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| Our home for a week in northern Michigan. 9/17/2019 dwm photo |
This time we stayed longer. We moved in.
When we visited lighthouses; we noticed the people behind the gift shop counter were often volunteers. Intrigued, we asked about their experience.
Often the volunteers lived nearby, but not always. In many cases, the volunteers were living in the lighthouse.
"How cool!" we replied, "how did you do that?"
A number of light houses on the Great Lakes search for volunteer keepers (Google "volunteer light keeper on Great Lakes").
As we looked into various opportunities - we discovered some houses are more rustic than others. That might mean no running water; little or no electricity; or that you are dropped off on an island.
We are not camping people. We like electricity. If we forget something, it would be nice to drive into town at the end of the day and get it, which ruled out islands.
The search lead to Mission Point.
After being accepted and settling on our week, Tuesday, September 17 to Tuesday, September 24; we began planning and packing.
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| The lantern room on the Mission Point light house. 9/17/2019 dwm photo |
We packed the car with boxes of food, bedding, and towels; plus the rest of our stuff including things to do when the light house closed. A few minutes after 11 am; we pulled in the private access drive and pulled next to a car belonging to the couple who were completing their week.
We met the light house manager, who suggested we unpack then meet her in the gift shop.
We were excited and nervous; wondering what we got ourselves into, we found out. Fast.
Over the next six hours, we got acquainted with the shop. The manager showed us how to use Square, the point of sale system which runs credit cards for the store. The shop is the size of a large walk-in closet, so inventory is stashed in three places around the house.
As important as selling magnets; t-shirts; and caps - was asking visitors to sign our guest book. Non-profit tourist attractions use the information when applying for grants as it verifies tourists from all 50 states and around the world.
Instead of a formal orientation, the manager worked next to us until we closed the doors at 5 pm.
Five o'clock is not quitting time for volunteer keepers. That's when the manager took us through the process of reconciling the day's receipts with money in the drawer.
Operating the shop was on the application, so this wasn't a surprise. Also listed among the duties, light housekeeping.
Lighthouses are usually near water. Big bodies of water, like Lake Michigan, sometimes have beautiful sandy beaches. There was one less than 100 feet from our door.
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| Sunset at Mission Point. 9/17/2019 dwm photo |
The second floor museum was swept and vacuumed to clean out sand which fell between the cracks of the original wood floor. Display cases and lighthouse windows were cleaned every night. Shelves restocked.
It was 7 pm by the time the money was counted; floors cleaned; and windows washed.
After hitting the showers it was time to relax and enjoy living in a light house.
As the sun set over Lake Michigan, we sat on the beach talking about our day and how to survive day two.
We decided to divide the labor at closing - with Rhonda counting money and closing the books and me literally cleaning from top to bottom.
There was also deciding what to say when guests walked in the front door. We chose, "Welcome to the light house!"
We didn't have to drive home after welcoming 176 guests into our home. But, we did have to make our beds to sleep in before day two. (Our second day in the lighthouse appears tomorrow.)
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