Golfing in Late November!

I suppose this wouldn't be a big deal for someone from the south or the west coast, but for us, golfing in late November is pretty unusual. We had a gorgeous, relatively warm day in Fort Collins yesterday. I believe temperatures exceeded 60º. Travis took us to play the City Park Nine course, which was very pretty and in really nice condition. There were quite a few golfers out for the day. Kathie and I hadn't played for probably three years. I know I hadn't played since before I broke my wrist a couple or three summers ago, so I didn't know what to expect. Turns out I did very well but only for six holes, after which I suffered a complete meltdown and couldn't hardly connect with the ball. Kathie and Travis finished nicely though, and we all had a great time being outdoors.

Colorado Railroad Museum and Iowa/Purdue Game

OK, if you are going to know me, you are going to have to put up with a certain amount of interchange regarding railroads and model trains. Kathie and I are visiting Travis in Colorado for a couple of weeks, including Thanksgiving. On Friday, we drove to Golden to visit the Colorado Railroad Museum and also to see Sandy's parents, who live nearby. (Duh! I forgot to take pictures while we were with them. We were so absorbed in conversation and in seeing Dick and Ruth's fine collections of railroad memorabilia, that I simply overlooked the opportunity!)

At the museum, we saw a first-rate HO layout which had incredible detail. Here are a couple of photos of portions of it. I found the swimming scene near the trestle quite amusing. Note the legs of the person who has just dived in as well as the person diving from the trestle. I don't suppose my eventual layout modeling will ever be this good.

The museum has protected lots of rolling stock and locomotives from roads that operated in Colorado, including the Rio Grande Southern. Many have been nicely restored, and there is an operating shop and turntable on the grounds that supports the volunteers who refurbish these treasures.

One of the things I most wanted to see was the collection of unusual Galloping Goose engines that operated on the Rio Grande Southern for a time. There is quite a good article in the archives of the Denver Post that you can find by clicking here, if you want to learn about them. They were an unusual creation based on a conventional automotive chassis that allowed for significantly reduced operating cost for passengers and mail delivery contracting. The idea helped the road continue to operate in the face of serious financial problems. But of course, the "locomotives" were very unusual and sounded so as well. They tended to wobble down the tracks, which led to their Galloping Goose nickname. Only seven were ever built. I got to see two of them. Turns out that I have an operating model of one of them in my own model train collection. I learned this past summer that a friend's grandfather was one of the designers and builders of these fascinating machines.

Switching gears now! How about those Hawks!? Yesterday, Travis, Kathie and I went to a local bar in Fort Collins that was hosting the local I-Club gathering of Iowa fans to watch the Iowa-Purdue football game. That was really fun, especially with the win. The Hawks are 11-0 now and, with Michigan State defeating Ohio State later yesterday, may climb into the top four current candidates for the national championship playoff games. However, Nebraska still lies in the way of a perfect regular season. So, we will focus on that game for now, one we may be able to see again together with local Iowa fans in the Fort Collins area next Friday.

One more thing. The local I-Club sells T-shirts that say "Iowa Fans with Altitude." Of course we had to acquire some of those!

Home But Not Home

Just for the record, we left our Wisconsin home in middle October after being there nearly nonstop for the entire summer. I believe the time spent there for 2015 was 126 days or about 1/3 of the year. Pretty nice!

Although we are supposedly back in Iowa, we continue to get out and about. Over the Halloween weekend, we were in Minneapolis to visit both Jessica's and Will's families and to celebrate Kathie's birthday. This was our first joint visit there since Jessica and Mike moved there from Marshall. (Kathie had been there for a couple days earlier in October.) Their new startup business is off to a rousing start. If you don't know about that, take a look at the Local Crate web site by clicking here.

Leo and Maia seem to have finally taken to their new surroundings, and Maia is enjoying her preschool. I don't know what Leo was trying to accomplish here, but he and his Nana are cute just the same.

The day before Halloween, we visited Maia's preschool so that we could see their Halloween costume parade. Jessica helped Maia don her Supergirl outfit.

Leo needed some attention too.

The array of businesses next door to the preschool were kind enough to allow the parade to wind through all their offices so that the kids could get an early start on their candy gathering. There were lots of different kinds of costumes, but the superheroes (Supergirl, Batgirl, Captain America, and others) were especially well represented.

In the afternoon, we went to Anders' school (School of Engineering and Arts or SEA). Last year he told us about the annual pumpkin drop. Each class creates a contraption that is meant to protect a pumpkin when dropped from the roof of their two-story school building. In preparation, each student gathers information on possible methods by doing the same thing with an egg from a six foot height. Most of the pumpkin contraptions involved a cardboard box and then all manner of foam, bubble wrap, stuffed animals, marshmallows, tape, and who knows what else. Some parachutes were involved as well.

