Sunday, May 31, 2009

Driving into Chicago

It's 8:15am and Eric's still asleep. I've been up since 3:40am local time with creative thoughts in my head that needed to get written down. I made a pot of coffee, ate a bowl of cereal and gassed up the van, only to see the prices go up another four cents overnight. Gasoline is now costing around $2.69 here. When I left Arizona two weeks ago it was still $1.99.

Ouch.

The drive into the city will be quick and easy, taking I-65 north to the I-94 interchange. I'll be getting off at the Lake Shore Drive exit and heading into the Loop (the Center City) this route along the lake to our east and museums to our west. The 57-mile drive could take us just over an hour under ideal driving conditions.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Chesterton, IN



















It turned out to be a nice evening, even if the rest of the day was shrouded in grey. I didn't do too much (re: no traveling) and instead cleaned out my van, took out the cot and put one of the back seats up for a second passenger. I am always amazed at lost items I find in my van when I clean it out. The oldest artifacts I found this time was a torn plastic cup with three dried and mildewed limes in it, and a travel brochure from Uvalde, Texas I picked up in February 2008. (The limes, thankfully weren't THAT old!)

I spent about an hour in Chesterton today, a small town settled by French fur trappers but originally a Potawatomi camp. (What town in northern Indiana ISN'T a former Potawatomi settlement?)

Kevin called just as I drove into town, which prompted me to park the van to talk. He sounded in good spirits, and wanted to share his excitement with our expanding garden and to ask me for advice on all the vegetables.

"The potatoes I planted a few weeks ago are now over two feet tall!" he bragged, and let me know the various stages of growth all the other plants were in. More strawberries were coming up. The beets and turnips were coming along just fine, the peppers were in bloom again but the tomatoes just weren't doing too well. His excitement for little things is one thing that made me fall in love with him nine years ago (May 18, 2000 to be specific). Meanwhile here most crops are behind planting season due to the wet fields.

The Michigan Central train tracks cross Main Street going East-West, carrying cargo from Chicago to Detroit and back. I remember when these trains used to haul new cars from the Detroit area to dealerships here.

A train rolled by from either direction every 15 minutes, stopping main street traffic for a few minutes every time and making me have to roll up my windows while on the phone with Kevin. An arts fair was just getting ready to close up its tents as the farmers' market was also ready to shutter up for the week. Well-dressed customers came and went, some even praised Sadie for her behavior.

Just north of town are steel mills lining the southern shores of Lake Michigan. The town is also home to the Indiana Dunes State Park, a place I will visit early next week.

"Look at that skinny dog!" exclaimed one boy to his mother as we walked by.

Beautiful Passion vines grew in several locations in the downtown area, truly a beautiful flower. That is the beauty of living in a Zone 5 growing zone: the colors are exceptionally beautiful in every garden I've walked by.

I took Erin out to eat for a late lunch. She chose a Mexican restaurant, El Saltos in Chesterton, but the sauce on my chicken burrito made me come up with a name for this food style: Mid-Mex. Just like we have Tex-Mex down in Texas, here in the Midwest we have Mid-Mex, a mild-down version of spicy Mexican cuisine where everything tastes sweet and has an overabundance of creme sauce. (I much prefer Tex-Mex!)

I picked up Eric and after a quick visit to the Southlake Mall, which, when it opened in 1975 was the largest mall in Indiana until a mall in Broadripple-Indianapolis overtook Southlake for that title years later. We parked in the shade on the eastern side of the mall so Sadie could stay cool. Neither of us are mall crawlers so all I managed to get were two Notre Dame caps for Kevin's friend Tommy who specifically requested a "green cap with the leprechaun on it."

