Captain’s Log – Star Date 08302009
Location: Home Port, Galaxy of California
(Translation: our house in San Diego)
Star Ship Wolverine docked at Home Port at 1707 hours (5:07 PDT)
Engineering Report: Everything Worked! Truly Excellent, Dude!
Weather Report: Hot!! REALLY HOT!!
Trip Initiation Odometer Reading – 106139.4
Trip Final Odometer Reading -- 116186.3
TRIP MILES -- 10,046.9
FUEL USAGE -- 11.9 MPG
Commodore’s Assessment – ALL MISSION GOALS MET OR EXCEEDED!
Captain: We’re HOME!
Admiral: (Yawn and Stretch!)

We could taste the sour dust in the tan swirling air…The outside temperature stood at 111 degrees Fahrenheit…Welcome to El Centro, California! The outside temperature topped out at 113F as we crossed California’s Imperial Valley and started the steep climb into the Laguna Mountains east of San Diego. This situation is to be expected if one is crazed enough to drive from Phoenix to San Diego on an August afternoon! It was not a BAD trip … just a trip when our very lives depended upon the correct functioning of our truck’s air conditioning system! We took Angie into the truck with us as the trailer was far too hot. Our truck…and its AC system… functioned superbly, thank God, and we all arrived home in satisfactory condition!

As we drove into San Diego, Barbara was finishing Volume 24 of Dana Fuller Ross’ twenty-four-volume “Wagons West” fictional book series. She has read every volume on this trip…and has given me hints about the extreme hardships encountered in settling the American West…including the very places we had visited on our memorable journey! At home, our garage door exterior was graced by large colorful “Welcome Home” posters prepared by each of our granddaughters. Inside our house was a great balloon in the form of a Monarch Butterfly and a vibrant orange-and-yellow floral arrangement…gifts from Dan and Teri, our son and daughter-in-law. Our homecoming was as rich as our journey!

Our granddaughters, Laurel and Ella, have grown in our absence…they are tall and very smart and exceedingly beautiful! Of course…being a Grandpa…I am just a bit PREJUDICED! The girls introduced us to Frankie—our new grand-dog! We like him. He’s a mellow pup. I told Dan that Frankie is to dog-dom what Angie is to cat-dom! This is the highest honor an animal can GET!

Our journey has come to its conclusion. We are honored and grateful that all of you were a part of this adventure with us!

Chapter 3 of the Book of Ecclesiastes starts with one of my favorite verses…
“For everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under Heaven.”

The season for this RV travel adventure is over. We are happy to be home now!

Every season is a reason to celebrate our gift of life!

This blog is now finished. We hereby surrender our military commissions.

Affectionately,
Bob, Barbara and Angie

Over and Out.

HOMECOMING

LATE ENTRY - PROFILE VIEW!!

LATE ENTRY!!

Captain’s Log – Star Dates 08262009 through 08282009
Location: Cruising the Galaxies of Colorado and New Mexico
(Translation: Golden Clear Creek RV Park, Golden, Colorado; Las Vegas KOA, Las Vegas, New Mexico)
Trip Miles: 8,525.0
Diesel Price: $2.67 per gallon; 31.7 gallons loaded at Las Vegas, NM
Report from Engineering: Star Ship Wolverine was making a hell of a racket coming down the I-25! This necessitated a visit to Enchantment Ford in Las Vegas; cracked discovered in exhaust tailpipe; tailpipe weld repair job cost fifty-five bucks. Now, we are cool! Go for the long run home!
Weather: Sunny in a.m. and early p.m.; Temperature at 85F; Severe thunderstorm rains and gusty winds in late afternoon forced emergency berthing at Las Vegas KOA.

Driving to Denver, Colorado, from Cheyenne, Wyoming, was a SHOCK to us! Whereas Cheyenne is a laid-back country town of 55,000, Greater Denver is a megalopolis full of fast-paced young-ish drivers all talking into cell phones! Denver overflows with good-looking people who are into fitness. These are folks on the MOVE…”Let’s Make It HAPPEN!” This was not a pleasant galactic entry and the space pilot got a bit frazzled!

Golden is a cozy New-Age city that is totally dominated by the enormous Coors Brewery. We camped overnight at a pleasant creek-side RV park operated by the City of Golden. The evening of Star Date 08262009 was spent visiting Barbara’s niece Christine, an energetic dentist who recently opened her own Cosmetic and Family Practice Dentistry office. Her high-tech office was gorgeous and so was the house that she and her orthodontist husband Kevin have built in the foothills of the Rockies! We spent a relaxing evening dining with Christine, her two young sons and her two rescued dogs. We were sorry to miss Kevin who was touring New York City with his mother.

At this posting, we greet you from Las Vegas! Friends, Las Vegas, NM, is a HISTORIC (Hah!) town of 16,000 or so and is considerably OLDER than Sin City. Back in the days of the Santa Fe Trail in the early 1800’s, it was an important, thriving trade center. As mentioned in the Captain’s Weather Report, Las Vegas was not yesterday’s intended destination. We had hoped to make Santa Fe before sundown.

