Laura's Retirement Journey

The best thing about today is we shared it with our fantastic niece Jessica. Jessica is a member of the Arkansas Harveys. And she has grown into the most delightful, funny and insightful woman. Together we went to the Wind Cave National Park and toured a tiny part of one of the largest and most complex cave system in the world. Then we checked out the Mammoth Site which is simulaneously an archeological dig and a public education program.

Needle Highway in Custer State Park. Pictures from car don't capture the stunning views but I am posting a few anyway. Hulu Girl was with us the whole way I have a video going through this tunnel. My exactly words were, "Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god."

It took us more than an hour to get through this herd of as many as a thousand bison. (I didn't count but they were everywhere.) They let us know who was in control. Right next to the car they milked and they mounted. They looked in the car window and stayed in the middle of the road.  My pictures didn't capture the density or so some of the mating rituals.

Really appreciate shade after 4 days without it. Sun is 97°F here in Custer State Park but because it's dry, it's quite comfortable in the shade. View from the our campsite. Evenings and early mornings drop to 65°F. Great sleeping weather.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/07/26/us/climate-change/extreme-heat-warning It is in the NYTimes so it must be true. We are and will be smack in the middle of the Heat Dome at least for the next week. Right now at Custer it is 91°F and extremely dry. Mornings are in the 70s so we hike then. Nights in the 60s so we can turn off the noisy air conditioner around 1 pm. I hear the heat is extremely unusual here.  So far we are having no problems as long as we are active in the a.m.

I knew better. Our plan was to hike early before the heat rolled in and the sun was high.  Keith brought water but not nearly enough. Django was happily sitting in the air conditioned trailer so we didn't have to worry about him. The hike was three miles in the wilderness on a well defined trail. It wasn't crowded but we weren't alone. Our mission was to see the Petrified Forest.  The hike was in the most desolate, arid countryside I have ever seen.  You could see the erosion at work. I saw one mud puddle. Found two little trees for shade. And saw a lot of evidence of bison, elk and deer (tracks and scat.) But half way back to the car I started to feel the effect of the heat and the sun. Nausea and dizziness. Made it back to the car and the airconditioning but it was a struggle. I was particularly grateful for this little piece of shade. Lesson learned. Tomorrow we will hike at 7 am. 

I wasn't prepared for the beauty and desolation of Teddy R's park. The Buttes are painted in orange, brick red and yellow. Across the horizon are strangely shaped projections that shift and change with the continuous erosion.  Sage, scub and cacti are the botanical life.  Bison are nearby. This grumpy guy came so close we evacuated to our car.

Gratitude: my husband Keith. The person who pantomimed "tire explosion" as she drove by. The State Trooper who was nice. Oh and the double axel and personal torque wrench. Thank you FB advisors. RvMiles and Winnebago Minnie Users Group 

Sometimes the best thing about camping is that you can turn off the outside world and chillax. It's enough to walk, read and cook.  Maybe stop by a an old fort and spend time watching the corn grow. That is what we did for 3 days at  Crooked Lane Farm and Folk School. Booked through Hipcamp, they use the air bnb model to book campsites at  farms, museums and event venues. Our three-night stay was topped off by a terrific bluegrass concert right outside our door.

My favorite part of traveling is running into someone's passion project. Sometimes I just ask myself "why?" But I also have to admire the determination, time and skill an individual pours into a passion. Here are three examples from our last few days. Junkyard   www.lakenland.com --is a sculpture garden by laid off ironworker, former marine Ted Lakenland near Marquette MI. Back around 2003 his found object iron sculptures were whimsical. Then around  2015 they become more angry and political. He also did a cool MT Rushmore treatment of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and her team on honor of covid. The World of Accordions Museum www.worldofaccordions.org --  is where accordions get all kinds of respect.  In old church in Superior, WI Helmi Harrington displays her collection of 2300 concertinas, accordions, harmonicas from 1820 to ¹today.  She has spent her life performing, studying and cataloguing these instruments and at 75 years of age it's been her

There are two unpleasant aspects to RVing: backing into tight spaces and pooping. If this is to be an honest blog I have to talk about both.  Our campsite in Duluth is suboptimal. We are essentially parked in a parking lot that is used in the winter for boat storage. Well worth it though. We are just across the bridge from downtown Duluth; we can watch the big boats coming in the harbor; and yesterday we didn’t have to get in the truck to see the sights. The downside: it took 30 minutes, and 100 people watching as we tried to back up the rig into the “campsite/parking space”. We also held up traffic on the road. Meanwhile there were two $100,000 rigs on either side of us we had to protect. Ugh.  On the pooping side we have a gravity toilet instead of the normal kind. Press the foot petal and everything washes into a black tank that we have to empty every four or five days. Not a big deal except the sensors are finicky and sometimes don’t work and I am not sure h

The Ashbborn guitar is now for sale through Elderly Instruments. It got the full beautiful treatment. https://www.elderly.com/products/ashborn-parlor-guitar

Beer is Keith's thing. And he is in heaven. Michigan has hundreds of craft breweries. Their beers have crazy names and beautiful labels. One beer even features the fiddle.  Which brings us to Kismet in Marquette. Today there were some rogue musicians from the Hayawatha Music Festival playing in the campground. Keith joined in. This was after we hiked around Presque Isle and met a striped gopher.  Lake Superior has the clearest fresh water in the world which is why there is so much craft beer produced in Michigan.  More pretty pics of Presque Isle. And then we stumbled on the most amazing passion project. More on that tomorrow...

The clouds parted. The sun came out. The angels sang. What a glorious cool sunny day on Mackinac Island. The monarch butterflies were abundant. The 8.2 bike ride was fun. It's been 25 years since I've been on a bike. I wobbled like a 5 yo whenever I started up. My smarter than me sister Gail settled in nicely on a tri-cylcle. I admit it, I was envious. Mackinac Isle banished horseless carriages in 1895. They've stuck to their guns. Transport is almost 100% bike, feet and horses. We saw Amazon packages, plumbing fixtures and appliances delivered by horse teams. The only motorized vehicles I saw were an ambulance, golf carts, lawn and electric wheelchairs.  The bad side of Mackinac is the crowd. Ferries drop off hundreds of visitors every 15 minutes. They spill onto the street in search of fudge, mugs,  t-shirts etc. They also wanted food, ice cream and bicycles. Downtown felt a bit like Disneyland. But only a small % of visitors bike more than a mile out of town.

Standing in the middle of a field. Italian Renaissance oil painting. 

Pot is here. Flowers and edibles. Keith took the pic. I was banned. Didn't have my Driver's License.  Here is a cheat sheet on the two different types: sativa and indica. And yes. We bought some.

People surf on Lake Michigan. The riptide, the winds and surf have killed 50 people since 1891 and there were hundreds of people walking along and driving off the degrading cement pier to the Grand Haven lighthouse. No banister. I guess it's no coincidence that there are two Great Lake shipwreck museum in Michigan. Brother-in-law Bryan and sister Gigi taking their life in hands at Grand Haven Lighthouse.

This week we are spending 10 days in Michigan with my sister, brother-in-law, nieces, partners and children. Perfectly positioned to weather covid together,, they are as close  a family as I have ever seen. It was a joy to watch.  My nieces are beautiful, strong and great mothers. Keith did a great job on the tractor ride. Django fit right in.