The school janitor, decked out in a pumpkin outfit, launched all the contraptions. In those cases were parachutes were involved, I think he didn't do a very good job of helping them to unfurl, but who am I to criticize? I recall there being twenty or so in all––there are several classes for each of grades one through five. Kindergarten classes merely observe but, as Anders did last year, begin to dream about their involvement when they begin first grade.

After all contraptions have reached the ground, representatives from each class describe their class's construction while their box is opened

Anders provided part of the commentary for their box. His class was one of only three that succeeded in getting their pumpkin to the ground intact.

This same day was Kathie's birthday, and everyone came to Jessica's house for a very nice trout dinner, some cake, and other fun. Honest, I tried to get a nice photo of these women, but they weren't very cooperative.

The next day, I hung out with Will and Anders for most of the day, since there was lots of football to watch, including the Iowa-Maryland game. I sat back on the comfortable couch, but these two guys evidently always position themselves right up close so that nothing interferes with their watching. (By the way, Iowa is now 9-0 after beating Maryland that day and then Indiana this past Saturday. Hold onto your seats. Three games to go to complete the regular season. Anything could happen!)

Later, everyone else showed up, and then these three, accompanied by their parents, went out trick or treating in Will and Sandy's neighborhood. Kathie and I stayed at the house and manned the candy supply as numerous other beggars came by looking for handouts.

Different Things

This year, while at the lake, Kathie and I have been enjoying a number of new experiences, attractions, and sights in this region of northern Wisconsin. Outdoor adventures have included a (fun, but unsuccessful) Musky fishing experience on the Chippewa River with Dick, sharing Copper Falls State Park with Betsy and her family, our first trip to Pattison State Park with Peg and Rolland, the hikes to Morgan Falls and St. Peter's Dome with David and Robert, and the canoe trip down the Namekagon River, also with David and Robert. I have previously posted stories of most of these activities.

Kathie has also recently been having fun with a group of women who do regular walks (and sometimes an added kayak outing). I think they refer to themselves as Women of the Woods and Water (or something like that)––for all I know, they may even have a secret handshake. This is a shot of the group when they did a hike near Ghost Lake a couple of weeks ago.

What I want to share with you most today, though, are a couple of the fun and interesting times we have had at The Park Center in Hayward.

When The Park downtown movie theater fell on hard times, it was vacant for awhile until a group of civic-minded individuals arranged to purchase the building and to remodel it as a community entertainment and arts venue. They host events nearly every week. Many of the events are musical groups, but there are other types of things too. Click here for information about the center and its schedule of events.

A couple of weeks ago, we attended a very entertaining show featuring Michael Perry. I had previously read one of Perry's NYT best-selling books entitled Truck, which I recommend. Perry is a humorist, sometimes musician, and a radio personality on Wisconsin Public Radio (I wish Iowa Public Radio carried his shows). You might think of him as being like the Garrison Keillor of Wisconsin. His stories are often funny and always heart-felt. His books are similarly fun. I just finished reading his newest book entitled The Jesus Cow, which I also recommend. You can read more about Perry at his web site, which is entitled SneezingCow.com. This name comes from one of his punch lines, "Seriously! Never stand behind a sneezing cow!" This is something a farm boy like me understands well.

Last night we attended an event at The Park Center called Manhattan Short. Click here for more information. This was a screening of ten short films from all around the world. Manhattan Short is a competition each year. After entries are winnowed down to a select few (ten this year out of almost 700 entries), the films are presented in venues all around the world, and viewers are given the chance to vote for the best film and favorite actor. If a prior year's entries have been screened in Iowa City in the past, we have failed to take notice––seems like a natural event for a city like ours. If you go to the web site, take a look at the 2015 finalists (or click here). These are the films we saw last night, and all were excellent. Some were difficult to watch because of the subject matter dealing with conflict and hardship; others were quite funny. All of them were stimulating, interesting and thought-provoking. Each one gave us an opportunity to reflect on the world we live in and to maybe better appreciate and understand cultures and situations different from our own. If you have a way to view any of these films in the future or to find them available for streaming, we encourage you to give them a look. If you look at the schedule of venues at their web site, you will see that they are being shown in West Burlington at several times through October 1st. It wouldn't be a wasted trip to travel there to see them.

There are a few more things we may try to do before we return to Iowa in a couple of weeks. Among these are a local cranberry festival in Stone Lake and the apple festival near Bayfield.

Namekagon Canoe Trip

For years, I have been fascinated with the idea of the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway (click here for information). The map below shows the full extent of this natural wonder, which is managed by the National Park Service. You can click on the map to see a larger image. Press your ESC key to come back here. A good portion of the St. Croix River defines much of the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin. Upper portions extend eastward into Wisconsin.

The Namekagon River, which is near us and which passes through Hayward Lake in town, is part of the riverway. Below is a more detailed map showing the portion of the Namekagon above Hayward. You can see that there are several canoe landing sites at points along the river.

