Birthday Adventure (#2)

This morning EJ and I were awakened by cats jumping on us. They would leap from one of us to the other. They were trying to wake us up so I would feed them canned food, which I divide among them all. They were successful in getting us out of bed.

After yesterday’s journey to the Mackinac Bridge, I was tired and my body was very sore. EJ didn’t sleep well last night; I think he was pretty much awake since 3 a.m. We had so much fun yesterday that I suggested that we stay home today so EJ could rest, but EJ said, “No, we are going on the chair lift at the ski resort as planned!” The one we were thinking about going to is only a few miles away, so I thought, ok, we can go and then return home.

Nothing went as planned today.

It was a beautiful day today, with blue skies and temperatures in the upper 70s.

We had driven past the ski resort two weeks ago when we went to pick up Madeline from the animal shelter. Today EJ took a different route, which is no problem because, unlike me, he has a wonderful sense of direction. He always knows where he is and can always find his way from here to there and back again. His sense of direction is his super power. Except today. We couldn’t seem to find the ski resort, even though it shouldn’t have been a problem. Finally, EJ suggested we go to the ski resort that we went to last year. It’s farther away–about 2 hours–but very beautiful and worth the drive. So off we went.

We had trouble finding the ski resort. We finally found it but, unlike last year, we didn’t see any signs announcing free autumn chair lift rides. The chair lift didn’t seem to be in operation. So we decided to head back towards home. EJ drove back roads, which we love to do. He got turned around a few times, but he quickly found the correct route.

At one point I quoted a line from a poem in The Lord of the Rings: “It might be true that ‘Not all who wonder are lost…'” I laughed, “But sometimes they really are lost.”

We decided to stop at a scenic overlook that we’ve heard about. The article we read said that “it requires just a short walk up a hill in exchange for a breathtaking view over the Valley.” We followed the sign point to “parking” and found both sides of a narrow dirt road lined with cars, with people trekking up the forest path. We weren’t feeling much like dealing with crowds of people, so we aborted the mission and continued on.

We decided to head toward one of the nature reserves near home that we’ve been wanting to go to. But it was late in the afternoon and we were getting hungry. We hadn’t eaten since breakfast. We decided instead to head into the “Emerald City” and eat at Culvers. Afterwards we stopped at TSC to buy poultry feed and cat food. Then we headed home.

Absolutely nothing today went according to plan. Except for the stop at TSC, we didn’t accomplish any of our plans, but we didn’t mind.

“How come you don’t care where you’re going?”
“Cause how you get there is the worthier part.”
(Firefly TV series)

That’s how EJ and I feel. We had a great day. We didn’t succeed in fulfilling any of our plans, but we accomplished our real goal, which is to spend the day together driving through breathtakingly beautiful scenery enjoying the autumn colors. We both feel that the journey is more important than the destination.

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