September 4, 2008

On Tuesday, the day after Labor Day, reality hit home with a hammer as we maneuvered our way south from Michigan, through Gary, Indiana, the home of the worst traffic in all the U.S. As we were just exiting Michigan (of course), we were stopped dead in a three mile one lane line of cars, trucks and semi's inching their way along. Mike and I had a good "book-on-tape" and also our stash of candy that we only allow ourselves in these situations, so it was not too bad. Ninty plus degree heat hit us along with one hundred percent humidity when we walked into our house, and the dream and image of the cool, breezy porch in the woods at Portage Lake was just a memory for another year. Darn! But, packing up and going north again next year is what often keeps us going day to day here, so we carry this image in our minds like the Irish poet William Butler Yeats in his poem "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" when he writes the famous lines,

"I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear the water lapping with low sounds by the shore
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray
I hear it in the deep heart's core." (1892)

I too hear the waters of Portage Lake and Lake Michigan lapping gently along the shore, and knowing that I can return again is what keeps me happy all year long.