250- Kind of a Big Deal!

I am aware that some folks are having a hard time celebrating the 250th Anniversary of the USA with all the tension in the political climate. However, I think it's a big deal. And I can say with a great deal of certainty that I won't be around for the 300th, so I'm making an effort to be a bit more celebratory than I often am on holidays.

The church that's near us had a fireworks display on Wednesday night. I'm not a big fan of fireworks. But I went out and watched some of theirs.

Today, White Pine Village had a day that was free to the public. This is a local living history musuem that has all buildings of local historical significance that have been moved to the site. It's really well done, with quite a lot of buildings now, but I hadn't seen it in a long time because it's also a bit pricey.

The entire village is built around this house, which is the first frame house built in the county in 1849. And it was in this location. All the other buildings were moved to join it. This was also used as the county's first courthouse, jail and general store.

I spent a bit over two hours there. A lot has been added since my last visit, and it was excellent. They were also giving away free ice cream! West Shore Bank, locally owned, sponsored the free day, and House of Flavors donated the ice cream.

I didn't show you any pix from the Patriotic Concert on Sunday, but I'll show you one now (that was taken Sunday) because the choir was also at the village today and sang their selections.

This is a lady dipping candles. The wiggly ones on the right are recently begun, and the ones on the left and the one she is dipping are nearly done.

I managed to catch one of the sawmill demonstrations. Of course, a huge part of the local history is tied up with logging and mills.

One of the local industries that operated into the last part of the 20th Century was Star Watch Case. And here is where I learned something new. I already knew what a pantograph is, and you probably do too if you've done any wood routing, or perhaps even some experimental kinds of art. It's basically a jointed quadrilateral frame that you can use to trace a design from one surface to another and make it a different size.

So, I did not know that this is how they made those detailed and fancy engravings on gold watch cases. The large flat disk on the left is a metal plate which has the design cut into it. Of course, it is large enough that you can see the lines. The watch case is at the other side of the pantograph. When the design is traced on the big disk, it is reproduced on the scale of the case at the other side. It's sort of like how micro-robotic hands work-- where you move your own hand a couple of inches, and the robot hand moves only a tiny increment.

And to end the day, David came to visit. Yes, the David that lives in Philadelphia. As a reminder, his wife is originally from Grand Rapids, so he tries to pop up here when they make the trip to Michigan. And the summer trip is even closer, since they all stay in a cottage only about 35 minutes from me!

The day started with a Zoom call, but it mostly improved after that. It was a good meeting, but I just am not a fan of virtual meetings. I'm glad I made the effort to get over to White Pine Village (and I saw a LOT of people I know). David helped me fix a computer thing, and also to clean the vacuum filter. I don't expect him to work when he shows up here, but it just sort of happened. And if someone mentions a computer problem around Dave he can hardly keep from fixing it! Then he showed me pictures from a recent trip he and Rachel took to London.

My tomorrow guests will not be here till evening, so I still have a little time to do the last bit of cleaning that is going to happen.

See Big Boy

Goodbye Philadelphia in the Rain

It was a good day to spend in the car, and that filled most of the day. David waves us off from his doorstep.

We did begin with something very nice. Rachel had to go to work, but David and Marie...

... and Carmen and I went out to breakfast. Carmen is a long-time friend of Dave and Rachel, and I've known her for probably 10 years, but I guess she hasn't made it on the blog before.

Just a few more images of Philadelphia from yesterday. Philly has hundreds of murals. (Nope, I just looked it up- they have 4000-5000 and it is known as the mural capital of the world.) Here's one. A lot of them are really amazing, but I can't catch photos from the moving car. Maybe some trip I'll try to do a better job with pictures of murals.

And if this doesn't say Philadelphia to you, I can't make it any better. This is a straight-on view of City Hall with the statue of William Penn on the top.

And an attempt to catch a side view on a different street.

It rained ALL day, turning to slush as we got back to Marie's. But tomorrow is another day!

See Rooted

Onward to Philly!

Marie and I packed up the car this morning and went to take a hike on a newly-paved rail trail near her. It was an Ontario and Western connector line. Nicely plowed and the sun had melted it clear. No snow pants needed! We wore jackets and gloves, but no extra layers on the legs. It was a welcome hint of a warmer season.

At one point we could see this other railroad bridge over Esopus Creek. I think it used to be New York Central, but I wasn't able to verify that just now.

Then we continued on our way. Most of my Philadelphia skyline pictures aren't good because they were taken from moving vehicles on the expressway. This one is no exception, but it proves we made it.

And here we are! Rachel, David, Marie and me. A smaller than usual gathering at flower show time, but that's OK!

