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"IN MEMORY OF MARY LOGSDON" - IN NOTE SECTION OF CHECK

AUGUST 18, 2006 -  "TO EVERYTHING, TURN, TURN, TURN, THERE IS A SEASON, TURN, TURN, TURN, AND A TIME FOR EVERY PURPOSE UNDER HEAVEN."

APOLOGIES TO THE SUBSCRIBERS OF THIS JOURNAL ARE IN ORDER. I MISTAKENLY IDENTIFIED SOME PHOTOS AS BEING FROM LAKE SUPERIOR WHEN IN FACT THEY WERE TAKEN ALONG LAKE MICHIGAN.

Today was somewhat uneventful, really, in the big scheme of things. I snapped away at 8:00 AM, and noted that there was not one bit of coffee in any of the cups. Bob had been able to scrounge coffee somewhere the previous mornings, but this morning, he said that the stuff he found resembled 10 w 30 motor oil. 

It had to be the same stuff that was "brewing" last night when I wrote my journal. The motel had high speed internet, but I had to use the "sun room" outside the office. I usually need to write after dinner has been located, consumed and …. Uhm….. evacuated.

I probably mentioned this before, but I realize that my love of writing has been rekindled because of this trip. I had gone to Macomb College and Wayne State to be an English Literature Teacher, but ended up working 32 years in Traffic Engineering. I minored in photography at Wayne State and was able to use my love of that art form during my tenure at the Road Commission of Macomb County. The "engineering" photos were challenging, but for different reasons. Just prior to my retirement, I was able to create a clock for the new office building. I am proud of that design, and just as happy that the photographs used in the design and creation of the clock have met with approval as well.

This trip has allowed my love for both writing and photography to be used to the fullest. It has been a wonderful ride, so far. Bob and I are staying with a friend in Whitewater, Wisconsin. Eda has been a member of the Janesville Fife and Drum Corps for 18 years.  She was kind in allowing the two of us to invade her home for the night. Tomorrow, we head back to the shoreline and head south toward Chicago. I hope to see my niece and possibly my cousin with the brief time we have.

I really have to get home and see my children and grandchild. I miss them.
Wait, I got off track here, didn't I?

We barreled out of our rooms, packed the bikes up got the helmets on and drove clear across the parking lot to the restaurant. We went in to get breakfast and had the added treat of having a waitress - quite possibly the owner - come over and say "I want to tell you guys a joke, but I don't want you to be offended. She says how many wrinkles are there in a prune? "  Bob said that he didn't know. So, she grabbed his cheeks and started counting the wrinkles. She had a few other jokes, but the fact that she was a cast member from the Seinfeld episode that had him dating a "low talker" was a troubling experience. She would come by with coffee and mumble a joke - which she thought was hilariously funny - and then would walk away. Here is the only one I heard. "If every bride is beautiful, how come there are so many ugly wives?".

She was able to get her entire heft moving back toward the kitchen, laughing all the way. The interesting thing is that I am not sure that she was doing the mumbling without moving her lips on purpose, on purpose. Damn, I am not sure that came out right, but I know what I meant. Call me if you have a problem with that one.

We finally left the restaurant and headed west down the coast of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, after noting that the sky didn't look all too inviting. We found out just how inviting it was, about 35 yards farther down the road. We put the rain suits on. After cocooning ourselves in them we headed west again. Sometimes the rain was problematic. Sometimes the rain was damn heavy. Sometimes, it hurt to travel. That is when I would pull into a gas station just to take a break. The miles passed by, however, and MS. GPS continued to give me directions in her lilting voice. She was even civil today, probably due to the fact that she knew we were under stress due to the weather.

Surprisingly we made it into Wisconsin without major issues. The weather seemed to be clearing up just as a Harley dealer appeared on the right side of the road. Well, there was nothing else happening so we pulled in and thanked them for the welcome party.  I had to get a shirt, of course. The dealership was having a birthday party so food was available (I had a corn on the cob, because we had just had lunch). After explaining the trip to a number of people, we were back on the road and headed south. We had made it around the north side of Lake Michigan and were beginning to make the run south along the west coast. Green Bay went by under the wheels as did some of the other shoreline cities.

We stayed dry, but the sky really threatened a few times to get nasty.  It was so close to the bone that the decision was made to forego the peninsula that juts into Lake Michigan. There was too much to risk being up at the end in a small town with little or no facilities. We continued south. Milwaukee was hosting both a pro baseball game this evening and a pro football game. Why would the Packers be way south in Milwaukee instead of at home in Green Bay. Furthermore, why would they be down "south" during the summer and not during the winter when they could really use the milder temperatures of Milwaukee in the winter.

The traffic turned out to be manageable, but I had this feeling of being very tense. I had not been on an urban interstate since I was in California running the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) which alternates back and forth between being a two lane road and being freeway. The trip to Whitewater was unnerving because of that "new" experience of driving with a billion other drivers.

One interesting thing that did occur on the trip south, however, was in the city Marinette, Wisconsin, just across the border from Menominee, Michigan.  Bob and I had been traveling along when an enclosed panel type truck came down the pike, swerving in and out of lanes of traffic. He was in the right lane next to me, when all of a sudden he clipped into my lane, barely missing my front tire - and only then because I hit the brakes. We were at a traffic signal at that point and as soon as it turned green, he cut off the car in the right lane, raced ahead of the green pickup that was in my lane, and zipped into my lane again, cutting the pickup off. That's not all. He then proceeded to run the red light that the rest of us were stopping for.

Oh, yeah, the side of the street that had the green light, also had a police officer sitting in his car. Mr. Police man had to wait for Mr. Truck driver to get out of the intersection before he could proceed to chase the bastard down and pull him over.

By this time I was cheering. Bob pulled up next to me and was complaining about that … uh ……….. "guy" . I said I felt like going back and telling the cop what he had been doing prior to running the light. A vote was taken and it was unanimous. We turned back and I pulled into the drive, next to the police officer's passenger window.

He pushed a button and the window opened.  This is what was said:
"Officer, the fellow driving this van cut me and two other vehicles off in his haste to race you here."

"I appreciate your telling me this. He was getting a ticket anyway, regardless, but perhaps he needs to learn some valuable lessons. Don't worry and have a nice day."

"Officer, you have a nice day, too."

The rest of the morning we traveled in a lighter mood.

We are waiting for laundry to dry as this is being written. Today we traveled 345 Miles and except for the drenching rain of this morning, we have enjoyed the experience. Besides, Bob told me a story that was so funny, it entertained me for most of those 300 or so miles. I was actually laughing out loud for much of the trip around Lake Michigan.