True horsepower

A few months ago (or so it seems), I started recapping our mini-vacation trip to eastern Wisconsin in early August. Final part starts now.

If you can remember back to the Day 1 part, it ended just after my wife and I discovered that the "queen-size" bed we had reserved was the size of a double bed. But we were tired and just wanted to go to bed. Day 2 was a very busy one going here and there in Oshkosh.

Day 3 was the day of our trip home. That morning, I looked at the bed and decided it had not grown a few inches while we were there. So I went downstairs and looked for the manager. After all, I had paid for queen-size bed, and I didn't get it.

No, no, no, the manager said. All our rooms with one bed have queen-size beds. I told him about the refrigerator and microwave that were missing when we arrived at the room (also promised in the room description; the microwave never showed up). In the end, the manager said he could come up for a look.

In a few minutes, he was at the door. He took me across the hall to a room with two beds--both double beds. Then, back to our room. But the beds there were the same size as the ones I had just seen! But he insisted that it was a queen-size bed--because (all together now) "All our rooms with one bed have queen-size beds." Foolish me, for not packing along a tape measure!

I let him know that this must be the world's smallest queen-size bed, identical in size to those across the hall. And then I let it drop. I've never been a whiner or a complainer, and I didn't about to become one today. I'll just advise one of you that if you ever plan to visit Oshkosh, Wis., stay somewhere other than the Super 8. He sure won't see us again.

We got our breakfast and hit the road, bound for the Best Buy in Appleton, about 20 miles up the road. A major part of the trip (as explained earlier) involved getting a new work camera for me (since mine had died earlier in the week). On Day 1, we saw a nice package (camera + telephoto zoom lens) at the Best Buy in Green Bay. I hoped the Best Buy in Appleton had the same deal. If so, it would save me a little time and a few miles because I could then drive straight north from Appleton.

No such luck. They had the camera, but not the sale package advertised. So we headed northeast to the Best Buy in Green Bay, and there it was. I called the office on my cell phone, got the go-ahead, and a few minutes later was checked out and on my way.

That was our last stop before heading for home. But I had seen something on the trip south that I wanted to check out on the trip north. About an hour up the road, we came upon it.

On June 7 this year, northern Wisconsin had a major outbreak of severe weather. Up where I live, we just got a little rain, but south of us there were severe thunderstorms, large hail and tornadoes. One tornado passed right across Wisconsin Highway 32, the road we traveled two months later. It was easy to see where ...





That was the town hall.



According to a special report on the Green Bay National Weather Service site:

The tornado was on the ground for at least 40 miles, and was over 1/2 mile wide at times. Over 14000 acres of trees were snapped or flattened and many dozens of buildings were damaged or destroyed. The twister was rated an EF3 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, with estimated winds of 140 to 160 mph. Damage by this tornado alone exceeded $15 million (property and timber).

If you look at the NWS website, you'll see that the tornado left a path that was easily photographed from a satellite orbiting the earth.

While walking around with my camera, I stepped wrong and landed on the gravel shoulder of the road, scratching up my lower leg. A little blood, but not bed.

After that stop and a very late lunch (about 2:30 p.m.), we were back home, greeting our kitties and checking the mail and messages on the phone. Vacation was over. The next morning, I was back at the office and then driving over to football practices. Vacation's over! Get back to work!

****
A few other notes.

The first high school football games of the season will be played tomorrow night. Both our local teams are at home. One game starts an hour earlier than the other. I'll got there first, stay for the first quarter and then drive to the other game, new camera in hand. Now I will finally find out how well it will capture the action from night football games.

We got a little rain two days ago and a sprinkle today. On the whole, though, our weather remains very dry, and our lawns remain brownish-greenish yellow. Off to our south--the southern half of Wisconsin--they are getting hammered with heavy rainstorms and flooding. Some places, like Madison, have had 16+ inches of rain in the last seven days. People have died from the flooding. Up here? Less than a quarter inch! And that's the way it's been all summer.

Nothing new about the house. We worked down there on Wednesday. Took some things to St. Vinny's, gave some items to a friend of my mom's, and we brought some other things to my mom (to give to a distant relative she has stayed close with). We took other things home with us.

