Little Talbot Island State Park, FL & Leonid Meteor Shower

Less than 10 miles out of Crooked River, we crossed the border into Florida and it seemed like it was worth at least ten degrees. Morty meandered the short distance through Amelia Island and became breathless at all the fancy real estate.

We shopped Target for a new SD card reader with great success. Likewise Walmart for hose hardware and appetizers. McDonalds provided the $5 lunch for the travel party thereby proving that retirement can be cheaper than working.

Finding Little Talbot Island State Park was easy once we were under way but identifying it as meeting our modest criteria was hugely frustrating -- thanks to what may be one of the worst designed websites I have ever encountered. It is all but impossible for someone to use this site to identify a park with camping and beach access within a certain driving range -- too much info presented, too little organization. And when you try to make an online reservation with the ReserveAmerica site, the tunes just keep on comin'. The only positive thing I can say is that mercifully, there is no separate on-line reservation fee.

The friendly park ranger told us about two big events: the shuttle launch in less than an hour, and the early morning Leonid meteor shower. I asked her if she was collecting comments about the magicical website, and she knowingly rolled her eyes, and told us submitting them online was the only option. There's a key causal factor right there. How much gullibility is required to believe that the web guys will be eager to read and pass on all the negativity they're generating?

We got to the beach just in time to get some photos of the shuttle blasting off to the space station. The meteor shower did provide a couple of great streaks of light, but capturing them with the camera was a big bust. The first meteor was just after dark, and I was on a trip to the restroom when a huge fireball with streaming red tail blasted right overhead. Set the camera up and take several hundred pics in the same area and we see only two or three more little ones, all out of camera frame. Getting a good meteor picture is proving to be a lot more difficult than I ever imagined. We were out on the campground road from about 9 until 2 AM, sitting in our camp chairs. A couple of times we thought we heard wild boars grunting near us. When we woke up around 9 in the morning we were surprised to find that area under water from the high tide.




At low tide this beach is perfect for riding bikes. Five miles of park beach. Hundreds of feet of wet sand. No construction in sight.

The campground is carved out around the marsh with no paved roads. The sites are modest, but so thick with vegetation that nowhere in the park can you see more than two sites at once. The capacity of the camp is only 40 sites so it does provide a very cozy atmosphere.

Orionid Meteor Shower

Yet another small disappointment. Tried to capture some photos of the supposedly abundant meteors streaming through the sky tonight.

Box score: saw three, captured none on over sixty 30 second exposures. I've done considerably better without trying.

It does make a good retirement hobby though.

McLain Day Two

Took some star pictures last night, and got another meteor. I wonder what the odds of that are?

From McLain St Pk, MI UP

Been marveling at the construction of the chair/table conbos along the beach here. They are in some of the pictures. Perhaps the objective was to make them heavy enough to withstand the storms. Whatever the reason, their massiveness and craftsmanship must be admired. There’s a full 2 x 4 frame around the seats, extending out the back; another frame around the base with a stringer across the base and six legs for each seat. If only they were a little more comfortable, they would be the ultimate seating solution.

Well, it just goes to show that if you praise a thing too highly it will turn on you. The weather today started foggy, and just as it looked like it might dry off, it came rolling right back in. Then our view of the lake and horizon, was cut in half by a 40 foot rig pulling into the site next to ours. I guess after some people pay for one of those monstrosities, they are too low on coin to afford a suitably glamorous camp. Well, at least it is good bike riding.

Just learned that my class reunion is to be moved up to the 23rd. So this is making it look like we need to skip Wisconsin, and take the shorter route back through the Land to the North. Another factor is that the yearly permit is $35 in Wisconsin, and the one for this here state is already paid for. So will probably be headed for Pictured Rocks Nationals Lakeshore tomorrow.

Later in the afternoon the ferry to Isle Royal did appear in the fog as it sailed out to the island – got a picture, but not a great one.

Ionia Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Monday night was clear for sky photography with a nearly full bright moon that overpowered a lot of the other things to see. I did get a couple of decent pictures, one with a little meteor streaming through the shot.

Today we hiked the woods, and just experienced the perfection of  this place. We rode our bikes downhill the couple of blocks to pay for the second night, and Lynne returned, while I rode on halfway around the lake to the beach. The hike around the southeast quadrant of the lake was unusual because we saw almost no birds or animals except for a family of mute swans on the lake. This was nearly two hours, out and back. Of course the fact that we set out at high noon, when most forest critters are on siesta could have been a factor. We went as far as the destroyed bridge over Sessions Creek. Although we could have forded the creek on stepping-stones and bridge fragments, there would have been over two more miles to go vs. the one mile of return. The most interesting pics were of the fungi.

Then just the old routine, of recliners in partial shade until the wine and cheese tasting, followed by showers, and a light dinner. We walked the campground at sunset, and noted that nearly half of yesterday's population had departed for other venues.

The new pics are in the same Ionia folder as before.

The nest two destinations look like Muskegon, and Orchard Beach:

http://tinyurl.com/mva5z5

Lake Hudson Recreation Area, MI

We have a little Garmin Nuvi GPS that we let do most of the navigation as long as it's not too wonky. We don't expect a lot from it, since it came free for opening a new credit card a couple of years ago. And we haven't used it much since we have GPS in our cars. But with Morty, we have it on all the time. Today, it chose a series of mostly county roads to be the quickest route to Lake Hudson. I would have understood shortest, but quickest too? We must have been smack in between the highways and interstates. So the google map that I sent a link to was nice but not as interesting as the many small towns and country roads we experienced today.

Many of these little towns are right out of the 19th century. The town of Harrod's State Bank is a prime example: Sandstone building with big windows and bold gold leaf lettering that hasn't changed in nearly 150 years. Another bank in Napoleon advertises "Bailout-free since 1897." Journeys like today's are every bit as good as the destination. We were a little surprised to drive through some huge fields of cherry tomatoes, in an area that seemed well in the ruts of corn and soybeans.

Lunch was a little Chinese restaurant in Napoleon -- very reasonable, and way above average in cuisine. Dinner was relegated to a couple of micro waved calzones around 9PM.

The campground was about what you should expect from a state recreation area at this time of year: dirt and pebble roads, electric-only huge sites, very low population since the start of school. The nightly fee is only $16, but you also need a pass - annually $29. We were a little disappointed by the intermittent rain, but it did hold off for our walk of a couple of hours through the campground and down to the boat ramp. Got some decent pictures of the flowers and trees, but totally missed the huge white tail that bounded across the road fifty feet in front of us. The lake is man-made, and pretty shallow, but the DNR uses this for fish brooding, so the fishing is supposed to be excellent. The bad news is no cell or wi-fi here, so this update will be delayed somewhat.

This campground is the first Dark Sky Preserve in the Land of the North - no or minimal lights to enhance night time sky observation. Lynne woke me around 4AM to say that some stars were peeking through the clouds. When I finally got up around 5, the sky was clearing substantially, so I tried to get some star photos. A tripod is mandatory since you just get glow worms hand-held. Otherwise some interesting results.

Lynne had an article about the UM Art Museum at Ann Arbor, and we might make that tomorrow's intermediate stop. I guess its about 80 miles from here. Then we would continue on further north to Pinckney State Recreation Area.