Day 6

I said I wanted to find the middle of nowhere on this trip, and if I didn't actually find the center today, I think I got really close.

After I backtracked up around the Little Bay de Noc again, I headed west from Rapid River to, well, nowhere. All on county or local roads, sometimes gravel, and almost always empty. In most places I'd see a car once every ten or fifteen minutes. I thought things might change a little once I got to the "main road" of the day, CR 426, because it followed some railroad tracks and had a bunch of towns listed along it. But nope, still empty. This is country where the town parks, schools, government offices, and fire departments are all combined into one location, which are themselves in the middle of nowhere. So then it was just funny seeing the signs that said "Entering (town name), reduce speed". In most cases, that meant there was an intersection with a gravel road, and perhaps an abandoned building or two left there. At least one of these places got the joke. In "Albert", there was a sign that said "Entering Albert City Limits", and then maybe 200 yards (and no buildings) later, "Leaving Albert City Limits". But the best part was the remarkably large and elaborate wooden structure that came next. It read: "West Albert".

Now it only makes sense that I'd find a similarly isolated campground to go with my isolated day. I'm at Gene's Pond in the Michigan State Forest, which is a fairly large lake, completely undeveloped, and three miles of gravel away from any asphalt road. When I got here there were three fishing groups using the lake, but they've left, so not only do I have the campground all to myself, I have the entire lake. I'm sitting out on the dock writing this as the stars appear overhead.

How about those SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) people? Just before I left I read that they'd found a signal worth talking about. In their constant scanning of the skies for distant radio waves, they've now heard an unusual one from the same spot three times. They can't explain it yet, so at this point it's still likely that it's just an undiscovered natural cosmic phenomenon, or perhaps even Earth-based interference. But it could also be a signal from an alien civilization. They're also discovering new planets seemingly every day, orbiting distant stars, and they're finding ones that are ever-more Earth-like. I don't know if there is anyone else out there, and if there is, if we'll ever be able to have any meaningful communication across the light-years. But just being reminded of the possibility is a powerful thing. When our minds get mired in the mundane news of the day, and a thick film begins to form over them, it's news like this that has the power to stir the imagination, to inspire us to think of the possibilities, and see the picture as big as our small minds will let us.

Have I mentioned that I can see a lot of stars tonight?