There really is very little at the house now, aside from the furniture, and the new couple said they are interested in some of it. My wife wants some of the pieces. But if she does, we have to make room for it, which means getting rid of other stuff. We've got all these boxes all over the place, you know. A lot more than when we started down there.

While it's not widespread, the leaves are starting to turn color up here. Just parts of trees, mainly maples, are going red, and the ferns I see along the roadside are becoming brown. The air has cooled a bit. The end of summer is on its way.

The GBO trip: Day 3

A few months ago (or so it seems), I started recapping our mini-vacation trip to eastern Wisconsin in early August. Final part starts now.

If you can remember back to the Day 1 part, it ended just after my wife and I discovered that the "queen-size" bed we had reserved was the size of a double bed. But we were tired and just wanted to go to bed. Day 2 was a very busy one going here and there in Oshkosh.

Day 3 was the day of our trip home. That morning, I looked at the bed and decided it had not grown a few inches while we were there. So I went downstairs and looked for the manager. After all, I had paid for queen-size bed, and I didn't get it.

No, no, no, the manager said. All our rooms with one bed have queen-size beds. I told him about the refrigerator and microwave that were missing when we arrived at the room (also promised in the room description; the microwave never showed up). In the end, the manager said he could come up for a look.

In a few minutes, he was at the door. He took me across the hall to a room with two beds--both double beds. Then, back to our room. But the beds there were the same size as the ones I had just seen! But he insisted that it was a queen-size bed--because (all together now) "All our rooms with one bed have queen-size beds." Foolish me, for not packing along a tape measure!

I let him know that this must be the world's smallest queen-size bed, identical in size to those across the hall. And then I let it drop. I've never been a whiner or a complainer, and I didn't about to become one today. I'll just advise one of you that if you ever plan to visit Oshkosh, Wis., stay somewhere other than the Super 8. He sure won't see us again.

We got our breakfast and hit the road, bound for the Best Buy in Appleton, about 20 miles up the road. A major part of the trip (as explained earlier) involved getting a new work camera for me (since mine had died earlier in the week). On Day 1, we saw a nice package (camera + telephoto zoom lens) at the Best Buy in Green Bay. I hoped the Best Buy in Appleton had the same deal. If so, it would save me a little time and a few miles because I could then drive straight north from Appleton.

No such luck. They had the camera, but not the sale package advertised. So we headed northeast to the Best Buy in Green Bay, and there it was. I called the office on my cell phone, got the go-ahead, and a few minutes later was checked out and on my way.

That was our last stop before heading for home. But I had seen something on the trip south that I wanted to check out on the trip north. About an hour up the road, we came upon it.

On June 7 this year, northern Wisconsin had a major outbreak of severe weather. Up where I live, we just got a little rain, but south of us there were severe thunderstorms, large hail and tornadoes. One tornado passed right across Wisconsin Highway 32, the road we traveled two months later. It was easy to see where ...





That was the town hall.



According to a special report on the Green Bay National Weather Service site:

The tornado was on the ground for at least 40 miles, and was over 1/2 mile wide at times. Over 14000 acres of trees were snapped or flattened and many dozens of buildings were damaged or destroyed. The twister was rated an EF3 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, with estimated winds of 140 to 160 mph. Damage by this tornado alone exceeded $15 million (property and timber).

If you look at the NWS website, you'll see that the tornado left a path that was easily photographed from a satellite orbiting the earth.

While walking around with my camera, I stepped wrong and landed on the gravel shoulder of the road, scratching up my lower leg. A little blood, but not bed.

After that stop and a very late lunch (about 2:30 p.m.), we were back home, greeting our kitties and checking the mail and messages on the phone. Vacation was over. The next morning, I was back at the office and then driving over to football practices. Vacation's over! Get back to work!

****
A few other notes.

The first high school football games of the season will be played tomorrow night. Both our local teams are at home. One game starts an hour earlier than the other. I'll got there first, stay for the first quarter and then drive to the other game, new camera in hand. Now I will finally find out how well it will capture the action from night football games.

We got a little rain two days ago and a sprinkle today. On the whole, though, our weather remains very dry, and our lawns remain brownish-greenish yellow. Off to our south--the southern half of Wisconsin--they are getting hammered with heavy rainstorms and flooding. Some places, like Madison, have had 16+ inches of rain in the last seven days. People have died from the flooding. Up here? Less than a quarter inch! And that's the way it's been all summer.