Last night I must report that we were feeling sorry for ourselves. We had yet another equipment problem which caused an unplanned layover and loss of a day of travel. Had we not experienced that equipment problem and had we not been required to spend an extra day in Las Vegas, we’d have missed Fort Union National Monument.

Fort Union was an important military supply and defense base on the Santa Fe Trail from 1851 to 1891. The value of the fort passed with the coming of the railroads. Its ruins remain on a remote windswept plain twenty-five miles north of Las Vegas, NM. We toured this silent memorial for two hours, allowing its rich history to speak to us. We had a glimpse of a time when the only way to travel between Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico, was by animal-drawn wagon along a 900-mile rutted dirt track. We had a view into the harshness and dreams of camp life here, especially for the wives. Somehow fittingly, the U.S. flag at the park visitor center flew at half-mast today, in remembrance of the passing of Sen. Ted Kennedy.

We are now on the Long Run Home and have a thousand miles to go before our arrival. We’ll be travelling at Warp Speed…God willing… and will post our next, and last, entry at the conclusion of our journey…

Until then, stay well!

Affectionately,
Captain Baldy

FORT UNION COLLAGE

FORT UNION PANORAMA

Captain’s Log – Star Dates 08222009 through 08242009
Location: Eastern Rim of Galaxy of Wyoming
(Translation: Mountain View RV Park, Sundance, WY; AB Campground, Cheyenne, WY)
Trip Miles: 7800.8
Diesel Price: $2.51/gal in Sundance; 40.7 gallons loaded.
Report from Engineering: Everything’s cool! Keep on truckin’!
Weather: Bright sunshine and thunderstorms with high winds; Daytime temperatures around 80-85F.

I have a Patty Loveless CD playing as we roll into Wyoming on I-94. I LOVE that woman! She is, without ANY doubt …whatsoever…the greatest female country singer alive on the planet today! Her rendition of old country standards is PERFECT for the miles and miles and miles of driving we are required to do while visiting this Rocky Mountain state!

Wyoming is a HUGE piece of real estate with very few people in it! Ninth in size among the U.S. states, it covers nearly one hundred thousand square miles. In this great expanse live roughly half a million inhabitants. Wyoming ranks fiftieth in population among the fifty states. Its total population is approximately one-sixth the population of San Diego County, California. We crossed into the state at Beulah, population 33!

Upon our check-in at the pleasant Mountain View RV Park in Sundance, the proprietor suggested we take in the local rodeo…which was to be held at the fairgrounds about a mile from our campsite! Rodeo is the Sport of Kings here in Wyoming. The locals know how to ride exceedingly well, having learned from early childhood, and the horses that they ride are beautiful. The rodeo was an intimate event, with the fans watching from the backs of pickup trucks and the rails of the rodeo ring. The local Chamber of Commerce was selling the hot dogs, Budweiser and Coors Lite. Courageous participants came in from Montana, the Dakotas and Wyoming. The events were exciting to watch, particularly the bareback bronc riding and bull riding! It is no news that this sport is highly dangerous…the EMT’s were on hand to pick up any wreckage. Watching this evening rodeo was twenty bucks well spent!

“There are things in nature that engender an awful quiet in the heart of man; Devil’s Tower is one of them.” --- F. Scott Momaday, Kiowa author

I have a gripe with Col. Richard Dodge who named this inspiring 867-foot volcanic wonder Devil’s Tower back in 1875. It seems more appropriate to me to call it Bear’s Lodge like the Kiowa did. The Tower has great spiritual significant to several Indian tribes, who gather here for ceremonies each June when the National Park Service has restricted activities such as climbing. About 5,000 climbers come each year to climb the Tower, establishing over 220 routes to the summit. We walked the 1.3-mile path around the Tower in reverent silence early on a Sunday morning.

Our favorite view of the Tower is through a large granite sculpture, entitled “Circle of Sacred Smoke”. This sculpture was created in 2008 by internationally renowned Japanese sculptor Junkyu Moto as part of his international peace project…



Remember the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind? And it’s musical theme DOO-DOO-DOO-DOO-DOOOH? The theme is by Zoltan Kodaly. Devil’s Tower was the filming location for this famous film!

Upon the strongest of local recommendations, we ‘did lunch’ at Cindy B’s at Aladdin, WY, population 15…while listening to a couple of local farmers talk about their hay crops. The lunch recommendation was well justified!

Cheyenne is a great place to watch trains! The long Union Pacific freights stop here to change crews. Outside the artfully restored railroad depot, there is a viewing area where we watched a crew change and departure of a very long mixed-freight train…up close and personal! After seeing U.P. Big Boy 4004(the largest steam locomotive ever built) on display in a Cheyenne park, I was in hog-heaven! The Commodore enjoyed the train view, too! We ate a great lunch at Shadows, inside the depot.

Driving south on US 85 across Weston and Niobrara Counties, we crossed a succession of enormous basins framed by long mesas. The land is sweet and green and gold and the cattle are fat. There’s not much human presence out here…this place makes eastern Nevada look overpopulated! We passed a sign that said Lost Springs, Population 1…Shawnee looks like it died out years ago…we keep rollin’ south…

Onward Into the Galaxy of Colorado!

