Just some musings while I'm at the coffee shop

I've been enjoying my father's newest stray cat (he now has 3 outside and 3 in), who we've named Tom, as he is an un-neutered male. An orange and white tiger-stripe, he is by far the cuddliest of the 6, to me anyway. He wants to head-butt, drool all over me, purr, have his belly rubbed..... I feel a bit like I should have a cigarette when we're done. I'd really like to bring him home with me but he's in such good shape it seems like he must really belong to one of the neighbors. He certainly has no hint of "feral cat" in him. Also, I'm a bit worried about adopting anothe cat before I'm sure I have all of the Sabrina-pee smell obliterated from my carpeting.

I haven't been rained on since I left Seattle on May 16th, and the past couple of days here have been just stellar.... bright sunshine, 70 degrees. I've doing after-dinner bike rides of 15-20 miles on lovely, flat, low-traffic back roads. Yesterday I stopped for a brief visit with a couple that lived just down the road from us when I was a kid; they still live in the same place, and they remembered me. The first thing Fran said was "You loved my husband!"; Charlie's farm fields bordered the house where I was born, and I would see him out on his tractor and say THAT was who I was going to marry.

So many of the people I knew when I lived here still live in the same houses, or built houses right down the street from their parents. I stopped and talked to another couple who were just a year ahead of me in high school. They got married right out of high school, built a house just a couple of doors down from Candy's mom's, who still lives there. And Henry's mom and sister still live less than a mile away. Then there's my dad's brother, still living where he grew up in Standish, with his son and family, two grand-daughters and families, grandson, and a passle of great-grandkids (and possibly a few more I've forgotten) all living within a short walk. It's all such a different life from what I've lived.  I wouldn't trade my life for anything, but I do wonder what it would've been like. I sometimes think that that in one of my next lives I'm going to have 5 or 6 kids and be a farm wife.  One could do worse than to be my Aunt Gin.

Relaxing at Chippewa Pines

It's hot and humid, to me anyway, here at Chippewa Pines, although I must admit the thermometer says it's not even 80. I don't know that I could survive summmers (or winters) back here anymore.  I've been picking enough asparagus for dinner every day, watching birds, listening to frogs, watching Gunsmoke and Bonanza and Hee Haw and Lawrence Welk with my dad.

And trying not to stare too long in morbid fascination at Faux News: Benghazi, Obama is bad, Obamacare is bad, Medicaid costs too much, Obama is bad, Veterans admin is scandalous, Obama is bad, Hillary is evil, Obama is bad. Repeat ad infinitum. It would be funny if so many people didn't take everything they say as the gospel truth.

Have been out on the bike a few times. Kayaking planned for tomorrow or the next day.

Finally made it into the coffee shop to upload some pictures, so here are a few from the last day of my driving trip.

The Cut River Bridge, just a few miles west of the Mackinaw Bridge in Michigan's UP.

Trout Lilies

Lake Michigan from the Cut River Bridge. Ice free!

That brown swath heading leftward is the tannins from the Cut River hitting the blue blue lake.

Back Down Into Spring

Made it to my Michigan home last night just after dinner time. On the way I stopped for a walk at the Cut River Bridge, on Lake Michigan. Less than 60 miles from Lake Superior, but ice free. Will post some pictures when I get into town.

Meanwhile, if you are reading this, please consider sending me an email now and then. I get lonely for news from friends when I travel! Remember, if you are subscribed to this blog by email, you CANNOT just reply to the email! You must send directly to my email address. I prefer not to post that here, but if you don't know it you can always leave me a comment. All emails will receive replies, I promise!

Just went out a picked a mess of asparagus to have with venison for dinner. Yum!

 

 

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Biking, coal plants, and more ice.

After spending an hour or so walking around downtown Marquette this morning in warm spring sunshine, I decided I needed another day here. This town is quite enchanting; it reminds me a whole lot of Port Townsend, WA. Same beautiful old stone buildings, same two-level town (waterside and up the hill), same counter-culture + tourists feel, same big old ugly polluting industry at one end of town. And at least two espresso places and two brewpubs.

Strangely, there are not one but TWO coal burning power plants here, one at either end of town. One of them, Presque Isle, Wikepedia says generates 90% of the electricity for the entire UP and 12% of Wisconsin's. The other one, Shiras, aka Marquette Municipal , I guess is just for Marquette? I don't get it. Anyway, I guess I won't move to Marquette after all.

This afternoon I rented a bike and spent several hours riding the paved trail along the waterfront. It runs at least 10 miles or so, possibly more. It was very windy and the clouds came in and I got cold, so turned around. But I did make it out to beautiful Presque Isle park, where I had lunch sitting in sunshine on the rocks along the lake. watching the bobbing ice floes.

