7 year olds don't make for good guides in the woods Part 2

So after wandering in among the wooded dune hills for about an hour or so, and with the sun now low enough that I was no longer able to see it to tell which direction we were hiking. I broke out the compass and headed towards the West. So what should have been a nice easy hike to Lake Michigan wound up being a couple of hour death march through thorns and underbrush of the woods a "bushwhack to the lake".

Eventually we found our way to the main trail that parallels Lake Michigan. The sun was sinking rather quickly now and day light was at a premium, plus I had a tired and hungry 7 year old, who just hiked about twice as far as I had planned or should have had him go on his first hike. I found a well used campsite a ways off the main trail with a fire pit and everything. After setting up the tent we went to the beach got some water and watched the sun set into Lake Michigan. Back at camp we had a gourmet meal of shells and cheese, which we were forced to eat with home made hand carved chop sticks. Because I forgot to pack eating utensils (this was not the first time I had to do this). The rest of the night went by relatively uneventfully. We ate some s'mores and a few more backpackers showed up and camped not to far from our spot, but that was okay. We fell asleep reading about the Jonas Brother from a magazine he borrowed from one of his sisters. I forgot my book, which is far worse than forgetting a fork or spoon, I don't mind homemade chop sticks but forgetting my book is bad news.

After a fairly good nights sleep we got up ate some oatmeal and drank some hot chocolate. Packed our backpacks and headed for the beach. My plan was to walk South down the beach until we found the trail back to the parking lot or found someone who could tell us where it was. Finding someone turned out to be the easy part, it seem that sometime after we arrived scores of other people showed up, they were coming out of the dunes like a swarm of ants. I don't know how we didn't here more people than we did the night before, because now they were everywhere. I let the boy play in the sand with the bucket and shovel we bought at the store in Ludington the day before. Eventually we found the trail and started back to the parking lot. within 10 minutes of walking down the trail which was probably only about 1 - 2 miles long, the boy yelled out "I have to poop!" and kept repeating it with greater urgency. Despite my pleading with him to hold it for a few more minutes until we get back to the parking lot, I went off the trail and dug him a small cat-hole and told him to have at it. He looked at the hole and then at me with a look that seemed to say "are you crazy, I'm not crapping in that." Needless to say he was able to hold it until we got back to the parking lot and used the nice clean outhouse. So as the hike started with the outhouse it ended with it.

I can't forget to mention the drive home. I had taken my wife old 1994 Ford Taurus beater, mostly because it got way better gas mileage than my gas guzzler. (note: the Taurus had recently sat for almost 2 years. We had it worked on in February to get it running again.) we had made it about 2 hours into a 3 hour drive when all the lights on the dash blew up and the engine got real hot and everything died. Seeing as how my mechanical expertise is about the same as my 7 year old, I had no idea. I called my wife to come get me, and called a wrecker to come tow it. So it cost me about $160.00 for the tow and it turned out to be a belt that cost me about $10.00 to buy and was able to fix myself. (note: the Taurus is still sitting in my driveway since it was towed back. The belt turned out to be an easy fix but it also turned out that the water pump was basically shot. I did change that before, with a significant amount of help, but this time I don't seem to be able to do it. So it still sits.