Click for a larger imageLog of our Seventh Trip of 2009
Maumee Bay State Park
Oregon, Ohio
November 6-9, 2009
Start 34,888  Home 35,097  Miles:  209
 
Attended:  Dad, Gracie Allen and Moosie
with a visit from Meg, Joe, Piper and Regal
 
Click any of the images for a higher resolution picture

 


November 6, 2009

The day was gorgeous, sunny and about sixty degrees.  We arrived to only a few campers and none where we wanted to camp.  We got set up and then did the 2.4 miles of Mouse Trail, the trail around the campground.  So much development has encroached on the park!  Now about half the trail backs up to people's backyards.  Sad.  They should have left a buffer.  About seven-tenths of a mile in, Moosie decided the trail was haunted.  He demanded, bounding against me and acting all weird, to be put back on his leash.  Something evil was about and he was near terrified.  It lasted only a bit but it was quite odd.  A couple of deer were right off the path looking at us.

The park filled to near capacity!  Only a few sites left.   I have the fire ready to be started.  Awaiting the kid's arrival.  And those grand dogs!


 

 



 


Some explanation ...

Some explanation should precede the pictures.  Joe has been disappointed in my excitement upon entering a bar and reading the drink menu, exclaiming, "Look!  They have blueberry mojitoes!"  He suggests I need to temper the foo-foo drinks and find something, well, manly.  This was brought home again when my law school friend Barb made mention of the same idiosyncrasy.  I had the audacity to order Zin at the Great Lakes Brewery.  Barb's comment worried me more.

I had a constitutional law professor who used to look down his nose and ask, "Who brought the foo-foo coffee?"  That would be me and it was normally coffee-toffee.  I have thirty two years of putting people in jail, a BA, MPA, JD, good family and I carry a gun.  I have no need to impress anyone with my manhood.  Having thirty years teaching law, I, too would be suspect of my manhood.  I have the scars.  He doesn't.

But, then, I'd hate to bring disrepute on Joe.  Barb's opinion matters even more.  So here I am awaiting their arrival with a $50 bottle of Macallan's 12 year old Scotch Whisky.  It is to be a manly night about the fire, forsaking the Fruity Red Sangria, of which I have two five liter boxes for Megan.  That might be enough.  $50 worth of Scotch is enough, right?


Here is the progression:

Start:


 

 

One:
Two:


Three:
This might be f
our:


This isn't five, we didn't take a picture.  Pretend it is five:


What was left at the end of the night:

 

 

Interesting stuff, this Scotch Whisky.  Over a period of many hours we did not become intoxicated and I have to admit, the stuff kept the fire stoked, us warm and provided the best of company.  I had no hangover.

Of course I could have bought how many five liter boxes of Fruity Red???

Follows are some more fire pictures:



 


 


We took a small, half mile walk upon their arrival.  On Saturday we had some cinnamon buns for breakfast and took a nice 4.3 mile walk.   Garmin's maps are off on the location of Lake Erie by a few hundred feet.


After Megan and Joe left I decided to do kites.  Opening a bag and what is this?!??  A new kite.  A parafoil 22.  Looks big.  Better use the 150 pound line.  I got it in the air only to have it literally pick me off the ground.  At the same time a ferrule failed, I let go and it went sailing high into a tree.  This is a very expensive sled!  My antenna masts, duct tape and my awning rod proved high enough to snag it and pull it down.  No worse for the wear.  I tied better knots avoiding the linkages and put it in the air again.  I used some rope to tie it to the picnic table.  It decided it was going to take the picnic table for a ride, pulling up one end and beginning a slide.  I had all I could do to get it back down.  The winds were high.  Very high. 
 

We ended the day with a two miler where deer ran out into our path twice and both times they were fifty feet ahead of us.  They are making so much noise themselves and are not expecting company.  Surprise!!!


November 8, 2009

We slept so very well.  I slept twelve hours and the dogs never budged.  They were so tired.

After getting up the dogs wanted to go on a walk.  I promised them a short walk about the campsite.  Yeah, right.  It is a sunny and warm morning with highs promised in the seventies.  We ended up doing 6.4 miles.  Look at the graph below.  A couple of things are odd.  The first loop, to the left, is us walking west from the campsite, to the main camp road and then being inexorably drawn down the paved all purpose trail to the beach trails.  Second, although we walked to and along the lake on the way out, we used a grass trail to cut the field part of that loop out.  This walk also went to the end of the cottage loop.

Another thing I noticed is the difference between the prior graphs and this one.  The prior graphs show speed being quite unstable.  I am calling that first effect "Piperization".  The second graph, being not being logged with a Piper, shows much less Piperization.

 

 

I begged Moosie to pee on this sign.   I offered him cookies, an extra egg on his food.  He just didn't have it in him.

 

 

 

This crabapple tree was intensely orange.  I wish it would have come through against the November colors.

 


 

The sparrows report the Martin doors on this house and the gourds were much appreciated as the November wind is fierce.


 

 

 

Stepping on out!

 


Sure is pretty for a November day!

 


 

 

 

November berries.

 


 


Nearing dark, we decided to check out an odd trail that ran off the paved path right where the path into the campground met the beach/field loop.  We turned right and walked into a mowed trail that ran through deer field.  It is deer field because each of the below pictures was taken after a deer popped its head up as I walked by.

For example (and remember these are not the full picture, click on the picture for the full image):

 

 

 

The deer on the left is about fifty feet into the field.  Surprised both of us.  Until ...

 

The deer on the right is about twenty feet into the field.  I heard something.  I looked.  She looked up.  I don't know who was most surprised.

 

 


 

 

 

 

This continued on.  These are about 50 yards in.

 


 

If you can't see it in this version of the picture, click on the picture to get the full version and look to the lower right of the sun:

 

 

The bat house.  On the trail you walk right by it.  Knock, knock!  Anyone home?  Wouldn't do this except it was November.

That's not a bat.  Blow it up and look at it.

 


 

Night, night site 161

Not done yet!  There was one last fire and a wee-bitty left in that Scotch Whiskey bottle.  It kept me company for about an hour.  I did not burn the bottle!

 


 


November 9, 2009

We took a nice walk, again through deer field although the deer weren't to be found.  We also had to take a trip up the big hill.  Must do that once, right?  On the way back they needed no rest area.  They were quite restful where they were.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


For up-to-date park maps and information, check the

Ohio State Park website


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