When Anne drove us from Rudyard to the Cabin on Sunday we passed a pair of sandhill cranes on our way into Brimley. I should have called Stop! and photographed that pair because we have not seen another one since. Even at Harry’s favorite spot. Wednesday, Anne and I finally found our bicycle legs and rode out to the Dancing Crane. The Dancing Crane is a coffee shop on the Bay Mills Indian Community. For all you cyclists out there, this was definitely a coffee shop ride, in all senses of that meaning. When I first started to accompany Anne and her family to their cabin, we would sometimes pass through the res, as is was known. It had all the trappings of a stereotypical Indian reservation, broken down cars in the front yards and dirt covered children running around. Fast forward forty years and now in addition to a casino and a golf course, the res now hosts a latte lady and her lad. All of the derelict cars are gone, replaced with large, late model SUVs or pickup trucks, etc. There has been extensive investment into tribal infrastructure in the intervening years. The children may still be dirty, as children will (ours certainly cleaved to that description), but it is not for lack of care or cost.

We rode out to the Dancing Crane and Gene and Harry met us there. I posted yesterday’s post there and we all enjoyed our caffeinated or not treats, liquid candy bars. Anne and I got seventeen miles. [This year’s MS-150 is how many weeks away?] This post is one of my “bird posts”. The pictures should have been your first clue, exhibit A: Young Gull and Crayfish. The other night, Anne and I were walking the beach. There was this young gull that would sort of hop-fly its way down the beach, always keeping just ahead of us. Eventually this young gull caught a crayfish in its beak, yummy. Unfortunately for this gull, this crayfish was not willing to slide into said gull’s throat. It put up a fuss and got itself out of the mouth and then latched unto a breast feather. This action seems incredible prescient for a creature so low on the food chain. Having escaped the gull’s beak, I would have thought that it would have dropped to the sand and attempted to scurry into the surf. 20/20 intellect surmises that this would have been a bad idea. The gull would have easily scooped it up again. Hence, my first bird picture showing the gull wearing the crayfish. For those of you keeping score, the crayfish got away. Exhibit B: After lunch a blue jay struck the window. It was totally stunned, hence the preceding close-up, but eventually managed to fly away. I don’t know what to say about the pink flamingo though.