Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park V

Neodymium Reeds and Herons.

Blue Polyvitro Crystals, turtle and ducklings. This was my least favorite piece as the turquoise blue really didn't fit with the wetlands.

Sculptures in the Conservatory. Can you tell the real leaf from the glass ones?

Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park IV

Summer Sun.

American Horse. This huge horse is based on a design by Leonardo Da Vinci which was commissioned by the city of Milan which ran out of money before it could be cast. After many years the Meijers commissioned an American artist to make the sculpture in accordance with Da Vinci's design.

Andy Goldsworthy Grand Rapids arch with Julia and Elsa.

Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park III

Aria.

These floating pieces were like Hershey kisses.

Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park II

Citron Green and Red Tower.

Mad Mom.

Alexander Calder Two-Faced Man.

Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park

Today Paul, Carolyn and Julia Jarvis, Andrew and Elsa Trou and I traveled to Grand Rapids to visit the Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. The gardens consist of 128 acres, some of which are in their nature state and some of which are beautifully landscaped filled with world-class sculpture. In addition, there was a special exhibit of Chihuly glass sculptures. They were amazing. I will post multiple pictures on the blog. The sculptures above were in the English bulb garden and are titled Garden Glass.

Ann Arbor Michigan

We spent a day in Luddington, MI while Bob played disc golf and I visited White Pine Historic Village. It was so hot that we went swimming in Lake Michigan before returning to our campsite. The next morning we headed south and east on blue highways through Michigan. Boy, you can really see the effects of the recession in abandoned houses and really decrepit houses that are inhabited. We arrived in Ann Arbor by dinner time and did a wash to get Bob ready to leave for the Amateur Disc Golf World Competition in Ohio. The next morning I got to watch grand-daughter Elsa enjoying her rice cereal. She was really getting into it. What a happy girl.

After Julia and Bob left, Andrew and I painted their kitchen white. It was a great two person job - one person masked all the purple areas while the other person applied the first coat of primer. The second coat of primer and the coat of paint was divided between one person doing the edging and the other person rolling on the paint. It was a good day's work. We went out to Ypsilanti to the Sidetrack Bar and Grill for really great burgers at the end of the day.

On Sunday we got up to wet, cloudy weather and headed off to pick sour cherries. The trees were pretty picked over, but we found that if we got into the centers and pulled down the branches we could get plenty of cherries. We also weren't so picky about bruised fruit. You can't climb into cherry trees as they are very brittle and break easily. As long as we were willing to get wet, we were successful. We picked 42 pounds of cherries and paid 25 cents a pound to have them pitted. Then we returned to Ann Arbor under a tornado warning which resulted in a very heavy rain storm for about 15 minutes. Once we got home we started processing the cherries into jam. 36 jars later and five different recipes (four were iterations of the basic recipe), about 4 jars of cherry jelly (we tried to get a lot of fruit into each jar of jam) and boiling down the juice to make about a quart was the result of our efforts. We also froze five bags of sour cherries for Julia to make into pies.

Wisconsin

From Lanesboro, MN we headed to Wauconda, IL to stay at Bob's aunt Florence's house. We traveled down the Mississippi and over to Wauconda in stifling heat. While I was reading in bed, I heard all these sirens go off and wondered whether they were tornado warnings; they were. We headed to the basement to wait out the tornado watch, watching television until 11 p.m. No tornadoes or high wind occured. We then headed north to Manitowoc, WI, going through the Kettle Moraine State Forest. The Wisconsin glacier, the last of the glaciers, came down as far as Indiana about 10,000 years ago. The Kettle Moraine area had all sorts of glacial features: kettles (potholes caused when a piece of the glacier was covered with dirt and the ice slowly melted causing a subsidence), teardrop shaped hills caused by the glacier moving forward and pushing rocks, domes caused either by rockfalls at the forward edge of retreating glaciers or by deep crevices down which water and rocks poured, and other interesting features. We stopped at Mauthe Lake to have lunch in a dog picnic area and then headed for a walk around the lake. We only made it half way before we were stopped by deep water over the trail caused from all the rain in the area. We continued to Manitowoc and a state campground on the shore of Lake Michigan. It was extremely buggy due to all the rain. After dinner we headed for the beach to walk and get away from the mosquitoes. There is an active Coast Guard lighthouse (an old floating lighthouse from Chicago).

The sunset was beautiful. Darwin was chasing his disc until it was so dark he couldn't see it any more. The moon was almost full and was over Lake Michigan.

