Chapter 1: The Bare Necessities

She includes the clues to available Door Co. letterboxes printed out
in the wee hours of the morning. Which might explain why she over-
looks the message that says the Cana Island Lighthouse letterbox
is temporarily out of service.
She also packs a tiny toolbox with carving materials on the off-chance
that she may have the time to leave behind a letterbox token and/or
carve one or two more personal stamps. Ha.

Chapter 2: The Early Bird

On the way up, the travelers are eager to reach the final destination
of Egg Harbor after a late start (naturally), and decide to try for the
Chanticleer Letterbox on the way back rather than on the way up.
The second mistake.

Chapter 3: Cana Island Lighthouse

The first full day in Door County she of the everchanging letterbox
name, along with her letterboxing companions, Turtleboxer,
Fairy? (I always forget her name), she who has not yet chosen her
name but is called at home "Her Imperial Worshipfulness" and has
been given a crown for her letterbox stamp, and she who shall be called
simply "Skeptical", set out after a morning swim for the Cana Island
Lighthouse. It's on the other side of the penninsula. We find the tiny
street that leads to the entrance, and park at the side of the road to
walk across the rocky causeway. It is dry, but nevertheless Her
Imperial Worshipfulness must be carried. Thankfully, it is not too long.
It is Lake Michigan, but on this side particularly it smells like the sea.
There is a short walk on a wooded path to the lighthouse on the other
end of the small island, and we immediately see the first part of the
clue. The compass is consulted, and we beat around all of the bushes
in a westerly direction..... it is not until I arrive home that I remember
the message about one of these letterboxes being out of commision
temporarily. I probably wouldn't have found it anyway because the
message makes me think that the box was in a tree that was further
away from the clearing where we looked. Ah well..., we then tramped
about the lighthouse keeper's house, and out to look at the rocky
shoreline. Beautiful spot!
We headed back for the car, Her Imperial Worshipfulness had to
be carried over the causeway again, and made rude comments about
the fish that had been washed up in the rocks with the expected
results.

Chapter 4: Bailey's Harbor or Bailey's Harbor

Since we were in the same vicinity of the new Bailey's Harbor
lighthouse letterboxes, we decided to try for one of those. We
read the clue which begins "Follow Ridges Rd from Bailey's
Harbor all the way to the end...." ~ found the village of Bailey's
and found Ridges Rd. and followed it to Lake Michigan.
Confused here because the road seems to end at a marina and
there is no sign of a lighthouse. We follow the road to the left and
end up at a natural area that is kind of a marsh... no lighthouse.
We go back to the marina and I ask a sturdy-looking deeply tanned
woman who looks like she belongs to one of the yachts in the
marina if she knows where the lighthouse is....at first she must
think I am from one of the boats, because she talks about taking
bearings off of the two different lighthouses and so on. As I look
more and more clueless she figures out that I am a landlubber and
points down the road to the right....
By this time, all are tired and hungry, so we decide to come back
another time and consoled ourselves with an early dinner at Wilson's
in Ephraim and lots of ice cream. Turtleboxer and Fairy? shared a
monstrous Wilson's Special Sundae that had about 10 scoops of
ice cream.
It's not until we are on the way home that I figure out that the
Bailey's Harbor in the clue is actually the Harbor and not the
Village. I blame it on sleep deprivation.

Chapter 5: It Was A Dark and Stormy Night

That's the last of our searching for the rest of the weekend....
the 4th of July we spend at the beach (and I actually took out
carving stuff but never got around to carving....) and drive up for the
fireworks at Gill's Rock (that's the tip of the penninsula) and the
next day we pack up and head for home after a late lunch
at Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant in Sister Bay. (The kids
like eating here because the roof is made of grass, and when the
weather is nice they have goats on the roof.) Not today, though,
because it was beastly hot. The parts of the weekend Her Imperial
Worshipfulness talks about most are the dead fish in the rocks at
Cana Island, and the child-sized potty with the child-sized stall door
in the bathroom at Al Johnson's. Hope she remembers something else!
What I will remember is the very worst thunderstorm I have ever
ever driven in on the way home! Very scary and took an extra hour
or two to get home....
As for the letterboxes, I shall return! And I have a couple of spots
staked out for new ones!

Deborah

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