Nothing new about the house. We worked down there on Wednesday. Took some things to St. Vinny's, gave some items to a friend of my mom's, and we brought some other things to my mom (to give to a distant relative she has stayed close with). We took other things home with us.

There really is very little at the house now, aside from the furniture, and the new couple said they are interested in some of it. My wife wants some of the pieces. But if she does, we have to make room for it, which means getting rid of other stuff. We've got all these boxes all over the place, you know. A lot more than when we started down there.

While it's not widespread, the leaves are starting to turn color up here. Just parts of trees, mainly maples, are going red, and the ferns I see along the roadside are becoming brown. The air has cooled a bit. The end of summer is on its way.

In the homestretch

The Day 3 report on our trip is still to come. It will be fairly short anyway.

But I have some real news this time, about what happened last Friday regarding my mom's house--the ongoing story this summer.

On Friday morning, we drove down there, and I dropped off my wife at the house--I had to cover a football scrimmage nearby. That went from 9 a.m. to about noon. But I had other things on my mind while getting my pictures and interviews. I had an appointment that afternoon.

I got back to the house about 12:15 p.m., and a few minutes later we heard knocking at the back door. It was the neighbor, her son and daughter-in-law, and they had come to look over the house.

Thus commenced a tour of the place. I showed him the attic, the basement and everything in between, including the garage, which I hadn't been in for over a year.

I told them that if they are interested in some of the furnishings, I would include them with the house, which is being sold as is. That includes my mom's organ, my dad's old riding mower, the kitchen stove, the fridge and the pool table in the basement. Items that I had no idea what to do with.

I also showed him the latest tax bill, which indicates the estimated market value (it was reassessed last year), and I told him that's my price. They said that's very reasonable, and they would be starting the process of getting a VA loan on Monday. He is an Iraq War veteran. Nice fellow. About 40 or so.

So now we are nearly finished with cleaning out the house and at the very start of the process of actually selling the thing. Much remains to be done. There will be an appraiser, a title search, and other things like that. But it appears to be a matter of time and jumping through all the hoops. The couple seems very eager to move in as soon as they can.

To explain the situation: The neighbor has two grandchildren living with her, children of a daughter who died about a year ago. This couple is the kids' aunt and uncle (the neighbor's son), and all of them want to live near each other. Right now, the couple lives a few miles away. They work in the Iron Mountain-Kingsford area, which is just on the other side of the river--the house is on the Wisconsin side, along a county road in a rural-forested area.

The neighbor called me late last year, asking what I planned to do about the house. At that point, no plans had been made. She told me about their family situation and how much they would like to live next to each other.

She and my mom had been good friends while she lived there. Just after her fall in September 2005, she had tried to help my mom at home. After my mom went to the hospital (and from there the nursing home), she has visited and then asked about her when she saw me/us at the house.

In March, I bumped into them (the neighbor and her DIL) at a store in Iron Mountain, and they repeated their interest. After that, I told my mom about it.

A year earlier, I had tried to talk to my mom about selling the house, once it became evident that she would not be able to live by herself again. But when I brought up the subject she would get too emotional and start crying. This time I told her about all the house expenses that I have to pay myself (heating, electricity, insurance, taxes), how it's sitting empty, and how the neighbor's son is interested in buying it. That is when she started thinking it might be a good idea.

So we (my wife and I) started working on the house in late May, and we've been going pretty steadily at it ever since. There's nobody else to help--my late brother was my mom's only other child.

But now we're at the point where we have gone through almost everything we needed to. We have some things that will be going to others according to my mom's wishes (to a close friend and members of her family), and more things to take to St. Vinnie's or Goodwill.

In early July, the living room had been jammed with boxes of stuff. Now there are just a couple boxes left and just a few things that haven't been packed away. We are getting close to the end. Just as summer is getting close to the end.

That brings us to last Friday, and I told you about that already. So we are both finally feeling hopeful, that we are starting to see that light at the end of a long, long tunnel. I can't begin to tell you how much relief I will feel (and how much stress will be lifted from my shoulders) once the deed is done.

We'll have to do something special to mark the occasion. Exactly what, I don't know yet. There's still time to figure out something suitable.