The next morning I took Bob to a disc golf course on the University of Wisconsin Manitowoc campus. He had tried to play the course the previous afternoon, but it prohibited dogs and he took Darwin until someone told him he could be given a $181 ticket. I went to the Wisconsin Maritime Museum, a wonderful museum. Manitowoc was a serious ship-building area for many years. During WWI the builders built many boats. In WWII one of the builders was asked to build submarines. It retooled and during the war 28 submarines were built there. They would be side-launched into Lake Michigan and their crews would test them in Lake Michigan. Submariners (2% of the total Navy and comprised of volunteers only) would learn their skills on their assigned sub, which they would sail to Chicago where the sub was placed on a drydock barge, taken down the Mississippi to New Orleans where it would be armed, and sailed through the Panama Canal to the Pacific. Four of the subs were sunk during WWII. The museum has a wonderful exhibit of boats built in Wisconsin (many of them wood), models, an exhibit on the car ferries and on the Great Lakes fisheries. Twin Rivers, just north of Manitowoc, was a center of the fishing industry which crashed due to over-fishing.

We had reservations on the S.S. Badger, the last coal-powered steam car ferry on Lake Michigan. Car ferries were not built for automobiles, but were built to carry rail cars. Before they existed, freight would be off-loaded from rail cars onto steamers and then re-loaded onto rail cars. The car ferries could carry up to 24 rail cars for the 4 hour trip. Now the coal is delivered in ground form and is further pulverized before being forced into the boilers. It was a beautiful day for a crossing. Earlier in the 20th century the car ferries ran year round (partly because the railroads didn't own their own track through Chicago and it was very expensive to move cars through Chicago). During the winter, the crossings were difficult. The car ferries were designed to work partly as ice breakers. If the ice was less than 10' thick the front of the ferry was designed to ride over the ice and crush it. If it was thicker, the ferry would back through the ice using its screw to develop a wash of water that would rise over the ice and crush it. If a ferry had to back most of the way across it could take up to 24 hours. There were so many ferries that they developed routes through the ice where the ice was thinner. At times Lake Michigan was totally frozen over and the frigid weather caused a huge build-up of ice on the ships.

Lanesboro, MN

In 2008 when Bob and I first went travelling with Snoopy, we stopped in Lanesboro, MN. Bob had met a couple in Guatemala who lived here and we were hoping to meet up with them. Due to various e-mail snafus, we didn't manage to hook up in 2008, but we enjoyed Lanesboro so much that we decided to return. This time we did hook up with Bill and Karen Swanson. We camped again in Sylvan City Park right in the center of Lanesboro (population 780). The park has trout ponds and a nice camping area with restrooms and showers. Yesterday we took a 13 mile bike ride on the Root River Trail, an abandoned railroad right-of-way along the Root River, begun in 1986. We rented a tandem bike and attached a kid's trailer. The route was relatively flat, going through the forests, next to corn fields, below the limestone bluffs and next to the Root River. We were limited by the fact that our butts were not used to sitting on bike seats for a long time and the difficulty in riding a tandem. The second rider (me) has to pedal whenever the front rider is pedaling and stop when they stop. Knowing when Bob was going to pedal and stop pedaling was difficult. In addition, we had to get on and off the bicycle in tandem. Lastly, we were pulling 48 pound Darwin and the weight of the trailer. Despite all this, it was beautiful.

Darwin in the bike trailer. We stopped in Whalen, home of a pie shop that caters to all the bikers (we didn't try it) for our picnic lunch in the town park. Returning to Lanesboro, I headed off to Harmony (the center of the Amish community) to check out the quilts and stopped at a farmer's market with Amish women selling quilts, bread, beaded items, and canned goods. When I returned with the car, Bob headed off to St. Charles to play a disc golf course. We had tickets to a concert of Celtic music played by Laura MacKenzie and Gary Rue. She plays every conceivable wind instrument (3 different bagpipes, 2 different tin whistles and innumerable flutes). He plays wonderful accompanying guitar. She also sang. The audience was sparce in the old, rehabilitated movie/vaudeville theater.

Lanesboro used to be considerably larger than it is now. The building above is the Sons of Norway Hall next to Sylvan Park. Today is a big artist's fair in the park, along with food and music. While Bob played another round of disc golf in St. Charles I checked out the booths and bought a replacement rug for Snoopy (to replace the really ugly yellow, frayed bath mat). True to its history, Lanesboro had vegetarian curry, pulled pork (from a local hog) and brats. Tonight we're going to Karen and Bill's for dinner.

In Lanesboro is this wonderful garden. Though you can't read what's on the chair, it says "Norma's Garden." Norma's husband was in the garden explaining that she had started to develop it in 1986 when it was just a plot of weeds higher than him and filled with mosquitos. It's now filled with lovely plants, unusual planters (the 1912 wheelbarrow she played with as a child, a cream separator, etc.). It is just below Karen and Bill's house and is advertised with a little sign.

