I’ll never forget the time that I was driving across town for about the bajillionth time after dropping Lizard Breath off at nursery school. Dinosaurs were on and Mouse was musing in her car-seat. “Moom, I wish that when we went to Houghton Lake, we could just take our whole house with us.” Well. Hmmm… Yes. I don’t exactly know what vision Mouse had of this but *I* had this vision of us driving up the I75 SUV Speedway towing the Landfill in the air behind us. We didn’t have anywhere near as much “stuff” then as we do now but even then I could imagine “stuff” falling out along the way.

For many many years, it seemed like we *did* take our whole house to Houghton Lake every time we went. This started even before we had a house or any beach urchins. Telescopes and calculus books and a few fiber arts prodjects (that I mostly never finished) and I remember hauling a big old Sony Trinitron out of my little gold Fiesta in a raging snowstorm through blowing and drifting snow. Why? Because that was what we were using for a monitor with our computer, which was an Apple II+.

And then the beach urchins arrived and things got kicked up a notch. Toys and strollers and potty chairs and stuffed aminals and a playpen sometimes and I don’t even remember all of the baby paraphernalia we used to haul. And books. Did I mention books? Throughout her childhood, Lizard Breath wouldn’t even get into the car to go to the Westgate Kroger without assembling a stack of books for the 1.5 mile drive over there.

We did get beyond the potty seat era. To any parents of toddlers who may have stumbled over here somehow, toilet training does eventually end. Of course it’s only a few short years after that until driver’s ed and, if your luck is bad enough, sex and drugs (disclaimer: I had good luck on that. I dunno why. I don’t think it was related to anything I did or didn’t do.). Anyway, the most recent “era” was the electronical crap era. Cameras of all sizes and sorts and iPods and all of the assorted cords and batteries and memory cards that go with that stuff.

And that’s not to mention food and clothing (enough clothing to last the weekend without laundry facilities) and sleeping bags and kayaks and binoculars and implements of too much fun and skis and telescopes (did I already mention those?). Oh yeah, and computers. Always computers…

This weekend? I had a bag of clothing. I had enough clothing to deal with whatever weather conditions Mother Nature might decide to throw at us. I had a backpack with my laptop, iPad, the power cords to both of those plus the power cord for my main computer, which is also my phone, which I carry in my pocket. Sleeping bags, one bag of food, and somehow Froggy and Green Guy managed to sneak their band of merrymakers into the Frog Hopper. (Yes, we are still hauling stuffed aminals…) We don’t really need to take sleeping bags. I’m just too lazy to fuss around with changing beds and washing sheets.

Arriving at home today, I had a half grocery bag of recycling and a small bag of garbage, both of which I dumped into the appropriate carts on my way in the door. A few food items to put away and I did some laundry but the clothes I schlepped home were *clean* because I could actually wash them in an actual washer and dryer at Houghton Lake.

What’s the point, KW? Just that not keeping track of a lot of “stuff” makes for a stress free trip. And this was one of the more stress free trips I have taken in a while. Of course, the weather and lack of traffic probably helped. Not to mention that there is a new cabin now, one that has hot running water year-round.

P. S. Thank you thank you thank you to all of the Courtois in-laws who have gotten stuck with washing our dirty towels over the last couple of years when we used the place as a hotel on the way to the yooperland. I did my own laundry this weekend. Love you all!

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