The GBO trip: Day 2

In case you missed it: Day 1 was spent driving to Green Bay, where we visited the railroad museum. We then drove down to Oshkosh, where we spent the night in a smaller-than-expected bed. But we slept pretty well and were ready to go Wednesday morning for the busiest day of the trip.

It was the day we would spend with S. My wife knows a great deal about S, that we have been lovers and that we still have deep affection for each other. For her part, S had been worried about meeting her, wondering whether it would be a tense day. Her tensions eased after they talked on the phone a week before the trip.

So after breakfast, we drove into the city, to her house. In keeping with a long-standing tradition, I drove past her house, even though she was sitting on the front steps. (I had done the same on my previous solo visits.) I had more success after circling the block.

After 20 months apart, we were together again. I hugged her, and then she hugged my wife. In fact, S had a present for her--a malachite and moonstone healing necklace. She had hand-written a description of the necklace and what it can do.

Some of her {grown} kids were sleeping in their living room, so she got into the back seat, and we headed north. Our first stop was Menominee Park, on the shore of Lake Winnebago.

Remember the creative cows that we saw in Madison last summer? Evidently, Oshkosh had something similar with lions a few years back. We saw one at the park and a few others later in the day ...


They had prairie dogs and elk and wolves and other critters at the park, including a silver pheasant--I reminded S of the silver pheasant we saw together during our winter walk in Ontario 20 months earlier.

S is an animal advocate and talked sadly at a cougar confined to a smallish circular cage ...

More about that later.

Our first real stop was the Paine Art Center and Museum. The Paine, as it is known, was built by a wood baron early this century--who then, according to S, couldn't move in because of labor problems and threats of violence. This view shows what it looks like from the street ...


And this is inside the gate, looking at the mansion ...


We couldn't get inside yet--the place hadn't opened--but we also wanted to look at the Paine's many different gardens. This was our chance to do so, and here are some of the things we saw ...








It was finally time to go inside. But their rules, my camera had to go back into its case, so my written description will have to do. We saw a display of exquisite "Fashions in Film," costumes from period movies produced over the last few decades.

The rest of the tour involved us walking from one elegant room to another, with each one more elaborate and larger than the one before. "And these were just two people," S kept saying. Two people planned to live in this huge house. With plenty of servants, of course. My mind kept going back to British royalty and their castles.

Another stop my wife wanted to make was just across the street from the Paine--the Oshkosh Public Museum. They had a display on tusks that my wife wanted to see, but the highlight for me was the Apostles Clock. A huge, ornately carved clock, created by a German immigrant to Wisconsin ...


It's called a monumental clock, we all waited for the hour to strike. According to its website, "Each hour a door at the top of the clock opens, and an angel is seen striking a gong. The music begins; decorative lights illuminate the clock, the door in the center opens, and a doll-like figure of Christ emerges. The Apostles pass before, and He raises his arms in blessing. Each of the eleven Apostles turns toward Christ and bows his head. The last in line, Judas, clutches his bag of silver and turns away. Two side doors open to display scenes of the Nativity and Crucifixion."

However, we didn't get to see the full show. The top door opened, but nothing happened there. Jesus and all 12 apostles did their part. But no music, no lights, no nativity and no crucifixion scene ...


We had to rush our trip through the museum--something I hated doing, since they had a lot of interesting stuff there--but a DVD about the Apostles Clock was on sale in the gift shop, and I bought it. (Two days later, after we got back home, we tried it and found it didn't work, neither on the DVD player nor on the computer. Grrr.)

We cut the museum short so we could go back to S's house and meet her husband, who was going from one job to another, with only an hour or so to meet us and get lunch. I took advantage of the occasion to present him a gift--some Firesign Theatre CDs. It turns out that we both love Firesign Theatre.

From there, we (the three of us) got our own lunch and then headed south to a wildlife park S and her husband had told us about. We eventually found it ... but didn't see anybody around. So we conducted a self-guided tour, looking at the animals. Along the road, they had bison ...


... and some of the most extreme longhorn cattle I have ever seen ...


Inside the park, we saw deer and camels, peacocks and chickens, goats and ostriches, water buffalo and turkeys, and we finally came across the guy who runs the place. Turns out the place is closed on Wednesday ... but the guy was amiable, and we were happy to give him the admission cost.