There are lots of snowmobile/mountainbike trails through the woods here, and I even dared to ride a quarter mile or so of singletrack. Would have liked to go further but I didn't think it was wise given that (a) nobody in the world knows where I am (b) I have no spare tube, no pump, and a rear tire with no tread remaining, and (c) I'm old. But I don't think (c) would've stopped me.

Marquette City Hall

This is for my friend Susan Lahti. In a town I drove through yesterday, hard to say which one....I only know that I was looking for a latte and they didn't have any!

My lunch spot

Marquette. That hulking thing off to the left is an old ore dock

Marquette Courthouse

The hotel I stayed at, and the ore dock 

We're in pasty country !

Proof that spring is coming...

Anyone for a swim?

Still in the frozen north

For the last night of my trip I am treating myself to a nice hotel right on the water in downtown Marquette, Michigan. I have a nice view of Lake Superior and what appears to be a large coal-fired power plant. I can see inviting sandy beaches across the bay, but they would be more inviting without the intervening ice floes.

 Looks like there's a bike trail running right along the lake below my window. Oh man, I am never travelling without my bike again!

With all of 21000 people, Marquette is the largest city in Michigan's upper peninsula.

I got a late start this morning after sleeping in, and then lingering over a fabulous latte at Dunn Brothers coffee, right next to my Duluth hotel. I guess this must be a Minnesota chain, as I have never seen it elsewhere. The place is very close to University of Minnesota Duluth, and was full of collegiate-looking people. It was so busy I had to share a table with three girls, at least one of whom was working on her master's in something like "applied computational mathematics".

I had lunch in Wisconsin, right across the water from the Apostle Islands. I guess I missed it: just a couple of months ago I could've walked out over the ice to see the ice caves (which happens only in rare years), and in another few weeks I could take a ferry out for a day. But right now the only option is a day long boat tour which doesn't stop anywhere.

There's more open water here but still plenty of ice to be seen, and I even passed a patch of lingering snow along the road today. I will be happy to turn southward tomorrow. Just an easy 300 mile drive and I will be done!

Yet another center of the universe

And yet now I find that it's Duluth that may be the center of the universe, rather than Wallace or Fremont! I am so confused.
As evidence, this is worth a read:
http://www.americanheritage.com/content/untold-delights-duluth?page=3

I am just back from a long walk in downtown Duluth, along the foggy, sunny, foggy, sunny, no, wait, foggy,  frigid shores of Lake Superior. And I do mean frigid: it's still slushy ice as far as the eye can see. It's 40F at 7pm and the locals are out running the lakeshore trail in shorts and tank tops. Myself, I had to put on socks, shoes, and long pants for the first time this trip. And a jacket, even!

Much to my surpise, this is a big city. Technically the population is only about 85000, but the surrounding metroplex tops 130,000 and the "metropolitan statistical area" (A US census term) tops a quarter million. It feels more like a quarter million city to me. And that's down quite a bit from peak population in the 1960's. What are all these people doing up here in the frozen north? I'll refer you to Wikipedia for that.

Locals tell me it's not unusual for there to be some ice left at this time of year. But this is a lot. Hardly any leaves on the trees yet either.

Duluth

Lake Superior, May 20th, 2014. Those are big ships out there, possibly waiting for the ice to clear?

Aerial Lift Bridge, Duluth. This is like a drawbridge, but the center section gets lifted straight up. It's about halfway opened in this picture. so some big ships are getting through.

Vickie enjoying Duluth

Large holsteins, buffalo, and a sinfully delicious dessert

Last night I stayed in Dickinson, ND, where the oil boom is in full swing. Half the vehicles at the hotel were trucks covered in oilfield red dust, the hotel prices were about 50% higher than  I’ve seen so far (although I found a last minute deal through hotels.com), and all of the hotels and restaurants look like they’ve been built in the past 3 years, which they probably have. I wonder what this place will look like when the boom goes bust.

This morning Scout (my gps) found me a tiny, delightful little espresso place. Amazingly, there is no Starbucks here yet, although a new building right across the street looks suspiciously Starbucks-ish. Anyway, what I had this morning was worlds better than Starbucks and accompanied by a nice chat with 3 locals, the four of us basically filling the place. Two of them said they hated the boom town aspect of things and feared for the future of the town. But the other one, a local business owner, says her business, a GNC (one of those nutrition and vitamin places), has gone from $100K per year to closer to a million, so she’s not complaining. Apparently, protein supplements are big with the oil workers. Another said that yesterday he’d witnessed a 25-year-old at Menards buy $1000 worth of stuff with cash.