Now we are relaxing at home as the sun's finally out. Tomorrow Eric and I are going to spend the day in Chicago, walk along Navy Pier and perhaps catch some mouthwatering Chicago-style pizza made with cornbread, beer, oregano and smothered in olive oil and topped with spicy tomato sauce OVER the cheese...
Meanwhile, I am getting updates from my Arizona hiking club on the wildfires across the southern half of the state. Several new fires have been started since yesterday, caused by lightning. One such fire, the Melendrez fire, is burning near Madera Canyon in the Santa Ritas south of Tucson. Those mountains were my last hiking area before leaving on my roadtrip. I hope Arizona can remain safe until the monsoons come in early July.

The Weather















If you want to strike up a conversation with a stranger, bring up the weather.

"Mom, the weather is so unpredictable here. One day it's hot and sunny, the next day it's rainy and cold!" said Erin to me last week. She's been right.

Carol said this has been an unseasonably cold and wet May this year, perhaps much like that record-breaking May of 1984 (or was it 1983?) when I came to visit family from college for Memorial Day and wore flannel shirts to keep warm?

Clouds again are looking dark "with a morning shower possible" according to local TV forecasts. I may be able to sneak in a hike on Wednesday...but even then the trails will be wet and muddy no matter where I hike in the woods.
The only rain in the entire nation, it seems, has been hovering over Chicagoland and Indiana since my arrival here. I shouldn't be too surprised; May is traditionally Indiana's wettest month.

In Arizona, May and June are the driest. And interestingly enough, Helena, MT reached 90F yesterday. The entire Pac Northwest has been experiencing a heat wave. I may be ready for some heat after another wet and cold week ahead at this rate...but only for a day or two before I miss the cool climate of the lakefront!

Friday, May 29, 2009

Shunpiking across Indiana









































































I finally said my good-byes at 8:30am and was on my way back to Crown Point. A quick stop around Soldier Circle and the Wholesale District and the State Capitol confirmed one thing I noticed two days ago: Indianapolis is a very photogenic city. The downtown area has been totally rebuilt since the first time I went through it 25 years ago.

There is so much frontier history in Indiana, and sculptures in town reveal pieces of the state's past: fur trappers, farmers, industrialists all helped build this state, and all are represented in bronze form around the Civil War museum in the Circle. This is where city folk come to relax, catching some sun on the steps while pigeons fly down hoping for crumbs.

I could have stayed longer, walking the Canal Trail a bit for more architectural angles. But I wanted to get home, unwind, and unpack the van. I didn't want Sadie sitting down all day. She, however, is getting used to the van and city noises. More people made wide berths around her than the other way around.

I shunpiked the rest of the route back, taking IN32 west into Covington, IN --"The Town on the Wabash"-- where Brenda is from. There are perhaps more people burried in the town cemetery than there are alive; for a small town the cemetery was quite impressive. the Wabash River further south is the state line between Indiana and Illinois.

We stopped at the river for a short walk but the muddy trail along the river was too soft in parts. The shale riverbanks reveal more possible fossil beds...but instead of exploring I drove north on IN63 and US41 back to CP. US Highway parallels the Illinois border like a spinal cord; it never leaves the border.

Wind farms seem to be the new thing these days, as once again I drove through another large farm north of Fowler, IN. Huge farms dotted the highway here, and large red buildings brought back a desire to "search for the perfect red barn" in Indiana. Yellow fields also sprang up, but one thing that was missing was the lack of corn: the fields have been so wet this spring that farmers have not been able to plant this season's crops. Corn in Arizona is already over three feet high.
I alternated between air conditioner and open windows while on the road, listening to NPR's latest report of North Korea's sixth long-range missile test in the last week.
I wouldn't be surprised if we are in an air war with North Korea, Iran in deep shit with Pakistan before the end of this year.
But for now, while on the road, I will keep my thoughts elsewhere. Even a mind needs a vacation from time to time.

One more thing to add to my "bucket list": tour all four corners of Indiana and photograph all the courthouses. There may not be any mountains here in Indiana but today I saw some pictoresque pastoral landscapes that made me think of my dad and his sighs "This sure is beautiful country, isn't it?" Shunpiking the route back took me five hours. Had I taken the interstate I could have been back within two hours, but I wouldn't have been able to take any of these photographs or collect more images of this countryside for my memory (whatever is left of it!).