He and S got to talking, and it turns out that he owns the animals displayed at Menominee Park. As for that cougar in the small cage that S was unhappy about--it turns out the big cat is old and very arthritic, so it can't roam about the way a healthy cougar can. When we had seen it, the cougar was lying on its side in the shade and stayed there.

S and my wife found some peacock feathers on the ground and split them up between them. We walked past some recently shorn llamas and a very wet pigpen.

The guy also gave us some old baked goods he got from area stores--several bags each--and asked us to give them to his critters. That's what we did for the rest of the visit. The llamas got some. The hogs got some. Donkeys. Horses. ...






We walked down a woods path, where some of the trees had faces on them. S said one of them looks just like me ...


It had become a hot day, so we stopped at the souvenir shop for a soda. The guy was there and told us we hadn't seen the elk yet. We still had some baked goods to get rid of, too.

Just as the camels and llamas and donkey had, when we got close to the fence, the elk came running. S and my wife were busy feeding the elk (particularly one wearing a 916J tag on his ear, who seemed to be the hungriest elk ever born). Meanwhile, I was busy with the camera ...




What??? You're still hungry???


It was nearly 6 p.m. now, and we left in search of someplace cooler. My wife suggested Hobby Lobby, and S suggested Wal-Mart. So we visited both. After that, we found an ice cream place, where S and I had Italian ices and my wife found some of the richest, darkest chocolate ice cream she has ever enjoyed. Too bad my camera was in the car.

From there, we went back to S's house. Her husband eventually got home from his second job, had supper, and we eventually sat down to a movie: the original "Bedazzled," from 1967, featuring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. It's one of my favorites, and they enjoyed the first part.

But you know what? It had been a long, tiring day for all four of us. During the second half of the film, my wife started dozing off. My wife and I were in big chairs next to each other--they were on the couch, and S told me later that they were both getting sleepy--she got up once or twice to try to shake off the cobwebs.

It finally was time to go. I shook his hand, he hugged my wife, I hugged S, and the two women hugged each other, too. Hugs all around.

We were very tired by the time we got back to the motel and fell asleep very quickly, getting some Z's before the long drive home the next morning.

It didn't occur to me until the next day that the only times S and I touched were those hugs when we met and when we parted ... and about two or three minutes when we held hands while seated on a bench at Wal-Mart. Not even a kiss on the cheek.

I felt a little bad about it ... but realized at the same time that things had gone the way we wanted them to go, on their own accord. Everyone was relaxed and happy and had a good time. All things considered, you can't do much better than that.

(to be continued)

GBO trip: Day 1

Early this year, I had hopes of taking my wife on a longer vacation this year. Maybe a week long. My son lives in the Detroit area. We had talked about taking the car ferry across Lake Michigan, maybe seeing a Tigers game. Or maybe Milwaukee. Or Chicago. Or Duluth again (we were there in 2004). Or somewhere further west.

But when the work at my mom's house started, it quickly became clear that this is where we would spend most of the summer. We had to settle for two mini-vacations. The first was to the Twin Cities in June. The second started last Tuesday morning--about 120 to 150 miles away, driving south to Green Bay and Oshkosh, Wis. For a few days, the pressures of work and dealing with my mom's house got pushed to the back of our minds.

We did much of our packing Monday night and hit the road at about 9:15 a.m. Tuesday. Drove south into Wisconsin (only 10 miles away) and continued south and east, through forests, past farm fields and a string of little towns. Along the way, I noticed something I wanted to look at more closely on the trip home.

For a while we listened to the radio and talked. About an hour or so into the trip, my wife started getting drowsy. Then she was asleep. No surprise. During long drives (especially when the sun is shining), she gets sleepy. Despite all the turns, stop signs, hills, curves and a brief trip on the freeway, she didn't wake up until I came to a stop at her favorite fast food place. It was time for lunch, anyway.

Green Bay! Home of the Packers! We drove right past Lambeau Field on the way to our first official stop: the National Railroad Museum. If you don't know, I love trains and hadn't been there for nearly 20 years. So this year it was a priority.

One of the first exhibits showed a scale model of a train that deserves a little extra focus. It's called the Aerotrain ...