Yesterday I visited Pompey’s Pillar National Monument and Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Pompey’s Pillar’s claim to fame is William Clark’s (of Lewis and Clark) signature carved into the base of a  big rock which you can climb to the top of for a nice view. It’s named after Sacajawea’s son who Clark nicknamed “Pomp”. Everything to  be seen there can be easily seen in about a half hour, but it’s worth a stop.

TRNP is another one of thos places I wish I had a bit more time at. I did the 36-mile loop drive through, stopping for several enjoyable little hikes. There are about 150 wild horses in the park, and I saw two bands of them, from a distance. Coming back from one of the hikes a woman stopped me and asked if I remember the colors of the horses in the band I’d seen. She is a volunteer horse-tracker, who comes out here from San Diego twice a year to track the status of the various bands. She showed me a notebook full of pictures, but I could not swear to whom I’d seen.

At one point I drove around a corner and thought, geez, what is that huge black boulder doing in the road? Buffalo! Lots of them!

Bless me father, for I have sinned. Last night in addition to two manhattans, I had the most sinfully delicious dessert in memory, an Apple Chimi Cheesecake at Applebee’s. “Creamy cheesecake and caramel apples wrapped in a tortilla shell and lightly fried. We roll it in cinnamon sugar and place it on a bed of roasted apples. Served with ice cream and topped with caramel sauce.” God that was good. (I did have some real food with dinner too.) Stopped at another Applebee’s for lunch, and salivated over that description again, but I’ve managed to limit myself to just a salad today.

Tonight I'm in Fargo, at Ann and Ed's house. Ann is a friend from my 2005 cross-country bike tour, and I had a very nice visit with her this evening. Tomorrow I'm headed for Duluth, which I had been thinking was right on the border with Michigan. Hmmm.... I seemed to have forgotten about Wisconsin.....

In Teddy Roosevelt National Park

Salem Sue, the largest Holstein in the world. I also passed the largest Buffalo and the largest Sandhill Crane, but they did not seem as blogworthy

This rather large critter crossed my path at TRNP, but did not seem to have a rattle attached. Probably a bull snake?

Yellowstone River from TRNP

Lilacs, magnificent old houses, and the Center of the Universe

I'm just back from a lilac-scented stroll down a quiet, wide, tree-lined boulevard of fabulous big, old houses, all in pristine condition. And where might this be? Downtown Billings, Montana, where tonight I am staying at the Dude Rancher Lodge. The Lodge, with it's knotty-pine-panelled rooms and carpeting custom-made to show local cattle brands, is on the national register of historic places, as are a few of the houses I passed. It's not fancy, and a bit worn, but clean and serviceable and just a couple of blocks from the center of downtown.

Downtown Billings seems alive and well, with restaurants, galleries, and at least one espresso place, unfortunately closed in the morning (Sunday.)

And I barely missed the annual tour of historic homes, which ended at 4pm today. Perhaps the lawns are not always that well manicured....

I was so tired at the end of yesterday I wondered whether I could possibly survive another 4 or 5 days of driving. But even though I drove further today, it seemed easier, and I once again started fantasizing about staying on the road for months on end, by car or by bike. I like stopping for coffee in mid-afternoon and using hotels.come or tripadvisor to reserve a place to stay an hour or two down the road and then letting Scout tell me how to get there. It's possible I could find a cheaper place by just waiting until I got there, but it would likely be someplace along the freeway on the outskirts of town, in walmartland. I much prefer to stay somewhere with more character.

An important fact I neglected to mention about Wallace, Idaho: It is the center of the universe.

 http://wallace-id.com/centeroftheuniverse.html

Since we know that Fremont, in Seattle, is the center of the KNOWN universe, what conclusions can we draw from this? That people in Wallace know more than people in Fremont? That the diameter of the universe is at least 400 miles larger than Fremont thinks it is?

While we're pondering that, here are a few pictures from yesterday:

Crossing the mighty Columbia

Wild horses above the columbia

Mailbox in Wallace. I've seen the airmail on top thing before, but note the email monitor in the middle.

a ponderable

The Cobblestone, in Wallace ID

Wallace Idaho

I stayed last night in the charming little town of Wallace, Idaho, an hour or so east of Couer d'Alene, after 400 miles and 9 hours on the road. I figure I need to do at least 400 miles per day if I have any hope of making it to Michigan in 5 or 6 days, allowing for a few stops of interest along the way. The day took me longer than it should: I had intended to wait until after rush hour to leave, but I tossed and turned all night and finally at 4:30 am gave up, threw the stuff in the car, and made the 6am ferry. Which put me pretty much in prime rush hour going through Kirkland and Bellevue. That, various road repair projects, and a totally unexplained backup near Spokane, made me very happy I had packed a few Starbucks Doubleshots in the cooler.

