48 hours of battery charging

We Cheeseheads are proud people. We love our home state, brag it up continually, will run, not walk but run to get in front of a TV if we hear the state name or a locality located within it mentioned on a national network or forum of some such... Wisconsin has a lot to be proud of, I love it here, though at times it can sound like a love/hate relationship... it has four seasons, and at times it can feel like we merely have road construction, winter and August 15, we really, really do have changing weather patterns and a lot of variety, and yes... extremes.

Today's Cheesehead travelogue finds us in Door County, the peninsula located on the extreme eastern side of the state, the thumb jutting out into Lake Michigan. It's about 75 miles or so north of here, and this past weekend, some buddies and I ventured there to just get away... sample some local flavor, quaff some fermented malted beverages, breathe in some fresh air and do whatever we wanted.

I was successful. The guys were too happy to sit indoors or vegetate in the whirlpool for too long at a time, but hey, it was their time, they spent their money to get there, and they were welcome to do whatever it was that meant time off/time away to them. I had to commune with my favorite honey, Mother Nature. The picture above is of the sun setting on Saturday, as I drove up there... it was breathtaking - the stark, cold, forbidding ice swallowed up and dragged the sun out of the sky... leaving gathering darkness and damp, chilled-to-the-bone cold behind...

On one of my sojourns, I went into Peninsula State Park and did some hiking. The sun shone so brightly, the quiet was absolutely stunning, and yet at times the air was so alive with life - the breeze, the birds, with Ma Nature telling her stories of storms, of knocking over trees, of vigilant hawks, nosy racoons and hungry bunnies, squirrels and birds... Case in point, that chickadee who figured since I was a human, I must be the guy who fills up the bird feeders, right? They were hungry, and all I could do was make a mental note that next time I come up, stop at the bird food store just outside of Sturgeon Bay and get some feed for the feathered dudes and dudettes...Chickadees and martins and sparrows, landing on my head, my shoulders, my arms... waiting for a handout...

This picture is a view to the northwest of some islands located in the Bay of Green Bay (the body of water betwixt the Door Peninsula and the mainland state of Wisconsin). It just looked so stark and desolate... and breathtaking. The artist who was doing this artwork was truly inspired... the way the ice breaks up and is pushed toward shore, to reform, refreeze and then break up again, and then to get lightly or heavily sprinkled with snow... I stood on this bluff and almost felt the need to kneel in the silence, the power and majesty of the view seemed to require some show of reverence...

Here I am gazing out into the clear blue of Lake Michigan, pondering how it was to live in a lighthouse back 100 years ago or so. To my right, not pictured, is Eagle Bluff Lighthouse. Various men and their families lived here, on this site, in the lighthouse, to aid in navigation of the Great Lakes. A young man of 18 lost his life, in full view of this lighthouse, walking from the island, visible in the background, to Fish Creek, which would be a few miles to the east (right) of where I stand. He was walking to Fish Creek to get the mail, and fell through the ice. The man standing watch in the Eagle Bluff Lighthouse watched helplessly as the accident happened a half mile or more out from this point. By the time help arrived, they had to begin search operations. Eventually they found him and he is buried a few miles away in a local cemetery.

Such harsh reality. I stood in complete silence and pondered how past generations probably just accepted the fact that the elements were going to win sometimes. The lighthouse is no longer manned, it is a historical site. And a memorial.

On the last leg of my journey on Sunday, I bid the sun adieu once again... and was enveloped by the cold again.

Pictures don't do justice. Well, for me they do. I get to ignite those memories, and to feel all those feelings, listen to the snow crunch as I made my way up the road to the lighthouse. A two mile walk slightly uphill, as the park closes the road to the lighthouse in the winter. Closes it to vehicles, but welcomes those of us willing to invest an hour or two in fresh air and being serenaded by nature's songbook.

I have spent many a lovely day in Door County. I will forever make a point of going there to visit... in any season. So many good memories, so much treasure for the senses. Part of my Wisconsin. Part of our Wisconsin. I love bikini weather, sunshine, warm salt air, and listening to an ocean... but, listening to nothing, and puffing up my lungs with frigid air, and being just for the sake of being has its place too.