Bicycle Obsession

I messaged with the Pster for a while this morning, and she sent me this photo from Switzerland.  She'd posted it on Facebook, but I'd missed it.  The Facebook caption was "Uncle Gene and Aunt Sylvia, I found your store!"  (Since she sent it to me, I am taking the liberty of using it here.)

Cute, and the mountains in the background make it clear it wasn't taken in Michigan.  On a related subject, I took a bike ride today.  80 degrees, winds from the west at 15 to 20.  Borderline too windy, but a north-south ride worked out okay.  I found these in a ditch along 160th Avenue, a couple of miles from the PSPS.

The search for cardinal flowers was one of the motivators for the ride, so it was nice that it worked out.  I didn't quite manage "knackered" but I did take a short nap after returning home.  On a totally unrelated front, I got a call from Unky Herb today, who told me that my santini60@gmail account had been hacked into and he was getting emails from it.  I changed the password, so if you've gotten any odd emails from that account, they weren't from me.

Blue found while biking.

I biked out to Kouw Park today, north of here on the lake.

This heat wave is supposed to break soon.  I sure hope so.

Weather, beach walks and old photos.

These blog posts won't write themselves, and what's in my head isn't fit for print.  So perhaps a weather report?  It was too hot and humid to bike today, though I gave it a try late this morning.  It was a very short ride. Tomorrow is forecast to be 90 again, with a slight cool down by Wednesday.  Maybe I'll try again then.  Looking through my photos I noticed that a year ago it was unseasonably cool -- we had guests from the west for this week, and the photos are all of people in sweatshirts and jackets.  Even the ones running down the dune.

So there's that.  In what has been a nightly ritual (for about 5 days, so maybe not quite a ritual),  after supper yesterday I took a walk on the beach and found a bench down by the Spyglass condos that looked blog worthy.

Part three,  the calendar.  My dear daughter and grandchildren did their best to provide me with a good day on the 25th, as did all of my family.  Thank you, all.  (I can hear BDE now -- "Part three?  You can't do part three if you don't do parts one and two.  Just so you know, I do know that.)

Pointless Ups and Downs

I took a walk along the beach last night, down towards the Spyglass condominiums.  I'd heard a story about a plane that lost its engine early this week and crash landed on the beach in front of the condos, managing to miss the crowds at the State Park by a hundred yards, more or less.  Ups and downs.   Recently I've been doing some of the things that TT used to do when he visited here-- this was a walk he did often.

Today I rode my bike to the Port Sheldon Party store, returning along the Lakeshore bike path.  I took Wildwood leaving the PSPS, going past the corner where the Pster and TT crashed a number of years ago.  I stopped and looked at it for a while, noting that there's at least as much loose sand and gravel on that stretch now as there was then.  After supper tonight I walked over to Tunnel Park, via the streets, since the big stairs no longer exist from the beach to the top of the hill.  I climbed the stairs on the front of the dune, and watched for a while, but no old men ran down the dune.  Twice.  Access to the lake is only through the tunnel until new stairs are built, so I did that and walked back along the beach.  The water is warmish.  Beach walk plus bike ride plus beach walk.  No legs left.

Not Done

The three of us started this blogging stuff back in the spring of 2007.  GZ, then Santini, then Tennis Tousan.  We followed in the footsteps of the younger generation, but eventually it was mostly the three of us.  Except in November.  We kept in closer touch with each other's lives because of the words and photos we posted here, and that's a good thing.  It may be too hard, but I'm going to try to continue on.

Today I took a bike ride.  I brought home some blueberries.

Bayou Country

Now and then one should just go outside and play with their friends.  It's what I did today, in fact.  We loaded three bikes into my "truck" -- one inside in the back and two others on the new bike rack.  About 10:30 we headed north with very little in the way of a plan -- I'd looked at MapMyRide and had a few routes in mind.  It was Jill's first ride of the season, and the third or fourth for Kelly, so we wanted maximum viewing pleasure per mile, with not too many miles.

We started at a park in Grand Haven and biked along both sides of the Pottawatomie Bayou, just off of the Grand River, staying as close to the water as we could.  Temperatures never hit 70, even inland, but it was pretty decent biking weather. Other than the fact that the rear tire on Kelly's bike exploded about a mile from the truck on the return trip, it went smoothly.  Jill waited with Kelly while I "sped" back and picked up my truck.  We loaded up the bikes, then went into Grand Haven for some lunch, did some browsing at a downtown bookstore (I almost bought a Virgil Flowers book), stopped off at an antique mall, shopped for window coverings at Lowe's on our way back into town and dropped off the bike with the exploded rear tire at Cross Country Cycles where Bike Laura will look at it as soon as she can.  Really, it was a very nice day.  Lots of laughter.  If you have the chance, I highly recommend that you go outside and play.

