1.) Riding on the Campus Of Notre Dame, South Bend, Ind. 2.) On the Pine River Trail, Wisconsin. 3.) Painting at The Grott0, Notre Dame

4.)The Eternal Indian ('Black Hawk Monument'), 48 ft. tall, Lowden St. Park, Ill.

1.)Pikes Peak St. Park, Iowa. Denita at overlook.  2.) Making Spaghetti mountains, Pikes. Peak.  3.)Parking lot cooking, Columbus, Wisconsin.

1.)Reflecting, State Capitol at Madison, Wisc.  2.)Painting at Rock River, Oregon, Ill at the waterfall. 3.) In action at the waterfall in Oregon, Ill.   4.)Sketching out a painting (and 1st tick, Near Angola, Ind).

SECOND HALF!

 So, as I have been using this blog as record as well as ‘entertainment,’ it became obvious to me it was way too long to be interesting to anyone else (sort of like us old timers in the early 80’s seeing if some friends wanted to come over to see our slide show of the month long trip to Europe!

Condensed Time Capsule!: ( From May 15) We completed the trifecta of state parks in Iowa. Wapsipinicon with its caves and Pikes Peak with fantastic views over the Mississippi were the highlights. We moved over into Wisconsin with the intent to take the ferry across to Michigan, but those plans fell through, so we headed south to Illinois. 9 of 10 days were rain soaked in Wisconsin, so that was a factor. First stop in Illinois was Lowden State Park was very buggy but found a great trail from Oregon, Ill. to Byron. Then, absolutely fantastic rides along the Chicago Lakeshore and a spectacular visit to the Art Institute of Chicago. Great food and people in town too! Next, Michigan City, Indiana was a huge, positive surprise with their lakefront and great people at the YMCA! Visiting Notre Dame and painting at the grotto was a peaceful joy and as of this writing, June 1^st, we are in Ohio!!

The ‘highlighted’ event for the period occurred Friday, May 21^st. We had discovered a long trail on an old railway bed, The Wild Goose Trail near Columbus, Wisconsin. It was a long route and we were excited! The heat and humidity were picking up, and we plowed through a few heavy clouds of bugs before dawning our bug head nets. We discovered a great new technique wearing our now unusable rear view mirrors jutting out from the center of our forehead to keep the net from sucking into our face. Hints of darkening clouds to the south didn’t scare us (storm patterns are very different than in the west). I had stopped and rode back to an incredible tree that I wanted to paint, and had started to sketch as rain began to patter and soon became oppressive! Denita and I rejoined and opted for retreat. The bug nets now served as rain dispersers! The rain was so heavy we could hardly see, except for a very sad jogger with a dog who had no protection. I had a flash of salvation, remembering a BP gas station a ways back on a nearby road, and we headed there. There was little protection under the storefront overhang, but we dived in next to the propane tanks (they offered a wind break). Too wet to go in, we remembered the sweet gift (what a guy) I got Denita for the day, spring roll sushi. She got it out and enjoyed a little luxury in our service station get away. We had about an hour and a half of clean up when we finally returned to our car. These moments, as in all life, are the difficult ones to live in the moment, but are some of the best memories and stories to carry afterwards.