I've had the worst string of bad luck that I've ever had in my life. First my basement flooded as I cozily watched the rain fall outside my window secure in the knowledge that the new city sewer lines would handle the deluge. Ummmm, NO! At least I have a portable sump pump, but then I couldn't get the basement window open to run the hose outside. I finally got it going and it ran most of the night. I woke up at 4 and the rain had stopped. It never got deeper than 3-4 inches, but my gas water heater was out. I tried lighting it, but no luck. I proceeded to spend a large portion of the day on the cruddy basement floor with a hair dryer trying to get it dry enough to light. I told J that I would have to cancel my annual Memorial Day kayaking trip to the Pine in northern Michigan if I couldn't get it lit. I remember he gave me a funny look when I said that.
At 8 PM, I finally got the water heater lit, and the trip was on. I just threw everything in the car willy nilly so I could load the boat the next morning. On the drive up someone dropped an extension ladder from the back of their truck and scared the bejesus out of me. I was afraid someone behind on the 4 lane would rear-end me. I made the rest of the trip without incident, pulled into the camping site, turned into a parking space, and promptly ripped the sidewall out of my tire on a stump I hadn't seen.
So, that changed the whole mood of the trip instantly! I was 20 mi. from the nearest town (not really a town, just a small huddle of houses, rental cabins and gas stations). Since it was the Saturday before Memorial Day after closing hours, there was no way I was going to get a tire before Tuesday and I started worrying about whether I'd brought enough food. The next day the forecast had changed from 70's and sunny to thunderstorms most of the day. So, when one of the local paddlers told me he was going to go search for a free used tire for me and go to Walmart to get a new one put on the rim if he couldn't find a free used one, I offered to go with to directly handle the payment. Nick, our illustrious trip leader, had already assured me that he'd known James for a long time and he was a good guy. Now if I hadn't been so worried about how much the tire was going to cost, and what was going to happen to my boat that was strapped to the top of someone else's vehicle if the weather cleared and the group decided to go paddling, I might have noticed the exterior condition of James's car. Let's just say there were a few scuffs and dents, and pretty quickly I learned how those dents came to be. He was going about 50-60 mph on gravel roads in the rain and it didn't help that his passenger side windshield wiper didn't work. He also said he'd slowed down just for me. I really thought I was going to die, and kept tightening my seatbelt. We must have stopped at 10 different houses out in the country, all of them rustically beautiful with animals, junk cars, piles of recyclables, etc... One of the places we stopped James told me he would start yelling as soon as he got out of the car because they were always naked. After myriad stops he said we might as well get over to Walmart since the sun was coming out and we might still be able to get a paddle in . I waited an hour in line at Walmart to be told they had no tires that would fit my Toyota Corolla. Really!? So, admitting defeat for the day we headed back to an empty camp site and I started worrying about my kayak being stolen as it waited at the get out on top of someone else's vehicle. When the group got back I learned they'd spent the day at the bar watching the race, so no one got to paddle. Nick decided we would paddle early in the morning because we were supposed to have afternoon thunderstorms so everyone turned in early. I was a little afraid of how Floki would react to sleeping in a tent, esp. with thunderstorms but he's a treasure, I just told him it was bedtime and he settled right down. In the morning I washed in the river, and instead of feeling like a Native American princess this time I felt more like an Inuit woman. I could see my breath and I swear the water was just this side of ice. This was the first time I took Floki on the Pine, he was used to the slow calm placid rivers of IN. The Pine is a different sort of river, there was enough water that rocks weren't an issue, but I couldn't help but remember last year's paddle and the woman who broke her leg when she got caught up in a strainer. This year someone told me it was because she was paddling with her legs hanging outside her boat. To be continued...
Floki was a nuisance for the entire paddle. Every time the water got a little turbulent he tried to climb up on me, so I had to use one hand to hold him down in the boat. He almost got me caught up in a couple of strainers. One time I got so close my paddle got caught in the crux of a limb and it pulled it right out of my hands. Somehow we managed to complete the paddle without capsizing and on the way back we stopped at a nice little pub for dinner and a couple of beers. When we got back to camp I found that James had called the Walmart again and found that actually they had 9 tires in stock that fit my car. He went to the campsite while everyone else was paddling and pulled my wheel off, drove to the Walmart in Ludington and paid for it and had it put on by the time I got there. I was so relieved and I was standing there talking to him and Steve and a couple other people, when Steve abruptly fell down. He said something about his hip giving out. He got up started walking away and fell down again. The other guys were talking and didn't notice. Steve walked around the front of his truck and fell down while he was trying to climb in. I hustled over to Nick and told him I thought that Steve might be having a stroke. When we checked on him, he was incoherent, and had completely lost control of his legs. We got him out of the truck and lying down on the ground with an emergency blanket and Nick called 911. Mind you, we were 20 mi. from the nearest town in the Manistee National Forest. I have to commend the Michigan Emergency Responders, they were there in 15 min. They checked him for signs of stroke and checked his blood sugar and asked what he'd been doing for the day, and how much water he'd had to drink. They came to the conclusion that he was severely dehydrated. They told us to make sure he drank all the water they'd put in his hand and to make sure he didn't go to sleep without doing so. He was cold and covered in blankets, and we all sat around toasting him with water, he'd start to nod off, and we'd make him wake up and drink. Finally, he finished his water and he was allowed to go off to his tent to sleep. The next morning I decided I'd had enough excitement, the others were planning on doing the water equivalent of a pub crawl somewhere up by Boyne City. I just wasn't into the idea and was too worried about money, and the fact that I hadn't called and checked in with J. So, I packed everything up and headed for home. The car drove great considering the unaligned wheels, and I stopped in Angola to visit my Mom and to tell her about the trip and how glad I was to be heading home to see J. I pulled in the driveway, walked in the front door to discover that J and all his furniture were gone! I can't even begin to say how hurt and angry I was. I had $15 to my name to last me for weeks until payday. J had rearranged the furniture and set up my old TV for me, so I'm sure in his mind he'd been kind. I later came to find that he "accidentally" cashed in a couple hundred dollars worth of my books for cash at Hyde Bros. I'm still in the process of making peace with myself over this. He sent me an email telling me that he did this for me, that he was unstable, and that no one deserved the numbness and distance he'd been showing me. He didn't sound that unstable, considering he'd planned this in advance, filed for a change of address, and made arrangements for someplace to stay. He's living with his daughter this time. So wonderful for him that he has supportive family close by. I hope he's happy with his decision, he sure did screw me over royally.
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