Fall Color

After traveling over two thousand miles a couple of weeks ago in search of autumn color, I returned home to be greeted by this bright little tree right in my front yard. And, now just a few weeks later, I am surrounded by the ravages of fall. I have autumn leaves on my lawn, (see right) driveway, porch, deck, gutters and, unfortunately, still on a few trees. In past years leaf cleanup was helped by prevailing west winds which resulted in a relatively clean lawn for me and some real leafy lawns for folks down the street. But this year, thanks to Al Gore and his "Global Warming", the winds have come from the south. This has two results. First, the leaves decide to remain in the comfort of my property and second, one can really get sweaty raking leaves in warm weather.
Another way to solve (temporarily) the leaf problem. Hop in the car and take ride. Maybe take a few pictures and just plain enjoy the scenery. Another reason was to celebrate that the price of gas in town broke the $3 barrier ($2.95). The scenery was great. One road, Grandview, certainly lived up to its name. You could see acres of puffs of color miles and miles away. Plenty of photo opportunities but few places to pull off the road. And too hilly for me to park and hike to a vantage point. So, you'll just have to take my word for it or come over and I'll give you a personal scenic tour. After I roamed around a bunch of backroads for about an hour, I ran across some new kind of color in the landscape. Around here one is used to seeing the livestock in black and white. A lot of Holsteins and Angus and a few other breeds are very common throughout the area. But that day I found some new color in the autumn scene. The color belonged to a pair of Scottish Highland cattle, a mom and calf. I've seen this breed around but never stopped to photograph them before. I found a spot to park and got some shots. At first the calf was off by himself but as soon as I approached he (or she) ran over to mom's side. She was very protctive of him and didn't take her eyes off of me until I left. Anyway, here they are.

I kinda like the hairdo.

Sort of a modified Mullet.

As Jo was leaving (no pun intended) for work this morning
she called for me to come out on the deck and bring my camera.
Here's why!

Saffron

Time out from vacation talk for a little "Cute Time".

Here are a few recent pics of the Granddaughter.

Saffron, Dad and Dog.
What more could a guy want.
His Baby, his dog and the TV remote?

Saffron just being cute.

Wildlife Encounters

Just a few short stories about our adventures in the animal world last week. Previously I mentioned meeting a coyote on a road in Northeastern Wisconsin. Not much of a story there. He was scared off by a passing motorcycle before we had chance to strike up a conversation (or take a picture). Although I did manage to scratch out this sketch of him.

In our attempt to recreate the past, we ventured to the northernmost part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The "Dawn Swan" pic was the first of a bunch of wildlife encounters. First stop along the way was the Seny National Wildlife Refuge. One of the best features of the area is a 7 mile self-guided drive through the wetlands.

One of a pair of Sandhill Cranes grabbing a bite to eat.

I like to call this a perfect Swan Dive.

We were about a week or two early for good fall color but there were plenty of ducks, geese and swans gathering for migration. Moving on we took a rustic (bumpy, dusty) dirt road that ran along the shore of Lake Superior to the site of a resort we stayed at a few times when the kids were little. Sorry I'm getting off the track here. Animal stories! During a stop at Tahquamenon Falls Jo made friends with a little bear cub.

Really cute but very stiff and unanimated. And so was the cub.
Tried to pose him with a Chicago Cub's cap but couldn't
locate it in the Honda's cargo hold.

Probably the best animal story occurred while staying at a hotel in Mackinaw City. While enjoying a peaceful evening on our balcony we noticed a fairly large Sea Gull strutting around the beach. He seemed to be the mayor of that area. We had some leftover doughnuts from earlier that day. (these were not very good doughnuts or else there wouldn't have been any leftovers) I figured that the mayor of the sea shore deserved a hunk of stale doughnut so, I threw a piece out to him. Bad idea! Within seconds, millions of Sea Gulls swooped into the scene. Incredible, yes. But more incredible was one smart Gull thought he would search out the source of the food and swooped down to the railing right in front of a fairly frightened JoAnne.

After we convinced him that the doughnuts weren't worth
doing jail time for assault and that the Alewives were running,
he went off to join the herd.

Travel Tip: For real fun try this. Wait for a unsuspecting couple to come strolling along the beach. Once they get past you toss a piece of food right behind them and watch the terror when forty million Sea Gulls descend on them.

Another friendly visitor joined us as we lunched
on Ojibway Island in Saginaw. Lucky for him,
we had peanuts left from our last visit to Wrigley Field.

More stale peanuts providing a snack for our little friends.

No story just pretty.

One more Sea Gull encounter as we tried to
enjoy ice cream cones on Mackinac Island.

Not sure about this one but it followed me around for a week!

Last but not least is this deer. Not in the wild
but in our friends, Fred and Lois' backyard.

Wildlife! This is what I call wildlife.
Any donations readily accepted.
I'm only about $28,000 short.

