Anticipation!



4th of July several years ago.  Just a little bonfire on the beach!

    I love spring.  It's not that I love this muddy season where you have to wipe the dogs paws every time you let him in the house, I love the anticipation that comes with spring.  Kinda like the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas, only with the 4th of July being the highlight!
  We will head north in a few weeks, bringing with us everything that we cleaned out of the camper last deer season.  (Deer season:  Christmas with guns!)  Fresh sheets, beach towels, supplies I can leave up there without worrying that they will freeze.  And I'll clean the camper,  (I think I keep it cleaner than my house!)  to make it ready for the summer season.
  Easter is always fun in the north woods.  It's like the "Kick Off" for the "Up North" camping season.  We have a fifth wheel that we keep up there.  I can't complain at all!  It's bigger than a lot of NYC apartments.  With all the comforts of home.  Still, it does present a challenge for the "Easter Bunny".  While there are a lot of nooks and crannies to hide a basket, one doesn't want to attract unwelcome visitors.  I HATE mice!  The Easter Bunny, (always up for a challenge) one year hid the baskets IN THEIR BUNKS!  Under their covers no less!!  I thought they'd never find them.  We still talk of the best hiding place ever.  Who'd have thought?
  We'll take out the quads.  Check the trails for any downed branches winter storms may have caused.  Confirm that every one's deer blind is still standing.  Peek in the windows of hunting cabins since they are virtually abandoned this time of year.  Start collecting wood for our summer campfire stash...and then a little extra for the week Pa comes to visit.  (He makes a white man's fire!)  We'll spend time surveying the marina.  It doesn't officially open up until Memorial Day weekend, and for a time, it belongs to us!  We'll walk the beach looking for chunks of shipwreck still finding their way to the shores of the Great Lakes, a reminder of when ships were made of the timber found in the nearby forests.  We'll pop in on the neighbors.  Permanent residents and the seasonal folks who have managed to escape the city for the holiday.  Find out how everyone fared through the winter.
   In a few weeks, I will have my family all to myself.  Planning our summer adventures!  Evenings around a campfire with nothing but good conversation to amuse us!  So, while everyone heads south for spring break, we'll head for the quiet of the north woods!