Tag Archives: circle tour

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Planning is moving ahead

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Okay, so I am getting excited. I went to REI yesterday and got mosquito repellent to spray on my clothes and a different kind for our campground rug. I also bought some thin socks with two layers to help prevent blisters. I am very prone to blisters and they sidelined me from long walks last fall for couple months. The idea is the two layers rub on each other rather then rubbing on the skin of your feet. I also bought a fancy version of a map wheel to run along an old-fashioned map to get exact mileage between points. Wanted one for decades. The final was a splurge on an REI purse that will hold my new mirror-less camera (without screaming camera case), ID, money, keys, iPad, etc. A plain dark grey, but quite functional. Really like the stiffness of the bottom that will protect my new camera.

Today I’m working on planning out the actual trip around like Michigan in my small motorhome Ecovision. This year I’m going to try to stay in as many Passport America campgrounds as possible. I’m a lifetime member and you get half off the normal campground fees. That said the discounts are often only valid Sunday through Thursdays and then possibly for only one to four nights. The other nights I hope to be in various federal and state parks, which I love. Most often at best you get only an electric hookup, but that’s fine with me.

Back to my maps, new map wheel and some of my favorite apps!

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Nowhere Near the Great Lakes

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I’ve been in Duck, North Carolina, at the northern end of the Outer Banks, since last Saturday. I leave here in the morning to spend Mother’s Day weekend with my Mom and sister Wendy in northern Virginia. I traded my Florida timeshare for a week here at Ocean Pines. I’ve done this previously five or six times treating my Mom and step-dad to “a week at the beach”. This year my step-dad needed to work so I decided what the heck and went on my own. I’ve taken this week to truly rest, regroup and not do much of anything.

I lucked out by getting a 3-story unit right on Currituck Sound with decks off my bedroom and the living room above. Duck is the nicest town in all of the Outer Banks, which is mostly overbuilt, stripped of vegetation, ugly strip mall after strip mall and lots of traffic. (And last year my Mom and I got ticks while out looking for the wild ponies leading to my Mom being on antibiotics for a month and me watching for that red bullseye). But everything slows down in Duck where the speed limit dips from 45 to 25, mature trees and vegetation frame the two-lane road, charming shops out-compete the kite and t-shirt chains and terrific restaurants abound like The Blue Point and Elizabeth’s Café and Winery. I’ve seen red fox while having dinner at Aqua the same day I walked alongside the Atlantic with sandpipers and pelicans. It’s quite lovely.

But this year I stayed close to “home”. I have been staying late in bed writing in my journal, reading, watching the waves on the Sound. I never do this at home or on vacation. Most days I have done a short hop to buy cooked shrimp for dinner, look for books and pick up a huge blueberry muffin at my favorite Cottage Bookstore, have fried oysters for lunch at Awful Arthur’s or enjoy Tasting Tuesday at Tommy’s Market. In years past I’ve done the typical tourist thing going to the Wright Brothers National Memorial, various lighthouses of the Outer Banks including Hatteras way south, or to the north in Corolla the wonderful Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education and tour of the Whalehead Club ( much more interesting that I anticipated). So this year I thought I would just stick around Duck and do some beach walking. Instead I found myself staying in my timeshare reading and watching the Sound and doing research for my book. But on Thursday I decided I best get to the beach. Unfortunately, I picked the wrong day because this white-skinned Northerner was just not ready for the scorching 90-degree rays of sun. So as soon as a biting fly started in at my ankles (I’m an insect magnet), I packed up and left

The interesting thing about the beach, though, was the Atlantic left me feeling deeply homesick for the Great Lakes–any one of the lakes, all of them, just a Laurentian Great Lake. It just doesn’t feel right here even though in years past I’ve truly enjoyed the Atlantic. I want to get to Lake Michigan and start my circle as soon as possible. This means dewinterizing Ecovision and getting her spic and span for the season as soon as I get back.

Currituck Sound hasn’t had that effect, hasn’t made me feel lonely for the lakes. Below I’ve posted an early evening photo of the Sound taken from the third-story deck of the living room. It’s been so restful here and I’ve made wonderful, healthy simple meals. I’ve also done inner work and some writing and cleaning up of computer files. I downloaded a free trial version of InDesign, did a few tutorials and even created a 4×6 postcard for my boat photography business I’m starting up this year. Turned out nice, but such a huge learning curve! Geez. Not sure how deeply I want to get into InDesign.

While here I haven’t made any of the major decisions I had hoped for other than reconfirming my love of the lakes and desire to be near them and protect them. Well, that’s pretty major. But I’ve been feeling quite stuck for it seems like years with too many interests and projects while still working four days a week and teaching a few Great Lakes classes at night.

So the sun is low on the horizon, birds on the Sound are calling to one another and the deck chair is calling to me. I promise to get back to regular posting very, very soon.

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View of Currituck Sound from Ocean Pines timeshare in Duck, NC

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Heading north on Monday!

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My first morning with Ecovision was glorious. Since I’ve learned there is much pleasure balanced with much work to the RV lifestyle.

Amazingly this cold is just about gone after just 4 days so I’m in the midst of packing for nearly a month on the road.

