The Road Home

We left the story of our trip back in southern Wisconsin, where Carl won the coveted perpetual green visor trophy on our final evening of Sequence, Yahtzy, Phase Ten and Mexican Train Dominos. Carl and Bobbi went south to I 80 and headed toward home.

We stayed in the fields of Iowa. This soybean field surrounded by corn was at the edge of a cemetery near Anamosa IA.



Some of the old towns looked rather prosperous - others were in bad shape. This sign was in downtown Anamosa. I like the slogan at the bottom of the sign.






Anamosa State Penitentary was a classic from the 1880's

The Warden's house was in the top two floors above the administrative building - right on the front wall of the big house.

Some of the old courthouses are beautiful, such as this one in Clarinda, Page County, Iowa - the birthplace of American trombonist and bandleader Glenn Miller.

We crossed the Missouri River into Nebraska and found the city of Plattsmouth - County Seat of Cass County. The town was another preservation of the late 19th century.

Plattsmouth is, of course, at the confluence of the Platte and Missouri Rivers. It has the best tower on its courthouse of all the courthouse towers I have seen.

We camped outside of Omaha for a couple of days. We spent few hours at the Winter Quarters Visitor's Center. It is located adjacent to the pioneer cemetery in Florence NB where the Mormon pioneers buried the 500 people who died during the 18 months in Florence.

What impressed me most about this place was the fact that after laying out this little city, building over 800 log homes and getting the first three groups ready to cross the plains, they left it all behind and moved back across the Missouri River into Council Bluffs Iowa. We found our relative, Chauncy Loveland, who at age 50 was a member of the "Vanguard Company" led by Brigham Young, listed on a document that was on display in the museum.

We made a long drive across Nebraska to Stirling Colorado. The next morning we drove a short hop into Arvada to stay with Brett, Mireille and the boys. Oh boy, let's help grampa wash the truck!

We went to a local harvest festival. We got to get up close to some rescued birds of prey. This Bald Eagle was from Alaska.

This cute little boy is from Arvada.

Evan and Brady were kind enough to pose for me.

After several days of fun in Arvada we hitched up and departed for Utah. Everything was smooth and easy until we had to drive through this thunderstorm. Now, that is what I call weather!

We were rewarded with the magnificent drive across I 70 through Colorado and Utah. It is one of the most beautiful and unpopulated roads in the country. You've gotta love the West.

We made a couple of long drives: Arvada to Salina UT and Salina to Barstow CA. We dropped the trailer at John Sage's place and continued on to North Hills for a visit with the Bradfords and the team of Susie and Caleb.

On Saturday 10/9 we got to see Carissa and Derek play their soccer games.

The day was very hot.

After church on Sunday we visited with "Uncle Eric." His remodel is in the finishing stages and it is gorgeous! He has removed walls in the old house to make the kitchen and dining area quite spacious. He has done the same in the living room.

When you climb the free-standing spiral staircase from the master bedroom to the deck the view of Palos Verdes and the blue Pacific is fantastic.

We drove the final 400 or so miles of our journey on Monday the 11th, arriving home in time to see the Giant's squeak out a division series victory over the Braves. We traveled 6,569 miles through 13 states and saw stuff we have always wanted to see. We are so fortunate to be able to do this.

On the Road with Ma 'n Pa - II

While at Bayfield, WI we drove to what seemed like the top of the world. We found Kayakers making the journey to some of the Apostle Is. One guy died two days ago. The swells come up suddenly and can be huge. One Island was closed due to "bear activity."

We shopped at Ehlers - a great general store in the northernmost town in WI.

We sailed with Captain Paul on his 34ft. sloop. It was a lovely day with good wind.

Cap'n Paul let us steer - really.

The area outside of Bayfield was dotted with apple orchards and berry farms.

At the tip of Whitefish Point stands the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. It is small but very well done. One of the displays is this Surfboat used by the Surfmen who rescued thousands - yes thousands - of people from foundering ships and boats in the great lakes. The Boat is a self bailer.

The ship's bell from the Edmund Fitzgerald. The displays of all the shipwrecks were good and the one on the Fitz kinda' the centerpiece.

We moved from Bayfield to Taquamenon Falls State Park. Mom is checking out the upper falls. The water is colored brown from tannin that the rotting trees produce.

