7/3- Back To Kalamazoo

At long last we were heading west of Hillsdale with packed bags and a notion of departure on our minds. My restlessness was no longer a secret to anyone as Bob would joke about me finally being released as he drove us to Coldwater. I felt kinda bad about it, but hopefully those I'm close to can reassure through comments below those I just met this past month that its in my nature to keep moving even when I'm meeting some really good people. Anyway, we said our goodbyes in the Big Boy parking lot before he returned to his normal life.

We went in and had coffee and burgers for a bit, then laid out in the grass until Mike and family showed up a little while later. I won't go into the specifics as much as Todd likely will, but it was an interesting meet for me too. It was actually the first time I would witness him meeting one of these long lost siblings for the first time. With Shelly I saw them say hello and hug, but once Stacey drove off I excused myself to the shower for as long as I could to give them some privacy to get acquainted. There was no such excuse here, and Mike had his entourage as well so I wasn't quite left feeling like a fifth wheel.

They chatted for a bit in the parking lot before we returned to the Big Boy for their lunch. Both he, Bobbie, and Ally were interesting characters so it wasn't hard for me to sit back, listen and observe for a while.

After lunch we joined them in the drive down to the fireworks shop in Angola. However, true to our usual form, Todd and I had changed our minds once again on what we wanted to do with ourselves. While laid out in the Big Boy parking lot we got to joking about hitching a plane until Todd realized he knew someone who could make that a reality. This someone lived back by Kalamazoo, so we asked Mike, since he was heading back up to Lansing, if he could drop us off on I-94 and we could maybe see Brian and Joey again as well. They would make a nice bookend visit on this Michigan trip.

So we perused the fireworks shop and looked over all the different sorts together. I was quite surprised to find historically oriented rockets like The Lusitania. Just waiting on the Pearl Harbor Raid Rockets and The Twin Tower launchers to get a plunged-into-war set. Maybe an exploding newspaper that makes brilliant yellow sparks for The Spanish-American War.

After a few hours of visiting we were soon in a parking lot to a gas station off I-94. Mike was feeling weird about "just dumping us there", but we did our best to convince him that this was normal and good for us. They took a few more pictures together and then they were off. We were back, temporarily, to being two hitchers at a truck stop for the next hour or two.

Brian and Joey did come through, however, and by sunset Joey had sped out to scoop us up for Kalamazoo. Not long after we got to their house we got the final word that the plane was in the shop and our plane hitch would be a no go, but the guy had liked the idea. Nevertheless it was nice seeing Brian and Joey again. We all went out for Ihop that night and just sort of reclined and caught up with each other a bit.

Click here for Todd's perspective.