Slow paddle on the Crystal River

The Crystal River empties Glen Lake into Lake Michigan just over a mile away. But, because of the slow, meandering course the river takes, there are about 15 miles of paddling via canoe or kayak to get to the village of Glen Arbor on Lake Michigan. A map of the river looks like the chart a seismograph makes in an earthquake, but the land surrounding the river is mostly flat, sandy cedar swamp that occasionally opens up for lush reed fields -apparently good habitat for huge snappers and strange bitterns.

The stream itself is very shallow and clear with a sandy bottom. This apparently allows one's companions to feel brave about smacking water toward fellow paddlers, and getting faces full of water in return. Right, Jen?

What would it sound like...

paying for something convenient, Empire, Michigan

What would it sound like if all of the labels, words, images and colors used to get our attention were making noise instead?

Steeped in culture on the 4th of July

What better way to bury oneself in the smells and flavors of the United States on July 4th than at a classic car show in Michigan? In many ways the car show culture is as foreign to me as is being anywhere else in the world, so while I don't know anything about cars, the shapes, forms and colors of their fans were rich and fascinating! Especially fun to watch was the pride of the owners as they sat back taking in the appreciations of the wandering crowds. Oh yeah -the cars were interesting too.

Who's made it to this year's Polka Fest?

Checking in on the Polka Fest, Cedar, Michigan

evening walk, Cedar, Michigan

Of all the tiny towns sprinkled around the Leelanau Peninsula, Cedar has one of the bigger local festivals every summer in their Polka Fest. The way many rural areas lose a large portion of their kids after high school or college, it seems like some of these festivals serve as nothing more than a reunion for all those who've left home.

Lake Michigan's bearish dunes

Sleeping Bear Dunes, Empire, Michigan

Sleeping Bear Dunes, Empire, Michigan

The prevailing winds off of Lake Michigan pile sand dunes up on top of already high glacial moraines making the dunes reach heights of over 400 feet straight out of the lake. This means many familiar beach functions like water gazing and sunbathing take place far removed from the lapping waves. It also means, for anyone running down to the water, a long, steep, very soft, thigh-burning, waterless hike back up. It's not unusual for the rangers to have to rescue people from below using jet skis.

Cottonwood stands of Michigan and points west

All the way across the Great Plains and into the high country of Wyoming and Colorado, stands of cottonwood trees stretch along thousands of miles of river bottomlands. Seeing them, often camping out in their shade, and hearing their always-rustling leaves became one of the more consistent details of our trip last summer, and it began in Michigan, on the sand dunes in the wind coming off the big lake. There are occasional cottonwoods in the east, including the large lightning-scarred one in Margaret's yard outside the kitchen window. But there is something sturdy and comforting about being among the large western patches of them and as we headed back east, it was one thing I knew I'd miss.

Empire beach, Lake Michigan

Empire beach, Lake Michigan

Empire beach, Lake Michigan

Just about everything anyone loves about beaches can be found in the upper Great Lakes: smooth soft sand, vast horizons, clear blue water, tiny strange sand bugs, gull footprints, the bubbling sand after a wave recedes. One thing not usually idolized however is the freezing-cold water of the lakes. It can make swimming something you have to "get over with" in order to lay out on the beach. For many locals however, the icy temperatures they grew up with translate to cleanliness. It means they get turned off by warmer southern waters since it feels "dirty". I think it's just a way to identify themselves with the land they're from...

Michigan, July 2009

I'll begin the photo-blog style flash-back to last summer's road trip where I left off previously -in Michigan, before we set out onto the midwestern prairies. Staying in northern Michigan for a week visiting Jenifer's family allowed us to shift gears and sink right into so many wonderful clichés of summer including beaches, classic car shows, local festivals, canoeing & kayaking, sun-baked sand dunes, cool starry nights with distant coyotes howling, and -not least- ice cream...

Left to right: summer job at an ice cream shop, black cherry ice cream

One of many reasons to love winter...

There are so many reasons to love winter in the northern hemisphere. One of them is that there are so many cloudy days which push our minds inward so we can reflect on the past and digest it a little further ...like a cow bringing up cud from one of its stomachs in order to chew and extract more nutritional value out of a meal from the recent past.

In this light I'm going to try to go back to last summer here and finish recounting our July ramble out west across the Great Plains.

Thinking, or trying not to, during the dark months

Ice flowing down the Hudson River past Poughkeepsie, New York

The new year usually makes us compare where we are to where we thought we'd be from a year or decade ago. So, I'm not where I thought I'd be, but in the long run probably much better off.

I guess it's important to have plans and goals and work toward them. I guess it's important to be open to whatever comes and react to everything as a new opportunity.

...Now, how to live both ways at the same time? I think the answer is in that part of our brains where our minds aren't, like in an athlete who fails when he thinks too hard about what he's doing. It's probably as simple as thinking about and working on the future and being content in the present. If one side overwhelms the other, I suppose you're thinking too hard and need to lose your mind a bit.

Too much caution sometimes piles up and throws off that balance. From the wisdom of the Butthole Surfers, "It's better to regret something you have done than to regret something you haven't done."