Tag Archives: Travel

Sweet Home Carolina

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Bob & Noreen’s New House

Today, we drove to Bob and Noreen’s new place in North Carolina. We stretched what would have been a marathon one-day trip into two. We first headed east through Kentucky, before dropping south to Tennessee, crossed the Appalachians and then on into the Carolinas. In our travels, we have encountered two huge construction backups, but fortunately they were both in the opposite direction. Thanks, Joe Biden! We might return home via Tennessee to avoid them, as if there is no construction going on there. We had originally planned to overnight in Nashville, but when we plugged in last night’s date, the hotel rate went from $100 to $1000. It turns out the Country Music Awards were going on. Maybe on the way back. So far the weather has been pretty good. Not too hot!

Point Iroquois Lighthouse

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Iroquois Lighthouse

Iroquois Lighthouse

Yesterday, Anne bicycled from the old cabin to the Point Iroquois lighthouse. On the way, she stopped at the Dancing Crane coffee shop and bought a half-pound of beans. She cruised by the two casinos and one of two historical Native American burial grounds. Walking around the lighthouse grounds, she spied the following sign:

NO ROCK COLLECTING

Without a valid permit

The Point Iroquois Lighthouse and Site is listed in the National Register of Historical Places

With its special designation, we ask that you leave all features as they are:

  • To avoid diminishing the station’s character, do not alter the site features (taking rocks from the beach), which are important in defining the overall historic character of the property.
  • Do not remove or relocate historic light station buildings or landscape feature (rocks from the beach), thus destroying the historic relationship between the lighthouse, the buildings and the landscape.

I guess that the prohibition against relocating rocks from the beach could also include the time-honored practice of throwing rocks into the water. If this prohibition is just going up now at Iroquois, I wonder how much longer before the Whitefish Point lighthouse follows suit? Oh by the way, when I rode to the lighthouse with Anne, earlier this summer, I noticed a small sign just outside the burial grounds. It said that the use of metal detectors in this area is prohibited.

Ice Blockade, Zimmerman in lead, Soo, MI

Ice Blockade, Zimmerman in lead, Soo, MI

The lighthouse keepers log books often mention vessels delayed or stuck in the ice at the start of the spring shipping season. This postcard shows ore carriers in a Whitefish Bay spring “ice blockade” around 1910. The above photo and the following picture are both displayed on placards in an informational kiosk.

Cliffs Victory

Cliffs Victory

The ship Cliffs Victory was originally built in 1945 as a WW II “Victory ship”. She was later lengthened and reconstructed for Great Lakes use in 1951 and for a while was the fastest bulk freighter on the lakes. It was eventually dismantled for scrap iron in Korea, in 1987.

Lepidopteran

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A Portion of Lepidopteran #3 Quilt, by Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry, Paducah, KY

A Portion of Lepidopteran #3 Quilt, by Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry, Paducah, KY

Today was a day for errands and chores. That’s not to say we didn’t get a little bike ride in first, because we did. First thing this morning, we bicycled in Forest Park. This early morning ride allowed us to beat the day’s heat, but we were definitely not alone, the park was very crowded at that hour. Everyone one else wanted to beat the heat too. The errands and chores that we accomplished today were in preparation for our summer vacations. We first gathered and then packed our camping equipment. I put new tires, tubes and brake pads on Anne’s bike and I got my hair cut. After our ride, while I was busy in the basement, Anne was feverishly working upstairs on her latest quilting creation. I cannot disclose much about this project, because it is going to be a present, but the portions of this quilt that have already been completed look quite spectacular.