Stretch run...

Stretch run…

We are outstanding at getting out of the tent.  We can feed the dogs (priority #1), roll everything up and stack it in the Forester (what a car!), break down the tent, brush out teeth, and load up in about a half an hour.  Depending where we are, we can be at breakfast a short time later.

As much as we were excited about getting to the house, we tried to be cool.  Get a good breakfast, look at the route (straight shot today, who are we kidding?!?!?!) and get moving.  I could barely contain my excitement. I’m not sure, but Carol looked a little giddy herself.

The contractor had been trying to nail down our arrival, first to the day and now to the hour.  We told them we would shoot for 1PM.  When I asked why they needed to know, we found out that there would be a ribbon cutting ceremony!  How cool is that?  The speedometer crept up with me keeping it at about 10% above the speed limit as we moved toward our final destination.  Highway 2 takes you through lots of little towns an amazing amount of forest land, both pine and hardwood.  The gold, orange, and reds of the changing trees nestled among the evergreens brought back clear memories of living in the Midwest.  The old buildings made of limestone blocks surrounding city squares were in some strange way comforting.  I have to admit that the further east I travelled the level of ease I felt was surprising.  As much as Alaska had been home for thirty-seven years, the long views, the lakes, the trees were like seeing an old friend after a long hiatus. 

We entered Ishpeming, the first of the towns nearly connected to Marquette and though I wanted to continue speed through town, I dialed it back.  I could just hear the officer now, “So are you making good time now?” as I sat on the side of the road awaiting my speeding ticket.  Next was Negaunee, the home of our contractor, Michael’s Homes.  They are located across from a beautiful small lake that was surrounded by flaming maple trees.  Then we entered Marquette.  The roll into town affords an amazing view of the community itself set in front of the majesty of Lake Superior.  It is breathtaking… it is also just past the Best Buy store, but before the Lowes and the Target.  Hard on the right was WallMart, then Starbucks… but there was no stopping.  We hurried through town, past the new hospital and downtown proper.  I did actually begin speeding as we heading toward the M-28 intersection and the last ten miles.

We took a hard left and passed the University golf course, then the Ojibway Casino: a mile and a half to go.  Finally, we zoomed past the scenic turn-out where the speed limit increases to 65 with a mile to go.  Our driveway is a tough one to spot and I took it a little hot.  As we rolled down the newly placed gravel I saw… the green portapotty that would reside in the front yard for another week.  But past it was our new home: dark stained twelve inch logs with a forty foot front porch, beautiful windows, a few workers and kids running around, all placed upon a vast stretch of sugar sand.  It was hot and sunny and wonderful.

The ribbon cutting was captured by the contractor’s wife and will appear in the book that they will present us of the process.  It was also videoed on my phone.  We walked to the door and walked into what we would call our ‘wooden castle’.  The tour revealed a breathtaking house: a place we could call home.  This even though the only furniture we had were two blow-up mattresses that we had been sleeping on for nearly a month.  The dogs sniffed, we wandered.

Eventually we were left alone.  We took the ninety-second walk down to the lake.  The blue of the cold, deep lake was eclipsed only by the blue of the endless sky above it.  Saying hi to a small group of the few people on the miles long sand and remarking that I could not imagine a more beautiful first day in town, it elicited the question of where we were coming from.  Much to our surprise, the first family we met had only recently moved here from Alaska as well.  The next day, same beach, I met a woman who had gone to the same church I had in the 60s and 70s back in the Detroit area.  What the heck?!?!

I’d have ten days in Marquette before I had to return to Alaska to complete my term on the Assembly.  We would have to begin filling the house with furniture and hopefully collect our ‘pods’ before I left.  But the sun set in a blaze of orange over the Gitchi-Gumee.  Hours later we would collapse on our blow-mattresses, listening to water caress the sand, putting us to sleep for the first night in our home.