Anne sent along the couple of pictures with this post, both showing tracks in the sand and the following bit of text: “I love all the different sizes and shapes of these people tracks and (possibly) dog tracks. I also love these tracks – seagull and mouse?” It is a beautiful beach, about a half-mile long and perfectly sandy from end-to-end. Just like expert pathfinders reading trail signs or the neighborhood dogs checking their pee-mail, people walking the beach monitor the tracks found in the sand.

I was sick all weekend. I came down with an earache on Thursday, missed work on Friday and pretty much alternated between the couch and bed throughout the weekend. I did make it out for food gathering and retrieving by bicycle from the shop. I had a new bottom-bracket and crank arms installed. This leaves the bicycle’s Ti frame as the only original piece of equipment and it should outlast me, unless we go together. It pained me over the weekend that I could not ride it, sometimes more than my ear.

Today, I am on the cusp. I am on the cusp of my summer vacation. Today is my last day of work before vacation. It has been a long time coming and I am so, so looking forward to it. This will be a Michigan vacation, but with a twist. The centerpiece of this year’s vacation will be a bicycling tour of Michigan’s Lake Michigan shoreline, 500 miles from the Indiana line to the Straits of Mackinac. There will be bookends at the Cabin, so there will be some downtime in this “working” vacation.