MOTHER NATURE'S PALETTE--

This terrific rainbow sparkled across Ontario, Ohio's late afternoon skies late yesterday afternoon; the northern half of its arc, (left) from our perspective, dancing on the roof of the Meijer store.  A hint of a double rainbow is barely visible top right.

The aerial performance was viewed near the intersection of Lexington-Springmill and Walker Lake Roads.

 
 

GEOCACHE KAYAKING AT COWAN LAKE

Greg and Leslie (orange kayaks) prepare their lunch stop while Bill Niehoff heads for his shoreline lunch-munch mooring.  We were about half-way through a string of 11 geocache hides, mostly in overhanging cedar trees, retrievable without leaving our spiffy little boats.

We wound up, on this near perfect summer day, with 100% success enjoying this aquatic geotrail which covered nearly 3 miles of shoreline on this southern Ohio state park lake.

The cache containers were mostly small, weatherproof tubes fastened to tree and brush branches with plastic wire ties.  They all contained small, rolled-up logs on waterproof paper which we signed "K4" to prove our success.

Greg and Leslie are known by the caching name "GOC+me".  Bill is "Lighthouse Nut" and I am "Skagway330".  We shortened all that to the day's team name K4 (kayaks 4) to preserve space on the small logs.

Terry, Leslie and Bill celebrating the caching conclusion at the marina (left); photo with Greg's compliments.

MAY SHE REST IN PEACE

Mary Kellogg 

Born A Slave

Died Free

We encountered this ground-level headstone in the Westwood Cemetery, Oberlin, OH; a town with a deep history of supporting the Abolitionist Movement in our country's early history and the attendant Underground Railroad which gave slaves access to the potential of freedom while fleeing to the North.

I pondered her grave and shivered a quiet chill of thankfulness for all the Mary's of her period who escaped the contemptible evil of that time in our country's past.

*            *            * 

We were visiting Oberlin while enjoying a geocaching trail presented by the Lorain County tourist bureau featuring historical and cultural highlights of that lakefront county west of Cleveland.

Just days later we had the challenging experience (below) while hiking our way back to civilization while caching near the Harding Presidential Memorial in Marion, OH.

Our activity of geocaching continues to provide experience uncommon to folks our age who are confined to or simply prefer pursuits of a more pedestrian nature.  We are grateful for that with each new day's caching adventure.

With respect in this case, of course, to Mary and The President.

 

 

A WEE CELEBRATION
Geocaching style

We had just finished a celebratory meal along the Little Miami Scenic Trail near Morrow, OH when my teammates determined a picture was in order.  Thas's Leslie Cornet (left) showing 3 fingers, Bill Niehoff showing 5 fingers, Bill's wife Diane and my lady Sue Brooks both with zeros; collectively representing my new total of caches found--3,500.

Leslie's hubby Greg was doing the photo duty.

The day's count of caches found was 19.  Added to my then balance of 3,481 added up to the above total I had logged as we ended that day's bicycle caching along this very beautiful trail in Southern Ohio.

It's fun to note the end of my third year of geocaching would occur in the week following this outing.

In the lower picture we had paused along the trail just south of where it passes under I-71 high above where that super highway crosses the Little Miami River valley.  Said to be the highest bridge in Ohio it currently is being doubled in width with a second span paralleling the original bridge deck.

Standing on the bike trail you would need a telescope to identify any of the workers.

Conversely, riding that scenic trail was a peaceful oasis from the noisy mayhem of that super highway travel far above.

Thanks "Bike6" the name we had assumed for the day to save space in signing the cache logs.

I thought that was much better than something involving "Old Fogeys" that I heard mentioned as we grappled for our day's team name.   

 

 

HAVE A CHUCKLE--

The sign at the Bellville Dairy Belle said:
"Definition of a balanced diet--having ice cream in both hands."

Good one!

*            *            *

Then my oldest son shared this one:

"It hasn't been too bad a summer.  Only rained twice so far; once for 32 days and the second for 28 days."

Another Good One!

RECENT BREAKFAST GUESTS--

A Whitetail Deer doe browses for breakfast in the weeds along the North side of my acre and a half pond.  The dark shapes in the foreground are (left) a leafy tree branch and (right) a cylindrical bird feeder topped with a transparent squirrel guard.  The photo was done through a glass window with a 200mm lens whose shallow depth of focus renders the foreground objects fuzzy.

A Wild Turkey of undetermined gender has been a frequent dining guest in recent weeks.  I was relating that tale to a couple of delivery fellows who were admiring my game-reserve like setting when, almost on queue, this critter or one of his/her pals wandered on stage thus authenticating what I suspected was some skepticism from my human visitors.

While they were ooohing and ahhhing I just smiled.

HISTORICAL DISCOVERIES--
A delightful benefit of Geocaching

While the huge majority of folks our age likely are dawdling in more pedestrian activities, Geocaching keeps us sailing about where discoveries like this covered bridge are a routine but delightful experience.

This dandy is hidden in plain sight on a rural road in Wyandot County about 8 miles southeast of Upper Sandusky, OH.

It spans the Sandusky River on County Road 130 just south of County Road 62.  More specifically, use the "coordinate" function of your car GPS and insert the following:  N 40 46.227 and W 083 10.142.

Or, take a peek at the Ohio Atlas and Gazetteer, page 47.  You will see a little covered bridge symbol over there to the right in Antrim Township.  You have that publication, don't you!  The Gazetteers of each of our states are the back roads "Bible" for this marvelous country of ours.

The numbers given above are the decimal equivalent latitude and longitude coordinates.  With these numbers we can find (usually) a thimble-sized container deep in the woods somewhere.  As you can then imagine, finding a covered bridge is, comparatively, a piece of cake.

Those numbers represent a very precisely defined point on Earth, in this case 40 degrees and 46.227 minutes North of the Equator and 83 degrees, 10.142 minutes West of the Prime Meridian.

In the era of their popularity, covered bridges were built mostly of wood; then, the principal material of construction.  Since wood tends to rot over time the bridges had to be protected hence the side
walls and roofs.

Often the span was large.  In this case 94 feet.  Since wood is not as strong as steel, the main support design involved trusses, the crisscross shape visible along the sides.  They made up for the relative lack of strength with thickness.  Note the width of the sidewall ends in the top photo. 

The bridge was built in 1878 and rehabilitated in 1994.