The Road to Williamston
It’s Sunday afternoon and we’re heading down the middle of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan towards Williamston, just a little east of Lansing on Hwy. 127. When we get a little past Mount Pleasant, the casino capital of Michigan, we cross an intersection for M46, the road that if we turned left would take us to Saginaw – my home town, but not this trip. Except for the three cousins who shared high school with me, this was not going to be a – see the family trip. We didn’t have that kind of time and once your parents have passed, as mine have – you don’t have a ready place to stay. It was hard to continue going straight down 127, but that was the plan.
This was our last opportunity to catch up with my old friend (Michael) and his family. Our schedules kept crossing and not coming together. As it turned out, his family was returning home that afternoon from South Haven – where we spent a few days a week ago. When we got to Lansing, the state capital, we found a hotel room close by to Williamston and waited for the call when they got home. That seemed the best as (Michael) had to work Monday and we wanted to get an early start back home the next morning.
When we finally drove into their driveway, (Michael) was still unpacking their car and out the door came (Lillie) their youngest, a 5th grader. Did I mention (Michael) is a few months older than me and he has a daughter in the 5th grade. If you’re doing the numbers – he’ll be lucky to retire at 70 – that’s if they soon don’t change the rules and make us all wait till then to retire. I know Linda and I were late starters, but (Michael) and his wife (Mindy) not only started later, but forget what the usual cutoff date was. Their other daughter (Amber) just graduated from high school and is headed to university. I hate to say it, but I am so glad we are past what they are just entering and will be at for many a year to come. (Amber) and (Lillie) are great children, polite, outgoing, and good old small town American children – well, (Amber) is an adult now.
Anyway, we went inside and talked a little. They had a nice home in what looked like a nice neighborhood, but we didn’t have a lot of time to absorb much and it’s a little hard to remember now. Soon it was time for dinner and they decided that C B’s Bucket Bar & Grille, a place where (Amber) was working this summer, would be the best choice for a Sunday evening. It seemed to be a sports bar with a heavy emphasis on Michigan Lottery info. The food was good – as was the conversation – we had a lot of years to catch up on with too little time.
McCormick Park
Behind the bar and grill was a river that went through the back of main street, I think the Red Ceder River, if my map is correct. When we went in for dinner (Mindy) mentioned that we could go over to the park on the other side of the road after to see the town’s sculpture exhibit. (Michael) was – “they don’t want to see that stuff.” But it turned out to be our only photo opportunity of this visit and an interesting trip – except for those pesky Michigan mosquitos.
(Lillie) and Linda checking this one out.
As I think I remember what (Mindy) told us, a tornado had come through Williamston a while ago and snapped off the tops of most, if not all the trees in McCormick Park. In an effort to make the best of a bad situation, the town had invited sculptors to come and turn those tree stumps into works of art during a Tree Sculpture Festival – and they did turn broken trees into works of art – with chainsaws.
I’m not sure my photography did the works justice, but I think you can see some details and get the idea. After all, the sun had gone down and the mosquitos were doing their thing – really good photography wasn’t possible. A few of the photos show live models standing on a few short stumps as substitute sculptures.
A sculpture named “Lillie”.
A sculpture named “Amber”.
After all my blood was drawn, we headed back to their home where we talked a bit more – about this and that, but the time was just so short. There were so many questions on both sides, it was painful to leave but Monday morning was coming soon. We were lucky to have the time together we did.
Our adventures in Michigan were fun and interesting, but all good things come to an end, and 17 hours later we were back home in South Carolina, but before I could finish this blog-o-mentary, sad news came about one of our high school friends.
I waited till all 3 and 1/2 parts were done before adding this final sad news. I didn’t want to put a damper on our adventures.
I got the call from my friend (Jim) who lives in Florida, that he had just received a call from (Doug) in New Orleans, that our good friend (Randy) had passed away due to complications in his constant and brave fight against HIV. This was terrible news, but not totally unexpected and I was so glad that (Randy) was one of the six schoolmates from high school who got together in Florida last February. I mentioned that gathering early in Part 1 – this trip was the result of that gathering. I had such a good time at that gathering I wanted to see more of my old friends, well – before it was too late.
A memory of (Randy). A picture from our yearbook.
We’re not old yet, but we’re on our way and things happen. The news about (Randy) was sort of unexpected in that during that gathering in February – considering his constant battle with one thing or another – he seemed to be in the best shape of all of us. And my memories of that time spent with (Randy) during that gathering will go a long way. I was lucky to have that time.
So, my message is that if you have good old friends you haven’t seen in awhile – now is the time. Don’t wait until it’s too late or it will be – even if you have to go all the way to Michigan or farther to see them.
I hope you enjoyed these adventures, except for the sad ending, and I thank my regular readers for putting up with them – I’ll be getting back to normal operations soon.
Thanks again to all our friends for treating us to a first class trip – as the guy from MasterCard says – it was priceless.
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Tags: C B's Bucket Bar & Grille, McCormick Park, Red Ceder River, Williamston MI