Day Ten: Pictured Rocks to Grand Rapids, MI (340 mi)

We awoke after our night sleeping on the ground (no nice, comfy air mattresses when back packing) to a lake as smooth as glass.  What I would have given for a ski boat (and a water temperature at a reasonable level).  After another meal of rehydrated food (last night's chicken teriyaki was really pretty tasty; either that or we were all just so hungry after hauling in our gear it seemed tasty at the time), we took down our tents, packed our gear and trekked back out to the trail head.  We were all feeling pretty good about our accomplishment until we came across a couple packing about twice the amount of gear any of us carried, and not breaking a sweat doing it!  Oh well, I'm still proud of our group for their first backpacking experience.

As exhausted as we all were there was one more area of the park we really wanted to visit before our departure.  Unfortunately, this lighthouse was only accessible by a 1.5 mile hike.  Our legs felt like jelly, but we dragged ourselves out of our vehicle anyway and trekked to the sight.  We were glad we did.  The trail was strewn with leaves of all shades, though hundreds of thousands of leaves were still on the trees.  For much of the trail we could look through these trees and see Lake Superior just a football field's length away from us.  The lighthouse was bigger than ones we saw last year while on our trip to Maine's coastline.  Built in the 1800s it was a fully functioning lighthouse until the latter half of last century, warning ships away from the dangerous shoreline of the lake, where rocks lurk a mere six feet below the water's surface in many areas.

By the time we left the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore it was already early afternoon, and we had a long journey ahead of us.  But it was a trip that continued to eshew all manner of fall splendor.  There was the added bonus of taking a route (Hwy 2) that progressed right along the shoreline of Lake Michigan for many miles.  While crossing the bridge that spans the water from upper Michigan to the lower portion of the state we were able to look out both sides of our vehicle and see two of the Great Lakes, Michigan on the right and Huron on the left!

We've rewarded ourselves (after braving the wilderness last night and camping for nine straight nights) with a stop at a Comfort Suites motel tonight.  We're just outside of Grand Rapids, MI, on the north side of town, poised for our visit to Gerald Ford's Presidential Museum tomorrow.  President Ford was the only one of the modern day presidents (to build a library for the express purpose of housing all their presidential papers) to place the museum in a totally different town from the library.  The museum is here in Grand Rapids, but the library is in Ann Arbor, on the University of Michigan college campus.  Ford has another important distinction in history.  He is the only president to have been appointed to office, rather than elected.  Those of you who are my age will recall that Ford was appointed to fill the vacancy created when Vice-President Spiro Agnew resigned from office (foreshadowing what would happen to the president for whom he served).  I'll be extremely impressed if you can come up with the amendment to the Constitution which makes this provision for appointment of a vice-president.  I'll try to remember to tell you tomorrow.

Just another day in the life of Veritas -- discovering our world, making a difference.