We are doing the show on Monday so there will actually be a couple of calm days here. I'm ready for that.

We did manage to get in a decent walk. 3.7 miles.

Miles walked in 2026: 56.1
Kingston, NY, Ontario and Western Connector Trail, Washington St to Rt. 209 and back. 3.7 miles

See 1.4 Miles, 2 Counties

The Second Long NCT Hike - 1995

Everyone seemed to like last night's ancient history post. Since today's news is more snow, I'll just share another early NCT hike.

In 1995, we added my grad school housemate, Mathilda, to our hiking troupe, and decided to check out the western end of the North Country Trail. Prior to that time I'd only driven through North Dakota in the winter, and we had no idea what to expect. Except for the heat, we were delighted!

I'll start at the end. We finished at the western terminus in Lake Sakakawea State Park. There was no lovely sign there at that time, just a small post in the ground.

We were astonished at all the water. I had not previously realized that this was the prairie pothole region and there was lots of water and lots of waterfowl. I've always loved this picture. It just says North Dakota to me. Potholes and headwaters of the Sheyenne River behind us.

We started at the eastern edge of the Lonetree Wildlife Management Area near Harvey, ND, and hiked west. The "Mighty Og" was a privately constructed bit of roadside art that we found hilarious. It's gone now.

I'd love to show you lots of pictures from that hike, but I'll try to limit myself. Almost all the wildflowers were new to me. This is purple prairie clover.

The white pelicans were amazing. They remain one of my favorite birds, although they are so shy I have yet to get a truly decent picture of one.

My scariest night outside, ever, was on that trip as we survived an impressive thunderstorm while completely exposed on a bluff. And we'll never again find ticks problematic. We were covered with them all the time. We had to wipe quantities of them off each other at every stop.

The biggest problem was the relentless heat. It was over 100° many days in a row. If we couldn't find any shade (if we could, it was usually a single tree), we took to setting up our tarp at lunch and taking a snooze. We were super-thankful for the irrigation canal. We continaully wet our shirts and hiked until they dried- under a half hour, and then we did it again. In the evening we swam. It was always there so we had water to filter.

This was the first trip of many where my feet turned to hamburger. It was pretty awful. Mostly I just learned to walk anyway. It took 19 years, and many iterations of attempts to solve this problem, before we figured out that I needed to ditch the boots and use trail runners. The boots kept my feet too hot.

And at the end of these 134 challenging miles, I realized... I wanted to hike the entire NCT.

I had delusions that Chips would be able to do it all with me. Of course, dogs don't live long enough at the rate we were hiking. And his life would be shortened even more. But, to my knowledge, he still hold the record for the canine with the most unique miles on the NCT at about 1200.

Following this hike, I attended my first ever NCTA Conference to see if I wanted to get involved with this organization. Well... I think you know how that turned out.

I edited, did errands, washed dishes, blah blah.

See Allegheny NF- 1994

The First Long NCT Hike - 1994

Hunting up the picture I've used to advertise the Confidence Camp got me looking at some other old hike pictures. That trip was in 1996. The first long hike on the NCT was in 1994. Marie, her son David, and I hiked the 96 miles through the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania. It was our first long backpacking trip and we made most of the rookie mistakes and lived to tell.

We had a blast, even though it rained almost every day, and we were almost constantly soaked. It was puppy Chips' first long hike too, and he loved it.



I was just learning how to use a 35mm SLR camera and most of the pictures from that trip are too dark, and they never did all get digitized. But I'll share a few. Here are Marie and Dave signing us into a trail register... probably our very first of who knows how many. I'm fairly confident of the "first" status because of the Finger Lakes Trail logo on the box. That means it was at the NY/PA state line.

Here Dave and I are resting on a rock with a plaque thanking the Allegheny National Forest by the Allegheny Outdoor Club. Interestingly enough, the trail here has been re-routed and the plaque has been moved although it's still on the trail, although not on this rock.

This is one of my personal favorites because it demonstrates how we spent almost every evening. I, in my hard-headed purist fashion, had declared that we would cook over a fire every night. I hadn't yet even bought a backpacking stove. The rain guaranteed that we had NO dry clothes after the third day. Every night we hung socks and underwear over the fire and roasted them. When pieces more directly over the flames got too hot, we'd move them farther out. A few things got singed, but we didn't actually burn up any briefs. It was worth it to at least start the next day in dry undies.

I can't find a color copy of this photo right now. It's not worth finding the slides and turning on the scanner. You'll have to settle for black and white. I felt on top of the world, and I sort of was! Chips was not about to let me get to a higher space than he was.