When I first got my RV I was stunned to hear my friends say they needed a week to get their RV ready for the season. Well, this is my third summer with a RV and I now completely understand. I’ve been out already this summer so the basics like pots and pans, atlases, cleaning products, dinnerware, CB radio, and RV essentials like hoses and power cords are in place. Yet what needs to be added is still extensive: a couple weeks of clothing, food for up to 30 days, electronics, condiments, paper products, fresh sheets and towels, my dog Henry’s food and supplies, medical kit, bug juice, sunscreen, toiletries, etc. You get the idea. With a RV you are truly taking your home with you on the road. It’s an amazing amount of work.

I’ve made progress, but I’m glad I have another day. I cook and freeze meals ahead plus my friend Rachel introduced me to these yummy canned meals from France. I take cans of chicken, tuna, and roast beef plus load the refrigerator with fresh organic vegetables and fruits and condiments. I replenish the fresh food along the way looking for roadside stands, farmers markets, and food co-ops. I always have lots of peanut butter and a big jug of water in a special BPA-free container with a spigot that sits in my sink as I travel. I use this water for cooking, drinking, and filling Henry’s water bowl.

All of these things need to be loaded plus all the clothing and things like laundry detergent and a gad-zillion books about Lake Superior and her islands. Yes, I have a Kindle, but few of my collection of books collected over the last 25 years are available as ebooks. Sigh. As you can see, it is a huge task to get a RV on the road. This is made more challenging because I keep my motorhome six or seven miles south of my home so many trips back and forth are needed. But somehow it will all be done in time for Henry and me to head north Monday morning.

I’m hoping to get as close to Whitefish Point Bird Observatory as possible by late afternoon Monday.  Leaving a couple days later than I planned is pushing me to have a long first day. Weather should cooperate. That’s another thing I’ve learned about RVing: bad weather means staying put. Try driving a big box RV on a windy day or through driving rain and storms just once and you’ll not do it again.

I can hardly wait to smell and feel the north air! Is there anything better?! I may stop on either the south or north side of the bridge just to enjoy the Straits and the several lovely islands in that area. The Big Mac. What a bridge. Michiganders have called the Mackinac Bridge the Big Mac long before there was a hamburger with that name. I still remember going across the bridge for the first time as a child soon after it was built in the 1950s. Have loved it ever since.

North of the bridge it will be straight north although I do want to stop at Tahquamenonn Falls. But for now it is time to get back to packing enough clothes to keep me away from a laundromat a couple weeks. Perhaps until I reach Thunder Bay?

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About to begin the big adventure!

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After a couple years of planning, I leave in a couple days to circle Lake Superior! I’ve been loading up my motorhome, Ecovision, and gathering my clothes and food. I’m also dealing with the first cold I’ve had in a couple years so will leave when that’s on the mend.

Today I’m organizing my Great Lakes islands research and writing materials and maps. I hope to interview as many people as possible as I circle so I just printed out consent forms. I want to talk to people involved in various ways with the islands and to get to as many islands as possible. After getting trained in Garageband at the Apple Store, I’ll record the interviews digitally using a “Snowball” microphone connected to my laptop.

I’ll travel clockwise and will take about three weeks. My dog, Henry, will be thrilled to be in our RV for such a long trip. I plan to blog and tweet as often as possible. Yet once I hit Ontario and the north shore of Lake Superior, much of the drive is through isolated–and stunningly beautiful!–areas where wifi will be spotty. So stay tuned!

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Another lake journeyer on expanded trek

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Loreen posted a map of her 2012 adventures

I’ve been following the journey of Loreen Niewenhuis since she started walking Lake Michigan in 2009.  I also read her book about the walk that I purchased at my local Ann Arbor independent bookstore, Nicola’s.  Then today I read an update about Loreen’s 2012 adventures in an article by Catharine Hadley.  All I can say is wow!  Hope you take the time to read the article especially about how the walking makes Loreen feel.  I share those feelings and I’m sure they will resonate with others.  You can follow Loreen’s journeys on her blog and by liking her on Facebook.

In terms of my own journey around the lakes, plans and preparations are in full swing.  Spring fever has a strong hold on me and I’m excited about my August adventures circling Lake Superior.  Right now I am completing various projects at home and in world of digital photography.  Then in a few weeks I’ll have my motorhome, Ecovision, dewinterized and upgrade her house batteries.  I’ve begun making detailed plans for the journey as well as writing a Great Lakes islands book proposal that I sketched out years ago and has now been requested by a publisher.  Much fun and, of course, lots of hard work.

Fortunately, I have 25 years of Great Lakes policy work to draw on and I’ve been to various locations around all of the lakes.  I was born in Detroit and began boating on Lake St. Clair with my family when just a baby.  I have lived all but three years of my life in Michigan, which is the heart of the Great Lakes ecoregion.  Over time I have grown to love the lakes more deeply and to become even more committed to their long-term conservation and well being.  They still take my breath away.

Very soon I will start sharing here regularly so please stay tuned.  You can sign up to follow this blog and also check out the full scope of my various activities including photography at karenvigmostad.com.  In addition to @circlethelakes, I Tweet @aboutthelakes and @abouttheislands.