Gone Fishin'

That time has finally arrived.

As usual this time every year, it's time for me to unplug and unconnect. Typical regular life duties are being put on hold for a week as we head up to northern Michigan for the annual camping trip. No work meetings. No tweeting. No D-Blogging. Few phone calls. As little stress as possible. There, we'll spend a week in our tents and hanging out in the company of a dozen close college friends over campfires and good times. While it's tent camping, we are within the comforts of a state park. Once our workweek finished on Friday, we headed home to get all packed up before hitting the road on Sunday morning. Our drive is about three hours longer than pretty much everyone else going, as they all live in the Southeast Michigan area where we're from. But now that we reside in Central Indiana, this means an 8-hour drive north along the Mitten State's western coastline with periodic pit stops for us and the dog. The Shadow Cat will gladly run the house, with occasional check-ins by neighbors and friends. Of course, diabetes always goes where I do and like always I hope that it decides to cooperate for this year's camping adventure in Interlochen, just 20 minutes or so south of Traverse City, Michigan.

We refer to this summer break as a time when we've "Gone Fishin." A time when we've locked up to do something we love. Basically, this mantra recognizes an outstanding marketing campaign created by the state of Michigan's tourism bureau a few years back, to bring outsiders into the state to visit. There's a number of these great ads on video and radio, all with Michigan-native and actor Tim Allen speaking the Robert Frost-like words that create incredible images. I invite you to listen to my favorite, posted below, that makes me all warm inside and look forward to my annual camping trip even more.

There's also this great one called "Play Time," which captures so much of what this trip does for our souls - a time we long for most.

A few exciting D-events were on the agenda before we left Indiana behind for a week - a fundraising event at the Diabetes Youth Foundation of Indiana's Camp Until a Cure, and then an Indiana D-Meetup featuring the stellar lineup of Cherise (@Diabetic_Iz_Me), Mike Durbin (@mydiabeticheart), and Jenny (@ninnifur). We all met at the Children's Museum of Indiana, and it was without doubt going to be a great time. Tune back in next week for recaps on those happenings, but in the meantime there is only thoughts here about camping...

Oh, I so welcome this time in my home state of Michigan... Full of lovely landscapes, miles of majestic scenery, wonderous waterfront communities, and images of natural perfection that just can't be replicated. If you haven't been, I encourage you to visit. Particularly in the fall, when you can watch the colors change as the seasons do.

With that, may your week be rich with scenery as beautiful as the camping scenes I'm about to embrace. I'll look forward to reconnecting later in the month, but in the meantime I hope the D-Lives treat you kindly, the BG levels stay level, and life in general stays pleasant.