Independence Day Week - July 2, 2012

Colorado State Flower – Columbine.

A mid-week July 4 holiday and I don't know WHEN people may come to my camp.  Will they come before the 4th, or after the 4th? Maybe they won't come... due to all the wildfires and the current Stage 2 fire ban which means they can't have a campfire.  What's camping with no campfire or burnt marshmallows?

Finally, my golf cart arrived and here it is piled high with garbage.  I haul that much a couple times a day.

I have hauled my trailer full of genealogy and Civil War photos out of the forest and back to town.  Will be putting it in storage for the duration of the summer job.  I can't risk loosing all this work and everything I own.  All that remains is camp is a few projects, my kayak and my van and camping gear.  If I have to "bug out" I believe I can get it all in or on the van.

Our maintenance person, Ken, comes up once a week to try to keep the wilderness at bay.

I am making a cover for the kayak to protect it from the sun and it will then remain on top of my van unless I take it down to paddle.  If there should be a fire, hopefully I will have time to take down the First Up Canopy and my tent and get it all tossed into the van.  If I don't have time, it won't be too great a loss.

A camper (Orville, a pastor from Springfield, Ohio)… taught me how to fish/cast.

It's beautiful up here, but I fear the dust from the roads may get the best of me.  Much dustier and buggier than I expected.  Other than that, beautiful.  For the most part the campers have all been lovely people.

This doe had a fawn nearby and was keeping a sharp eye on me… this is right below my campsite.

Best part, I'm working very hard and loosing lots of weight.

I love my new fishing pole, I love my old chair… I love my new body.  It doesn’t get any better than this, until tomorrow.

New Additions to My Blog

My apologies, I am very far behind in my blog.  My hope for the next two weeks is to get it all caught up.  At the moment I am at least trying to get all of the photos up for each state I visited, then go back and add the text, notes, links to the photos.

8/2/2011-all photos are now up.  Adding text and links.

Here are the latest additions.

13th State: Aug. 14, 2010 – Wisconsin paddle and visit to Bayfield. Bayfield.

14th State: August 30(?), 2010 – First attempt. Sept. 5, 2010-Detroit River Paddle.

15th State: Sept. 25, 2010 – New York State near Niagara Falls.  10/3/10 - Visit with Vandweller Cuzzin’ Dick.

16th State: Oct. 16, 2010 – New Hampshire, slide show… text to follow later.

17th State: Oct.19, 2010 – Maine – Acadia National Park.  Friends-Jackie and John Morgan.  Fryeburg Faire – an other worldly experience.  Some of the BEST of Maine.

18th State: Oct. 19, 2010 – Vermont

19th State: Oct. 21, 2010 – Massachusetts – with vandweller Kay (oldmapsne).

20th and 21st States: Oct. 25, 2010 – Rhode Island and Connecticut.

22nd State: Oct. 27, 2010 – New Jersey and Mike (Hillwizard).

23rd State: Nov. 2, 2010 – Delaware.

24th State: Nov. 2, 2010 – Maryland.

25th State: Nov. 5, 2010 – Virginia

26th State: Nov. 10, 2010 – North Carolina (with Judith)

27th State: Nov. 13, 2010 – South Carolina

28th State: Nov. 15, 2010 – Georgia

29th State: Nov. 26-Dec. 31, 2010 – Florida (three paddles)

30th State: July 18, 2011 – Tennessee

31st State: July 23, 2011 – West Virginia

32nd State: July 24, 2011 – Pennsylvania

33rd State: July 28 and 29, 2011 – Ohio. Ohio (continued).

A couple other topics added:

An interesting trailer

My life transition

I am willing to do a 8.5" x 10.5” pencil sketch for anyone who donates a minimum of $15 plus $5 for postage and handling to my PayPal Gasoline account.  See my artwork.  Or on my old website… digroots.com.

Ohio Visit Continued… (August 2011)

When you don’t have a garden to really appreciate going out to one, digging up your potatoes and then making dinner.  

Cheryl’s husband, David, digging up potatoes.

We all went out to the garden together…. to gather!  These potatoes had volunteered themselves from the year before.  We also gathered an armload of tomatoes, green beans, strawberries, and green peppers.  Then we sit down to this wonderful meal… all fresh from the garden.  Really, does it get any better than this?  I know, where are the photos.

And there’s the Fluff again.  What a marvelous cat.  Come on folks, he needs a new home.  He can’t go on the road with his peoples.  He is about six years old… well trained and understands so many words, plays… loves to rough house like a dog.  Would be a good pet for kids/teens.

O.K. the chair.  The other day David brings this chair down from the attic in pieces with a number of coats of paint on it.  He thought it might be oak and decided to strip it.  Turns out it may be black walnut or some other very nice wood.  He did a marvelous job of putting it back together.  I should have gotten some before photos.  Look at the cross pieces of the back of the chair.  And the curved cross piece on the front under the seat.  It is really a wonderful piece of furniture.

More beauty at Cheryl and David's.

Oh, and David and I took a bike ride on a converted railroad track trail – The Little Miami Scenic Trail.  We rode from Beatty, OH to Young’s Dairy. It has 140 miles of paved, well maintained multi-use recreational trails.  David said one day he rode it all the way to Cincinnati.  Wow!  I’m impressed.