Affectionately,
Captain Baldy

DEVIL'S TOWER COUNTRY

SUNDANCE RODEO

A DAY IN CHEYENNE

Captain’s Log --- Star Dates 08192009 through 08212009
Location: Star Cluster of Heroes
(Translation: Mount Rushmore National Memorial and surroundings, South Dakota)
Trip Miles – 7300.0
Diesel Price -- $2.68 per gallon; 27.5 gallons
Engineer’s Report – Pesky fresh water leak, otherwise we’re good. Clear for transit to galaxy of Wyoming.
Weather – Brilliant! Daytime temperatures ranged from 49F to 81F.

How does the son of Danish immigrants contain enough genius and love to carve a granite mountain into exquisite 60-foot-high likenesses of great and good men? Of course, Gutzon Borglum was aided by a team of courageous and skilled drillers over a fourteen-year period. Ninety percent of the carving work was done with dynamite! What skill! Barbara was lost in photography here, as befits the artist that she is. Trust us… the sight of Mount Rushmore National Memorial WILL arrest you!


The Crazy Horse Memorial, some twenty miles from Mount Rushmore, will stop you in your tracks as well! This is a huge work-in-progress…a work initiated by Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear and Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski back in 1948. Stupendous in scope, it will take generations, perhaps centuries, to complete. Whatever time is required, this memorial to a great Lakota chief and to all American Indians will be a Wonder of the World in design and in size. No government funding was accepted by the sculptor for this project, which is now directed by the late Korczak’s widow and family. When complete, the statue will be 641-feet long by 563-feet high…the most immense memorial ever created…by white people…to honor the American Indian and his heroes. Rightly so! Workers are now blocking out the 22-story horse head and have painted an outline of its 45-foot ear and 16-foot-wide eye, located 260 feet below Crazy Horse’s face.


Down in Custer State Park, Commodore Barbara sighed as she wistfully scanned the horizon, hoping for a glimpse of a distant bison. Suddenly, she heard the Captain shout, “HOLY S---!”, and jam on the brakes of our truck. About a hundred feet from us was a herd of bison casually ambling down the center of the road! I never--- not EVER---imagined I’d be cutting a path through a herd of wild buffalo. However, seeing as I was driving our well-armored F-250, I did exactly that in order to help a group of bikers who lined up behind us. The critters nonchalantly moved to the side at the last second. We didn’t want to upset them, especially the big bulls. Experts say they can get real mean!

Here are a few of the things we did NOT do while visiting the Black Hills…we did NOT “do” the Presidential Wax Museum, Old McDonald’s Farm, Reptile Gardens, Bear Country, the Black Hills Maze or the Sitting Bull Crystal Cave! We did not do paintball at “Splat!” nor did we check out the Mangy Moose Bar & Grill! Sorry, we didn’t want to part with the required cash to share in these overwhelming experiences! What we DID do is take an engaging FREE tour of the Mount Rushmore Black Hills Gold Jewelry Factory and spend a couple of hours in Rapid City’s arty downtown district. We did some geocaching in this district amid life-size bronze statues of U.S. presidents on each street corner. All our presidents were represented thusly except for Bill Clinton, Dubya and Barack. We’re sure they’ll show up in due course!

In addition to Barbara’s high school reunion, our visit to South Dakota’s Black Hills was a main objective of our journey. There is so much to see and do in the Black Hills – hiking miles of forest trails, enjoying lovely lakes and seeing an abundance of wildlife and unique historic sites! We are delighted we came here and wish we had the time to experience more of the Black Hills’ many attractions!

We are now rolling west on I-90…Wyoming is 17 miles away.

Affectionately,
Captain Baldy

ZOOMING IN ON THE PRESIDENTS

HOBNOBBING WITH PRESIDENTS IN RAPID CITY, SD

AMIDST THE BISON

Captain’s Log – Star Dates 08172009 through 08192009
Locations: Galaxies of Sun, Cloud and Rain
(Translation: Red Trails RV Park, Medora, North Dakota)
Trip Miles: 6852.4
Diesel Price: $2.65 per gallon; 32.2 gallons loaded on board
Engineer’s Report: Sweet! She’s runnin’ smooth as silk! Eide Ford in Bismarck replaced a failed Engine Gas Recirculation (EGR) valve and two clogged fuel filters.
Weather: Mix of sunshine and rain; windy in afternoons; CHILLY, with night temperatures around 48-50F! This is AUGUST – it’s supposed to be hot!

We strongly sensed the intense concentration of the young Chinese acrobat as he stacked twelve chairs in a vertical column…atop the necks of four empty champagne bottles…atop a small table…on the edge of the stage… less than four feet from Barbara’s face! We sat in Seats 3 and 4 in the front row…and we did not BREATHE until this young member of the Acrobats of Beijing finished his program of handstands atop the chair column. The slightest miscalculation on his part would have had us both being air-evacuated to a hospital in Bismarck!

