When I delivered Jean's newly redone hide-a-bed I mentioned that I was going to go pick up Wally at the summer camp he had been attending. She told me that she and her husband, Jim, had a cottage not very far from the camp. Since they were going to be up there at the same time I was going to pick up Wally and his friend, Chris, why did I not take an extra day or so and come visit with them. That sounded too good to pass up.
Funny but if I had still been married to Dennis I would never have accepted Jean's invitation. Dennis would not have gone since he didn't know Jean and he certainly would not have wanted to spend a couple of days in a cottage in the woods. The "new" me just told Charles I was going to pick up Wally and stay a couple of days with Jim and Jean. He thought that would be fun for me.
Their place was located a few miles west of the south end of the Mackinaw Bridge. Of all the places I had lived before moving to Michigan there were none more beautiful. Leaving Detroit and headed north the highway was dotted with small towns almost like ones you see in storybooks. In between the towns there is nothing but trees and beautiful natural lakes. If I had a care in the world the scenery could dissolve it twenty miles north of the city.
The location of Jean's cottage - ah, correction - Jean's lovely A-frame home nestled on the side of a hill surrounded by a forest of trees was lovely. They had built the cottage when their children were small and spent every summer there plus many ski trips in the winter. There was not really a town nearby but on the bank of the lake there was a huge log restaurant and bar where all the people in the area congregated for food, drink and music.
The three days with Jean and Jim were really relaxing and fun. We hiked and swam by day and sat around the campfire each evening. One of their sons and his family arrived on Friday with his family. More family stories that made me feel like part of a family that I had missed living away from mine for so many years. It was rather sad to have to head off on Saturday morning to pick up the boys but was invited to come back anytime.
Wally's camp had very interesting instructions as to how to get there. I was to drive across the Mackinaw Bridge to the Upper Peninsula to Barbeau. Go to the bar in Barbeau and use the pay phone to call the Pine River Camp which was located on Neebish Island in the middle of the St. Mary's River. The camp would then send a canoe or a row boat to pick me up. Those had to be the most interesting instructions on how to get to someplace I had ever heard but in just a few minutes a row boat arrived to take me to the camp.
From the stories Wally had told me through the years about the camp I knew it was not some county club type camp but to see how really rustic it was kind of surprised me. There was a big central kitchen and a lot of small screened cabins for the campers to sleep in. Everything has a sort of very weathered wood look to it. The campers bathed in the river and I guess if they ever thought about washing clothes that happened in the river as well. My reaction to the place was how cool it was!
The boys were glad to see me and had fun taking me on a tour of the camp. I am not sure how excited they were for camp being over and having to go home. One of Wally's favorites parts of the camp was being taken to Lake Superior Provincial Park in Canada for real wilderness camping. The cost of the camp was not cheap but to see Wally grow in self-confidence and an awareness of nature was well worth the price.
The ride home was lots of fun with Wally and Chris's stories about what they did and all the new friends from all over the country that they had made. We did have to keep the windows of the Bronco open as we flew down the highway. There was a rather distinct aroma of clothes that had not been washed in three weeks floating through the air.
Back home it was back to work for me, Wally hanging out with his friends, a couple of camping weekends with Charles and Bowser and Wally made a few trips to Cleveland to see his Dad and Wes popped up at our house for visits. The big news for Wes was that he finally turned eighteen and the race car was ready to drive.
In September Wally started high school at Seaholm High School in Birmingham. It was an interesting school in that you could find kids of every nationality and many different languages among the 1300 students. I was never real sure how comfortable he felt with changing schools so many times. But Seaholm was certainly considered one of the best high schools in the state. Would you believe the official mascot was The Maple Leaves?
In early September Wally and I drove to Norwalk, Ohio to watch Wes get his NHRA Competition license and race for the first time. I could not remember a moment of Wes's life when the only thing he wanted to do was to drive a race car. Since he was old to enough to draw race cars were the only thing he drew. He never missed a chance to go to the drag races and he would disappear. Dennis always worried he would get run over, I figured if he did someone would come and tell us as he had met and talked with every race driver at every race we had ever been to.
It was really a fun evening and just the beginning of watching Wes fly down the track through the years. People would ask me if I was worried about him going so fast. Actually I wanted him to go faster as that was his dream.
If I had to pick one of the most fun summers I ever had that would be the one. There was one exception however that I have left out. Maybe I should just not tell the story but then THE WEDDING triggered some very important events.
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