At 2:40 on Sunday morning a drop of water landed on my forehead. A second one landed on Moose, who sneezed, stood up and turned around twice, which is a lot of dog for a two-person tent. Somewhere to my left, Tessa said nothing in a way that said plenty.
We'd come up to Ludington State Park on Friday for three nights, our first real trip since the honeymoon and the first one ever with Moose. The deal was simple: no projects, no house talk, no hardware stores. On the honeymoon I broke that rule on day two. This time I made it to the middle of night two, and the tent made me do it.
Two hours north
I logged off early on Friday and we were on the road by 2, the Tacoma packed to the windows and Moose in the back seat with his head out for most of US-131. The Recreation Passport was already on our plates, so there was nothing to buy at the gate, and the campsite came to about $41 a night. Gary had agreed to water Tessa's tomatoes. She left him a typed schedule, and he left it on his workbench and watered them when they looked thirsty, which is how Gary does most things.
The park sits on a strip of land between Lake Michigan and Hamlin Lake, with the Big Sable River running from one to the other. On Friday evening we walked the beach while Moose worked out that Lake Michigan is a very large water bowl that moves. I put up the tent in the last of the light, a green dome I bought in 2015 for a camping weekend with friends from Grand Valley. As far as I can remember, it hadn't been out of its bag since 2019.
The lighthouse, with a dog who had never walked that far
Saturday morning we hiked to Big Sable Point Lighthouse, a little under two miles each way on a sandy track between the dunes and the lake. Moose pulled hard for the first mile, the way he does when he thinks a walk is a race. Somewhere in the second mile the sand got soft and his pace got honest. We stopped every ten minutes for water from a folding bowl, and twice he walked straight into the lake up to his chest and stood there, looking back at us like we were welcome to continue without him.
The lighthouse is a tall black-and-white tower at the edge of the dunes, and after a couple of miles of sand it looks bigger than it does in pictures. We sat in the shade and ate the sandwiches we'd packed while Moose lay flat on his side with all four legs straight out. On the way back he walked right at my knee the whole time, which he has never done voluntarily in his life. He slept most of the afternoon while we sat on the riverbank and watched people float past in inner tubes.
Night two
The rain started a little before midnight. It wasn't a storm, just steady rain, and for a couple of hours the tent seemed fine. Then the drip on my forehead, then a cold, wet patch under my sleeping pad, then another one under Tessa's. By 3 a.m. the low corner had a puddle, and the three of us gave up and finished the night in the Tacoma, Tessa and Moose across the back seat and me upright behind the wheel.
"Retire it," Tessa said, from somewhere deep inside her sleeping bag. "With honors."
Sunday morning came up clear and bright, and I committed the weekend's only house crime. I inspected the tent like a roof. The tape on the rainfly seams had let go in long strips, and the floor had worn thin along the fold line where it had been packed the same way for a decade. Water was coming through the seams and up through the floor at the same time, which is honestly impressive for a tent that cost $60 in 2015.
We spread everything over the picnic table to dry and spent the rest of Sunday on the beach. Moose dug a hole, lay down in it and declared the trip a success.
Back to the Cape
We packed up Monday morning and were home by early afternoon. Gary reported that the tomatoes were fine and that he'd taken two ripe ones as payment, which seems fair. The grass was a little taller, and nothing in the house had broken while we were gone, which I choose to read as the house being polite.
The tent is spread across the workbench in the garage right now, drying out before it goes to the curb. Moose has been asleep on the cool basement floor since about ten minutes after we got home.