This adventure was part of our viewing of the Medora Musical, a large show of cowboy music, dance and specialty acts, billed as the Greatest Show in the West! Set in a huge outdoor amphitheater, the energetic show was threatened by repeated sprinklings of rain. Medora is a small vacationers’ town set in the stark and beautiful North Dakota Badlands, located 24 miles east of Montana. The rustic town is the gateway to the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park…a park well worth visiting and touring! This park is home to bison, elk, wild horses and noisy towns of black-tailed prairie dogs. We were up-close-and-personal with the prairie dogs and spotted two enormous bison bulls as we drove the 36-mile Scenic Loop Drive around the park.

Amidon

Out of a vast silent green space…
It appears out of nowhere…
This small sign that says twenty five miles per hour…
Alert somehow, I obey that sign…
A wise move…as he sits near that sign… waiting…
The large man with a white cowboy hat
Seated casually in a big white Ford sedan,
The customary official black markings on its sides.
I give him no cause for concern
And we continue our southward journey…

A few miles down the lonely highway
We cross into South Dakota.

Tiny Amidon, North Dakota, was one of the infrequent towns we encountered on our southward ride into South Dakota by way of U.S. Highway 85. The rolling farmland was lovely but very lonely. In the crumbling center of Belle Fourche, South Dakota, we stopped for lunch at Bob’s Café. This was a scene right out of John Steinbeck’s “Travels with Charley”. It was a ‘50’s diner with Grandma doing the cooking in the kitchen and tape covering the holes in the lime-green plastic seats. Bob was nowhere to be seen…maybe he was dead. The young pregnant waitress slammed a plastic bottle of salad dressing on our table. We ate the passable food quickly but did not linger. Allowing your navigation system to choose your dining establishments can lead to some strange adventures.

The Black Hills, a vacation Mecca set in pine-covered mountains, came upon us suddenly. The Mt. Rushmore/Hill City KOA RV Resort where we are staying is the plushest RV resort we have ever seen. We were efficiently given reams of information on activities and scenic drives in the Black Hills. There is an on-site full-service restaurant here and a general store that Proudly Brews Starbuck’s Coffee. Sweet!

Mount Rushmore is only five miles away. We’ll have a lot of Black Hills information to pass on to you in our next blog post. I’m tired and plan to get a long night’s sleep.

Have a nice night – we’ll see you electronically in the morning!

Affectionately,
Captain Baldy

THEODORE ROOSEVELT NATIONAL PARK, ND

MEDORA MUSICAL

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

Captain’s Log -- Star Dates 08142009 through 08162009
Location: Transiting across the Galaxy of Minnesota into the Galaxy of North Dakota
(Translation: Bismarck KOA, Bismarck, North Dakota)
Trip Miles – 6623.8
Diesel Price -- $2.66 per gallon; 37.5 gallons loaded
Weather: Mixed; Brilliant sunshine to cloudy to driving rain; heavy winds in Bismarck, ND
Engineering Report: This towing problem at 2000 rpm (60 miles per hour) is getting the poor Chief Engineer all wrapped around the axle! He’s checking with Eide Ford in Bismarck on Star Date 08172009.
Medical Report on the Commodore: All wrinkles in right hand have returned. Mixed Blessing!

The weather on our last day in Duluth was absolutely gorgeous beyond belief. Our only trouble was…this is sad….we had failed to replace the camera battery after charging it the previous night! So…instead of empowering Barbara in taking her famous photographs… the battery sat neatly in the charging cradle in our trailer twenty miles away! Back to the ancient discipline of using our memories to record our experience!

In search of a geocache, we were led to a tiny hidden beach surrounded by vibrant flower gardens. We hoofed across the Highest Lift Bridge in the World and nosed around the informative Corps of Engineers Maritime Museum. Duluth has 11,000 acres of open space and graciously provided excellent trails in Lester Park for our late-afternoon hike.

Oh, if y’all just happen to be in Duluth, stop by Caribou Coffee Roasters in the Canal District. They sell a dark roast named “Obsidian”. Really FINE!

Rolling westward across Northern Minnesota on Highways 200 and 34 involved many miles of driving rain, large and small lakes and a billion more pine trees. The North Dakota Visitor Center at Fargo has a multi-colored bison statue and serves hot popcorn for free! A touch of CLASS! This touch makes a couple of weary travelers feel welcome!

Minutes of All-Hands Meeting of Star Ship Wolverine Crew with Ship’s Officers, Star Date 08152009

Crew: We are burned OUT! We don’t want to see any d--- LAKES…or sweet, happy FAMILIES on vacation…or cute little-blond-haired-blue-eyed KIDS…or impressive monuments to the HEROIC DEEDS of those mighty square-jawed pioneering VISIONARIES who preceded us! We don’t want to see any more d--- FAMOUS HISTORICAL SITES…or…hear any more INSPIRING PATRIOTIC messages! At that hokey National Buffalo Museum over in Jamestown, ND, we saw the Biggest Buffalo on Earth (a d--- bronze statue) but didn’t see any REAL buffalo in the bison preserve next to it! They must have been hiding in the d--- TREES! Crap! We just want to be HOME in San Diego NOW!

Captain: Suck it up!

Commodore: There will be a BRIGHTER DAY tomorrow!

