20 years ahead

Dad and I are in Ironwood, Michigan right now. We pulled into Jim and Judy's house this afternoon, and things have been going great.

Our time at Cedar Point was great. We drove to Milan, OH, and were able to see the birthplace of Thomas Edison the night before. In the morning, we made it to Cedar Point, and we met Jason at the main entrance, and he was able to give us some comps for admission to the park for the day. We spent our time together going around all the rides, with Millennium Force being the first roller coaster of the day. It was hot and humid in the park, and I feel that Dad and I got somewhat dehydrated. It was not too crowded, so we were able to go through most of the rides without too long of a wait. All in all, a great day, and it was a great redemption to the trip that never happened three years ago. Dad and I drove for six hour afterwards, and we stopped in Ann Arbor at this place called Crazy Jim's Blimpy Burger for dinner. We had some quality fresh ground beef burgers with some bottled sodas and french fries. We drove for a long time afterwards through Michigan, and most of the time, we were surrounded by a darkness of the woods all over the highways. We made it to Macinaw City by 1 in the morning, and we fell asleep pretty late.

The next day, we were awake late, and it was raining outside. After getting some coffee and donuts, we got on the ferry to Mackinac Island, and after a short excursion over the lake, we were in the port town of the whole location. We went to an Irish Pub to grab a pint and watch the highlights of the US soccer win over Algeria, and then we spent a while riding our bikes around the island on the carless roadways, seeing all sorts of sights. It was still pretty cloudy and foggy, but the rain from the morning had subsided. Back in town, we ate at this restaurant called Milly's, and we had a pasty with gravy and some fried whitefish and fries. We spent some more time biking around, buying souvenirs, and we left the island in the evening. Dad and I had another long drive across the U.P., and we stopped in Munising for another epic pasty for dinner. We got into Baraga by 11 pm, and again we were quick to fall asleep at the hotel by the Indian casino.

Bringing to today! Dad and I had some breakfast, and afterwards, we spent some time in the hot tub, pool, and sauna in the main part of the Ojibwe casino. We spent the day looking all around Baraga, and we visited some older parts of Dad's life at his grandparent's old house before going over to look at gifts at the tribal senior center. We also went to a church graveyard and stopped by some graves of his grandparents and some other extended relatives, and it was really interesting to put family ties together and reflect upon relatives I've never met in my life. We stopped by the medical office and talked with the assistant administrator about the place, as Dad's been thinking in the back of his mind to do some part-time work up around there. After looking around some more, we made our way towards Houghton and Hancock, bought some strawberries at a roadside stand on the way, and later on, we had some lunch at this place called the Downtowner in Houghton, and we had burgers and drinks over a large wooden porch overlooking the river in the city. It was a good couple of hours driving through more woods before we reached Ironwood, and before coming to Jim and Judy's house, Dad and I stopped at some places for some shortcake for the strawberries, and I also got a camera charger at another store. It was great to see Jim and Judy again, and like last time, they talked and treated us with the upmost senses of hostmanship and respect. We had a great time socializing in the backyard over some crackers, smoked whitefish, and a smoked whitefish dip, and later Jim served up some delicious grilled whitefish with cilantro, some molasses wild rice, green beans, and some strawberry shortcake with cream for dessert. The evening was spent socializing and talking a lot, and it was a great night to catch up with these guys.

I'd probably have a lot more to say about this trip in detail, but I am effing tired, and sometimes there's just SO much that can be written about any one of these experiences.

I'll keep this up as best as I can.

-c