March 23, 2023 — March and April are the months Northern Michigan travels. We’ve been on a bike trip, a ski trip, and tonight Colebrook, Hawthorn, Sonny and I drive south to meet Steph down in St. Augustine, FL, for a swimming trip. Coming out of the pandemic, our family has no natural rhythm to our traveling. And in some ways, the world seems to push against all this motion by the five of us.
On our trip to Cleveland to go indoor mountain biking, we hit a snow storm that jammed many of the off ramps with stuck cars and trucks and narrowed the freeways to a narrow line of traffic. I was irritated with how slow the line was going so I went around them all on the left. “Dad, you just passed a police car,” exclaimed Hawthorn! On our way back, we drove over a deep pothole. A few minutes later Colebrook said, “What’s that helicopter sound?” It was a left-front flat tire.
Maybe flying will be easier, I wondered, as we drove to the airport for a flight to visit my nephew Sam for skiing at Jackson Hole. Minutes later we learned of delays and changes that left us in airports most of the first day. Some of this is OK, as I relaxed and read a book about the Anishinaabe’s role in the boundaries of the USA. On the way back after some fantastic spring skiing, we dealt with lost luggage and came home to a power outage, which made our house feel like we were still traveling.
I wonder what’s in store for us on this innocent trip to Florida.
