Michigan in the rearview, hanging in Wisconsin, next stop Standing Rock

So it seems a month has passed since my last post.  The first two weeks of November we were in Michigan.  We spent about a week in the Manistee national forest.  Went on long walks most days, almost every outing we spent a little time along the beach at lake michigan.  I loved getting my feet in the sand and water, even with how cold it was.

We walked along the Nordhouse dunes trail, got a little lost, found Nordhouse lake which was fairly barren, saw a bunch of footprints in the muck and got excited trying to figure out what animals they were.

 Most days were beautiful and fairly warm.  One of my favorite times was exploring the unforested dunes.  We wandered around, I noticed a few plants I’d just learned in Missouri and again we found some fun new animal tracks in the sand.

One of the last days we walked to Big Sable point lighthouse.  It was closed but we were able to walk around it and enjoy the view.

Our second week was in Huron National forest, about 3 hours drive to the east.  We traveled there on Matthews birthday.  He doesn’t make much fuss over his birthday.  On the way to the new campsite we stopped to grocery shop, I took him out to lunch, and then we found him a much needed new pair of pants.  We also enjoyed a better than expected strawberry rhubarb pie from the grocery store. We found a nice spot near a dirt road that doesn’t see too much traffic.  On the second night the temperature before we went to bed around 9pm was 22 degrees... so it got pretty cold that evening.  We stayed warm with our new sleeping pads and down sleeping bags.  I am extremely grateful for my new sleeping pad, I just got it before leaving Missouri and it makes a HUGE difference for my warmth and comfort.

We spent the majority of that week at our campsite, with the exception of a walk and running.  We worked on various little projects, I did some baking over the fire.  I made cookies for the first time over the fire, what took me so long?!  I also made bread pudding which was really good.  One bonus about it getting cold is that we can have foods we weren’t able to before, ie milk.  Matthew did a blog post about us baking.

http://www.blog.smalladventures.net/2016/11/dutch-oven-baking-tricks.html

 There were places to hike, but we stayed at camp for safety reasons.  It was not just hunting season but gun hunting had just started, we heard 20+ gunshots nearby on the first day.

For the second half of November we have been in Wisconsin visiting one of Matthews best friends, Ivan.  Ivan is married to a lovely woman, Lyndsey, and they have a beautiful one month old, Josiah.  We have had a great time, tried to be as helpful as possible as they are still adjusting to life with Josiah.  I have continued to bake, we have taken turns cooking dinner for them and I get snuggles with Josiah whenever I can.

We were here for Thanksgiving and I made my first Turkey!  The exciting part is that it came out perfectly, major thanks to my parents for the recipe!

After thanksgiving we did the traditional thing and picked up a Christmas tree.  They have a very high ceiling so they picked out a 10' tree.  That evening some friends came to visit, we baked cookies and had Feuerganzenbowle!  It was wonderfully delicious.

We went rock climbing on what was going to be one of the warmest days here.. it made it to 46 degrees.  Thankfully the rock was facing the sun.  It was a blast but short.  We had to drive 1.5 hours to get there, only had a few hours before the sun was setting.  We don't have much sunlight time.

I missed talking about Tony!  Tony is a hitchhiker we picked up while traveling from Michigan to Wisconsin.  He is a tall, large, 57 y/o, black man and did not think anyone would pick him up, which would have been a shame since it was cold and snowing.  He was an orphan and has spent most of his life hitchhiking around the country.  He claimed he has been in jail in every state, mostly from being black and a hitchhiker... but from talking to him we learned he is quite the talker and likes to drink so that may have caused some of the issues as well.  He was absolutely hilarious, he projected someone that has had a lot of bad moments in life and tries to stay positive and make the best with what he's got.  It was an interesting experience to say the least.

It has taken a lot of discussion, contemplation and research to decide we are heading to Standing Rock to support the Water Protectors in prayer and ceremony.  We support the nonviolent protest of the DAPL.  Matthew has written a post about this with great links to get the facts about what is going on, which seems to be difficult to get these days.  If you, like us, have had trouble sifting through to figure out what's going on, I highly recommend checking out the links and doing some research for yourself.

http://www.blog.smalladventures.net/2016_12_01_archive.html