It took 2 days to drive to Beavercreek because I'm not as young as I once was, and I'm not going to make a 12- to 14-hour drive in one day again unless I have to. Besides, breaking the drive into 2 days gives me a chance to stop over in Youngstown, and visit the Butler Institute. It's always worth the extra night's stay. Besides that, it also gave me a chance to see the in-laws and Baby Marcus. He's 5 months old now. The last time I saw him was on the day he was born. He's a lot cuter now.

We made that stay short, and took 2 days to drive to Black Lake, pausing to buy a little cheese, and staying overnight in Frankenmuth.

Yeah, Black Lake is beautiful by day or at night, and Frank invited part of his clan to the lake for a day, so we had 24 people running around the compound at one point! We even let a couple of kids drive the pontoon boat for a while, much to their delight. For an afternoon and an evening, the place looked as if it had been overrun by Voyageurs or something.

I was there to fish, but a little tourism was in order, so the 8 of us stopped off at Fort Michilimackinac and learned a little history. For instance, I wonder how many of you knew this little fact? Also, I happen to love bridges, so while I was at the fort, I got this shot of the Mackinac Bridge.

We also took a ferry to Mackinac Island, where I had a lot of fun taking an 8-mile bike ride around the island, but even more fun getting tossed off the grounds of the Grand Hotel as "riff-raff"! It's the kind of place where men who are not wearing full suits with ties (no matter what the weather is like) are not allowed on the grounds after 6:00 PM, nor are women, if they are wearing slacks. Yeah, they tossed us out all right, but we gave them grief first. We didn't start any trouble, but for some reason, they seemed to think we were going to. Especially (I think) me, perhaps because I was wearing shorts and a ponytail? (No, not just that, I was fully dressed!) Anyway, it did my heart good to see the looks on their mugs when we didn't grovel or slink away, nor hide the shame of our class (or lack of it) from their grand visages. Hoorray for the hoi polloi!

Well, I said I wasn't going to do it, I didn't plan on it, but I did it anyway. I bought fudge while I was there. Being a typical tourist, I suppose, I had to go whole hog, huh? As long as I was being a troll, I guess it was inevitable that I'd turn fudgie, too¹. Actually, I resisted a lot of shops, for a long time, but the free samples at Joann's Fudge Shop finally got to me. And her Chocolate Orange Fudge finally did it; it won my heart. I bought two boxes of her fudge. I still have most of it left, though not quite as much as when I started this little screed; writing is hungry work.

But I digress. There was only one point to this trip. Fishing.

And fish I did.

For one solid week I did nothing but eat and sleep and fish, with some reading, and a little moderate carousing, thrown in. Well, not drunken carousing, as that fascinating bit of etymology suggests, but I assure you that I did manage to squeeze my little bits of fun in here and there, as I always do.

Black Lake is supposed to be a great place for Steelhead, with the locals displaying all kinds of pictures and plaques of the impressive trout they'd caught in Black Lake, but all week long they remained impassive toward me.

Ah, but then my fishing partner, Frank, and I hauled off to Lake Michigan and I made my catch and then some. We caught our limit in one day.

I got myself a nice 17 pound lake trout. I would've been satisfied with that. Heck, that's a day;s catch right there. But the Fishing Gods were with me on Thursday, and on August 6 I caught the fish of the week on Lake Michigan, and probably the fish of my life. I landed a 25 3/4 pound salmon after she took an 800-foot run, and she fought me all the way in. It took 3 of us to haul that lady onto the boat. It was the culmination of a week of fishing, it was all that I could ask for, and much, much more.

We brought her ashore, cleaned her at the marina, and had sashimi that very night. There's something profoundly primal about eating raw strips of a fish that you've fought and landed that very day. And there's still plenty of salmon left.

It was a good week, and an easy ride home. I've been unplugged from the world for two weeks, I haven't read or watched or listened to any news since July 28, and I haven't done so today, the last day of my vacation. Tomorrow I'll be up at 4:00 AM, I'll be on the road by 5:00, and before 6:00 I'll be diving back into work.

And I can't wait. I'm raring to go. Life is good.

2. Mickey writes:
Henry, I lived in Ohio for five years. It took me 20 years to be able to enjoy rain again. It rained ALL THE F--KING TIME. Here's the weather forecasting I devised for Ohio:

Sunny = not raining but so humid it might as well be raining
Clear = cloudy but not raining
Chance of rain = it's raining
Rain = it's pouring
Heavy rain = get a boat

It wasn't only the rain that made me hate Ohio, but it certainly contributed.

P.S.
The trip wasn't just fun, it was educational, too!

SUPPOSE that you have been staying in a lakeside cabin. A dark lakeside cabin, that sleeps five, and you don't want to wake anyone.

SUPPOSE that you want to brush your teeth.

LESSON 1: No matter how many times you've done this in the past, in familiar environments, USE A FLASHLIGHT!

LESSON 2: A tube of Rite Aid maximum strength anti-itch and -rash hydrocortisone cream (with "soothing aloe") closely resembles a tube of Colgate, particularly in very dim light.

LESSON 3: It doesn't taste as good, it's not sweet at all, and it leaves your mouth interestingly numb after brushing.

P.P.S.
Approximate miles driven: ~1,894.95