The U.P., to any Michiganders, means the Upper Peninsula of our great state.

It’s Saturday a.m. and we’re headed home. We packed and winterized the place in record time (90 minutes) and were on the road by 8:30. John has a performance with the Flint Banjo Club at 4:00 which means he must leave home by about 2:30. We should make it home about 2:00. It’ll be close, but we’re on-schedule.

Highway 2, which we’re on headed east, has little commerce with the exception of a few mom and pop motels, an occasional small restaurant, and a once-in-a-whilel work-from-home business but mainly it’s woods and undeveloped land. The traffic’s light. We’re still quite a distance from the Mighty Mac (the Mackinaw Bridge which joins the Upper and Lower Peninsulas.

The word “bridge” is a little frightenng this week, with the collapse of the Minneapolis bridge into the MIssissippi.

When we get home and un-pack, we need to start packing for the Midland Dulcimer Festival. John’s a co-chair of that event so he’ll be busy for the next couple of weeks making final arrangements. We’ll probably at the fairgrounds in Midland, where the event is held, from about the August 21-26.

Then as soon as we can get ready, we’ll head back to Florida for September and October.

We seem to be always on the go, but I’m not complaining. It’s a great life!