Summer of 1993 - 1

 Tonight is just going to be a teaser. I did my quota of editing and writing, a couple of other bits of work, and then started scanning slides that I've wanted to digitize for a long while. But it takes a fair amount of time to do them. However, I got the project about half done. I won't be showing you all the pictures. Some aren't very good, or there are a lot that are similar.

I'm going to take you back to the summer of 1993. I had just completed my first year of grad school, at the University of Michigan, college of Engineering. I'll tell you more about what I was doing as we continue, but here is where I spent the summer, at the DesPlaines River Wetlands, Wetlands Research, Inc. It's in Illinois, but very close to the Wisconsin border, about four miles inland from Lake Michigan

I've always said this was the best summer of my life, but now it has to compete with the big hike Dec '21- Jun '23. Apples and oranges. Anyway, there I was.

Tonight I will tease you with puppy pictures. Chips was only 3 months old when I went to live on this site in May. We cleaned up an empty trailer and lived there for four months. My Cat's Meow sleeping bag was brand new! I was only barely introduced to the North Country Trail. Marie and I had taken one 3-day backpacking trip in 1991, and a couple of day hikes. We had hoped to do a long hike that summer, but Marie had broken a bone in her foot and although it was healed, she didn't think she could do the weight of a backpack. More on that later.

I had my first real car (I'd owned a couple of beater vans before then). It was a Dodge Colt Vista, and I loved it. Chips did too. As long as he was with me or in the car, he felt safe.

I will tell you that he locked me out of the car once.

Tomorrow, I'll get the rest of the slides scanned, and begin telling you about that summer.

See In Memory of Hoover Houdini Chips