The Lighthouse Trip

During the last few days of April, my wife and I drove from our home in Georgia to Whitehall, Michigan. My sister invited me to join her in a group dedicated to the upkeep and management of five lighthouses along Michigan’s west coast. Volunteers run the museums. Fewer people volunteer to clean each lighthouse for the upcoming season. Cleaning the White River Light Station would be our project for the last week of April. We grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan in the small town of Long Beach, Indiana. When I was an early teenager, I went to a Boy Scout camp in Twin Lakes, Michigan, eight miles inland from Whitehall. My time at Owasippe was spent living in a tent with three other 13-year-olds. We spent six weeks getting Red Cross certified in life-saving, basic, and advanced survival swimming, rowing, canoeing, and sailing. During Aquatic Camp, I went on my first overnight canoe trip on the Pine River. The White River Light Station has an interesting history. It was built in 1875 to…