The Great Drive -- Or, The Long Way Home (Pt 4)

Sorry I haven't finished this story. I didn't have much by way of Internet connection in South Haven. Anyway, picking up from where I left off, on the 13th, I got up, and felt pretty good. Not 100%, of course, but well enough that I just couldn't see skipping the appointment after having worked so hard to get there. So I went. I had this wonderful stylist, Emma. She said that my hair is actually in pretty good shape, just needed a trim, so that's good news. Then she went through all the techniques the Curly Hair Institute uses to get the most out of your curls. I had been using many of them, but not all. And the ones I didn't know made quite a difference. She carefully taught me all the techniques, but managed to keep the results hidden til the style was totally complete. When she finally turned me around, I was so surprised. I knew I have really curly hair. But I did not realise it was that curly! It looked absolutely amazing. Now all I have to do is work out how to do the techniques on myself!
We ended up driving all the way home after the appointment. We'd talked about going part way and staying the night. But we got half way, and it was still pretty early, and we decided that it was just as easy to drive the rest of the way. When we got to the customs checkpoint to re-enter the US, the customs officer asked, 'What was the purpose of your visit?' and I said, 'To get a haircut.' He stops, looks at me and says, 'Really?' I said, 'Yeah.' He said, 'Well, that's a first!' He then asked why, so I explained about the Institute, and he's like, you know, I've never thought about that. Anyway, I thought it was totally worth the pain and trouble and sticking it out through the cold. What do you think?

The rest of my time in Michigan was pretty quiet. On the 14th I got up and kind of puttered around. I hardly did anything, just lunch with Grandma, then down for a nap. I was still feeling the cold, and hadn't slept well the night before, so I was just as happy to keep things quiet. We did drive over to Grandma's doctor. He verified that it was a virus, and I just had to hang in there til it passed. But I felt quite a lot better by that point anyway. It was Aunt Peggy's birthday that day, so Grandma and I went to dinner with her and Uncle Mark, my cousin Meghan and her husband Scott and their little girl, Harley. On the 15th my routine was pretty much the same (minus the doctor's visit): lazy getting up, late lunch, lovely nap in the afternoon. I'd still been having trouble sleeping because of the cold, though. So, Sunday (16th) I'd planned on going into church, but I'd finally really gotten to sleep that night, and I didn't wake up til 11.00. Grandma was feeling a bit stiff and sore and tired, so she was just as happy to take things slow again, and she knew I hadn't been sleeping well, so she didn't want to wake me up. It was just a really quite day. We did have dinner with the above mentioned people again.

The 17th I was finally starting to really feel normal again. I spent some time over at Aunt Peggy's helping her with some computer things, and chatting. Then Grandma and I met up with Lori, a friend from church, for lunch. That was fun. It was good to see Lori, and catch up with what's going on with her. Then I spent the afternoon down on the beach. Now, I know that nowhere is perfect, but there was some real charm to growing up on the shores of Lake Michigan. I never lived within sight of the lake, there were always trees and houses between us and the shore, but I always lived within sound of the waves. That was something I really enjoyed. The sun was pretty warm, but there was a breeze, so it was still cool. The sand was just perfectly warm. As I was down there the Tall Ship, Friendships Goodwill, sailed by. It fought in the war of 1812 along the Great Lakes. It's a beautiful ship. Grandma and I had been talking about going to Red Lobster the whole time we'd been driving North, and had never made it. So we finally decided to go have lobster. Well . . . she had lobster. I had crab. It's my favourite. She did share a claw with me, though. So I had a bit of both. It was divine.


The 18th I had a breakfast date with a friend in Paw Paw. Beth and I had become friends through the scrapbooking forum we're members of when people started talking about where everyone was from. She said SW Michigan, so I obviously had to ask where, because that's where South Haven is. So we'd been keeping in contact over the past 8 or so months, and when I found out I'd be going through Michigan on my way home, we made plans to meet. It was absolutely lovely to finally meet her. And she's ever bit as lovely and nice as she sounded in her emails. Then, I drove on into Kalamazoo (yes, there really is a Kalamazoo!) and had lunch with a friend, Annette, from High School.... sort of. We'd been friends during our High School years, but not because of school. We were in the same Stake (church regional area) so we met at Stake activities. It was great to reconnect with her. After lunch I went back to Grandma's and spent an hour on the beach again, then . . . had a nap. Then she and I went to Mark and Peggy's for dinner. They made pork loin on the grill, which was marvelous. It was a lovely way to end my stay.