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Morgan-Monroe State Forest






















Entrance to this state forest off IN37 is three miles south of Martinsville or 12 miles north of Bloomington. Here is where we decided, rather impromptu, to hike the 10.2-mile Low Gap Trail.

The forest office was closed but we were able to grab some maps from the self-serve shelves. The maps came in handy, as the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) does not have the Morgan-Monroe state forest map for download on its website.

It was no surprise that there was no one at the trailhead except for a DNR truck.

The singletrack trail started out slippery after yesterday's heavy rains. But the trail was in good condition for most of the hike, traveling into limestone ravines, limestone overlooks, through pines, locusts, shagbark hickory and oaks. Tulip trees, the state trees of Indiana, had already shed their pretty yellow-orange flowers. Wilted pedals littered the path along the trail.

Halfway through our hike, the clouds turned dark, giving the forest an eerie feel. By now we were relieved that we had half of the hike behind us should we get wet, but the heavy canopy kept what rain did fall off us. I was so wet from sweat, any more rain would not have mattered much, but being cold from heavy rains was a concern.

We were now in the Backcountry, passing three campers and a wide fossil bed laden with crinoids and brachiopods. I could have stayed here longer to collect some specimens, but I didn't want to hold Sharon up, who was pacing us at a brisk tempo. I must admit that I did squeal with delight at finding the fossils, which were en masse here. I have enough crinoids at home, collected over the years from my visits to southern Indiana. The entire southern half of Indiana is a fossil bed, extending south across the Ohio River Valley into Kentucky. Indiana is what made me interested in fossils as a young college student, collecting crinoids and Brachiopods in the area state parks, thanks to a college geology course. (The brachiopod is the Kentucky state fossil.)

This loop hike was pretty much the same terrain throughout the hike. Admittedly,  the last three miles were rather boring, as we ascended on an old logging trail uphill before crossing a paved road and continuing on for another mile on the Mason Trace trail.

We got back to the van in 3:53 hours. We were impressed with our stamina and the flora around us.  I had always wanted to do this hike as a college gal, but was scared off by the news of human male predators stalking young single women.rif

I rewarded Sadie with a 12-pack of Alpo at Walmart, fed her one can in the parking lot. I have got to put some muscle mass on that dog as she is simply too thin. She doesn't act sick, she simply looks it. She is not eating her dry food, but give her people food and she will chow down, much as she would have done to Sharon's jerky she was chewing on in the van. I had warned her while still inside the store that my dogs love beef jerky and salivate at the site of it whenever Kevin eats it.

We made it back to Sharon's house after 5pm. She made some baked pierogies and we all feasted on the treat. My legs were feeling the hike, we were finding ticks on ourselves, and that made me realize that Sadie probably has her share of those pests on her. She is going to have ticks on her until we get to Montana, and now I am going to have to figure out how to best rid her of those things. She had one engorged tick on her ear while still on the trail, and many more between her toes when I checked her feet. Looks like a bath is in order for her when we return to CP tomorrow.

Bloomington, IN





























Sharon and I planned a day trip to Bloomington today, where we met 25 years ago. An hour's drive from her house, we roamed the gently rolling hills south on IN37 into town.

The university was founded in 1820 as the Indiana Seminary. It has since grown in size. Summer classes are in session now and some students are taking courses, but we didn't have the mass motion of students on bikes or cellphones racing past us.

I didn't recognize a thing. There has been so much development I ddn't know where I was. None of my hang-outs on Walnut Avenue were there. The old Big Wheel restaurant is now a Steak and Shake. The Gold Rush is now a Colorado Outback and even Ladyman's in town, an old staple from the 1950s, was standing bare.

Even people who didn't go to Indiana University have got to love this place with its limestone buildings, rolling hills and diverse flowers. We parked at the courthouse and walked east on Kirkwood Avenue. Kilroy's and Nick's English Hut are still around, the Trojan Horse still sits at the corner, and the corner lot Italian place are still there. Everything else is new stuff for the younger generation.

