally, a couple of books I own that I can read on the beach since I don't have to worry about dropping them in a Great Lake:
The Language of Flowers, by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
Refuge, an Unnatural History of Family and Place, by Terry Tempest Williams (I've read it before but it bears re-reading.)

Now that I've taken care of the all important reading matter, it's time to pack the camping gear.  Gary and I will work on that tomorrow.

More Planning

My Circle Tour itinerary is almost done. It includes the performances, the camping spots, the friends I want to visit, the miles between, the money I will make and the money I expect to spend.  I know where I intend to purchase gasoline.  Gary already has found the most reasonable prices along the way.

So what is left?

Fun.

Today we checked out each location along the way for festivals, celebrations, and interesting sites.

The very first day I expect to stop at Escanaba, Michigan, celebrating a Sesquicentennial (150 years). I will be passing through on Saturday so I might as well spend two or three hours there before going on to my first campground. I will walk along the shore of Lake Huron, talk to locals, and feast on festival food.

On Monday, I'll be on Drummond Island.  The librarians have insisted that I have a hostess who will drive me around and show me everything.  I will be at the edge of Lake Huron, another shore to explore.

Two days later I will be in Sault Ste Marie in Ontario, Canada for two performances.  I should leave early on the 19th, but we found out that tall ships will be sailing into the harbor that day. I won't have time to go on board, but I plan to be on the shore of Lake Superior watching them come in before I travel on to Lake Superior Provincial Park and the Crescent Lake campground.

By the 21st I must be in Schreiber for another festival, Heritage Days, where I will be one of the featured performers.

When I return on July 27, the Seymour County Fair will be winding down.

But that is not the end of planning.  Now I am looking at campground maps looking for trails to hike.  I also need to find wi fi centers to continue this blog and keep up with e-mail.  I've started planning my October and winter tours so must be available to librarians who are interested in my services.  I'll be traveling through heavily forested areas with poor communication.  I'll mark libraries, restaurants, and coffee houses that might have wi fi.

Today Gary aired out my tent.  On Wednesday, I'll begin packing gear.

Then there's making out set lists, tuning my autoharp, preparing performance dresses, and getting a haircut.

Everything will be done by Friday...because it must be.

Mathom House

When I moved here about thirty years ago, I decided to give the house a name, a British custom.

In Tolkiens' The Hobbit, the Mathom House was a museum where hobbits collected  "mathoms", which were items that no longer had any use after they'd been passed around as gifts for generations.

Since my house was then (and continues to be today), full of useless objects often given to me by friends and family, "Mathom House" was the perfect name.  Gary made up a name plate.

The name has come in handy from time to time, whenever I needed a business name.  My books are self-published by Mathom House.  My storytelling e-mail address is mathom@juno.com

Gary decided that we should have vanity plates for our two vehicles.  His just arrived.

My plates will show up in August and will read MATHOM2

Gary's plate says Harms.  When we were camping at Laura Lake two years ago, I spotted a car with that plate holder and asked about it.  The two young people said it came from the Harms car dealership in Janesville and offered the plate holder to Gary....whose last name is Harms.  The holder cracked so when he drove past Janesville on his way to Dixon, he stopped in an requested another.  He carefully removed "Janesville" from the holder and now has his own name plate.

With everything properly labeled, I suppose we know who we are.