Now, you need to take a peek at two of these pictures to notice my hiking stick. This is the stick nicknamed "Chickenspit." It is now one of the curtain rods in my bedroom. See link at the end.

I hope you enjoyed, or at least tolerated, this trip down memory lane. I can hardly believe this was 32 years ago.

You can read lots more about it in North Country Cache, available from me.

I did minimal work today- several projects are in limbo until I get feedback from people. I started a new puzzle and read.

See The Project Done

My Fav Dave

Someone came by for a visit today. Someone with long legs. Can you tell who?

Sorry in advance to all the other Daves and Davids in my life. This one is my favorite. In fact, I call him my extra kid. He's really Marie's, but he goes out of his way to be friends with me and comes up to visit whenever his family is getting together with his in-laws in West Michigan.

No, I didn't compel him into working. He just wanted to help a little bit while I was giving him the flower garden tour. His long legs made dealing with the fencing much easier!

We spent most of the day visiting, but went for a short hike in the afternoon. We went to a nearby piece of the NCT.

Very nice day.

I didn't keep my yearly hiking log up to date here while in New York. I'll add up the miles and get back on track now.

Miles hiked in 2025: 306.8.
NCT miles hiked in 2025: 188.6

North Country Trail, Lake Co, Michigan. Upper Branch Bridge to 40th St and back

See The Surprise Arrives

The Surprise Arrives

 I suppose it's not a surprise if I knew he was coming. But I didn't know until Thursday. So... a semi-surprise.

This is David, Marie's son. I call him my extra kid. His in-laws live in Grand Rapids, so he often tries to run up here during family visits. He spent most of the day here, so the time was spent visiting.

I did manage to do a little editing before he arrived. It was a beautiful day outside, and would have been great hiking weather, but I'm not going to try to weigh that against this visit.

Other than that, the most exciting thing is that I got a stink bug down my shirt!

See Meet David

More than a Package of Hot Dogs

  Someone asked me earlier this week what I was doing for the holiday, and I said that I had thawed a package of hot dogs, and that was going to be the extent of my celebration. How wrong I was!

Friend Dave, yes Philadelphia Dave, was in Grand Rapids and asked if he could come up for the day. Of course!

So, we started out with joining a group hike on the North Country Trail.

We did the section with the Vince Smith bridge.

One very nifty find on the hike was a young Northern Redbelly snake. They are very calm. This one was only about 6 inches long. They rarely exceed 12 inches even when full grown.

I was holding him, and everyone else was trying to get pictures. So far, no one has sent me a picture of the red belly, but you can see how red it is at the tip of his tail.

After we got home, we chilled for a while and then decided to go to a concert at the Ludington State Park. It was held outside the new Beach House.

We went to hear the Third Coast Swing Band. They were very, very good. Two local members- professional level.

Ludington in the summer... this picture just says it all.

Got someone to take a picture of Dave and me (see above). What a really nice day! Definitely more than a package of hot dogs, although we did eat some of them with macaroni salad and chips. Quite perfect.

North Country Trail miles in 2021 is at 337.

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI, Mac Road to 3 Mile Road and back. 7+ miles

See More Fun with Dave

Beethoven's Birthday

 
Before we get back to the Philadelphia Flower Show, I really have to share about the concert we went to on Saturday night. Rachel sings in the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia. For this concert they celebrated Beethoven's 250th birthday by singing the Mass in C, and Fantasia for Piano, Choir, and Orchestra.

The event was held at Holy Trinity Church in Philadelphia. Just being there was an adventure in elegance.



The choir and orchestra filled every inch of the stage space.



This shows some of the orchestra and some of the soloists.



Mass in C is all in Latin. Some of the phrases are familiar, but I was glad there was a translation in the program. Then they took a break and did Fantasia which is supposed to be a precursor to the famous 9th Symphony, sometimes known as Ode to Joy. I know this because I read the program. But you could certainly hear the similarities. These words are in German, and again, the translation was very helpful to understand the meaning- a celebration of spring.

Here is Rachel singing. It's hard to get pictures of people singing that don't look dumb, but at least this one is not too weird.



Finally, I made the family pose for a picture, but big mistake, it was at the end of that non-stop Saturday. Everyone was dressed nicely, but you can tell that they are all beat. David is like my extra son, Rachel is his wife, and by extension, Anja and Mia are sort of my pretend grandkids. Well, tired or not, they are all very special to me.



In today's news: I worked on volunteer stuff, then got ready for writers' group, did shopping, bell choir, writers' group, and wished for a nap. Hope I'm back to full energy tomorrow.

See Last Day in Philly