What I did like were the additional flower arrangements around buildings. I don't remember the flowers but I do remember the many green plants everywhere, and today was no exception. And if it was going to rain we could easily duck into a building for shelter.

We walked passed the Student Union, Ballentine Hall, along the wooden pedestrian bridge toward Jordan Street, around the theater, rec building and arboretum. We came out on 10th street near my old Ashton Center dorm and walked from 10th street back to downtown. This was almost a four-mile hike and it took us 90 minutes. Sadie rested in the van while we finished off with a lunch at the Trojan Horse.

I ordered an Upland Brew Wheat that stood flat. It had an off taste and because Sharon does not drink, I didn't order any more beers nor wanted to try out another brew at another brewpub. This will give me an excuse to come back another time, perhaps next week with Eric is he so wants to come down here as well.

I don't know anyone in B-ton anymore. Even the multi-floor Hilton Hotel in the town center seemed out of place. In fact, more hotels are lining the main streets which means more alumni are coming here for weekend get-aways.

There is no doubt that Bloomington is a nice town. I could have stayed here after graduation, but it was from this town that I joined the army ions ago and left, never to return.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Indianapolis






















I-65 south from Crown Point travels in a direct line for 72 miles before a hint of a hill or curve appear. Once you make it to Lafayette more hills and curves appear to break the monotony of the road.

Sadie was looking hot in the van again and stayed behind me on her cot.

We made it to downtown Indianapolis within two hours, faster than expected. But Indianapolis is in a different time zone, as now we were an hour ahead.

My bank, it turned out, was a block from the majestic Indiana War Memorial in a tightly secured federal building. (In fact, the best war memorials appear to be in Indiana). The downtown area is 180% prettier than it was 25 years ago. Now the area is walkable and worth a day visit. Bleachers from the Memorial parade last weekend were still on the sidewalks. Soldier Circle's War Memorial (Mexican, Civil and Spanish Wars) honor fallen Hoosiers. In the Civil War alone, 24416 farmboys from Indiana died, according to the southern plaque on the center obelisk. (Ninety-two Hoosiers have died in Iraq so far)

Within 30 minutes I had finished my errand and rejoined Sadie in the shade of a large tree, planning my next move with Sharon. Within about 40 minutes I was at her place on the east side of town.

Two hours later she took me to a nice state park just outside the former army post, and together we powerwalked five miles around the Ben Harrison State Park. I had never heard of this park before, but it certainly was worth the visit among the elms, shagbark hickories and other hardwoods. Sadie kept her pace with us as we talked about old times, tried new trails and rested only to take a few photos.

We were up until 1:30pm her time. We sat on the floor of her computer room, where I slept with Sadie in my sleeping bag. We got caught up with old times, talking about old days in college and new days ahead.
Sharon hasn't lost her strong convictions and it's no surprise that among her, my sister Iris and I, she is the most successful. Successful in that she married and stayed married to the same man through pains and struggles whereas Iris and I gave up to start new. As a young woman in her early 20s she was studying comparative religions and was unsure of what she wanted to do. Now she is a nurse who works in an adult trauma care unit. She sees death nearly every day.
"The most expensive part of medical care are the last three weeks of a patient's life" said Sharon, as she described bureaucratic red tape that dictate that a patient must be kept on life support for as long as possible.
"So what if a family insists their loved one die in peace?" I asked.
"Then we have to request a doctor's orders in writing" explained Sharon, referring to the legal issues of letting someone die with dignity without expensive life support tubes attached to their dying body.
"When it's my time to go I plan on taking my own life" I admitted, having schemed this in my mind years ago after seeing too many of my close relatives die a slow, painful death.
"We all will die" said Sharon. "But when it's my turn I don't want to know it. I just want my pain medication and be allowed to go. I don't want to be a talking head and be a burden on my family."
After all these years, Sharon and I think so much alike. There was not a thought or opinion I disagreed with. She even has an interest in American history, although her passion is the Revolutionary War era whereas I love the Westward Expansion era after the Civil War, 1865-1920.
Hard rains fell after midnight. Lightining and thunder came and went, stray cats outside meowed. If this rain continues we may have a wet hike around Bloomington. I could always come back another day when the weather warms up.