Admiral: Whatever! (Blink)

Star Date 08162009… the Commodore was right! We made many calls to family and friends. Rolling toward Bismarck, we passed enormous waving fields of sunflowers, corn and wheat. I assumed the land hereabouts would be dead-flat, but it waves gracefully! The State Capitol Complex, with its vast green lawn, invited us to pause and look around! In the late afternoon, we viewed the majestic, winding Missouri River from a windswept hilltop.

At the North Dakota Heritage Center, the Captain bought a really COOL ball cap with a bison on the front. It makes him look stalwart. He’s happy now!

As the kid in our favorite Kaiser Permanente commercial says, “Things are lookin’ up!”

Affectionately,
Captain Baldy

NORTH DAKOTA COLLAGE

NORTH DAKOTA SUNFLOWERS

Captain’s Log – Star Dates 08102009 through 08132009
Location: Transiting the outer rims of the Great Galaxies of Wisconsin and Minnesota
(Translation: Chain O’ Lakes RV Park, Eagle River, Wisconsin and Ogston’s RV
Park near Duluth, Minnesota)
Trip Miles -- 6064.2
Diesel Price -- $2.69 per gallon; 29.0 gallons loaded on board
Report from Engineering – Chief Engineer fretted over occasional dragging sound when truck is under trailer load; consulted with Ford Service Center in Cloquet, MN; occurrence somehow tied to codes in engine computer; decided to make this occurrence a non-problem unless other problems appear…in short, Chief Engineer, chill out!
Weather: Summer has arrived after unseasonably cool weather; warm (80-85 F); lots of wildflowers along roadsides much to the delight of the Commodore!

I’ll BET you don’t have a tee shirt like the one I have! MINE is navy blue with OLD GEEZER FORMERLY KNOWN AS STUD MUFFIN written across the front of it! Yes, this is a fact! My dear wife presented it to me on my 71st birthday! That was on Star Date 08102009. While wearing it, I get LOTS of attention from women! Of course, all they do is look at me, laugh, and tell me that they want to buy that shirt for their husbands.

Driving west across Michigan’s UP, we found roadside services to be few and far-between. It’s pretty remote up here and I was forewarned by my brother-in-law to load up on fuel before starting out on that trek! I obeyed his suggestion…a wise move since all one can see up here are trees, trees and more trees. Our view of Marquette, Michigan, was a collage of a busted-up roadway and a flabby, pathetic two-ounce mushroom burger at Beef-A-Roo! That was my BIRTHDAY LUNCH, beloveds! Now, isn’t that truly sad? It breaks my heart just to remember it! Sniff!

My granddaughters, my son, my daughter, friends and our financial planner all called to wish me a Happy Birthday while I was driving the UP…now, that was a joy that brightened the day!

Northern Wisconsin is a jewel…a lot of jewels, actually! There are long necklaces of sparkling lakes and miles of hiking trails…a paradise for outdoors people. We were INTREPID… we rented a two-person kayak and BRAVED rapids and collisions with submerged rocks as we were SWEPT down the raging Wisconsin River! Uh…I’m Irish and I stretch the truth just a bit! The water was crystalline and peaceful, the day was sunny and the trip was glorious! The sighting of a large black-and-white osprey in flight was a special bonus for us…as was the inviting Eagle River Coffee Roasters Shop which served excellent brew and had fast Wi-Fi service for our Internet tasks!

MEDICAL EMERGENCY – A HORSEFLY BIT BARBARA ON THE RING FINGER KNUCKLE OF THE RIGHT HAND; THE HAND SWELLED UP TAKING ALL THE WRINKLES OUT OF HER SKIN; A NURSE FRIEND SUGGESTED SHE APPLY AN ICE PACK. TREATMENT IN PROGRESS. REPORT TO FOLLOW!

Duluth is a lively city with lots of activities! We walked the Boardwalk along the western tip of Lake Superior, had lunch at Grandma’s Grill, and took a most interesting tour of the William A. Irvin, a U.S. Steel taconite iron ore carrier ship with 40-years of service on the Great Lakes. John, our tour guide, had 37 years of service aboard ships such as the Irwin.

At this writing, we are hunkered down in our trailer at Ogston’s RV Park. Angie is pestering us to let her go outside. That would be unwise as a large flock of Canada geese is outside our door. Also, the park manager told me there are coyotes, wolves and foxes in the area….so…we’ll stay inside, Angie! Sorry about that!

Affectionately,
Captain Baldy

WISCONSIN RIVER REFLECTIONS

PERILS OF THE WISCONSIN RIVER

LIFE IS AN ADVENTURE!

CHAIN O' LAKES, EAGLE RIVER, WISCONSIN

DULUTH LAKEFRONT SCENES

Captain’s Log – Star Dates 08062009 through 08092009
Location – Star Cluster of Mackinac
(Translation: Tiki RV Park, St. Ignace, Upper Peninsula (UP), Michigan)
Trip Miles – 5923.4
Diesel Price – $2.65 per gallon; 40.5 gallons taken on board.
Engineer’s Report – We’re good for rollin’ across the UP!
Weather—Sunshine followed by steady rain followed by thunderstorms followed by sunshine; Temperatures near 75F.
Local Cultural Note – MACKINAC is pronounced MACKINAW.

