#79

Camping

I went camping so I could run a 5K.

We went to Battle Creek.  I had lunch.  And then Brick and Katie came to pick me up in Brick’s Mini-Cooper.

So, we rode up to this river.  I don’t remember what it was called.  We got to see a few people launching boats into the river.I also got to see a log across the edge of the port.  It’s so that the boats can start off in the water within their floating range instead of scraping along the bottom.

We camped at Petoskey State Park.  When we got there, we decided not to put up the tent because it didn’t look like it was going to rain.  It actually did rain that night.  Brick and I had fun jumping off the swings.  Katie took pictures.  

photo by Kathryn

When we got back to the camp, we built a fire.  I actually got to help start the fire the next day.  We had sausage for supper.  There were two kinds, mild (at least that’s what it said.  I think it was mild spice) and pepper-jack.  We had s’mores and s’moreos. 

To make a s’moreo: take a double-stuff oreo, toast a marshmallow, and so that it sticks together, you put chocolate on both sides of the graham cracker.  So you put a graham cracker (break it in half like you usually do), chocolate, then the toasted marshmallow, then put the oreo, then chocolate, then the graham cracker.  You can actually put the oreo on either side of the marshmallow.  And you don’t have to have a double-stuff oreo.  That’s just how we had it there at the camp.

Kathryn and Brick both slept in hammocks.  I slept on a sleeping bag on a tarp on the ground.  Then it started raining.  So they put up the tent.  The sleeping bag and I moved in.  They both stayed out.  Then it started thunder-storming.  Kathryn and Brick slept through that.  Maybe they’re used to sleeping outside in a thunderstorm.  But in Wisconsin, it’s cold usually. 

Saturday morning, Katie got me up.  Brick was not up.  I went and changed in the bathroom there.  It was actually not an outhouse.  You had to walk to get to the bathhouse.  I changed into shorts and my Lakefront marathon shirt.  It was a good day for running.

stretching before the race - photo by Kathryn

Then we drove up to Harbor Springs.  Then we ran the race.  We went up to the first corner which is also a drink station.  THE drink station, actually.  Then we went along that street for a little bit.  We turned right to get onto the street there.  Then we turned left to get onto the turn-around stretch.  We could see Lake Michigan while we were running on the turn-around stretch.  Then we did the same course again except the leaving-stretch was now home-stretch.  We finished the race.  

Finishing the race - photo by Kathryn

My goal was a 13 minute mile.  We did a 12 minute 40 second mile.  The whole race was 39:17.  It’s a lot faster than what I did before because with Mom I do about a 16 minute mile. 

I felt good at the end.

sitting on the cannon - photo by Kathryn

Then we went and had breakfast, hot dogs over the fire.  I got to start the fire with Brick’s lighter.  His lighter is fancier than some others.  You have to angle it down and there’s a safety thing you have to press.  Then you pull the trigger which lights and releases fuel on the same trigger pull.  phshhoo.  There’s a less fancy kind that has a striker wheel and a release button you have to do at close to the same time.  He still thinks matches are more fun.  So do I.  Actually, I’ve never used matches.  But they look more fun, not always lighting and you have to get out a new one.  Which means you never know if this match will light or not.  Flint and steel is even more fun.  It sends sparks and you don’t really know if they will hit the target or not.  And sometimes if  your flint isn’t sharp enough, they might not even make sparks.  The fancy lighters have flint and steel and the not-so-fancy lighters do, too.

Then we packed up camp and jumped off swings again.  Kathryn didn’t jump off the second time either and she didn’t take pictures, probably because the phone was dead.  We went wading instead of swimming.  Neither of them had brought their swimsuit even though Katie was the one who said to bring a swimsuit.  Brick taught me how to skip rocks.  Lake Michigan was beautiful.  And if we had a boat, we could go back to the race. 

Then we drove back to the Rosa’s for their open house and to visit Mommy.  I had s’mores at the open house.  They didn’t have oreos so we didn’t make s’moreos. 

While we were driving home, Brick told how he and some friends biked from Dearborn to Mackinaw City.  They didn’t take a pump with them so they had to keep stopping where there were pumps.  Then a random guy gave them his spare pump.  Actually, there were only a couple incidents that they needed a pump.  There weren’t that many incidents.  And at one point during the trip, he said that a random guy used an air compressor to pump up the same guy’s tire that would either blow again or had already blown.

The trip was fun.  We had fun running.  We had fun jumping off swings.  We had fun wading and skipping rocks, setting up camp, lighting the fire.  The excitement of setting up a tent in the dark.  It was nice setting a PR.  Maybe I’ll try doing a 12 minute mile next.

race shirts - photo by Kathryn