Last week my father and I decided to take a road trip up to the UP and visit my grandfather’s water lot that I discussed here and here. It took us a little time to get there but it was really nice to spend time with him, just the two of us. We decided that we probably haven’t spent that much time alone together in since the 90s, and even then didn’t come up with an exact.
On Tuesday morning I headed over to Williamston, grabbed the old man and headed to Flint to see his old man. Grandpa has offered to let me use his old camper if I can get it in working order so we stopped at his place to get the keys. From there dad and I headed north and got to Mackinaw City around 6 pm and called it a day. You ever been there during the off season? Yeah, didn’t think so. Not very many people have. That place was a ghost town, no one on the streets and none of the shops were open. There was only about 3 places open to eat out of the normal 30.
In the morning we headed over to De Tour to do some exploring, the whole time I kept explaining to him why it meant so much to me up there and I think he was actually starting to understand as more time passed. My Grandpa actually has two water lots but I am only interested in one of them. We explored the other as neither of us knew much about it other than where it was and what to expect of it. It was as expected; long and narrow, not much for a view (compared to the other lot) and not a lot of privacy (side note; the water is shallow and has receded quite a bit so the lot has now doubled in size). The primary lot, maintained its expectations and I was again very happy to be there. It just felt right. It may have been a little snowy yet, but it was in the low 40s, no wind, very sunny and it’s vast open southern horizon off Lake Huron did not disappoint; a great day. We spent some time searching for the boundaries of the property as we only knew where one monument was but didn’t really have a clue which one it was. It’s a 100 ft of frontage at the edge of the trees, we just didn’t know where to go as there is a ‘corner’ within the 100 ft (and 335 ft back to the road). We thought we were making progress, but after 
coming home and looking closer online, we were still off. Next time I’m taking a metal detector. I should have this time, shame on me. I made a
little video of the view with my phone, the quality is nothing fancy and by no means am I “moving picture” specialist so you’ll have to just deal. It’s nice and bright as it was shot early afternoon. It get the point across about why I love it: quiet (except my dad in the background), private, peaceful. It stays this quiet in the middle of the summer as well. It is the perfect escape……. If you’ve never seen the great lakes, this will really make you question what you’re looking at – freshwater or ocean water?
Once we were done on the lot we went and explored the camper, which ended up being about 10 years older than I imagined and of a completely different brand than I though, let alone a brand I had never heard of. I’ll be doing some more research on that and it may end up being a post of it’s own. Do I want to drop maybe a grand into that thing to get it operational, or do I just want to buy an old model that is ready to, literally, roll.
A stop to the township hall sent us up to the Soo an hour north to which we did a little more exploring. We grabbed a room, did some sight seeing, ate at a classic Soo restaurant and again called it night and headed back down state in the morning. By the time I got home to GR on Thursday early afternoon, I was whooped. I had almost lapped the state in three days.
All in all it was a great trip. I’m fortunate to be able to spend time like that with my dad, many people don’t have that opportunity. We talked a lot about the potential of that place. Well, I talked a lot about the potential of that place and he did a lot of listening. And I actually think he heard a good chunk of it. It was promising. He even mentioned something about having a conversation with his brother about it. I don’t know what that means, but it’s better than nothing at all. I’m excited about it. There’s a lot of promise up there, and I hope I’ll be able to share that with my dad.
Pypeline.