Mom and Dave by the river
Beau and his snail
Beau being silly by the water hole (underground spring)
Black "cup" type mushrooms
Tiny red mushrooms
Black Morel
Beau and I by the river.
I like this interresting tree. It looks like a neat place to sit a while.Our trip mushroom hunting this spring was a bit of a challenge.
I thought everything was perfect, I had everything packed early, I even had plenty of cash just in case. I was all ready to go. On the way up, the GPS lied and took us away from our planned path. Then we got a flat on the '71 penguin. The roadside service Mom had would cover that, no problem. Well, slight problem, It was right in the middle of NOWHERE on a Sunday evening. They could not locate a tow company open anywhere. They finally found a provider after an hour of waiting, but this provider would be there in no less than an hour. So two hours late there was a really great guy there to change that tire. He was very nice and helpful. When we were finally able to get back on the road, we decided to sleep the night in a truck stop parking lot and head straight over to a local tire place in the morning to get the other tires replaced. 6 new tires later, we were back on the road, but luckily we aren't far now.
As we are getting closer to Wolverine MI, the scenery is getting more and more amazing. I am getting really anxious to just be there and be out of the car. It's time to get in the woods. We finally make it to the Wolverine Party Store gas station and Grammie and Kate are there waiting for us... because their RV won't start! It was flooded and the power steering belt was shot and who knows what else was wrong with the rolling turd (pardon my French.) Luckily Dave got it started. So we are on our way now, it's just over this next hill. Once we are technically in the park (I think) on the two lane dirt path there is a car turning around just ahead of us. They flagged us down and said there is no way of getting through. The closer we get the further we are. There is a HUGE mud hole in the road all the way across both lanes and there is a stick in the middle with a orange ribbon on it, a caution flag I am sure. Kate says well, should we go back now? I don't think she was kidding, Mom and Dave and I were like "What?" I couldn't believe the thought could creep into her mind. We had been through a lot already, where's the shovels?
We are digging and filling in the hole and driving across. Then we'll worry about leaving another time. We dug maybe a solid hour, filling in the best we could. It still seemed a bit squishy, but I bet we could make it across now, but don't slow down or we'd really be stuck.
We made it. Finally we got to our site. It was a relief to be there. We got camp set up and relaxed a while. I couldn't wait. I had to get out into the big woods. I went for a walk. No mushrooms though. Hmm. Later Mom and Dave and I went back to the fern patch. Finally I found a couple little mushrooms in the woods there. I was the first one to find mushrooms! How exciting! Then I got a nose bleed and got blood on my new PINK sweatshirt. It just would NOT stop bleeding! I didn't know what to do. No Kleenex or handkerchief with me. I just leaned over and let it bleed. I think it bled a long time and finally I made my way back out to the path where Mom and Dave were. It was still bleeding. They didn't have any Kleenex either. We made our way back to camp. Dave offered me his T shirt for my nose, but I couldn't take it. It was a nice gesture, but I wouldn't use my own because I would ruin it, so I couldn't ruin his either.
Then back at camp, it was horrible. While we were getting things set up outside, Grammie fell.
She didn't just fall. She fell out of the camper behind first and hit her head on the ground, HARD! I was so scared. I was afraid she was hurt a lot worse. Then would we have to dig to get back out to go to the hospital?! She didn't break anything but all her nails. She tried to catch herself on the doorway of the RV and broke every one of her fingernails. She bruised her backside, both arms and I am sure she had quite a knot on her noggin. She didn't go out walking the first couple days. She was very sore. Luckily it wasn't worse.
The next day we went walking, Beau wanted to just go back to the campsite all day. Kate and I found mushrooms then, not too small either! I filled my onion bag on that walk! I meandered out into the woods farther than they usually go. I did find more mushrooms, but I think this was when I got into the Poison Ivy too.
In the morning I thought I had been bitten by on of the nasty little black flies. I scratched my ankle all day. I never thought of Poison Ivy, so I never washed it off. It was the first time any of our crowd got Poison Ivy up there. (You'd think with odds like that I could hit a good lottery at least once!) Never thought of putting benedryl on it or calamine lotion or the Ivy Dry I have in the camper for just such an occasion. Just figured it's a bug bite, it'll go away eventually.
That night I used the bathroom in my camper and in the dark I stood up and really hit my head hard on the door frame. It hurt bad too, it bled a little. I couldn't sleep well that night. The next day we went to the rock pile and found some really cool stones and Mom and I found some mushrooms too. I found a huge one there, turns out it's a different variety of morel, it's nick named the big foot morel. How cool is that?! I also found a snail and Beau just loved it, so I let him keep it in his bug jar a while and he gave it a couple plantain leaves to eat. It made quick work of them. That's when I found the first tick! It was on the car seat I just got up from! It had to come off me! So we did a quick check and Mom had 2 more on her coat! Those creepy little things send shivers up my spine! Luckily though we didn't have any on our skin. We gave Beau a warm sponge bath. He looked and felt so much better. He fell asleep early. Harold and Norma came over visiting later in the evening. It was really nice to relax.
The next morning, I took a bike ride. I went almost to the water hole by the river. I think it's Pigeon River. The trip was OK. I felt uneasy once I got into the pines. The lady at the Party Store had told me that there are large cats and even the occasional bear found in the woods there. The path really was getting too sandy too. So I decided to go back. It seemed a lot farther on the way back. It was mostly up hill! Next time I went out for a bike ride, I went the other way, back the way we came in.
That day I felt a bump on my head and had mom check it out. I think it was from hitting it on the doorway. She said it looked infected and there was something in it. I prayed it wasn't a bot fly, I just saw a show about the 10 worst parasites on TV. Apparently it was a huge sliver. It had to be from the panel above the doorway in my camper.
That night it rained. It was nice. Not a harsh rain and winds or anything, just enough to knock down the biting black flies. We found a lot more mushrooms the next day. Grammie says that we were just too early this year. The trilliums were just blooming when we were leaving. Usually they are all blossoms when we arriving.
The rain did ruin the road work we did, so we had to find a different way out. I am glad we did, it was so beautiful there and we found a lake we never saw before! Luckily the way back was pretty uneventful. The GPS did lie and tell us to turn right when it should have been a left. We had to go around the block (Country block I mean, about 3 mile) but when we did we found the gas station we needed.
We made it home and the GPS told us to keep going another quarter mile! Not a chance of going anywhere any time soon. It was absolutely beautiful there, but it was kind of like the movie "Pure Luck" with Martin Short. I love that movie, but it hits kind of close to home.
Ahh, I am sure glad to be home.
