Jaze: September 2007

Whah?!?! Can it be? A balloon festival and a car show all in one morning? In the same town? Is that even possible?

Yes, yes it is. Welcome to Midland, MI. Last Saturday was the local balloon festival and a car show all in one morning. Although the weather was quite frigid for mid-September we had a blast watching balloons magically take on life and fly off into the crystal blue skies to the east, all while drinking our hot cocoa :) Afterwards we went downtown where the car show was just starting to rev up. Our favorites were the vintage fire truck and Barney Fife-esque police car. As far as balloons go, it's hard to have a favorite but Sugar Bear, Garfield, the double cheeseburge and the little pirate were all fun balloons to watch. This is definitely the weekend to stay off the roads as a lot of in-town drivers are paying no attention at all to the task at hand. Rather they are looking up and watching the balloons. Yikes!

Whew! Things have so busy up here lately. I apologize for being a bad updater. I know because of us being in Michigan, this blog is sometimes the only way that some of you know that we're alive and well. Hopefully I'll get more back on track soon with regular updates about what we're doing and thinking now that summer is over. It could be that the author's brain decided to check out with all of the summer buzz. It's a distinct possibility.

For Labor Day weekend we did several things. The biggest was going hiking in the UP. Sandra and I traveled the to Porcupine Mountains (aka the Porkies) and hiked around there. All in all we spent two nights and hiked about 20 miles that weekend. If I was forced to compare what I saw of the Porkies to what I've seen of Pictured Rocks (also in the UP) I would have to recommend Pictured Rocks before the Porkies. For us the Prokies were a much further drive, the trails were not as well maintained, and a good section of the trails didn't have any kind of natural water access. I'm also a bit of a sucker for the cool looking rocks and ores from which Pictured Rocks is named after. With that said, we had a great time while there and despite the 8 hr drive, it was well worth it. The first night was spend camping just far enough from Lake Superior that we wouldn't get wet. The crashing water (imagine the ocean) all night long made for some wonderful ambient noise that night.

The second night we camped just off a natural bluff that overlooked an amazing virgin forest (never before logged). It's been a long time since I've seen a night so clear and full of so many stars. We just about had the entire celestial sphere to our viewing, a feat that I would love to recreate often.

After hiking we made the long drive back home so that after a good night's sleep we could hit the road in the name of competition. While Sandra competed in the 5K competitive walk, I ran the 10k run. Click on BARC Labor Day for our results. While we did well, keep in mind we could have done even better.(Remember hiking 20 miles with 35 lbs on your back can make you sore )

Below are some of the pictures that I took while out camping. Enjoy!