Day 35, Friday, September 23, Straits State Park, across from Mackinac Island, Michigan

I am sitting outside typing for the first time on this journey.  I am about 670 miles lower in latitude than just three days ago, and that makes a difference in the temperature, for sure.  And it Is not raining, yet anyway.

After an easy trip of 150 miles from Agawa, through some of the most beautiful fall scenes I   have ever experienced, we made it across the border today and I sampled my first taste of the ugly side of people when I encountered the customs agent.  Welcome home to America, the land of hospitable, pleasant people.  We Americans can be proud of so much of what we have and are, but we still have a long way to go before we can claim to have arrived.  The freedoms we gave up over these last 10 years.

The setting at this camp is quite extraordinary.  I have never before seen the colors that setting sun is throwing off.  To the south of it is an enormous bridge, I guess to the lower peninsula, but for me it is the bridge to my former life.  To the was of the bridge is Mackinac Island, which has zero meaning or interest to me, the tourist attraction and curiosity that it is.  The only connection I have with it is that it was the setting for the movie, Somewhere in Tme,  which features Rachmaninov's piano concerto number 2, one of my favorite pieces of music, and which I listened to every night on this trip just about, including right now.

Wow, look at that sun now.

At first, I was going to take it easy getting back to DC, but I noticed tonight that Leben's skin infection has flared about again quite seriously, and so I plan to move as quickly toward home as I can, reaching Teledo, Ohio, or beyond tomorrow and then DC on Sunday.  I hate putting the dogs through these long days in the car, but with stops every 2 hours it will be more palatable for them, as will the treats.
It is too early for me to reflect on this trip, perhaps I never will, but all four of the road trips I have taken have far exceeded any other kind of a trip I have taken, and I have taken a variety,  never as a tourist though.  And that was one of my aims for this trip, the be a traveler and not a tourist.  I'll defer to the many locals I met along the way to judge whether I achieved that aim.

The sun is almost gone and I need to wake the dogs from their deep slumber under a big apple tree right in the middle of this pleasant campsite overlooking the bridge I have to take tomorrow back home.  How  very  symbolic.

Ed