The Aerotrain was designed by General Motors in the early 1950s for American railroad companies increasingly concerned about a sharp drop in passenger traffic. It was designed to look streamlined--even a windshield! Definitely not like anything else on rails.

But due to the way it had been designed, the Aerotrain was doomed before it even went into service. (1) The engine was underpowered. (2) Even routine maintenance was difficult and time-consuming. (3) The aluminum passenger cars (which were based on a bus design) were anything but comfortable. Strike three!

In the end, the Aerotrain, dreamed up in hopes of getting people back into passenger trains, had the opposite effect. Here is more about the Aerotrain's life and death. Later, we saw a full-size Aerotrain in one of the Railroad Museum's shelters ...


We saw a display of "drumheads." These were illuminated signs placed on the rear car of a passenger train, as a little moving advertising ...


Nearby was a vintage ticket counter ...


After the exhibits, we were getting eager to see the "rolling stock." We went through the next door and found ourselves in a huge, climate-controlled room. There, we came face to face with Big Boy. Not the one you see hanging around restaurants, either. Here is a photo of Big Boy we had seen earlier ...


And here is the Big Boy at the museum ...


The Big Boy is a big boy, all right. One of the largest steam locomotives ever built. It was a 4-8-8-4, 133 feet (40.5 meters) in length. It and its tender weighed 1.2 million pounds (540 metric tons). The tender could carry 28 short tons (25 metric tons) of coal and 25,000 gallons (90 cubic meters) of water.

It was built in the 1940s and could travel at 80 mph. Imagine the power required to move such a massive engine and its cargo at such speeds! It was used mostly to carry freight quickly over the Rocky Mountains, playing a big role in the war effort.

Big Boy's drive wheels are 68 inches across. I'm just a few inches taller ...


And here is the cavernous engine cab of this huge locomotive ...

The engineer operated the controls from the far right of the cab. All the controls and knobs used to operate the engine are painted red. This was not an easy beast to master.

We saw other historic trains, too. This is the Dwight D. Eisenhower, named after the general who led Allied forces in Europe during World War II ...


This is NOT the engine used by Eisenhower's command train--but two of the attached passenger cars are from that train.

I could go on, but those are the most important trains in the hall. There are other trains and cars, both in the covered hall and in a nearby covered outdoor shed.

We got to go inside a dining car. Here is the kitchen on wheels ...


The dining area itself has two levels. Up a flight of steps, you could eat on the observation level. Here, all we can see is the inside of the building. But imagine passing through the Rocky Mountains in this car ...


We got to see a mail car ...


And we got to see this piece of Americana ...


The little red (or orange) caboose. Ever wonder what it's like inside? I got inside with my camera ...


And here is what it's like to ride in the upper level of the caboose ...


I didn't see a sleeping car--not one I could walk through, anyway. I've seem many of them in old movies, and I've always wondered just how cramped those berths were.

They had a train that carried you around the museum grounds. It was a slow train ride in a passenger car behind a diesel engine--not much more than that. But I liked the "rules of the road" ...


Once the visit ended (about 4 p.m.), I visited the gift shop. Normally a frugal person, I reverted to kid-in-a-candy-shop mode when I saw the videos and CDs. I would up buying one four-DVD set about steam trains plus two CDs of train sounds.

That may shock you until I tell you that I have more steam train DVDs and more train sound CDs at home that I indulge in occasionally. Sometimes the scream of steam locomotives lulls me to peaceful repose after a busy day.

We left the Railroad Museum about 10 minutes before it closed for the day. From there, we went to Best Buy to check out camera prices and then hit the road for our motel in Oshkosh. S had suggested that we stay at a different motel, but I opted for the Oshkosh Super 8. I had already reserved a queen-size bed in a room with a refrigerator and a microwave plus free wireless internet. Hey, I was all set.

But when I got to the room, I immediately noticed a few things: no refrigerator and no microwave. I hooked up the laptop to the internet--it connected, but I couldn't get online. What gives?

I complained to the desk, and then we went off to get something to eat. When we got back about an hour later, the room now had a refrigerator. Still no microwave. The internet was the way it was, and I was about to complain again ... when I finally got online.

I checked websites (mainly the weather) and watched TV for a little while, but we had just completed a busy day and we had another one ahead of us on Wednesday. So we went to bed.