Next stop: Sault Ste. Marie. Big ore freighters everywhere. This one was down river - St. Mary's River - from our camp.

The Soo Locks were a kick - very busy.

A Lake ship going into Lake Superior - upbound to the ore processors.

What a great camp. This is from the back of trailer spot at "The Soo."

CClose up of the ore boat and its tender in the previous picture.

On the shore of Lake Huron with the Mackinac Bridge.

The British soldiers (the guard detail) all slept together in this bed back in the day at Michilimackinac Fort.

These Redcoats showed us how to fire a flintlock.

The ride over and back may have been my favorite part of the day on Mackinaw Is. The swells were big and the wind blew hard - made it an "E" ticket ride.

The historic streets are covered with Horse manure so don't ride your bike on a rainy day. Unless you have great fenders you get brown streaks from front and rear tires.

On to Escanaba to visit Peg and Tom. We had a great time over dinner. Tom was down with a bad back but made it downstairs for dinner.

We must have missed the beltway... Hwy 151 runs right up to the State Capitol Bldg. We were on city streets for a long time before we escaped Madison and moved on to our camp.

We are camped in the midst of lovely farms in the town of Keiler, WI. Now it is on to Iowa and our family history days. See you all soon.

September 17th Nature Walk

We decided that today's report had to be more pictures than words. We took a nature hike this morning and early afternoon. We walked about 8 miles up the Tahquamenon River. It is the opening of bear season so we asked the first hunter we saw if he was out for bear. No, he was hunting for partridges. We saw a lot of evidence that answers the question about what a bear does in the woods but saw no bears. When we walked back into camp our neighbor told us that we missed all of the excitement - a bull moose visited the camp while we were gone. He strolled right down the roadway in front of all the campers and into the river! I was going to title this post - Strolling through the saprophytes.
We saw so many beautiful mushrooms. This one was shaped like a trumpet.

Many of them had delicate designs.

Some of them grew by the dozens on rotting birch trees.

Some were quite delicate and clean looking.

This one had a rich yellow color to it.

These looked like a couple of slices of toast that had popped up out of the downed tree.

This one was a tiny parasol down among the pine needles.

The leaves have also begun to turn so the forest floor and some of the pine branches are dotted with bright fall colors. We hope to find whole forests in Autumn color when we get farther into the woods away from the relative warmth of Lake Gitche Gumee.

We only saw a few critters - ground squirrels, chipmunks, a snake and some birds. This toad stopped long enough for a picture. He was in his best Fall camouflage. We made it back to our campsite feeling pretty lucky to be able to see the north woods.

Trailerin' with Ma and Pa

Just to review our travels I thought we ought to post a few photos. We'll skip the two days of Nevada and the Utah desert. We had a good visit with Kevin. This is his recording studio er..I mean living room.

We stayed an extra day in SLC. Here we are sitting on Brigham Young's couch. We had a distinct westward movement theme for the first several days. We enjoyed the church history museum at Temple Square as well as our Tabernacle Organ recital.

Does this look familiar? I can't fix it and neither can a Dodge dealership. The right brake light and turn signal for the trailer will not work. Everything else is performing just fine.

Jackson Lake with the Teton Range in the background is such a treasure.


Here is George Armstron Custer's marker. The spot to which they carried his lifeless body OR the place where he fell on "last stand hill."

Did I tell you that it has rained a few times. Especially in North Dakota.


Medora, the little city right next to Theodore Roosevelt NP featured all kinds of action including this gunfight. The Finnigan gang was dispatched by the good guys while we watched.

This is the fancy dining room on the ore ship that we toured. US Steel spared no expense back in the day when steel was king.

Duluth was a very pleasant surprise for us. Here is the big lift bridge at 135 feet over the water as a medium sized ship passes into Lake Superior.

Rocky Point on Madeline Island, Wisconsin. This is the turn around point on our 17 mile bike ride. The woods and coastline around the lake is just beautiful.

We saw another car like this one which was for sale, if you can believe it. The sign said, "Think ice road." We are here at the end of the season. Everyone is getting ready for "freeze up."

We will send installment II when we get a couple more weeks under our belts.

Zonked

Ahh, industrial carpet never felt sooo good...