The colors of fall

Earlier this summer Hobbs had asked if I'd like to come to Escanaba, Michigan, for a week. It's the area near where he goes to hunt every year. We have a piece of land around there somewhere, so he thought I'd like to go see it. Sure, why not? It would be something different to do, plus we could ride four-wheelers, walk maybe, see the fall colors. Just doing something other than ride is almost foreign to me, but I was certainly up for the adventure.

We decided I'd go the first full week of October. Hobbs said the colors should be magnificent, so in preparation for that I took some photos of the fall colors at home along Turnagain Arm, and up near Long Rifle, about 55-60 miles past Palmer. Long Rifle is a favored place because there's a view of the Matanuska Glacier. It's spectacular so we like to ride there and lunch … just for the view.

The Matanuska Glacier is beautiful from every angle.

Turnagain Arm always has some beautiful color.

My bike is made for fall colors.

I organized the dog/house sitter and back up (thank you, Tom), got some cash, had the newspaper held for a few days, packed and headed to the airport. Being that I was flying standby, it's always a crap shoot as to whether you will get on the flight, or not. Even looking at the flights and the standby list, trying to make an informed decision based on the numbers, you just never know. I'd done all of that, but knew I was at least Number 10.

As my good luck would have it, I did get on. And as my good luck would have it, I had a window seat. But other forces were at work. I got the exit row, and being tired (having only two hours of sleep the night before), I slept for a few hours. Yay. Exhaustion took over.

Minneapolis was my first stop, and I hurried on to the gate where I hoped to get on the next flight to Detroit. I was first on the standby list, a good sign. And made that flight. Yahoo. Only one more flight between Hobbs and me.

Detroit Airport was a maze to me. I'd not been there in a long time and needed to go to another gate area. This involved riding the little train. It was red, and quite trendy looking. The ride was short and I was quickly deposited a block or so from the gate I needed to be at. The fun part is riding the moving walkways. The one long one goes through a tunnel of colors, seemingly similar to northern lights flashing and shimmering overhead. It's the tunnel of light and sound, so there's also music to go with the changing lights. Cool.



The tunnel doesn't photograph well, but it was a fun thing to go through, and through, and through.



Once I arrived at the gate, C-22, I found I was Number 1 on the standby list, and I was issued my seat assignment almost immediately. That's good because you know the flight is quite open. And we waited. Then, we were all told that the flight was cancelled due to bad weather in Escanaba. I called Hobbs who told me there was lightning, thunder, rain. That's a good call on the part of Delta.

Delta issued discount coupons and I took the shuttle to a Best Western, which was a very nice hotel. There was an awesome swimming pool, but I had no luggage. But then, I had no swimming suit in my luggage anyway. It was more preferable for me to get a bite to eat and then get a few hours sleep.

Up and at 'em at 5 a.m. to catch the 6 a.m. shuttle back to the airport. A different gate awaited me, but I was still Number 1 on the standby list. Then began the series of delays. No flight crew, no flight attendant. Then we boarded. Then we unboarded. The weather was still crappy in Escanaba, the instrument flight system is down for several days and there was no visibility for a visual landing. I called Hobbs. He told me he knew it would be delayed. I'm hoping I don't spend the entire week in the Detroit Airport. We're told the pilots will reassess the weather situation in about an hour-and-a-half. We'll see.

Another cancellation. I've talked to Hobbs, and it's still raining there and supposed to rain a few more days yet. Now I'm not sure what I'll do … wait to try again, fly somewhere else, fly home. Decisions, decisions. Dahm it, I want to go to Escanaba.

I overheard people talking about flying to Green Bay, so I checked to see how far that is from Escanaba. About 110 miles. Doable. Then someone else talked about Appleton (both of these are in Wisconsin). Appleton was about 135 miles away. So I called Hobbs to see if he would come get me if I could get on a flight. Yep. Okay. I was on it. I figured Appleton would be better since Green Bay had a football game going on. Not the first flight. That was full. I waited for the 3:30 p.m. flight. Oh yeah, baby, I was on. I called Hobbs who was already in Appleton and he'd be at the airport.

Finally, a connection at Appleton. But I had no luggage. We didn't want to wait around to see if it would come in on the late flight so we had them send it to Escanaba, which meant I had no clothes except for what I was wearing and a toothbrush and my meds.

A place with free luggage carts.  Who knew that existed?

