Flying Dogs at the Free Fair in Ionia, Michigan

A short drive from Grand Rapids is the town of Ionia. Claire had read of a Free Fair. Claire likes free as much as I do; we stopped for a look and stayed the rest of the day, looking at sheep and pigs and tractors and eating home made ice cream and people watching. Perhaps the best part of the day was the Air Dogs. People, regular people, train their dogs to long jump into a pool of water. Some dogs get to the edge and say, "No way!" others fly as far as 23 feet. We decided the border collie (top) had the best form, but she was way short of the Chesapeake Bay retriever. Sometimes the unplanned day can be among the best of days. Good thing there was a Wal*Mart nearby for overnight parking; the fairgrounds campground was full anyway and the overflow all followed us to Wal*Mart.

Way too much fun in Grand Rapids

Erika and a friend We visited Tucson friends Dick and Helen Kelly at their Grand Rapids, Michigan home for three, not surprisingly, busy busy days. Dick and Helen enlisted their granddaughters, Annie and Erika in the endeavor to exhaust us. The girls began with a tour of the flora and fauna of the nearby woods, including some particularly satisfying rock chucking into a suitably mysterious pond. It was all downhill from there. They similarly enlivened a wild dune buggy ride, a trip to the beach, complete with a downhill sand dune race, and a visit to beautiful Meijer Gardens, where Erica convinced me to roll down a steep grassy hill (or was that my idea?). It's been about 50 years, but I can still roll straight; and grass still itches!

Erika kissing a mouse

Annie, friend Natalie, Erika and Dick riding the dunes

Lake Michigan is cold, even in July, right Erika?

As usual in the Kelly household, the food was wonderful, the wine well chosen and the conversation wide ranging. Daughter Kim and son-in-law, Jon joined us for two dinners; it was good to see them again. Keep up the great work with those girls!

Dick is hard at work promoting his book Growing Up In Mama's Club, about his childhood in the Jehovah's Witnesses. He will have a web site up soon and I will post it here. It is very interesting reading for anyone who ever opened their door to the tract promoting sect, or knocked on doors for them. It is only a matter of time before he has a very successful book on his hands, and well deserved.

Helen keeps things running swimmingly, and seems to me to be getting younger, as this next picture will prove: You go Girl!

We are looking forward to seeing Dick and Helen again next April in Tucson. By the time we see Erica and Annie again they will be all grown up, and Kim will have her new braces off! (an inside joke).

Sleeping Dunes National Lakeshore and FHTV Michigan Blast

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Claire riding the loop road in Sleeping Dunes. Short steep hills made for a good workout mostly in the trees on a one way traffic road. Sweet.

Then we went to Big Rapids for the Far Horizons Tucson Village midsummer Michigan bash.

Party Time!

Follow the FHTVsummerblog link at the right for more pictures.

Upper Penninsula of Michigan

A hike at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

stream

lakeshore from cliff

fall? marsh iris

Turtle bush camp on Clear Lake (don't try and find it, there are thousands of Clear Lakes in the North Country).

sunset and rushes on Clear Lake

Mighty Mac

Frosty and his bridge. We just missed seeing the 100 foot long Erector Set model of Mighty Mac, in one piece.

lighthouse and Mighty Mac

Turtle crossing

Keneweenaw Peninsula

Bringing it home

We were leaving Wal*Mart, paying for our overnight accommodations with purchased staples. I saw her coming, tall blond, attractive, at most 35. She looked ahead blankly. Then I saw the cane, the limp. Jeans covered the damage. It’s not winter, I thought; not a ski injury, soon to heal and have her showing those long legs again by summer. It is summer. I read her sweatshirt. My vision blurred; something slammed me in the chest, hard. “Army,” it said. Outside it was raining. It could have been a long night if I hadn’t gotten that sledgehammer off my chest. Thanks for taking it from me. Pass it on.

Lake Superior, and a few thoughts

Sea caves, Bayfield, Lake Superior, Wisconsin berry farm

A few thoughts for some newlyweds

Above is the young couple on their honeymoon, we met when we took the kayak trip of the sea caves of the Bayfield Peninsula. We told them that our, honeymoon nearly 17 years ago, was 10 days in a sea kayak in the Broken Group off Vancouver Island, B.C. Michael is a researcher at the University of Wisconsin, and Laura is a Ph.D. candidate there. When they learned of our adventurous life together, I could see the wheels turning. They like doing things together in nature they were interested in how we managed to achieve our lifestyle. He said, “You are living the life I want to live someday.” She patted his arm and said, “You’d be doing it now, wouldn’t you?” She might just be humoring him, or she might be interested herself; the subtle interactions of newlyweds are mysterious indeed! They are just starting, and when she is making a salary, should be able to save a reasonable portion of their income, IF they have the desire and the discipline to follow through. It is very easy to have dreams, and not so easy to apply the follow-through required to see those dreams come to fruition. Most people think of their dreams as just that, dreams, that they never expect to realize. That way of thinking is self-fulfilling, and most people are satisfied with such a life: fine for most, but not all. I wonder how these two will do? They have everything going for them right now, intelligence, health, bright financial future; how they apply these gifts will determine how they define their dreams, and if, and how they realize them. Then there are the Life decisions. One big question they will no doubt face is having children. When most people become loving parents, they switch their dreams from themselves to their children. That is natural, and desirable for the mentoring of the next generation. Some couples, like us, realize that they are not cut out for such a difficult important task. Claire and I both knew we were neither inclined, nor suited for parenting. Fortunately, we shared that with each other early. Others, better suited have taken up our allotted 2.2 children, and we hope they are doing a wonderful job with them. Often these decisions, like having children, going into debt, moving to the suburbs… are made by young couples under the influence of older people they consider wiser. “Of course you want to have children!” says Aunt Annie. “Your mother would die if she doesn’t have grandchildren to spoil!” Mother, of course, is perhaps more subtle, but the natural selfish desire for grandchildren is probably evident. Of course you should give your parents grandchildren. You owe them, don’t you? I hasten to say that we have met couples who have managed to do the impossible (to us) and lead very adventurous lives with young children. What lucky children! There are other pressures on young professionals: After that big promotion, a boss might hint that, now that you are making the “big bucks”, you should join his country club, and perhaps make that down payment on a house more suitable for entertaining clients… You own him, don’t you? Often the subtle pressures of those with power and influence, cause young couples to make decisions they might not have made if they’d trusted their intellect, their instincts. Sometimes they just don’t make decisions, but let the outer world make them for them. Not making your own decisions, IS a decision. These Life decisions are just that, decisions for Life. Often those who would influence young couples want to override their decisions, for fear they will make decisions that will set them apart as “different.” This too is understandable, from the viewpoint of those who would influence. After more than a decade of an unconventional life, the reactions we get from most people to our, “different-ness” is amazingly positive: “Do it now, while you can.” “You guys are doing what I wish I had done.” We hear these encouragements often from those more mature than we, those who made decisions that negated the possibility of travel, of adventure, of allowing themselves to live the full creative life they might have otherwise. To give full credit to our families, although they were a tad shocked at our sudden to them, crazy ideas, they did not discourage us. Thank you. Many people live the dreams they abandoned, through us. We are glad we are living them through us too. To Laura and Michael: go for it, being different is not so bad in the long run. Ultimately they will respect you for it.