Sharon's even interested in hiking the Three Lakes Trail in the Morgan-Monroe State Forest with me. That may be for another day.

Driving down to Indianapolis

I'm going to be taking off here within the hour for my three-hour trip to Indy. Regardless of plans with Sharon, I have to visit my bank anyway, so at least I'm getting that out of my way. Weather permitting I may camp out at Fort Ben Harrison on the north side of town before seeing her early the next day.

Heavy rains all across the state yesterday will have flooded many of the trails in the Hoosier National forest, a large acreage of now old-growth trees have taken over when the state bought up failing farmland from settlers in 1929. At one point Indiana's trees totalled 87% of the terrain, now it's barely 17% because of land "development" and other modern requirements. The heavy loam soil will create great muddy tracks!

Central Indiana is hilly as this land is the edge of the Appalachian foothills. For truly hilly lands the Ohio river valley is best and some of this state's best hiking trails (and great wildlife views) are in the southern half of the state.

But for now, I'm just going to go down there and run some errands and visit with my old college friend. Visiting her is a "must do" while I am here. Other things that I have planned for my visit here include

1. Go shopping with the kids. Did that yesterday.
2. Hike the lakefront with Sadie, especially the 10-mile perimeter of Indiana Dunes State Park, the "Region's" best hiking trail.
3. Spend a day in Chicago. The museums are always a hit.
4. Take Sadie on Chicago's lakefront trail, an 18-mile paved trail along the city's pertty lakefront.
5. Visit Sharon
6. Visit Bloomington and its new brewpub. I graduated from Indiana University in 1983 and have been back there twice.
7. Visit Lindie and Mikel in Lafayette.
8. Hike the Cowles Bog trail with Sadie, a comfortable six-mile loop hike that starts out at a bog and ends at the beach and a great place to view pre-dunes and beach flora. As soon as it dries up, this little trail would be perfect as it's close to where the kids live. I always liked this trail because parking here was free. Afterwards I could walk old town Chesterton.
9. Sample Hoosier beers in Lake County. I got two brewpubs done yesterday.
10. Take money out of my bank in Indy to pay for this trip.
11. Hike a long trail in the Morgan-Monroe State Forest. I don't think I've ever hiked this forest before, despite it being so close to Bloomington. Its vast wilderness and backcountry had me intimidated in my younger years. A woman was murdered there while I was in college, which always gave me the creeps.
12. Walk around old town Hobart, Valparaiso and Crown Point. I've done CP and Valpo but still need to check out Hobart. The new brewpub there was supposed to open last February but now opening day has been postponed to after July 4th.
13. Get Eric his long-overdue birthday present. I owe him that. I'm thinking of a nice laptop he could use while in Minnesota.
14. Walk around Highland, IN. The rain yesterday kept me from truly enjoying the old neighborhood. Perhaps I could catch a foreign movie at the town's Highland Kennedy Theater, an old theater that specializes in Indie and Foreign Movies.
15. See the sun rise over Lake Michigan.
16. Find a used book store to see if I could get some money for some of the used books I brought along.
17. Try out some regional pierogies. Afterall Whiting, IN boasts the best pierogies in the Midwest and holds a Pierogie Festival every July.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Munster-Highland-Michigan City
































Sadie is turning into quite the traveling dog. She preferred resting in the van this morning for several hours while I finished email on another project inside. I rolled the windows down for her and she stayed there quite contently until we left for our local adventure.

It was another cool and rainy day. I didn't want to risk getting stuck in the Dunes with Sadie during a storm, so I chose a more local area: my childhood stomping grounds of Highland, IN and next-door Munster, which even in the 1960s was considered the more upscale neighborhood. Yahoo!Maps said it was a 34-minute drive and 17.4 miles. They were almost right. The drive took me almost 40 minutes and 19 miles down backroads into Munster.

