Storm Watch

 While on vacation this summer on South Lake Manistique which is located in the U.P. of Michigan; we rented a cabin.  This is how your typical day begins; you have sunshine and cool morning breezes.   

 Then about 2 to 3 p.m. the clouds start moving in and the humidity shows up.....subtle at first then the breeze slows down and everything gets "sticky" with moisture.  You have two sides of your brain......the left brain and the right brain; the "left brain" says stay outside and enjoy the warmth and sunshine when you can find it.....regardless that there is thunder and lightning because after all you are sitting on a wood deck in an alumium chair......no harm there eh?

The "right brain" is telling you.......get in the house! Go downstairs where it's cool to get away from the humidity.....which you really can't because it's EVERYWHERE and continue to read your book.  You can still listen to the thunder and enjoy the lightning but without worrying for your safety!  And where do you suppose "the left brain" was during all this thunder and lightning?  He was on the water with my dad fishing with graphite poles and thinking "this too shall pass." It didn't and they were forced to come in to the cabin, but first they had to cover the boat amid a few very close lightning strikes that struck near the shore! At which point, my mom hollered on the 2 way radio to get their "a$$es off that metal dock and get in here!"  Ahhhh, family vacations..............

Wordless Wednesday

Summer Clouds

 This is what people would call Big Sky Country; but at the time of traveling through Montana.....all we could see were clouds.  And I'm a sucker for looking at the sky, so I had the chance to snap a few photos of the clouds.  Unfortunately, I think the pictures do not do justice to what I actually saw.

There are parts of the clouds that look like you could reach out and touch them, they just floated along right beside you.  I know we were traveling at around 65mph and the clouds were moving faster than us.  Nature is so awesome in open country.

What's in the Bins?

So aside from the "nose prints" courtesy of Tessie the Border Collie; I bet you're wondering what's in the cargo bins?  Well, I wondered that myself for the 4 1/2 days driving back east.....because that's all we saw in the rail road cars.  Then it hit me! Roll down the window and look beyond the nose prints.  Guess what I discovered; COAL.....there are hundreds of coal mines across nothern Washington, Idaho, Montana, and North Dakota.  And everytime I saw a train which was just about every 45 minutes to an hour; there would be 50+ cars with four engines, two in front pulling and two in back pushing the heavy cars to their destination.   We never smelled any foul air that might be associated with mines, just lots of trains and lots of coal.

Summer Scenery 2011

 One of the recreation places along the Columbia Gorge which runs along the Oregon & Washington border.

 Clouds that were heavy with rain; never realizing how much you love where you live and the cool rains that come in the Summer until you experience......rain and humidity and high temps at the same time!!!

The Columbia River flowing freely alongside of us.  It was a great uneventful trip and it was cool to see other parts of the country; but we really missed being at home.