That's when we noticed that our "queen-size" bed was just as wide as a double bed. Too late to do anything about it now. We had to get to bed ... and had something else on our minds before going to sleep.

(to be continued)

"A few fast lines"

Here's just a few fast lines to let one and all know that we survived our trip fine and got home Thursday night in one piece. We both had a great time, and I got some interesting photos. More on that in the days to come.

Along the way, I got the green light (via my cell phone) to go ahead and purchase a new work camera for myself. It's the same model I bought for myself back in March, with the same zoom. I'm quite happy with that. My old work camera breaking down on Monday--the day before I left on vacation--must have been a sign from the gods.

I was busy using that at football practices today and at a local festival tonight. I'll be back over there again on Saturday. The new one is so much more responsive than the other one, there's no comparison. It's a Nikon D40--a digital SLR, instead of the superzoom digitals I had been using.

My company is quite frugal (shall we say), but I was able to get the camera, zoom, flash, spare battery and memory card for a little over $900. Considering that some digital SLRs cost more than $1,000 for just the camera, I think I did OK for the company's bottom line. It's a good long-term investment for them.

The weather was just on the verge of being really hot throughout the trip, but it never quite got there. Thought we might get rained on, but the only rain we saw was as I was carrying stuff back to the car Thursday morning, and that had stopped a half hour later. Up here in the U.P., it's been terribly dry. The only things on my lawn that aren't yellow or brown are the weeds.

"A few fast lines." Yeah, you've heard that before. But I'll shut down now--I'm getting tired. More to come fairly soon.

All those quilts!

Frantic last day before we hit the road on our mini-vacation.

I finished up this week's paper, then got some groceries and some money for the trip. I had planned to drive south via Iron Mountain so I could get an quickie oil change for the car. But I got lucky; was able to get it done locally today. So that's crossed off the list, and we save a little time on Tuesday.

The weather looks good enough. We might have a little rain on Tuesday. Fortunately, the car has a roof.

I may have to do some camera shopping during my trip--for the office. I went up to the high school this morning to get some "first practice" football photos ... only to discover that the zoom on my work camera isn't working. It worked fine the last time I used it, on Thursday. But the "superzoom" digital camera is old (about five years) and has taken many thousands of photos. The minimum cost for repairs is $216. I gave "the powers that be" some information about a possible replacement, and they will be studying it. I'm supposed to call them on my cell after I see what they've got at Best Buy in Green Bay.

I'm trying to convince my wife that she should get a digital camera--I'd buy it for her. She likes taking pictures--but her camera (I gave it to her as a Christmas gift 10 or so years ago) uses film. So when she took pictures at the quilt show on Saturday, she won't be able to see whether the photos are good until after the film comes back to the drugstore. And she gets 24 shots on a roll of film. Nothing like a memory card that can hold hundreds of images.

In any case, I'll have mine along. I took plenty of quilt photos on Saturday.

What's that?

You'd like to see some of the quilts from the quilt show?

OK, let me take you to the Ladies of the Lakes quilt show in Minocqua (Min-OCK-wa), Wis, about 50 miles away from us. First, a wide shot...


As for the quilts ... my wife and I worked together for about an hour to narrow down the photos to about a dozen. Here we go, with the quilt's name when I was able to get it.

Reflections of a Harvest Moon ...


Auntie's Garden ...


Dawn to Dusk in the Sunflower Garden ...


Serena Faerie of the Reeds ...


Fun With Batiks ...


Stop and Smell the Flowers ...


Didn't get the titles on these, but I liked them ...






Since we are in the Northwoods, many of the quilts produced locally had a Northwoods theme. This was one of my favorites: Country Road ...


Northern Moose ...


The Ladies of the Lakes made this quilt, depicting a series of Northwoods scenes from around the year. I really liked it ...


After looking at all the quilts, there were plenty of vendors for my wife to check out. So many fat quarters, so little time! ...


My original list of photo candidates for this post totaled 31. But I've got to get some sleep tonight so I can be alert on the road tomorrow. We're leaving at about 9 a.m., bound for Green Bay. The big stop on Tuesday is the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay--I love trains, and I haven't been there for many years--15 to 20 years, maybe.

The camera is making the trip, of course. (You don't think I'd leave it behind, do you?)