(As a kid watching the TV show "The Munsters" I thought the family actually lived in that town. And when I found out "The Munsters" really didn't exist, I wondered why anyone would name a town Munster.)

When people ask me where I am from, I say Highland, IN, as it's the first town I remember living in. This is where we lived before my parents divorced and my sister and I were sent overseas to our maternal grandparents in Berlin.

I only spent seven years in Highland, until 1967, living in two different homes in opposites corner of the town, which lies between Cline and Indianapolis Boulevard. This is NWI's extension of Chicagoland. Munster lies to the west, Griffith to the east. It's a bedroom community of small single-family brick or vinyl-siding homes surrounded by mature trees. Most people here worked at the steel mills along the lake.

My first mission was not so much my old neighborhood, but rather a brewpub I had read about that had gotten some good reviews: Three Floyds in Munster. "We are right below the Town of Munster Water tower" said the website, and that was no exaggeration: a small building in an industrial park, away from any main traffic, is where this small but very good brewpub is. The outside decor is rather nouveau, with a two-headed muse up front.

I walked in at noon as rain clouds began to form. I sat at the counter and ordered the wheat beer, the Gumballhead beer with lemon. The ABV was 4.5%, one of the lowest beers the brewery made, and I was quite satisfied with both the head, the flavor and the color. I also sampled two best sellers, the Alpha King Pale Ale and Pride and Joy, a medium session beer. Both were quite good but with an empty stomach I didn't want to try any more alcohol.

The clientele at this place were all upscale and older. The youngest people in the building were perhaps the brewers, three of who came out for quick water breaks. Two of the three men were heavily tattooed and my server, Phil, hid his head under an oversized beret.

I would definitely come back to this place.
To reward Sadie for waiting patiently for me in the van, I walked with her around the nearby Munster Veterans Memorial, a beautiful 3-D memorial depicting various conflicts, each with its own monument and historical marker. The most emotional one was the 3D one depicting a Huey helicopter in a rice field picking up two soldiers, one who was dead from a Bouncing Betty and missing his lower extremities. The statues were beautifully rendered by Julie Rotblatt Amrany. As visitors meandered along the brick-laid path other scenes from other wars came to life, and one could even press a button to hear a short audio recording about that particular war.

Across the street from the memorial was another man-made lake and restaurant overlooking the fake lake and water fountains. But we didn't stay long, as I now wanted to walk Sadie around my old stomping grounds, Wicker Memorial Park

As soon as I got out of the van, the rain began to pour. So much for my planned hike with Sadie around the park's perimeter, a pleasant six-mile loop around the golf course and along Wicker Creek. Sadie didn't mind the rain but she did seem spooked by the lightning.

Now the roads were wet and some were flooded. The recent rains have saturated lawns and meadows; there is no place for the rain to go but on the roads.

By 2pm I was in Highland, driving down Highway Ave a half-mile to Liable road where our old home still stands, now painted blue. The small pine tree that my mother planted on the side of the house facing Highway Avenue in late 1967 is now taller than the two-story house, towering a good four stories high.
Behind the house used to be Orchard Park Elementary School, but the school has long closed and a new center stands, larger and imposing in the block. This school was then a Baptist daycare but I couldn't tell what it is now.

Downtown Highland has changed a lot since I remember my days here. the "Eat" restaurant is now a Nikos. The old Benjamin Franklin Five and Dime is now a furniture store. The old Marathon gas station is now a Woody's Garage and Pegasus has long been taken down from the facade. The old brick school house where I went to kindergarten is now a gazebo.

Marshland used to thrive a half-mile north of our house, near the interstate. And although there are tracts of swamps, the larger swath has been drained and filled in for a town recreational area off the interstate. I used to pick wild iris and cattails here and find beaver dams in the swampy woods; I'd pretend I was far away from the house and on a wilderness expedition, the start of a life-long love affair with the outdoors. For an adventurous kid a half-mile seems like a mini-marathon.