WHY do Michigan semi’s have so many AXLES on the trailers? I’ve counted as many as EIGHT on a single trailer! My brother-in-law Bob, a retired Wisconsin dentist and proud possessor of a Class A driver’s license, says these rigs are called caterpillars and are not allowed on highways outside of Michigan! ‘Tis a puzzlement to me!

We have entered the Land of Fudge! There are fudge shops – bearing names like Fudge-A-Mac, Fudge-A-Lock and Murdick’s – everywhere! They are brightly lit and open late at night! They sell Cherry FUDGE, Vanilla FUDGE, Peanut Butter FUDGE and Chocolate Walnut FUDGE! Looking in the windows of these palaces of decadence, I can feel my four coronary artery bypass grafts locking up!

We rode over to Mackinac Island on a spiffy catamaran ferry boat at 35 mph. Automobiles have been banned on the island for 100 years ( the only modern exceptions to this rule are 1 ambulance, 2 fire trucks, and 1 police car). There is a police force of eight and a Grades K-12 school with 75 students. Also, there is an emergency medical center where, as our young tour guide advised us, tourists get treated for bike accidents and fudge overdose!

Unless walking, biking or riding horseback, people get around here on 35-person passenger carriages drawn by teams of three enormous Belgian draft horses. The island is a charming place, even if an overcrowded tourist destination. A true highlight for us was our visit to the Butterfly Conservatory. Hundreds of spectacular butterflies and moths, from Asia, Africa and South America, fly free in a large enclosure. They lead a simple life. As the Commodore said, in an oddly genteel manner, “they are beautiful, they get married, they beget babies and they die” --- all within a life span of 3 to 10 days!

We drove north on Interstate 75 to Sault Ste. Marie, MI, in a steady, warm rain. Over hot Yellow Brazilian coffee at the Cup of the Day on Ashmun Street, I completed our Internet business and then ate a tasty chicken pasty for lunch at Karl’s Cuisine, next to the Soo Locks. Karl’s was stoutly recommended by the locals as serving the best pasties in the area. Pasties (which are meat-vegetable-potato pies) originated in Cornwall, England, and came over with the Cornish miners who worked in the UP iron ore mines a century or so ago. Pasties are another hallowed UP tradition. My doctor in San Diego – who came from the UP – told me I HAD to have a pasty when in the UP. So- being a most compliant patient – I did so! The chicken pasty was truly delicious!

As we were dining only a few feet from the International Bridge into Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, Barb and I decided to make our Soo Locks trip an “international experience”. I had brought our passports along for this possibility. We crossed over, took a pleasant, if sodden, nature trail hike near the locks, scored two geocaches, gathered Ontario tourist information from helpful tourist guides, and then drove back to the USA. From the International Bridge, we saw a thousand-foot iron-ore carrier entering the 1200-foot-long Poe Lock (Soo Lock Number 2) from Lake Superior. From the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers observation platform, we later watched the same ship transit the lock and depart into Lake Huron. The Poe Lock dropped the huge ship…named Indiana Harbor… 21 feet. What a show! A scholarly youngish dude standing with us on that platform informed us that we could find all the information we could desire on the Indiana Harbor –or any other ship on the Great Lakes—by logging into www.boatnerd.com! The Lord doth provide for my need!

On Friday evening, we joined tourists and locals on the Evening Vespers Cruise on Lake Huron. This cruise is conducted each week by local churches and is supported by a free-will offering taken during the 1 ½ - hour ride under the Mackinac Straits Bridge. This magnificent bridge is five miles long and has suspension towers that rise 533 feet above lake level. The sunset was glorious beyond belief and this cruise was one of the high points of our visit to the UP.

Enjoy Commodore Barbara’s pictures, fellow travelers, and hang in with us! We now head westward across Wisconsin and Minnesota toward the Dakotas!

Affectionately,
Captain Baldy

CROSSING THE BRIDGE!

MACKINAC STRAITS BRIDGE AT SUNSET

MACKINAC ISLAND SCENES

WINGS OF MACKINAC

SAULT STE. MARIE

Captain’s Log – Star Dates 08032009 through 08052009
Location: Star Cluster of the Sleeping Bear
(Translation: Traverse City KOA, Buckley, Michigan)
Trip Miles -- 5661.4
Diesel Price -- $2.55 per gallon; 32.8 gallons loaded.
Report from Engineering: Everything is smooth as a baby’s butt since the engine repair! Sweet!
Weather: Truly spectacular! Brilliantly sunny with daytime temperatures of 75 to 78 degrees F.

Raymond W. Overholzer was one strange character! First, he married his third-grade teacher, who was 24 years older than he was. Second, he built a small house out in the bush below Baldwin, Michigan. Third, when Henry Ford offered Overholzer fifty grand for a wooden table he’d made, the crazy dude REFUSED!

