Shannon and I drove back east last month after a quick stop with 'the kids' in Ft Collins/Windsor, to visit friends and family in Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, and we stopped in St Louis on the way back. The original idea was to attend my high school reunion but we managed to fit in numerous historical and artsy attractions along the way, as well as some hiking.
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| Our Durango neighbors Bruce and Carol Stoddard hosted us at their Madison WI home and took us hiking around Devil's Lake State Park. |
We ferried across Lake Michigan from Manitowoc WI to Ludington MI on the SS Badger, the only remaining coal-fired passenger ship in America.
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| Yes, a lot of smoke. |
Shannon has family in and around Grand Rapids MI. While we were there the extensive Art Prize competition was going on.
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| Here she is with her sister Nicole Kipp |
On the way from Grand Rapids down to Mattoon IL, where I was born, we stopped to see the sculpture gardens of Allerton Park IL.
During our three days in Mattoon we enjoyed dinners with family and friends, spent time catching up with classmates from 60 years ago (there were an awful lot of old folks there) ...
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| I'm the old guy in a blue shirt at the upper right, a thorn between two roses |
and we toured some sites around Coles County, including Fox Ridge State Park, a scenic spot that figured prominently in my childhood.
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| Ridge Lake |
In the early 1950s my dear departed sister Marie and her husband Marvin Moore often took their children and me to Fox Ridge to picnic and hike. Because I fell more or less between generations (Ria was fifteen when I was born) I grew up with my nieces and nephews as if they were my cousins instead. I found the wooded hills and trails at Fox Ridge much different from most of Central Illinois, vastly more interesting. It was there, playing in the water running off from Ridge Lake alongside my little nephew Tom that I had a life-changing epiphany.
Suddenly Nature, the Woods, with the sights and sounds of birds in the trees, of running water sparkled by sun, the smells of maple greenery, moss and wildflowers -- all this Great Outdoors combined to slap me upside my young head with this sudden revelation: LIFE CAN BE FUN.
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