last weekend, chad and i drove up to the sleeping bear dunes area with nothing on our agenda but climbin' some dunes, swimmin' in some lakes, and maxin' + relaxin'. happy to say we accomplished all of the above. road trips are so fun, no? good tunes, good conversation, plenty of candy and a few hours later, you're there, man.
we were especially blown away by the color of the water in this part of lake michigan. this mighty great lake has many sides; the one both chad and i are used to seeing is from the milwaukee/chicago viewpoint. from there it's always pretty, but a much deeper cobalt blue and not exactly the most inviting for swimmers (who knows what's in the water over there...). in northern michigan, though, there aren't any nearby big cities to invite runoff or chemicals or otherwise nasty things in its waters, and the water is SO clear you almost think you've landed in the caribbean instead of the upper midwest. behold:
after we had sunned, swam, and eaten ourselves silly for two days we decided to hit the road back south-bound. (or, as we overheard some local folk at a gas station call us, 'down-staters.') it wasn't long into our drive that i saw a bright blue antique chevy truck with a flatbed full of firewood and a sign propped against it that read: "morels + firewood" morels?! as in, the mushrooms i'd read so much about and always wanted to try, but not being an educated mushroom hunter myself, unable to sample? (and somehow the bag of dried morels at whole foods i saw once wasn't very enticing, especially since it was .5 oz for about $21, i think).
anyway, since my husband is awesome, he pulled over right away and we moseyed over. from the other side of it came two slinky, wary-looking german sheperds. hmmm. not exactly inviting. but then we spied a set of dirt-and-age-gnarled bare feet under the truckbed and this amazingly gnome-like off the grid woodsman guy stepped out and said, 'howdy, folks!' he was probably 5'6" and 110 lbs, late 60s, had a long gray beard and wore sunglasses, a winter cap, rolled up jeans and a blue button up shirt that looked like it had stood the test of many, many years. i was immediately intrigued. we told him we were interested in his morels, and he proceeded to educate us on not just the mushrooms in questions and the best ways to cook them, but his various inventions (wood burning stoves that heat his whole house off the grid; a variation of rose that looks like it was splattered with four different colors of paint) and the trials that followed (damn the man - patents are expensive!). i have no doubt that he worked on that truck and kept it running himself, too.
we paid up for our one ounce bag of dried morels (which we can't wait to try ground up like pepper over chicken and baked, like he suggested) and *tried* to be on our way, but the guy was so intent on sharing stories with us that we didn't end up leaving for about fifteen minutes. after we'd thanked him and gotten back on the highway, i was immediately bummed that i hadn't asked him if i could take his photograph. because guys like that are not a dime a dozen, and he certainly wore his adventurous and unusual life on his face. what an interesting man.
i do, however, have a photo of our spoils:
morel mushrooms with a side of storytelling. you never know what you'll find on a road trip! just have to keep your eyes peeled.
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