I don't know anyone in Highland anymore so it's no longer my home, but it's always pleasant to stop in and reminisce.

I was approaching 3pm, time when Erin had to take Ethan for his month well-baby check-up. When she called me at 3:30pm I was already heading back east and simply went straight to her place off I-65 and I-94, a quicker but ugly way to get to her area. This was now 22 miles to my northeast. When it began to downpour again, Eric called, asking me if I could pick him up from his job. I was happy to save him a wet walk home since I was on my way anyway. I was in his town in 20 minutes, twice as fast as if I had taken backroads.

Since we were now all together now we drove east into Michigan City, the last town in Indiana before I-94 trails into Michigan. This is the town my father's parents settled in when they immigrated from Lithuania, he in 1910 and she three years later. What was meant to be a short stay until the Russians were kicked out of Lithuania turned out to be a life-long stay for them, as Lithuania was conquered by the Soviet Russians and spiritually and culturally forced into repression.

Michigan City was home to many Slavic immigrants during the WW years, including small neighborhoods of Lithuanias all working at the steel mills. Now the town in many sections is very run-down and in dire need of major infrastructural overhauls. The lakefront with its marina is nice, but a few blocks south of the lake boarded-up buildings rule. Michigan City has seen better days. Because I always loved running around Washington Park here as a child, I'd like to see the town spruce itself up.

We shopped for clothes for Erin, then had dinner at another brewpub, the Shoreline Brewery, but despite good food and service, none of the beers I sampled didn't measure up to the ones I sampled at 3 Floyds. My Don't Panic Pale Ale was served headless and lacked body. I will not go to this place again.

I dropped the kids off just in time for another round of rain and was none too relieved to make it back to CP. If it rains again tomorrow like it did today, I may not attempt the drive down to Indianapolis-Bloomington. What's the use in a three-hour drive in the rain with an even muddier and colder hike with the dog? Although I don't mind hiking in the rain, I do mind a wet and muddy dog in the van.

Calling home

Kevin and I had a nice conversation yesterday afternoon. I've been keeping in touch with the local newspaper, the Sierra Vista Herald, since my trip's departure just to keep informed of any new events in Southeast Arizona. The wildfires from last week have been contained, the usual high amounts of drugs have been intercepted at the border and the usual bad guys have been apprehended in the area.

The county's Search and Rescue group, however, was busy this past weekend carrying out a dead hiker (heart attack) in the Huachuca Mountains, assisting a troubled kayaker along the San Pedro river, and finding and walking out with two other lost hikers in area mountain ranges.
But one sentence that did catch my attention was Kevin telling me that USBP helicopters were hovering over our neighborhood the night before with searchlights over the houses.

"I was briefly in the searchlights myself!" stated Kevin, adding that at that point the helicopter had circled close over our house. Kevin kept the dogs inside and went into the backyard to see what was going on.

So what WAS going on? The US Border Patrol does not publish its apprehensions unless a known criminal has been caught or a large amount of drugs has been discovered. Normally the illegals who come through our neighborhood avoid the lighted homes and run across the large ranch tracts a quarter mile away. Was there a large group of people searching for water or food? Were some drug runners evading authorities and wanting to hide in sheds, garages or dark shrubery? Did a neighbor spot and call in a group of dark-clothed illegals on their property?

And why was our home targeted? Were the tomatoes, potatoes and peppers growing in our backyard really that inticing for the illegals?

http://www.svherald.com/articles/2009/05/26/news/doc4a1b953202e58526515293.txt
http://www.svherald.com/articles/2009/05/25/news/doc4a1a3d893f054843626377.txt

Monday, May 25, 2009

Memorial Day






















Carol and I visited my father's grave yesterday morning at the Calumet Park Cemetery while the boys were sound asleep. Flags waved from every veteran's graveside, including my dad's. We placed fresh flowers on the grave, wiped away the dead grass on the gravemarker, and I pulled a few more weeds out from around the site. I promised Carol I'd come back before I leave Indiana to tidy up around the grave. Grass has overgrown around the marker.