It appeared a trip to WalMart was in my future, or Target, or something. We spent the night Abbotsford, Wisconsin. No WalMart there. There was one about 15 miles down the road and we'd head there in the morning.

We headed to the WalMart, don't know where, and got myself a new wardrobe … jeans, sneakers, socks, underwear, a couple of tops, mascara, hair stuff and so on. Didn't bother me at all as I love to shop.

We didn't get very far when Hobbs spotted a yard with all kinds of wood items for sale.  He said he was buying me my last Beagles.  There are four and they are just cute yard art.  The lady selling them was having a very bad day and we spoke with her for a while.  I'm hoping we helped her through a bad time and that only good things come to her.  Hobbs said he's looked for a long time for this type of thing for me, but today he found them.  We were stopped at the right place at the right time ... to get Beagles and maybe cheer up a lady who needed some good in her life today.  Best to you, nice lady.  Love the Beagles, and thank you, Hobbs.

And off we went. The order of the day was to look at the colors. While there are beautiful ones here and there, they are not in full-blown fall mode yet. But the variety is never-ending and I shot photo after photo, from stops to through the window in the car.

Even wild turkeys are a part of the colorful fall leaves.

This red-leafed tree was one of the most beautiful I saw all day.

 We happened across the Concrete Park, where there are a number of statues made from concrete, bottles, glass, the glass from vehicle lights.

While we found no information on Fred Smith being in the military, he honored those who have served.

What an interesting place this was, and it was not on our radar at all. It's considered an open-air museum of sculptures built by Fred Smith. He retired and then taught himself how to build sculptures and created over 200 of them on the land surrounding his house and tavern. He called it the Wisconsin Concrete Park. They represent life in northern Wisconsin and other historical moments. He used real objects to complement his sculptures.

There were a lot of deer and each one had a set of real deer horns attached.  He also had elk and moose, with real horns or antlers.

I had to have a photo with the hounds.

Smith used all kinds of scraps and pieces and they added color as well as an additional dimension to the sculptures.  Color always adds beauty, and while these might not be considered beautiful, they are all works of art. 

I especially liked the Indian in full head dress.

The Budweiser horses and wagon even have a dog sculpture up on the seat.  There were so many, but I could only show a few.  Otherwise, this blog would go on forever as I photographed many of the sculptures.

By the end of the day we were up north, near the Wisconsin/Michigan border and we were looking for white deer, albinoes. We got a motel and dropped off my new clothes and luggage. It turns out you can have a room looking out to the road, or out back which looks out on a field and there are nearly always deer. People feed them so they're always around. I wanted a room where I could see deer, and we did, right outside the window. What a treat. Then we got in the car and went looking for deer, any deer, except we know there are albino deer in this part of the country and we were hoping to see some.

This doe and fawn were outside the window of the motel.  Another fawn did not wish to have its photo taken.

Who can resist the big old brown-eyed deer?  Not me.  They're so photogenic.

We drove down one road and Hobbs found the perfect photo spot.

We drove and drove, seeing not much. Hobbs did spot a great place to take a couple of photos, and then we drove some more. Then there she was, and I was saying, “white deer, white deer, white deer.” Oh wow, what a beautiful sight. It was a doe and she had two fawns with her, little brown ones. We were told the white deer are dying out, mating with the brown ones and having little brown fawns. But what I saw was something special and unique and I was so excited. I took a few photos, although they weren't great because she was kind of far away and it was near dusk.

It was near dark, but the albino deer stand out against the dark of the evening, trees and leaves.

These albino deer are unique and beautiful.  The eyes are light-colored and I'm sure the sun must bother them.

This doe and fawn both had their tails up at the same time.  While I didn't get that photo, I still like this one.

We drove on and then Hobbs spotted a couple of brown deer. I saw them but looked to the left and spotted another white one. “White deer, white deer.” We got a bit closer and this was also a doe with a fawn.

I was thrilled to see two of these beautiful deer. They are protected here, but some have been poached (by cretins) and some have been hit by cars. I'm sorry to hear that, but things do happen, except poaching … illegal, and some have been caught. Hope they're rotting away somewhere in a place with no key.

Once sunset has come and gone, there's not much you want to see, especially not deer in the road.  Home, Hobbs.

After dark and seeing about a dozen more deer, we came back to the room, and hung it up for the night. Tired and I've still not caught up on my sleep from the past several days.