Next installment: Scenery

A Little Back Talk

After nine days, over two thousand miles of driving and a five pound weight gain, I'm back. So let's talk. What a great trip. We encountered a lot of interesting wildlife including, a coyote (no picture, we were right next to it reaching for my camera when it was scared off by a motorcycle), many ducks, geese, cranes, herons and swans, (got some pictures of these guys), and of course, you can't travel in Wisconsin or Michigan without an occasional deer. We saw wonderful scenery, pine forests, waterfalls and grand hotels. We drove, we hiked, we took a ferry ride, and bounched around in a horse drawn taxi. We searched out places from our past lives and reunited with some dear friends that we haven't seen in many years. We drove at high speeds on divided highways and five miles an hour on one lane dirt roads. There were times when we relied on our trusty GPS (Wanda) and times when we completely disregarded "her" suggestions. I performed quite a few expert U-Turns. (most were expertly performed) During one long stretch of travel (with my copilot fast sleep beside me) I composed an hilarious blog post. It was so funny that I almost woke Jo up laughing to myself. I wish that I could remember it. You would have laughed your heads off. I'm finding it really difficult to pick out one or two particular highlights to feature although, between Jo and I, we have around a thousand beautiful photos that we'd love to share. Hey! Wait! Don't log off. I'm working really hard at edit them down to a precious few. How's this? Why don't I do a few of installments of highlights with some real special pics? I gonna go now and start editing and trying to remember that funny blog that's lurking somewhere in my sick mind. I'll close this episode with the memory of a BIG highlight of the trip. The first day out we were able to listen on the car radio to the entire game were the Cubs clinched the division championship . And, finally, as I sweat over this hot computer, JoAnne and Derek are preparing to attend this evening's playoff game at Wrigley Field.

GO CUBS!

Second morning out. Saw this beautiful little lake.
Executed a U-Turn a few miles down the road
and returned to take a picture. Only while lining up the shot
did I realize that the swans were present.
(I like to call it Dawn Swan)

Not So Famous Last Words

Last words, but only for a week or so. It's been a bit of a slow year travelwise for us, so we're taking off to revisit some places and people from years past. Tomorrow we head North to the UP (Upper Peninsula of Michigan) and then down to the LP (Lower Peninsula of Michigan). After we spend a few days hiking, sightseeing and rock hunting, we plan to return to Saginaw, Michigan where we lived for a while. A day or two of checking out what's new and what's not, we'll visit with friends who we haven't seen in close to twenty years. After a stop in the Detroit area to visit more friends from days gone by, we'll be heading home. (With a stop in Chicago to see my Mom) I'm sure that there will be many photos to share with you.
As they say in the UP, Aloha yea?
I'll leave you with a few random shots that I've been meaning to post.
Oh yeah, Derek and I went to the Cub's game yesterday (Thursday), It was the game where the Cubs came from behind to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth and win it in the 12th inning. Probably the most exciting game I've ever attended.

Great nephew Ronnie. A kid who, at an early age,
really knows what life's all about and how to live it.

Just another ho hum sunset in Southwest Wisconsin.

And you wonder why I like it here?

Little Saffron starts life as a Cub fan.
Like she had anything to say about it.

The biggest video game smash hit Wisconsin has ever experienced.

While You're Sleeping...

One morning last fall, while driving across New York State, I noticed hundreds, no thousands, of glistening little white circles in the weeds along the side of the road. On closer examination, I discovered that the sun was at just the right angle to illuminate thousands of dew covered spider webs. Naturally I didn't consider stopping to take a picture until I was well down the road and the angle of the sun had changed. Another missed photo-op. Yesterday morning I was sitting at the kitchen counter doing my morning crossword puzzle when the phone rang. It was JoAnne who was on her way to work. "Remember those spider webs in New York?" she asked, "Well they're everywhere along the road right now". I grabbed my trusty camera and ran to the car. Had to hurry before the light changed. (Up here, the light changing doesn't mean from red to yellow to green but rather refers to the position of the sun) Jo was right, the roadside was covered with them. I got some shots although they don't seem to truly depict how amazing and vast the scene actually was. I guess what's really interesting to me is that each of these webs contained its creator in its center, and, that when the sun isn't just right or there isn't any dew, these things are still there all around us. Just think, next time you go walking through some tall grass, that you are probably wipping out the night's work of hundreds of little eight-leggers. Here's a couple of shots showing one little area that was only a part the scene that went on for miles.

Holy _hit - No Hit

Big excitement in Wisconsin last night. Most of it in our living room where I had to restrain JoAnne as Carlos Zambrano threw the final strike in his no hit bid in Milwaukee. When the relocated game (because of hurricane Ike in Huston) was announced Saturday afternoon the first thought was to get tickets and head east to "Brew Town". Unfortunately cooler heads prevailed and we missed the game of the year. On the brighter side, had we gone to the game, I probably would still be trying to pry Jo from the retractable roof in Miller Park. As a gesture of appreciation for her support Big Z stopped by the house for a photo-op with Jo.