Beach Walk

My neighbor and I walked down the beach today, confirming that you can walk from here to Tunnel Park.  It's a narrow beach in some places, and even small waves meant wet feet here and there.  I took a couple of photos from the beach of the fire damaged stairway, just to complete that story.

On our way back we stopped and talked to another neighbor who had walked to the state park this morning.  So, for the curious, it is still possible to walk from Tunnel Park to Big Red.  I wouldn't try it during high surf, but the wind and waves have carved out a manageable path at the water's edge.   It's wide enough in several places for people to spread out their chairs and towels, though not along our beachfront.   Perhaps also of interest, the water was cold.

Summer Traditions in Jeopardy

Here's a link to a news story by a local TV station, with a photo taken yesterday morning while the fire was still in progress.  Lynne and I walked over to the park yesterday, and went in the street side entrance.  The stairs from the playground to the top of the dune are fine, the ones that burned go from the beach to the top of the dune.  Park goers access to the beach is still available through the tunnel.  Here are a few of the photos that I took.  It's sad to see it.

My intention was to walk down the beach from here and take some photos looking up at it from the water, but I ran out of ambition.  It could still happen, but I'm tired.  It has been a busy time, playing catch up with house hold tasks and such.  There was a visit from the French girl, too.

I've taken a few bike rides -- three, I think, since returning.  Today I rode north to the PSPS for the first time this month.  I checked in at Bowerman's earlier this week, and they're predicting mid July for their blueberries.  So a little later than usual.

Today's bike ride involved lots of interaction with the M family, none of it pleasant.  A week off of the bike means I have some fitness to recover, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  The Grands are on another road trip with their Mom and her fiance, so without them, fireworks watching tonight is optional.  I'll probably keep an eye out for dune grass fires, but the nonsense is sure to continue long past when I'll be able to stay awake.  The wind is light, so that's good news.  May the Fourth be with you.

Road Trip Photos, II

If there is a "Road Trip Photos, I", then there should be a "Road Trip Photos, II" I think.  All of these photos were taken within earshot of the hum of a horde of million or more mosquitoes.  It's an eerie sound.

We were at NCW's place on the lake for three nights, and there were three fires in the firepit.  The last night it was only for a short time, since the deluge hit and put out the fire, but it was still three nights.  We had a team of firebuilders, TT, TJ and PP.  TT and PP were also the wood splitters, and both are good with an axe.

There were also three boat rides on the schedule, although the last was shortened, again because of weather moving in.  A pontoon boat is no place to be when there's lightening in the area.  The other two rides featured lots of sun, puffy clouds and a lot of loons.  (The bird variety, of course.)

There was a trip to Coleraine in there somewhere, too.  These three marveled at the concept of a grade school built along a lake shore.  It does seem unusual, now that they mentioned it.

These are loons, photo taken by the girl grandchild from that last pontoon boat ride.  At this point the wind had sprung up and was whipping up the lake.  The clouds were threatening, but gorgeous.

 The Prairie Princess left before Unky Herb arrived on our last night there.  There was only enough time for a brief chat and a S'more before the rain forced us back up to the house.

By the time we were ready to return back across the lake, again on the SS Badger, we were all a little tired.  But still happy.

Road Trip Photos, I

My blog is a journal, of sorts, and I want to lodge a few of the photos from our recent trip here.

 In Ludington, Sunday evening.

Monday morning on the SS Badger.  It was a smooth crossing, thankfully.

Tuesday evening in Siren, after a picnic supper on Crooked Lake.

The Oakland cemetery, at Nils Olai's and Jakobine's graves, later that same evening.

This is how I remember it, with the low light angles and tons of dragonflies.  You can see one in the photo, in the upper right hand corner.

OSLO and I like this photo.  "One with the Bench" or something similar.  At the old homestead on Yellow River on Wednesday.

A more conventional photo of the four of us with the bench.

OSLO, TT, NCW and the Grands at the Yellow River bridge.  We drove there using back roads, thus passing the intersection of County Roads FF and U.

We'd all just flirted with some poison ivy at the bridge over the Yellow River, and we were in a hurry to get somewhere to get cleaned up.  It was Wednesday afternoon and the church was locked up tight.