Overholzer was, however, an inspired worker of wood – a Da Vinci – class artist who spent his life creating masterpieces of furniture from pine stumps left over from clearing land for farming. The house he built is today known as the Shrine of the Pines and is a must-see for anyone visiting the state of Michigan! Examples of his work include a rocking chair so perfectly balanced that it will rock over 50 times before stopping. He built an enormous 70-ton fireplace in his home from local stone. The magnificent table he crafted from a 700-pound pine stump was the table Henry Ford craved. We had not expected to come here and knew nothing of this out-of-our-way treasure. John Lincoln suggested our visit --- John and his wife Linda toured the Shrine with us. We were in awe and grateful to John for suggesting our visit!

We would not have visited this treasure-crammed part of Michigan had it not been for Tom Bishop. Tom is Barbara’s childhood friend and high-school classmate. At the class reunion, Tom and his wife Cathy asked us to visit them at their home on Crystal Lake near Frankfort, Michigan. Happily, we did so…and performed our day’s worth of exercise pedaling Tom’s pontoon boat on the ultra-clear, blue surface of Crystal Lake! Tom and Cathy then gave us the grand tour of Frankfort, a vibrant, charming artists’ town on Lake Michigan. We all walked on the beach at Point Betsie Lighthouse. In the evening, Tom and Cathy graciously treated us to a lake perch dinner. Tom, a veteran fisherman, had caught the delicate fish himself, filleted them, covered them with a special seasoning and cooked them with love to a golden brown. Served with fresh fruit and Cathy’s hot home-made bread…they made a dinner to remember for life!

The Interlochen Center for the Arts hosts an internationally-renowned summer program for youthful musicians and artists from all 50 states and 40 countries. I heard about this famous place as a high school music student. Barbara spent a summer here before a series of injuries ended her professional dance career. It was silent on the day we made our visit to the lovely lakeside campus, the summer program having ended a few days previously. Sadly, we could hear no music being rehearsed! So…we mounted the Kresge Auditorium stage and performed ourselves for Barbara’s camera! We even drew an ovation from two girls sitting in the back of the hall! Classical music, broadcast over Interlochen Radio at 88.7 FM, is a friend on our travels in this region.

North of Traverse City, Michigan Route 22 winds along Grand Traverse Bay toward Northport --- the perfect road for a relaxed, scenic drive. At the tidy Northport marina, we learn that Michigan has more registered boats than any other state. Boat and ship traffic creates a problem for the lake ecology through the introduction of foreign species, such as Zebra mussels and sea lampreys.

Heading south along the Lake Michigan shoreline, Barb enters her photographer-mode! Entering the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore, she is in utter rapture over the fields of tiny purple flowers along Route 22. We must STOP and take PICTURES…NOW! Later, we learn that these plants are spotted knapweed, a terrible-awful alien species that destroys native plants with a chemical toxin. What an absolute BUMMER!

Try a fast climb up a tall sand dune, friends and neighbors! That activity will raise your heart-rate for sure! We did it at the Dune Climb at Sleeping Bear. We also drove the lovely 7-mile Pierce Stocking scenic loop, which gave us glorious views of dense forests of birch, the Lake Michigan shore and fields of high dunes.

There are too many – far too many—treasures here to share them all with you! Please enjoy Barbara’s wonderful photo displays!

We are now buying a “Sea-Salt-Scrub” scented candle at the fragrant Candle Factory in Traverse City and rolling up Highway 31 toward the great Mackinac Straits Bridge to the Upper Peninsula – the UP! Stay with us and enjoy the ride!

Affectionately,

Captain Baldy

LAKE LIVIN'

SAND AND WATER

INTERLOCHEN ARTS CENTER

SHRINE OF THE PINES

Captain’s Report of Reunions ---

“YA GOTTA CHANGE YER EVIL WAYS, BAYBEH!” … the heavy thump of the Soul’d Out Rock Band is working up the Budweiser-fueled Friday Night crowd in Hackley Park in Muskegon. Over in the southeast corner of the park, a big orange sign marks the territory of the Muskegon Heights High School (MHHS) Class of 1959. Barbara talks animatedly with a collection of men and women, conversing in a language I cannot possibly understand. I am, after all, an outsider. The three-day Class of ’59 Reunion is in full swing! A kind classmate of Barbara’s offers me a folding chair, an offer I accept with gratitude. I start a conversation with the husband of another classmate. This is a serious mistake since the dude, a retired MIT aerospace engineer, regales me with story after story after boring story about his guidance system accomplishments on intercontinental ballistic missiles. I’m a retired engineer but I don’t do engineer stories! After two hours in the grasp of this guy, I snag Barbara and whisper “I’ve had it!” She graciously permits us to leave and we dine on good Mexican food at Pablo’s Tacos.

The formal Reunion evening gig was held at the Muskegon Country Club on Thursday evening. It was an event that was rich in reminiscence. Barbara was absolutely stunning in the black-and-white dress she had bought for this reunion. Ninety graduates were present at the reunion dinner and the names were read of fifty-two class members who had passed away. During the evening, a man came up to Barbara and said, “Remember me? I’m Richard Pascoe.” He was the first guy Barbara had kissed back in the sixth grade! Ken Thornley, Barb’s father, taught physics and chemistry at MHHS before his retirement in 1969. Barb received many appreciative comments on his inventive approach to teaching. She also received praise for the three Broadway musicals she choreographed while a student at MHHS.