There were many people visiting their deceased loved ones' graves. I asked Carol if it gets any easier without Dad now that he's been gone for seven years.

"I still miss him" she whispered with a slight quiver to her voice, and I knew then that I had asked a sensitive question. I, too, sometimes wish he were still next to me telling me one of his silly jokes. I had to hold back my own tears; it doesn't take me long to miss his kindred spirit. For many years he was my only rock in my otherwise restless spirit.

"Even Eric says that he was taken from us too soon," I added.

I helped her clean the graves of her mother, brother Butch (who died young in a car crash in the 1970s) and her maternal grandparents Overman.

There are many eastern European and Balkan Americans buried at Calumet Park. Names such as Skarba, Savodny, Tomasich, Tumabalsky adorned tombstones in this cemetery, proof that 100 years ago many of the immigrants to Lake County, IN were from the Balkans. The majority of these east Europeans came here in the 1930s and 1940s. My best friend when I was in elementary school in Highland, IN, was a Croatian-American named Kathleen Kukich. I wonder where she is now?
***
Our holiday celebration was yesterday, when most of Carol's family came by to eat, celebrate and play "Cornhole," a Hoosier version of beanbag. The boys were busy playing the game while I stayed inside with "the girls" when Erin came by with Ethan.

When everyone left for the day the boys remained wide awake in the guest room playing another few games of Xbox on-line. Matt asked me how long Sadie has been so attached to me, following me around the house. I couldn't remember exactly; Sadie has always been attached to Kevin and me.
I know I fell in love with that dog while watching her in the rear-view mirror of my Ford Escape, driving up Ash Canyon to "run the dogs" and she stayed on my tail racing 13mph. Ears against her thin head, all I saw of her were tan fur and a pink tongue lashing around her dewy lips. She maintained that speed for two miles.

Today, though, it was a quiet beginning as Carol had to leave early to drive Ulli back to OSU. All the boys were up before 8am as we ate breakfast at a new diner in town, "Red Apple" that provided good service and decent prices to our final farewell.

I took off with Eric back to Chesterton where I dropped him off at his job. Clouds were looking menacing now, with a threat of rain. I briefly stopped in downtown Valparaiso, a former Potowatomi site, to walk around the courthouse. It was feeling chilly now, with dark clouds moving in from the South, a storm that had travelled from the Gulf of Mexico. This rain may be with us for two more days.

I had no desire to get caught in the woods in the rain, and opted for a short walk with Sadie at Deep River County Park, a lovely little paradise along a creek canopied by elm, hickory and buckeye.
A Saw mill and grist mill are on this property, popular with summer wedding planners. The hiking trails begin behind the historic Wood's Grist Mill, originally built in 1838 by John Wood as a wood frame structure. It was later rebuilt of brick in 1876 by Nathan Wood, John's son, as a custom flouring mill that stands today to grind corn. Here is were most of the visitors with young children come to relax and have a family picnic. More adventurous ones like me, with horse or dog, continue on along the sandy trails down the creek.
The flora in this park is typical of Northwest Indiana's bog and dunes terrain. I've come here before for solitude, hiking the four-mile trail system for a decent hike along the Deep River. Today parts of the trails were flooded or extremely muddy.

Sadie enjoyed the sandy trail and an occassional dip in the water. The entire path was enshrouded in shades of green and a sweet-pungent aroma permeated throughout the walk. It drizzled on our way back to the van and it rain hard once I got back to US Highway 30.

Now I am alone in her house, with just the noise of a nearby TV to keep me company. Both dogs are avoiding each other by sleeping in separate rooms. I have some studies to get caught up with. I will not partake in any special activities today; I've lived Memorial Day for too long I don't ever need to have another one for the rest of my life. I am going to enjoy some solitude for a day, perhaps even start planning my return trip, later on tonight.