Having driven along sections of the St. Croix and the Namekagon frequently during the years we have had our cabin, I have dreamt of doing a canoe trip on some portion of the riverway. Yesterday, the four of us decided (or maybe I decided for us) to attempt the section from Larsen Landing down to the Hayward Landing. This was advertised to be a 3+ hour paddle, depending on how much stopping you might do along the way. As the crow flies, the distance between the landings is about nine miles; with the meandering of the river taken into account, it is probably an 11 or 12 mile paddle. I checked about the water level of the river before we departed, and it was said to be normal with an approximate 3 mph current. The day was perfect, with mild autumn temperatures at about 72º, sunshine, and emerging fall colors.

We strapped our two canoes onto the small boat trailer we normally use for our little jon boat. Robert left their rental car at Hayward Landing, and we all drove north to Larsen Landing, where we unloaded the canoes and parked the pickup and trailer for the afternoon. (At the end of our trip, David drove me back to the landing to retrieve them.) This is us unloading the canoes.

Below is a view upstream from Larsen Landing. In most places, the river is nearly crystal clear. It is said to be a prime fishing river, with both native Rainbow and Brook Trout plus Bass, Walleye and some Musky. Kathie and I are going to have to try fishing this river next year. In fact, I may have to get my fly rod out and try for trout next year!

And we're off! The river moved along rapidly in most places, so usually the paddling was not difficult––mostly just navigating to find the deeper channels.

Unfortunately, the water level turned out to be a little low here and there, and particularly from Larsen Landing to Phipps Landing, we scraped on rocks frequently and got hung up from time to time. This then required getting out to push the canoes to deeper water. Part of the fun, but also a little tiring for our no-longer-so-young bodies.

Along the way, we enjoyed lots of bird sightings, including Bald Eagles, Herons, Kingfishers, and lots of ducks and geese. The section from Phipps Landing to Trout Run Landing passes through the Phipps Flowage, where the water is generally much deeper. Here we saw lots of fish below us, some quite large, although identifying the species was difficult. Phipps Flowage ends at a very small dam, and we chose to use the short portage there, which also gave us a chance for a little break. I was tempted to try paddling over the dam, because it really only created a rapids. One brochure says, "The white water chute is runable right into the small waves at the bottom or you can portage on the right." We'll save that for another day.

Some of the red leaves are starting to show, although it is still a bit early.

When it was all said and done, we were quite tired. Those of you who know me well know that I tend to bite off bigger chunks rather than work up to things. (So far, Robert and David have not threatened to disown me.) We probably should have started at a landing or two closer to Hayward and made the day a little shorter, since none of us had done any canoeing recently. Having to work over shallow areas added some work, and then the finish was across Hayward Lake, which required more serious paddling and dealing with some headwind. Still, it was very pretty out there, and now I can check off paddling part of this National Scenic Riverway from my so-called bucket list. For me, though, I intend for this not to have been a one-time experience. I definitely want to paddle some other parts of the river, maybe the section below Hayward, or to do this section again, and fishing the Namekagon sounds like good fun too.

D&R Visit With Trip to Morgan Falls and St. Peter's Dome

We always enjoy our opportunities to spend time with David and Robert, who we have not seen since we were together in Italy just one year ago. They are here with us this week at the lake. So, it is time to report on events to date. With David and Robert, culinary delights are a standard part of our time together. Kathie made gazpacho one evening, and no, she is not slicing her palm open here.

Robert has been trying to progress a little farther each day through our Perplexus Epic.

So far, we have watched that amazing Hawkeye football game together, sporting events being something David and Robert typically do not care about. We also had an outing on our lake, with lunch over at The Landing. Then yesterday, we drove up into the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest to visit Morgan Falls and St. Peter's Dome. These two natural features are bonus parts of a hiking trail in the forest. Here is everyone but me as we depart from the parking area at the start of our 5 miles of hiking and site seeing.

Morgan Falls was the easy part to reach. It is a gorgeous 70-foot tall falls that cascades down from a high point at the end of a little box canyon. The granite rocks all around created this very cool, almost cold, spot in the woods.

This little guy was enjoying the water near the pool at the base of the falls.

And there were beautiful mosses growing on the rocks.

Trees struggled to claim a hold on the sides of the cliffs.

Eventually, we left Morgan Falls and began the hike to St. Peter's Dome––a 3.6 mile round trip over terrain that is quite rugged with steep, rocky sections that must be managed.

Yet, it was quite pretty all along the way. For example, I found these fungi near the trail.

The payoff was this very high granite outcropping, which sits at 1,565 feet above sea level. The trees here are not yet at their peak, but the colors in the forest below were emerging. To the north, you can see all the way to Lake Superior, and with the binoculars I took along, I could make out Ashland, Bayfield, and parts of the Apostle Islands.

Her new knees are working well, but we were all warm and tired after the climb up there, so some resting was in order before heading back down.

Here is Kathie after we returned to the fork in the trail that offers access to these two natural wonders.

We were all appropriately tired at the end of the day, but it was a good tired!