A Walk on the Wild Side

I woke up with the alarm on Thursday and then shaved and showered. I got dressed and then loaded the car with my camera, winter boots and a watch cap. Then I went to therapy.

What's with the boots, camera and hat? Well, my friend B___ called Wednesday night and invited me to go on a road trip in search of photographic inspiration. If you remember, we would do that occasionally at lunchtime, driving through Hines Park. So, naturally, I jumped at the chance!

After therapy, I headed out to his house and got there around 10:00 AM. We loaded up his vehicle and headed out (well, we had to make a quick trip to the auto parts store to replace a wiper blade that the frozen ice had ripped).

We got off the Expressway at New Baltimore and did a quick stop at St. Mary's cemetery, to pay our respects to his parents and mine (as well as my Brother Pete, Sister Anne and my Sister-in-law Betty.

Then we headed up Dixie Highway (is it still called that?). We remarked over and over about changes that we noticed from when we were kids, new traffic lights, houses that schoolmates lived in, houses we lived in and so on.

Our first stop was the parking lot at a restaurant that used to be called Bud's. I told him that Fran and I lived in a little (and I do mean little) rental cottage when Amy was a toddler, that used to be exactly when we parked. I took several photos of the ice fishing shanties on the lake.

Then we drove up to St. John's Marsh and walked back in it a ways. I took some more photos. We found a muskrat hole and I tried to lure him out by making owl noises, at least until B___ explained no reasonable muskrat would come out of his hole if an owl was there. Well, okay... but I don't know how to make minnow sounds...

We drove by the place in Pearl Beach where Lu and lived briefly. It had just bare studs in the kitchen and I did manage to put in insulation and drywall before we lost it. I heated it with a small wood stove her step-father bought us and Jeremy was just an infant then. We were surrounded by three sides by the marsh. I loved it, but lost it, like most things in my life...

We went by the Harsen's Island Ferry and noticed the ice had clogged the river there. This was the main reason we were here, BTW. B___ had seen that a freighter got stuck in the brash ice off of Algonac and he wanted to see it (the ice, not the freighter - the Coast Guard got it free yesterday). What's brash ice, you may ask? I never heard of it before (and I lived on the damn river for quite a few years). It seems that when the floating ice gets jammed up, it can actually reach the bottom of the St. Clair River and that's called "brash ice."

Well, I had seen that very scenario outside the windows in the home at St. Clair one winter. It took a Coast Guard ice breaker to free the freighter. So, I was interested.

We finally found a spot to pull in and I got some photos of "brash ice." While we were there, there was a ship going up river. I couldn't tell what it was, but B___'s telephoto lens suggested it was a Coast Guard Ice Breaker. So, we headed out up north, through Marine City and then St. Clair (where we all lived for a bit - Jeremy and Lu for a little while, Jake and I until the bitter end).

The water there was much more open (see photos) and, after taking some pictures we waited for the ice breaker to show up. It finally did and I got some good photos for you.

We went by the old house and I could barely look at it. It's weird what they did. Note to Melissa: the bushes I planted in front are tall, but the carved trellis gate has fallen apart! WTF? Why didn't he fix it? Hey, ask him again for the carvings...

We went and had lunch in Marysville around 2:00 PM. I ate too much (I just can't eat that much, anymore) and then we got back on the expressway and headed for his home.

We made a brief stop at his land (the driveway was all overgrown and fallen trees blocked the entry). It was bittersweet. He had bought the 9+ acres back in the day, thinking he would eventually move out there and have a self-sustaining homestead, raising tilapia in the pond and shitake mushrooms in the woods.

At first, he had a big-ass tractor (the Minneapolis Moline) that he eventually sold to me (I think I still owe him for it, but, Jesus, don't remind him) and then a killer big-assed backhoe. Together, he, his dad and I cut down trees, put in a driveway, dug up some of the pond, etc. He already had a well on the property, got the septic field permitted and had electricity put in.

For several years afterwards, I would borrow my neighbor's (Mr. Dupee) Bush Hog, hook it onto the tractor and then drive the four or five miles to B___'s land. I'd cut down all the weeds in the drive, the place where the house was supposed to go and all around the pond. But, he never moved back and now the place is really overgrown.

I know from experience that part of growing old is having to look back with regret...

We reluctantly headed back to his house and, at 3:15 PM, I got in my car and started back home. I also had a high-end (back in the day) amplifier he gave me to try and increase the volume on the TV. It will take some trips to Radio Shack for cables, etc., but maybe I won't miss half the words on my shows. I suppose I should have my hearing checked but I damn sure don't have the money right now for hearing aids!

I loaded the pictures in the computer and sorted through them to find the best ones (I had taken so many my camera's internal memory was full). I posted the best of them to the Blog and then changed clothes.

I was chilled (although it's above freezing (finally) and the snow is starting to melt. So, I added a sweater and got into bed (with the covers) to watch some taped TV shows. I was definitely NOT interested in eating dinner at this point.

At 7:00 PM, I switched to the BBC channel and watched "BBC America News." I've taken a fancy to watch this nightly instead of the usual local network news. It seems like it presents the same stories, but with a more global insight.

After that, I watched a couple more taped shows and went to bed about 9:00 PM (too much walking and adventure today, I suppose). But, I had a great day, today...