Family Time in Michigan
Time with Family in Michigan | Road Trip Around the Thumb | August 2023
When we arrived in Michigan, we thought we had the next month planned out. We were going to stay with Curtis’ parents through the weekend, then move on to Curtis’ next assignment in Illinois. As it turned out, God had different plans. The assignment in Illinois was cancelled, freeing up the month of August. And the day after we arrived, Curtis’ paternal grandpa passed away. While we knew that his time was drawing to a close, we didn’t expect it to happen right before we were planning to visit. And while we grieved this great loss with his family, the weeks here were more of a celebration of his remarkable 95 years on earth — remembering how he loved the Lord and served Him, how he loved his wife faithfully for nearly 74 years, and the impact he made on his whole family.
Throughout this bittersweet time, we saw God’s hand in how the details and timing all worked out. Curtis’ time off meant that we could really spend time with family and help out where needed. We stayed with his parents through the weekend as planned, and visited his paternal grandma and other relatives during that time. The funeral was planned for the following weekend, so when we had some down time, we drove across the state to Port Huron to visit with Curtis’ maternal grandma. We had a great time with her, and also had an enjoyable evening with one of Curtis’ uncles.
Since we were on the East side of the state and still had some time before the busy funeral weekend began, we spent a day going on a mini road trip around Michigan’s “thumb.” We spent most of our time along the Eastern shore, visiting small parks and roadside overlooks and beaches, going as far North as the Pointe Aux Barques Lighthouse in Lighthouse County Park. We enjoyed the lighthouse and coastal views and reading about the area’s history and about all the shipwrecks that have taken place in Lake Huron. Then Charlotte napped and I relaxed in the shade of a chestnut tree while Curtis attempted some letterboxes (we honestly think this was the first chestnut tree we’ve ever seen with burrs).
That evening, we tried a little kayaking in a protected harbor, trying to get as close to Harbor Beach Lighthouse as we could. From the shore, it didn’t look like there were waves, but the further out we got the more waves there were so we turned around before making it up to the base of the lighthouse. There are also some shipwrecks within the harbor that you can supposedly see when the water is clear enough, but when we passed over one of them it definitely wasn’t clear for us this evening.
That night, we camped on some undeveloped land owned by Curtis’ uncle, which saved us from having to pay to camp somewhere and had the advantage of being close to the lake. So, the next morning, we got up early and drove to Delaware County Park to watch the sunrise and make breakfast. This was a big deal for us because it’s so rare that we actually set an early alarm and follow through to see a sunrise.
Unfortunately, getting such an early start proved to be a disadvantage for our next stop. We started heading back West, and made our next stop at Sanilac Petroglyphs Historic State Park. Here we planned to walk some of the trail, find letterboxes, and view the petroglyphs. However, when we arrived around 8, we learned that the petroglyphs don’t open until 10:30. At first we thought, “No big deal, we’ll just try and look through whatever fence is blocking them!” But as it turned out, not only do they keep them locked behind a gate, but they also cover them so you can’t see them at all when they aren’t ‘open’. Not wanting to stick around for 2 ½ hours, we just went for a short walk, Curtis found a box, then we continued on our way.
We had a few other plans for fun roadside stops on our way back to Curtis’ parent’s home, but unfortunately it started raining quite heavily as we neared Bay City and didn’t stop until the last half hour of the drive. Oh well, we still got several new counties along the way, and made it back in time to help prepare for the weekend.
That weekend, we joined together with many of Curtis’ relatives, some he hadn’t seen in over a decade and a few that I hadn’t even met before, in celebrating and remembering the life of his grandpa. As an extra blessing, this was the first time that he and all of his siblings had been together since May of 2015! We also got to meet our newest niece for the first time. We were thankful for this unexpected reunion, and how God’s perfect timing and plan allowed for Curtis to have this time “off.”
Besides all these events, we also used our time while stationary to install a heater in the van. When we were doing our build in May, we decided that anything that wasn’t essential to summer road trips could wait until later so we could be done as soon as possible. Since then, we’ve had time to consider our options of what kind of heater would work best. We ultimately decided to go with a gas heater, which Curtis installed under the passenger seat. This was one of the more complicated parts of our van build since he had to connect it to the gas tank, but he got it done over a couple of days and hopefully come winter it will keep us nice and toasty while we sleep!