With the early start, I was here by 2:30. As soon as I pulled in I got out the ipad and made a reservation on Hotels.com, where I have finally earned a free night! The downside of that was it took the reservation about an hour to work its way from Hotels.com to the actual hotel, but that's OK because I wanted a walk anyway.  What a pretty little town, full of old craftsman-style houses and antique stores. I am not a big antique-er, but if you're ever through this way it's definitely worth a stop to visit The Cobblestone and chat with the proprieter. This place, which was originally the J C Penney's, is like a museum,  and the guy made me think of Cadillac Jack (if you haven't read the Larry McMurtry book, you should).

A branch of the Couer d'Alene river rushes right through the middle of town, where it's coralled into a 10-foot concrete ditch. Many of the houses have their own little bridges across it, and the sound of the river masks out any freeway noise.

The Wallace Inn gets 5 stars from me. A spacious room with a queen bed and comfortable couch, quiet enough to leave the window wide open and hear the birds in the morning. AND an attached breakfast place that serves lattes! In addition, There is a very tempting bike trail right across the street, and the Hiawatha and Couer d'alene trails are nearby. I wish I could stay longer..

Life is good

It's 72 degrees at sunset, and I am sitting on my beautiful, newly rebuilt upstairs deck, listening to the birds and watching the last of the shadows climb up the hill across the bay. It's hard to imagine a lovelier place, and I feel so, so blessed to live here.

And yet, in the morning, I am leaving, for six whole weeks!  Hoping that it will be raining so I will feel a bit better about leaving. I always wear my Whidbey Island necklace when I'm away, thinking that if I miss it too much I can hold onto it, click my heels, and say "there's no place like home, there's no place like home".

I have to admit that it's seemed less like an actual home since my poor old kitty cat, Sabrina, went to her better place a month or so ago. I had been thinking that I would not get another pet, at least for a few years, given that I travel so much. But now I don't see how I can go that long living without a pet. We'll see.

At any rate, tomorrow morning I'm off on a road trip to Michigan, driving my old (16 years and closing in on 190K miles) car. I will leave it in Michigan so that I don't have to plunk down close to $2500 in car rentals during the 2 1/2 or so months I spend there every year. This plan still doesn't allow for how I will, in the future, get from the Detroit airport to my dad's place. Renting a car one way will cost close to $300 round trip, about what a week's rental costs. Flying on to Flint will cost about $300, and once there I wouldn't feel too bad about asking a cousin to come and get me, but it's still a good hour's drive each way. In a pinch I suppose I could bit the bullet and fly into Saginaw, a mere 25 miles away, but that would mean flying an airline other than Southwest, and since I've gone Southwest that would be hard, cold thing to go back to. Again, we'll see....

I'm looking forward to the road trip, although it will be 5 or 6 days of driving 6+ hours per day and not much else. And of course I'm looking forward to being with my dear old dad, at Chippewa pines, my other home.

Life is very good.

Delirious with Spring!

Entering Idaho

Springtime makes me a bit delirious. In a good way.
Nancy, Gerry and I had lunch in Coeur d'Alene today, having ridden the 16 miles there from the Washington state line on the beautiful Centennial trail. This trail stretches at least 40 miles, from the west side of Spokane on to the eastern end of lake Coeur d'Alene, and yesterday we rode the 48 mile round trip from Spokane to the state line. Yesterday's ride was prettier, but both days have been warm and sunny and quite wonderful, and both rides well worth doing.
Much of the trail follows right along the Spokane river, and this time of year is lined with arrowleaf balsamroot and some sort of fragrant flowering white tree/shrub. As usual, none of the locals knew what eithe of these were.
An interesting sight along the trail: three adjacent streets named Elly, Ella, and Elton. Hmmmm....

Arborcrest winery

This is my first visit to Spokane and I had no idea that there were truly impressive waterfalls right in the middle of town. The river is a bit high and it's hard to describe how much water is moving through, and how fast. Suffice to say we did not see any watercraft of any kind.

Arrowleaf bAlsamroot

Tomorrow we will drive down to Pullman and spend two more nights, and I'm sure we'll find some more biking along the way. We just happened to find out that Keb Mo is giving a concert there Saturday night, and we got tickets.

Centennial trail

Arrowleaf balsamroot

Spokane river

Spokane falls

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