The cozy Winter Inn, in Greenville, Michigan, was the site of the Lincoln Family Reunion on Sunday afternoon. The relatives who showed up were folks who hadn’t seen each other in thirty years or more! John Lincoln, Barb’s first cousin from Cleveland, Ohio, is an avid historian and pulled the whole deal together. Bob and Joan Thornley, Barb’s brother and sister-in-law, took the ferry across Lake Michigan to be a part of the event. There was a detailed genealogical chart at the reunion, dating back to Thomas Lincoln in 1694…MAYBE a shared ancestor with Abe Lincoln! The verdict is still out on that connection!

After lunch at the Winter Inn, we convened to the nearby home of Russell Lincoln for coffee, dessert and more conversation. Russell must know every moth in North America…he showed us collection after collection of neatly-displayed specimens he has collected over the years. Oh! Made-in-Michigan Hudsonville vanilla ice cream with Russell’s Michigan blueberry sauce? Seriously GLORIOUS!

Well, friends and family, we have reached the “easternmost” point in our journey! From here on, we are heading toward home…via a northern route through a whole passel of new galaxies! That leg of the journey will take another month…so stay connected!

Affectionately,

Captain Baldy

ILLUSTRIOUS CLASS OF '59

LITTLE BARB ON GRANDPA LINCOLN'S LAP;GENEOLOGY CHART

BARB WITH JOHN LINCOLN

BARB, BOB T,ROGER, JOHN, DON

Captain’s Log – Star Dates 07272009 through 07292009
Location – deep within the Sub-Galaxy of Grand Rapids-Muskegon-Grand Haven
(Translation: River Pines RV Park, Allendale, Michigan)
Trip Miles – 5119.4
Diesel Price - $2.40 per gallon; 31.3 gallons loaded on board
Weather – Sunny and Pleasant; Daytime Temperature – 78F

Special Report from Engineering – Major overhaul of truck Diesel engine completed; overhaul included repair and refurbishment of the engine cooling system and replacement of a faulty fuel-injection electronic control module; all post-overhaul checkouts completed satisfactorily. Star Ship Wolverine is cleared for further explorations in the Galaxy of Michigan.

Do you remember Julius Caesar’s famous quote, “I came, I saw, I conquered!”? Well … here is Captain Baldy’s version of those noted words… I came, I saw, I SPENT! Yes, the repair job…which took two days…was expensive! Yes, the Commodore and I sobbed and moaned a little bit! No, I shall not tell you how much it cost since you’ll immediately tell me your Cousin Frank could have done it for one-third the price. Then, I’ll feel bad about myself and hate your guts forever and ever!

All that having been said, here are the good things that accompanied this misadventure…
1. Nobody got hurt.
2. We didn’t damage anyone else’s property.
3. The failure occurred at the best possible location – at a rest stop off the Interstate.
4. We had great service from AAA and the genial dude who towed us into Fox Ford in Grand Rapids.
5. Barnes & Noble was within easy walking distance from Fox Ford…thus, we had a great place to hang out, have decent coffee and catch up on our Internet work.
6. While our truck was being repaired, we had use of a decent Ford Taurus loaner car.
7. Fox Ford did a first-rate job in repairing our truck.
8. Before performing the major repair work, Fox Ford was able to fix our truck enough to allow us to tow our trailer to a VERY restful, beautiful RV park nearby.

Do we have cause to complain? We think not!!

Grand Haven is a cool little shore town on Lake Michigan, just south of Muskegon. It’s the “in-place-to-be” during the annual August Coast Guard Festival. The downtown area turns into a major carnival – yes, you can buy deep-fried dill pickles here if you’re sick enough to do such a thing – and there are dances, fireworks and a huge musical fountain! The USS Mackinaw, a heavy ice-breaker is all spiffied up for tours and the walk on the breakwater is a REAL EVENT. The high-school hotties, in their teensy-weensy bikinis, are out in force and the testosterone from juvenile males flows like a raging river! I got a slight squirt of testosterone from this scene and I have to remember I’m a heart patient!! Barbara constantly muttered that she NEVER looked like that when she was a teen! Life’s a grand adventure, for sure!

I never cease to be AWED by the sight of Lake Michigan…it’s an OCEAN! It’s so huge! I keep sniffing for a salt smell and there isn’t any! Pere Marquette Beach in Muskegon was particularly beautiful on the sunny day we visited this beach … the sand is sugary and pristine. The kite-boarders put on an exciting show for us on another day when the weather was blustery and windy!

Admiral Angie has really taken to the River Park RV Park where we’ve been staying while our truck was repaired! We let her roam outside and she has been very busy claiming and marking her TERRITORY! If there were coyotes around here, she wouldn’t last for a second! She’s so white you could see her from space!

We have reunions to tell y’all about…but all those will be covered in our next blog post!

Our son Dan just called us – his family just adopted a new puppy!

As e.e. cummings said – “I thank YOU GOD for this most amazing day!”

Affectionately,

Captain Baldy