100 miles is a perfect distance to travel to visit a college student. It can be done as a day trip and this particular 100 miles is a nice straight shot along the I94 18-wheel Clogway, which is actually (knock on wood) not too clogged a lot of the time. Knock on wood again.

The plan was to get up early and arrive at the Kalamazoo Nature Center for an early bit of hiking. Hiking (or skiing or kayaking) is a good thing to do early on a Sunday morning and since we were going to Kalamazoo today, it seemed like a good idea to find a place to hike over there. So, good old KW googled for trails in the kzoo area and found the nature center, which seemed do-able given the schedule for the rest of the day, not far from town, etc. She printed out directions and trail maps and they even managed to actually get into the Ninja Vee-hickle. We were all set. Problem. KW did not manage to look at the hours the place was open, which was right on the front page of the website in plain sight. Not open until one on Sundays. Oops. Plan B turned out to be a wee bit of walking in a nearby county park, one that didn’t look too promising at first with its RV camping area and trenormous play structures and fake beach, etc. But no one else was there this morning and it was beautiful in the still early light and my mood of disappointment in myself lifted after a little bit. I think we do have to make accommodations in some of our parks for folks with more urban tastes and this place did a pretty good job of balancing that with areas of untamed natural beauty. We’ll try the nature center again one of these days and next time we’ll call ahead to make sure it’s open.

Our real reason for the trip was because performances of the play that Mouse directed for her senior project, The Gloaming, Oh My Darling by Megan Terry, were this weekend. It was parent weekend too but I didn’t know that until I got over there. This is my seventh year as a college moom and I have never been to a parent weekend. I do try hard to keep my blades from flapping. Er, whatever helicopter blades do, that is. Anyway, the rest of the day was taken up by breakfast with Mouse at the Crow’s Nest, filling up the CLBHC’s tank with gas, walking around the campus, meeting up with Valdemort and Pengo Janetto (who were there for the play). Odd being at Mouse’s college on parent weekend with my nieces, who attend a different college. And then the play and back along the Clogway toward home, arriving before sunset on this first day of Eastern Standard. Click here or on the pic (Mouse, that’s a *good* picture!) for photos of our walk in the park and “our” college campus.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 2nd, 2008 at 7:11 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.