You know, it started as such a good day. For starters, it wasn't raining...always a good thing when packing up camp! On the way out of town, while stopping at a local gift shop, I saw the mom of one of my best friends from High School. It was so good to catch up with her & to hear all about my friend Kay, now a vet.
Everyone was calm cool & collected during the two hours it took to get to the Mackinac Bridge. Love it when that happens!
When we got to St. Ignace (northern side of the Mackinac Straights), I got my long awaited Pastie (PASS-tee). YUM-O!
We pulled off the road right before the bridge to stretch & play in Lake Michigan. Beautiful day! Fun.
We safely crossed over...then it happened. Five miles south of Mackinaw City, we blew a camper tire. While changing it, two locals stopped to help. They both said, "Looks like you hit a chunk of cement (from roadwork)." Wonderful! But, we were quickly on the road again.
Four hours down the road, it happened again..."BAM!" Another camper tire. This time, things didn't go as quickly or smoothly, as we had already used our one & only spare...GREAT! So, we unhooked the camper, drove into somewhere around Bay City, MI at 7:00 in the evening & found out that there are NO tire places open at that hour on a weekend. However, we did find a tractor store that had tires that were pretty much the same as ours, only smaller. We decided that was our only option. So, we pumped those up, drove all the way back to our camper & changed them. We also unloaded a bunch of stuff from the camper & stuffed it into our already overstuffed van, in hope that it would take some pressure off the smaller tires.
Now, while in Bay City, I found myself getting REALLY cranky & extremely impatient...I will not go into the tone or the words I used with Dave (out of sheer embarrassment & shame) however at one point, I do remember saying to the kids, "I am not in a good mood whatsoever & if you keep this up, neither WILL YOU!" :)
We finally made it to our hotel in Ann Arbor around 10:30 pm, 10 hours after starting from Grand Marais, safe & sound. Neither Dave nor I had eaten, so we got some things from the vending machine & we called it a night. Aaahhh!
I would like to think I stay cool as a cucumber in tense situations, but alas, I have a long way to go in that department! I just hope it doesn't take a lot of situations like this to get me there. However, I have a feeling that won't be the case. :)
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