retired from what?

The vacation ends but the travel doesn't - at least for one of us. Fall is often a busy time for me, work wise, and I am always grateful to be working. And I still very much enjoy the going to some place new. Yes, I joke about the glamour spots I go to, like Mattoon, Illinois and Albany, Georgia, but for me, new is good. This time, it is Mankato, Minnesota, in the heart of the corn and soybeans belt - I assume crop rotation - and it is tidy as can be in that earnest Midwestern way that I find so endearing. And the petunias! Every cold-climed place I've been in recent years bursts fourth with a profusion of petunias - along the highways, in enormous hanging baskets, in medians and window boxes. Summers that are short are all the sweeter. South Dakota - trying to carve out an identity beyond the giant president heads. Iowa - Pork. They serve a thing called pork wings. I say, when pig fly. But they let same gendered people get married there as well. An enigma. But I miss my travel...

The bats beneath the Congress Street Bridge have been a popular attraction in Austin for many years; indeed, bat watching has become a mini-industry there. We have seen them - all 3/4 million of them - head for the hills at dusk a number of times. One evening was spectacular, as long spiral formations of bats, black corkscrew clouds, poured out from under the bridge for at least half an hour. Well, not this summer. They emerge in dribs and drabs about an hour after sunset - when it is too dark out to see them. Theory is that the bugs are so plentiful this year, they feed less often and head out later. I wonder if they aren't simply sick of the tourists. Maybe, like Garbo, they just want to be "let alone." We headed back to our car, wondering what conversations the bat tour boat operators have with their customers who expect nature on demand .

Got home from vacation not wanting to be home from vacation and as the heat crept toward 100, I proposed to Mark we spend some more points and head to the hills and seek out some cool water to soothe our post-vacation blues. He readily agreed. Have not been to Austin in...can't remember. Eight year? Perhaps. And I had totally forgotten how much fun this city is and how the lower humidity makes the heat ever so much more bearable. We plunged into the green water at Deep Eddy and I felt nothing but happy. Austin has gone food truck carayzee! It is estimated that there are about 1200 at this point and they expect another 400 next year. Mark had a fat torta with some of the best deeply brown fries I have ever eaten and I got the vegan 'chicken' that tasted more like egg salad, but it was swell. Lovely seating under trees by a creek on South Congress street. It was not Ann Arbor 1969, as I was recently reminiscing about, but it certainly has much of what made that a good time...

Working title: “What’s the frequency, Kenneth?” [In a sort of Andy Rooney whine] Do you ever wonder why anyone would waste their natural soundtrack by walking around with earbuds stuck in their head? For the most part I love my ambient sonic environment. Birds, of course. Conversations heard above the rhythm of the rails on the subway. I like the random bits of music you get in public spaces. (ASIDE: I stepped into the coffee shop on High Street during a morning stroll with Ribsy in Southampton to get a cup o’ joe, and while I was waiting for some passive/aggressive politeness and apology to play out – a young man ordered a small chocolate milk and after seemingly endless machinations, settles for a LARGE white milk…Sooorry! – I heard what I thought was an en français cover of Bob Dylan’s “Hurricane”. I leaned over the lad sucking discontentedly on his white milk to listen closely to a ceiling speaker and realized that it was Bob’s original version, but damn, he really does ha...

Countries - 2 States - 19 Provinces - 1 Both Michigan peninsulas Great Lakes seen -- 4 out of 5, plus Georgian Bay, Ontario NY Boroughs entered (if only briefly) 4 out of 5 Museums - 4 Plays - 3 Ferries - 3 Relatives seen - 16 Arguments with yelling - 1 Days when laundry was done - 6 Days with a beach visit - 6 Times pulled over by a cop - 1 Tickets issued - 0 Gas tank fill ups - 12 Time away from home - 27 days 10 hours This does not mean the end of posting, as many things take time to gestate. Expect further anecdotes and philosophical musings, as well as loose end tied and a few more photos.

So there we are, having decided we needed a little more beach time, on a Saturday night in August and there are no rooms at ANY of the inns. We head inland and spot a humble fishing camp and score the last place- a two bedroom cabin. The owner was just returning from picking up the canoes he had rented that day. He also raises chickens and has a huge garden. Sells hanging baskets and walking sticks he carves with morel mushrooms as a common stick top carving. Cabins are heated for hunting season and there are ski holders in the cabins as well. In short, like people all over the world, especially in small towns, the man does a LOT of things for a living. Do you only have one job? If I recall correctly, a line from the movie Local Hero , said by a village Scotsman to the oil exec from Houston.

Some people serve appetizers before dinner. Great Uncle Mike gives knife throwing lessons.