The Fever

I want to go somewhere. I can't help it. The urge for foreign adventure strikes me at least once biennially. Unfortunately, my finances are ...well...  I'm in my "living in a box" phase of being a writer. So trans-oceanic travel is out of my reach.

So, I'll travel like a poor person, in  "vacation in your own backyard" kind of way. If one ganks a state parks sticker (because you can't go anywhere in Michigan without tripping over a state park) and pack a tent/ find a friend with a couch, we can travel for the price of gas and whatever weird resturants we feel like trying. So here are the contenders for mini-adventure.


1.Grand River adventure part A
 -- meet in Lansing, drive down Grand River into Detroit, stopping wherever I feel like, explore some part of Detroit, like Hammtramack or Greektown, and drive back however I feel like.

2.Grand River Adventure part B
 -- meet in Lansing, drive all the way down Grand River East, stopping wherever I feel like, explore Grand Rapids, and take the scenic route home.

Grand River Avenue is a non-expressway road that traverses mid-Michigan. It's everywhere. It's also been a weird life goal of mine to drive the whole thing.

4. Travel the entirety of MI-12.
 --All I know is we went down it once to get to Coldwater from Ann Arbor, and we ran across a mexican town and at least two dinosaur parks. Definitely worth a second look.

4. Explore Kalamazoo

5. Go to a Cherry Festival in Traverse City
 -- and do a wine tour. they have wineries up there.

7. Mackinaw Island!
 -- Act like a crazy tourist on a bike, then get dressed up with lace gloves and funny hats and go to tea at the Grand Hotel.

8. Go to the Soo Locks.
 -- stay in Uncle's Tribe's casino. Also, go to Canada for funsies.

Oh my God there is a Pancake Bay provincial park in that part of Canada. SOLD.

9. Find that upper-lower penninsula pastry shop. It's within an hour's drive of Petosky.
 -- while you're at it, go to Harbor Springs and Petosky and browse the boutiques like you're a rich person. Also like you know Richard Gere.

10. Drive around the thumb.

Goals of these trips

-- write an article about each one and get it published somewhere
-- find a cute and or delicious bakery in every town we visit
-- swim in all the Great Lakes attached to Michigan at least once
-- be in Canada (hey, its technically foreign travel)


Gold Star to the raging travel-holics

Making running tolerable

I am certainly no expert on fitness. I know as much as I need to know as it pertains to me, and that knowledge is fairly recent. So is any kind of stamina. But I have taken up running, and its an experience I want to share.

I used to hate any kind of running. I was the chubby kid in gym class who struggled to finish the mile. I danced all through my youth, so I had some degree of fitness, but not the endurance for long distance. Plus I just had general a hatred of running (ahem, like MGBF). Four years of college marching band is what changed that. To do what I love, I had to get endurance. So I did. And I was able to keep my lowest weight. Until winter semester, when I got some back. Rinse and repeat. But now that I am out of school, I actually have time for exercise.

I didn't use that time for exercise for a long time, and I reached one of my highest weights (and temporarily lost my waist). So I tried running. Thanks to stamina, it wasn't as unbearable as I remembered. As as I've continued, here's what worked for me. As with any tips list, feel free to pick and choose, or totally ignore, as you will.

1. Music. Sometimes I run just to have some alone time with my music. Plus it has always been a motivator for me. Certain songs just help me keep pace, but mixed in are songs that really just motivate me to run. Or bust out dancing. Either way, I'm burning calories. Plus, on the fitness side, having a playlist of consistent tempo keeps your strides in an even rhythm, which benefits your workout.

2. Pick a route. I like my running route, which helps more than I thought it would. I run through a weird little road that doesn't have much traffic, and its mostly woodsy. So I get some time in nature, which is really motivating, now that its starting to act a little like spring. However, it also has regular streetlights -- another feature I didn't foresee as being useful. But it really helps me pace myself. I don't run constantly on my route, but i can time my running -- ie. I run for two lights, walk for two, etc. I also run whenever I reach a stoplight. Little goals like this help me push myself.

3. Be comfortable. There is a difference between discomfort and pain. Discomfort happens when you push yourself. Pain only succeeds in overshadowing all those wonderful endorphins. I did a lot of walking at first. I still do. But every time I run I run a little more. Even if I just cut a few seconds each time I run, that's still an acheivement. And its satisfying just to know I conquered high school gym.

Gold Star to the reformed chubby kids.