Wildflowers and waterfall on a loop ride of the Bayfield Peninsula with Claire

Cannon Falls, MN to Lake Superior, WI

Mural in Ashland, WI. The figures are all veterans; note the truck coming out of the alley, "of America."

Berries and floaters along the Cannon Falls to Red Wing rail trail

Claire riding the trail

I just discovered an amazing thing. If you double click these images, you get a full sized version, or nearly so, that will more than fill your screen. Mostly it's good for looking at panoramas. I have some from back Arizona and Utah you might want to revisit and double click!

Okay. I was wrong. I can stand the heat and humidity of the Upper Midwest. Everything looks, and feels, better from the seat of a bicycle. We spent a day riding the Cannon Falls to Red Wing, Minnesota rail trail, a round trip of about 42 miles. On a bicycle, you sweat, and you move fast (if it’s flat) and the two combine to cool a body; one of the most wonderful things about traveling on a bicycle, as we have relearned so many times all over the world in 100F+ heat in Australia, Turkey and even Tucson. It’s only one of the best things about bicycling, but one of the best. The trail runs along a small river (Cannon) popular with floaters; that’s what I call people who get on inner-tubes, lubricate themselves with beer and burn themselves ripe red in glorious lazy relaxation. We’ll do that someday, maybe when we visit the Big Rapids crew later this month! We took pictures and waved. We were cool, they were cool, but they probably thought we were roasting pedaling bikes, wrong, particularly since we were in the shade, and it was only about 90! On the Mississippi waterfront, we met a couple boondocked in their motorhome in the grain-truck staging area overlooking a small marina, and decided to come back and join them for the night, and the breeze off the river made sleeping tolerable although Claire had trouble with the constant train traffic. The next morning we strolled around the small town of Red Wing (think boots) and enjoyed the old buildings and the revival we have seen in so many small downtowns. I predict urban dwellers will be swarming these small towns, buying up condos built in old manufacturing buildings, banks and mercantile spaces. As soon as high-speed-internet, fine coffee, restaurants, wine shops, regional music and theatre arrive, what’s to miss from the big city? Well, a Trader Joe’s would be nice. We had an interesting conversation with an employee (dressed as an executive) about Red Wing shoes making most of its shoes in China, except the work-boot line. Hmmmm, Guess who buys work-boots in America?

Red Wing Boots all over town, and beautiful flowers

We’ve traveled in some of those countries who make our stuff for us: China, Thailand, Malaysia, among others, and those people need the jobs making stuff for us, more than our workers need the jobs. If we don’t help spread our wealth by moving manufacturing jobs to those places, those people are going to be joining the current batch of border-crossers, pounding at our door, wanting the good life we show them on the television shows and movies we sell to them now. Which do we want to do, move manufacturing jobs to the people who desperately need the work, or have them come here by the millions? Seems like a no-brainer to me. I know it is more complex than that, but not much. Red Wing waterfront

Wisconsin has entirely too many No Overnight Parking signs. What are they so worried about? Do they think we are doing immoral things in our little motorhome quietly parked in their roadside park. These signs make me feel like a gypsy, unwanted, and usually leads me to be sure and spend as little money as possible in a place, and move on. We moved turtle twice in Bayfield to sleep, and were not noticed. After what we dropped on the kayak trip, they can’t complain, not to mention the two ice cream cones one night! The heat, threatening 100 (with humidity) drove us to Lake Superior for a little relief. The first day was still way to hot and sleeping was difficult. So we decided to splurge on a day kayak trip along the Superior coast to look at some sea caves and cool off. We were going to rent a kayak, but it was more expensive than a tour: go figure. See pictures. I got water between my UV filter (for water protection) and most of the photos are fogged! Lesson learned.

Honeymooners!

Monday July 10. Yesterday we rode a 56-mile loop of the Bayfield Peninsula with some of the few hills we have seen in Wisconsin, for probably 2,000 feet of climbing, a nice day in cooling weather. We enjoyed the small town of Cornucopia, in particular the country store. It is too far out of the way to be too touristy, yet. We stoped to cool beside a small waterfall just before the eight-mile hill.

Store at Cornucopia, WI.