As I continue to stack up gardening content like so much cord wood, I thought I better slide in some older content in this shorter post. We took the TAB on it's second venture with us in late July to Traverse City. We actually stayed in Empire in the same campground we camped in last year on our first trip with the TAB.
It was a little different this year because:
We took Tutu for her first extended camping trip. Bringing this cot was a great idea as she liked it and jumped up on immediately after I set it up. I did a lot of writing from this cot, but was frequently interrupted by her barking at every single dog that went by. She never really fully relaxed in the daytime and her zest to guard the campsite prompted some families to change their walking routes.
However, I was grateful for her protective instinct at one point in the trip.
Our TAB came with a lot of perks from the previous owners like an all weather cover, small accessories, and this Pahque tent, specifically made to run on a metal track attached to the tab. This tent provides not only lot of extra covered storage space, but also, allows us a foyer if you like, to stay out of the rain as we go in and out of the TAB. At the time we were the only TAB in the campground and there were easily a dozen Airstreams. I was on the cot with Tutu in the early evening while Andrew was changing in the TAB from a bike ride to the lake and a swim. Two couples walked by, and one of the husbands said that he had never seen that kind of tent before and could he look inside to see how it worked.
In a split second the following thoughts crossed my mind. First, while I'm sure this guy was probably nice, I don 't know what looking inside would do to educate him. I mean, you can clearly tell from the side that it simply attaches to the TAB in a groove system. Also, if you have to ask to look inside someone's tent, you probably shouldn't and third...what would Andrew think if he came out of the TAB to some stranger in our tent? And also, I'm going to tell Andrew and leaving Tutu with this crowd Being a librarian often means wanting to give people information and it's hard to not answer a question/request. I was also trying to think how I could nicely say no, and how worried I would be about sounding like a jerk to this group of strangers I was never going to see again.
Tutu though, she came through and allowed my to sidestep all of these deep philosophical social questions by growling like she weighs another 50 pounds. We all laughed off the "vicious little dog" and they walked on.
We ended up taking Tutu everywhere with us, as the air conditioner was sketchy and we weren't sure if it was our electrical box that had been serviced before we arrived as a result of a previous complaint, or if it was our AC. Since we had agreed to just do carry out and eat most of our meals at camp, this did not cut out a whole lot of our plans.
She did a great job riding in her new Kurgo car seat, or as I call it, "her box." When I load her into the car and I say "get into your box" she knows exactly what I am talking about.
The only thing she didn't like on the ride up, is the two times I stopped for gas and two go to the restroom. If you leave her alone in the car she does freak out.
One more shot from the campsite and then we will do a little sight seeing.
Here is the view from the yoga mat. I stuck to yoga every morning but the one it rained, and the morning we left for home. I also did Tai Chi every night. This helped the stiffness in my back immensely and was nice to do outside.
We went to our favorite places to eat, Slabtown Burgers in Traverse City and the Cove and Leland. We missed out on a couple places since we had Tutu in tow, but these are my and Andrew's favorite We took turns going into places for short periods of time, like one of Andrew's favorite wineries, Two Lads.
Two Lads is on Mission Peninsula, and there are many parts on the main route that you can seen the lake from both sides.
I ran into one antique shop, the Red Barn and picked up a nice piece of enamel ware that is currently holding kitchen mop rags under the sink. Andrew went to Cherry Republic while I was with Tutu to get out usual goodies.
And Grocer's Daughter actually let us order ahead and pick up.
After several days, we came home and Tutu was ready.
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