Wonderful ride but my legs are terribly out of shape from all my computer work and sitting while driving.  I MUST do better. I could only do about four miles.  Again no photos.  

Then we went to Young’s Jersey Dairy for ice cream, forty flavors of homemade ice cream and gelato.  They also have miniature gold, two restaurants, heated driving range, batting cages, petting zoo, two gift shops, and a seasonal corn maze.  Just north of Yellow Springs on U.S. Route 68.

Leg cramps prevented me from riding the four miles back, so David road back alone and got the truck and came and picked me up. I felt like such a wimp.

There are a number of other local sites I hope to see before I leave, Clifton Gorge State Park, a historic house-Piatt Castles, Hartman rock garden… and I promise to take my camera.

Things I want to see before I leave OH:

Yellow Springs, OH – One of the “ten coolest small towns in America” - a unique experience, one of a kind shopping, dining, hiking, biking, exploring, art, theatre, cinema, music, etc.  A place were “unique” is the key work of the day.

Piatt Castles - Like the Mecoche division of the Shawnee people who occupied the land before them, the Piatts treasure the resources and the spirit of the valley they call home. In the 1820's, Judge Benjamin M. and Elizabeth Barnett Piatt moved their family from Cincinnati to the rolling hills of Logan County. Two of their children, Abram Sanders and Donn later built their own homes, Mac-A-Cheek and Mac-O-Chee in the country-side they knew as youths. These unique structures have become a private, family-owned museum that interprets over 200 years of history of the Ohio land and Ohio people.

Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve – a spectacular example of geological forces.  Limestone cliffs, waterfalls, rapids on the headwaters of the Little Miami state and national scenic river.

Hartman Rock-Garden –began as a modest concrete fish pond in H.G. Hartman’s back yard and is now revered as a folk art masterpiece.  And since I love rocks… how can I skip this?

Would love to see but won’t be here:

Barn Quilts of Champaign County – Oct. 8-9, 2011: designed to highlight the agricultural heritage of the county, as well as the important folk art of quilting, the Barn Quilt Tour brings artwork to the country and is sure to excite the farmer in you… me!

33rd State: Ohio - Mad River & Buck Creek State Park lake (July 28 and 29, 2011)

The FLUFF!

Stopped at Cheryl and David’s house (Vandweller members living near Springfield OH) to visit and kayak nearby.  It is a place of amazement and wonder.  Cheryl’s handle is “birdwatcher” and she is true to her name.  And then there are the cats… this one my favorite… Fluff.  He is like a dog in disguise.  A wonderful animal who will need a new home when his family hits the road.


Their yard is full of flowers, cats and birds.  So many birds.


David and Cheryl decided to paddle the Mad River with me.  What a hoot.  Not many of my state paddles have been done with company.  It was a neat 6.5 mile long paddle, with a couple of exciting spots along the way.  Great fun.

That would be David and Cheryl up ahead there.

The orange thing is my personal gps SPOT device which allows me to track where I’ve been, send out notices to 10 key people as to my location, and to also signal for emergency road service, or to call for 911 help if I’m injured or need rescuing. A couple of times on the water I have almost used it when I thought I could not get back to shore, as in my Apostle Island Paddle in Wisconsin.  Also.. this is my attempt to get some color on my Lillie-white legs my sister is always making fun of.

The day after our Mad River paddle, I went to a nearby Buck Creek State Park lake which I thought was just a small little lake about 1/4 mile wide, but I had it mistaken for another one.  This one was much much larger, like Cheryl told me it was, and I ended up with another about seven mile paddle, some of it pretty rough 2’ waves and white caps.
I was greeted by a flock of Canadian Geese… and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen them on water before.  Interesting.

Then there was this odd sight.  I saw a dog sitting in the water near the shore… looking out into the lake.  Odd?  Then I saw a man swimming in much deeper water.  He walked back toward the dog, picked him up, carried him out til he was up to his shoulders and then turned the old dog loose… the dog turned and calmly swam to shore and sat back down in the shallow water.  Hum!

A few sail boats enjoying the breeze.

Finally I crossed to the other side of the lake where the water was almost still.  Nice to get a rest.  I did not expect such choppy water.  Some other sights below.

This was the largest shelf fungus I have ever seen.  It was bigger than my paddle.  Still about three feet away from the end of the paddle.

After enjoying the Nature Preserve, I turned and headed back across the lake… and again, almost waved to get a tow back to the other side.  I am NOT holding the camera crooked… that’s the water tossing me about.  I’ve got to go all the way over then and around that point of land.

But as you can see, I made it… about a three-four hour paddle.  Safe back at Cheryl’s to enjoy her company (and David’s), and the birds and the cats (not so much the cats with my allergies, still I do LOVE that Fluff).

Coke (behind the chair)… named Coke because she was found as a small kitten, inside a Coca Cola machine.

Look carefully, you will see little yellow finches on the sunflowers.  The female is almost the same color as the leaves, and same shape… sitting on top of the largest flower in the bottom photo.
It’s been a wonderful visit, two great paddles, and “it doesn’t get any better than this… until tomorrow!”  Thank you Cheryl and David.
Ohio (continued).