Surprise Intruder at 3 am, Who is This Guy?

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Click on photo to see DTube video

Posted August 8, 2018

Video taken August 6, 2018

So happy to be back in Michigan to escape the heatwave in the midwest. The heat and humidity in Indiana and Kentucky are unbearable for camping. After spending 8 nights in a casino parking garage it was a great relief to get back into nature and cooler weather.

Realizing I couldn't take this sauna-like weather anymore, I started heading north late that afternoon. Around midnight the South Bend, Indiana Walmart parking lot looked like a good place to stop and sleep.

I woke up to a cool morning with a clear sky. With plenty of time to make it to my destination 200 miles north, I decided to spend the morning visiting the campus of the University of Notre Dame. When I arrived my impressions were higher than expected, after seeing the beautiful grounds and buildings. It exudes prestige and tradition. My first stop was the "Golden Dome"

a historical landmark that almost everyone recognizes. Adjacent is the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, a neo-gothic church with a most beautiful interior.

While the bells were ringing for the next 15 minutes, announcing the Sunday mass at 10 o'clock, I walked over to the Theodore Hesburgh Library to see the giant "Word of Life" mural, more famously known as "Touchdown Jesus".

I think everyone that has ever watched a Notre Fame football game has seen this mural of Jesus with his arms raised like he is a referee signaling a touchdown.

Satisfied with seeing my most hated college football team's campus and historical landmarks, I headed north again to find some peace in nature and a cooler climate.

On the way were many choices of beaches along Lake Michigan. I found Pentwater Township right along the shore to be very picturesque and quaint, even though the beach was packed like Coney Island, being a warm sunny Sunday afternoon.

Soon I was in familiar surroundings on Green Road in the Manistee National Forest, where I knew there were at least twenty dispersed campsites to choose from. My favorite was taken, but the one I picked had some free firewood and all was good.

It was getting dark and still enough mosquitoes to force me to the refuge of my Xterra. With all the windows up, it was still a bit warmer and muggier than I'd like though. Around eleven, I opened the side door a couple of inches to allow some fresh cool air to waft across my face. I drifted off to sleep while listening to a Tom Woods podcast.

My eyes opened from my dream state to a startling surprise of a car backing into the space adjoining mine, no more than three feet away. This seemed odd, I thought. In my groggy state I had to assess the situation quickly, so I opened my door a few more inches and yelled out some questions of why are you here and who are you. No one answered and only silence. In my underwear, I quickly slipped on my shorts, like that would be a shield in case of attack and crawled into the front seat, put the keys in the ignition, in case I need to make a hasty retreat. This time I rolled down my window and called out my questions. The interior of the car had a dim light shining, but no person in sight. I heard a faint indisernable mumbling maybe as a response. Then I saw a familiar car carrier on top of the vehicle and immediately knew the identity of the suspicious intruder. "Jeremy!," I called out, as he appeared rounding the back of his Element. I was in contact with Jeremy earlier that day, knowing we might cross paths while he was on his way down from the Northern Peninsula. I invited him to stop by for the night if his path took him near me. His last message early that evening said that he had accidentally over shot me by a considerable distance before realizing where he was in relation to my campsite. It never crossed my mind that he would backtrack and return north to come visit me. We stayed up at least an hour catching up with each other's journeys.

The next morning was nice and cool and cloudy, with some off and on sprinkles of rain. We both woke up too early at about the same time and drove to the Lake Michigan beach

about 3 miles away, after having our morning caffeine. The beach here is just a few feet wide, bordered by 10 foot high sand dunes and a forest of tall hardwoods and conifers just beyond that, making for an impressive background, reminiscent of the west coast shoreline without the mountains. We exchanged stories of our ventures and I learned some details about Jeremy's life, before he parted to see a couple he knows in Valparaiso, Indiana.

The rest of that day was spent hiking and foraging for mostly mushrooms. There are more varieties and shear numbers of mushrooms in this forest than I've ever seen before. On my walk, I saw easily over a thousand mushrooms and at least 25 different varieties. I found a few familiar ones and many boletes that I'm looking forward to blogging about.

Chrome-footed mushroom, an edible bolete

Below are Jeremy's Steemit vlog and his podcast as well.

https://steemit.com/travel/@abolitionistjay/pkbbjj4i

http://solpodcast.org

Here is a link to his DTube about his visit with me.

I appreciate your upvotes and thanks for following. I hope you are enjoying. Please comment and I'll be glad to answer any questions you might have.

Peace,

Chris

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrisgreyson1957/

You Tube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC2fIOu4Pt6RXcIi1mDQ38Mw

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