Twelve Hours Out of Mackinaw City

Right now, I am four hours and twenty eight minutes out of Mackinaw City. Nearly my entire being wants to be about forty eight minutes out of Mackinaw City back home in Petoskey. I don't know what it is. College is coming to an end in five weeks; times are changing. No matter how fast everything is moving around me, time always seems to slow down up north. Petoskey has been the one constant in my life. I can almost taste that first Oberon during a late night round of golf, can almost feel the crisp cool water of Walloon Lake, and can almost hear Neil Young playing from the stereo on the back deck. Everything associated with summer and Petoskey is quite close.

However, summer means that my life is going to change. The stability of college will be removed as I hopefully join the workforce. What I wouldn't give to be Bob Seger hopping on his Honda 1100 in Rochester, Minnesota (which is twelve hours out of Mackinaw City) without a care in the world. Nothing but Mother Nature and the open road. No meetings, no computer, no cellphone. Life would be so simple. Petoskey is as close as I get to that freedom, that simplicity. I would be more than happy spending the rest of my life cleaning golf clubs and caddying at Bay View and enjoying each and every summer night. That would be the life.

Stood alone on a mountain top

Starin' out at the great divide

I could go east, I could go west

It was all up to me to decide

-"Roll Me Away" by Bob Seger