If any of you are in the neighborhood of Lanesboro, it's a delightful place to visit. The downtown is filled with old buildings and there is a lot of culture. We will head off tomorrow for Waucanda, IL to visit Bob's aunt Florence, after having breakfast in the wonderful Lanesboro Pastry Shop (you go in and tell them what you want for breakfast; there is no menu).

Black Hills, SD

After leaving Grand Teton, we traveled across Wyoming on blue highways ending up in Lusk, WY, almost at the SD border. The next morning we headed to the south end of the Black Hills. Our first visit was to Wind Cave National Park (the seventh national park). Wind Cave was discovered by two guys out checking their cattle whose hat was alternately blown off and sucked in by the approximately 1' diameter hole in the ground. Caves breathe in order to equalize the atmospheric pressure with the outside world. Wind Cave is the fourth longest cave in the world (after Mamoth Cave, KY, Jewel Cave, SD, and a cave in the Ukraine). So far 136 miles of cavern have been discovered in various levels within the space of approximately one square mile. Based on calculations related to the atmospheric pressure, geologists estimate that only 5% of Wind Cave has been discovered. Every year more miles are added (2 miles were added last year). In addition to the cave, the national park serves as a refuge for various charismatic megafauna, including the buffalo above which is eating dirt in a mineral lick (something they do in the spring when they are nursing).

Wind Cave is the home of 95% of the world's boxwork, which is created when calcium leaks into the minute cracks in the limestone and the limestone is dissolved away. The Black Hills used to be 14,000' tall and there is a 300-600' thick layer of limestone, laid down by multiple inland seas. As the tectonic plates pushed into the west coast of the US, the Black Hills were pushed upwards and fractured. The cave doesn't have any real stalagtites or stalagmites or large rooms. Most of the way is in narrow passageways, filled with boxwork. The water level is at 450' below the surface. Very few people, us included, know about Wind Cave. It was viewed as sacred by the Native Americans who would not enter it.

We camped at Pactola Reservoir, about halfway up the Black Hills after taking the Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park and seeing lots of buffalo, pronghorns, wild burros, whistle pigs, birds and other wildlife. The second day we drove to Spearfish, SD for Bob to play a disc golf course at Black Hills State University via the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway. It's a remarkable canyon with a relatively small Spearfish River in it and a few waterfalls. While he and Darwin were doing that, I drove back to Lead (pronounced LEED), SD, the location of the Homestake Mine, the largest gold mine in the US. The mine was discovered by two guys in 1876. Due to the erosion of the Black Hills, the quarts, which holds the gold, was exposed and was washed into various streams in the Black Hills. That lead to a gold rush which caused many whites to enter an area which had been granted to the Native Americans and from which they were to be excluded. Gen. Custer tried to remove them shortly before his end at the Battle of the Big Horn, but was unsuccessful. The claim was ultimately bought by George Hearst (the father of William Randolph Hearst) for $70,000. He also bought various surrounding claims. George Hearst owned the Ophir, CO and Anaconda, Montana mines also (he had a head/nose for good mines). The Homestake Mine operated until 1998, producing 50,500,000 ounces of gold from both underground works (down to 8,000') and two huge open pits, one 1,200' deep. There was little labor unrest in Lead as the mine treated its workers fairly. Hearst's wife built the first Carnegie library west of the Mississippi and a 1,000 seat opera house and recreation center. The Homestake Mine (so named because you could earn enough to stake yourself to a new home) also built three hospitals which provided free medical care for workers and their families. At the end of its run, it was extracting gold via cyanide heap leach mining (yuck!). The mine has been sold to another company and demolition and rehabilitation is under way. The huge stamping operating is still visible. Lead is pretty down on its luck now.

After picking Bob and Darwin up we drove down to the Crazy Horse Memorial. The sculptor, a Polish emigree living in Boston, left Boston at the age of 16 and worked on Mt. Rushmore. He made a name as a sculptor and the Lakota elders asked him to build a memorial to Crazy Horse. After securing the property, he began working in 1947. He has never taken any money from the federal or state governments and he and his wife had 10 kids (they were good Catholics). He died in 1982 and seven of the kids and his wife are continuing the work. In addition to the monument, which shows Crazy Horse on a horse pointing to where his people are buried, there is presently a museum containing Native American memorabilia from multiple tribes (including 16 of the original trade beads used to purchase Manhattan Island), the sculptor's home and an area where Native Americans can sell their crafts. The ultimate plan is to have a Native American university and medical school along with the museum and other facilities around the monument. It will be much bigger than Mt. Rushmore. Makes me think a little of our work at the Cottage (though hopefully we won't be at it for more than 60 years).

