Thursday, July 5, 2007

Fireworks on Plan B? C? D? E?


It's clear that life is what happens when you make other plans.
The original plan was to head to Frankfort for the Fourth of July, enjoy the community, maybe swim in Lake Michigan, and maybe stick around for fireworks over the big lake.
That was before the kittens got sick; it turned out that the problem wasn't hairballs trying to come out. Time for Plan B.
An emergency trip to the vet confirmed that they both had some serious gastrointestinal problems. Kittens can dehydrate very quickly, so the Cat Clinic kept them.
But we decided to head to Frankfort in mid-afternoon; no sense moping around worrying about the kittens, who were in good hands.
After dinner, we thought we'd head to the beach south of Elberta. That was fine, until fog rolled in and the bottom fell out of the sand track. But about 15 half-drunken college-age men and one guy with a four-wheel-drive pickup truck and tow strap got us out of the sand. Thanks, guys.
But the sand was messing with the ABS system. Time again for Plan B (C?).
We thought we'd better find a car wash and get rid of the grit. We saw a sign for a spray-it-yourself car wash; oops. It had been torn down and was being rebuilt. We needed another Plan B (D?).

Asking directions, we learned the nearest other car wash was up the road a ways in Honor. We went through Benzonia and Beulah, quaint little towns, and found the place. The degritting went as planned, but it was getting dark. We decided to just head home, because there was no way to fight the traffic back to Frankfort.
But as we passed through Beulah on the way back, we saw streams of people heading toward Crystal Lake. Fireworks! Perhaps it was time for yet another Plan B (E?).
We parked a few blocks away from Beulah's waterfront park and found a great spot in the park. We had chairs, a solid tripod and the digital camera, and I taught Robert how to shoot fireworks. Together, we took some of the coolest pyrotechnic images ever.

Robert took the sky images here; I took the sparkler image. More will be posted later.
The whole adventure shows the value of planning, preparation, following through and staying the course. Sorta kinda.

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