a comedy of errors

hey girls. marie - i'm glad you're living like a true new yorker. are you still seeing the boy in times square or is that done with now?

i went on a big camping trip this weekend with a big group. there were twelve of us total, but my part of the caravan left on saturday morning, a car of four. we had trouble from the very start. my friend dan was supposed to drive but his battery died the night prior, and his stereo then thought the car was being stolen and locked up. we took wendy and jacobs car instead, a bit of a beater. we had to stop to get an oil change an hour into the 5 hour drive.

so when we finally get to the damn park (sleeping bear dunes, in very northern michigan. it's BEAUTIFUL. there are 100 foot dunes that you can climb and the lake is clear as a bell), we get lost every which way we go. it's uncanny how at every possible chance we took a wrong turn.

but we get to swim and hike and make a fire, set up tents, grill some dinner. we drink and talk and look at stars and generally every thing is aiiight. everyone bunks down around 1 am, just in time for it to start sprinkling a bit. then it begins to rain. then pour and thunderstorm. this isn't a problem for me and dan in our tent, we had a sturdy rain fly and were quite snug. wendy and jacob however had recently lent their tent to wendy's younger brother, who returned it fly-less. they got soaked and had to sleep in their poor car.

so we got through the wet night, had a bit of breakfast, had another campfire, got back on the road. it was nearly 100 degrees by sunday afternoon. 5 or so hours later, right around gary indiana, we blow out a tire. i have never before been in a car that blew out a tire. i've been in a car that got a flat once, from a little puncture, but that's pretty different from the entire tire tearing to shreds. we change the flat on the side of the road where the heat has got to be well over 100 by now, and get back on the road. where we promptly discover that the breaks are fucked. how scary is it to be going down the highway at 60 and realize you have no breaks? fairly damn scary.

we pulled over with only one side breaking, go to a gas station where jacobs father walks him through some crazy maneuver to reset the breaks, and take side roads all the way back to chicago. we get home around 7 pm. in jacobs words:

"me, wendy, VA, dayne and our donut rolled back into town about an hour and a half ago... when I parked the car I half expected an atomic bomb to go off before I got to the door... "

what a weekend. despite all of out trouble it was still totally worth it.

so mara and kristin - i'll be in madison the weekend of august 5th for annie mcguires wedding. she's marrying her hippie carpenter of a boyfriend. should be fun.