These two photos show Crazy Horse's head, which was unveiled in 2000, the tunnel underneath his outstretched arm and the outlines of his arm. Work continues all year long and quite a bit of the explosives and large machinery is donated. It's a very impressive undertaking.

Grand Teton National Park

After moving Snoopy from the full-service RV campground to the regular campground, we headed off to Jenny Lake to hike up Cascade Canyon. Though rain and cool weather were predicted, the morning was nice. The Tetons are caused by fault/uplift forces just like Steens Mountain, though the sediment in the Grand Tetons is identical to that 30,000' below the surface of the land. They rise 7,000' from the valley floor.

We took a boat (5 minutes) across Jenny Lake and started hiking. There were tons of people of all different descriptions. At least they were walking, but it was like walking in New York City. The first sight, .5 miles from the boat dock, is Hidden Falls. From there you climb up to Inspiration Point and start the 3.5 mile additional hike into the forks at the head of the canyon. The total length of the hike is 9 miles round trip with a 1,000' elevation rise. It's very gradual and pleasant. There were lots of folks on the trail, but as we got higher and there was more snow, the crowds thinned out.

The mountains were in clouds most of the time, but it was still spectacular. We reached the forks at 3 p.m. and trotted down the mountain in 1 and 1/2 hour, pushing ourselves. We met no one on the way down. Perhaps it was the spritzing weather or the fact that it was Sunday afternoon. We passed beautiful green, clear streams, but no real flowers. Spring has not arrived in the Grand Tetons. It's still under 10' of snow above 8,500'. There are avalanche chutes along the sides and still lots of snow up high. According to the Visitor Center staff, it often snows in mid-June.

Our destination was the base of this monolith. When we got back to Snoopy, we headed to the laundromat to wash clothes for the first time on the trip, Bob took a shower, and we both down-loaded e-mail in a restaurant. It was raining hard. It's at times like this that I appreciate Snoopy and the fact that I can cook indoors instead of under a tarp with the rain coming in sideways. It's been really cold (in the 30's) and we have been sleeping under our sleeping bags in addition to the blanket and quilt. The Grand Tetons are truly amazing and worth more visits and more time. However, we have a date with a world disc golf competition the last week of June in Ohio, so we're on the move.

Craters of the Moon National Monument

We left French Glen Oregon and drove all the way to Arco, ID (about 10 hours when you don't go on the freeway). We camped in Arco at a great RV place which offered free breakfast (2 large pancakes, 2 eggs and coffee). When we woke up we decided to go back to Craters of the Moon National Monument. The Snake River Valley, that large smile in the southern part of Idaho, was created by the hot spot that is presently under Yellowstone National Park creating craters and moving as the plates moved over 16 million years. Craters of the Moon last erupted 2000 years ago from a 52 mile rift that goes mostly north and south and from which the lava oozed out (as it has many times previously). There are various spatter cones and cinder cones and lots of interpretive walks. This photo is of a 1350 year old limber pine (so named because it can stand the strong winds without breaking its branches), which helped to date the latest flow.

This example of pahoehoe lava, the liquidy type, was just one of many types of lava. There are hunks of crater walls that were pushed along like ice bergs when the lava flowed, a'a, the harder type and cinders.

It was spring in Craters of the Moon too. The flora has developed all sorts of interesting adaptations to the environment. Sage brush sends out large leaves in spring, loses them and replaces them with small leaves for the hot, dry summers. Some plants have no leaves in the summer and replace them with fuzzy stalks which reflect the sun. Sagebrush has a 10' deep tap root and shallow surface roots. Other plants have surface roots that extend a large distance and determine how close other plants can grow. It was blowing hard and quite cool, but we learned a lot about volcanic activity.

This large crater shows the oxidized rock (red) and the rim in the bottom is where the pool of lava was located.

We went back to Arco to pick up Snoopy, noticed the dates each high school class had painted on the rocks above town (dating back to the 30's), and headed for Grand Teton National Park. We drove past lots of installations related to the Idaho National Lab (which does a lot of research related to nuclear energy), past the first (1951) nuclear reactor to produce electricity for homes, through Idaho Springs, and into Grand Teton National Park, with a stop for Bob to play disc golf on a 9-hole course in Teton Village. While he played I contemplated taking the tram to the top but was stopped by the $20 cost and the fact that the top was in the clouds. It's still early in Grand Teton and there was room in all the camp grounds.