Off to the OBX Part 1

Off to the OBX    Part 1

By John W. Vander Velden

 

If you don’t know what OBX means take heart, we were there for nearly two days before we made the connection. The locals use those three letters to identify their area...The Outer Banks.

View from the parking lot

It had been eleven years since our last visit and there were things the same, like the weather and the ocean, and things different, like thousands of new rental properties. And I expected as much when we chose OBX as our first escape location for the year. Made the adventure a road trip. I would not recommend a straight through drive and we took our time, sorta’, spreading the drive over three days.  Three days? Well yeah, we made a stop and took half a day visiting the Ark Encounter, which in truth added a day to the trip. The Ark itself was impressive and we wandered about the exhibits which were well done. The work they went through to create the lifelike animals on display is amazing.

Four hours plus driving east took us to Charleston, West Virginia, which seemed to make the OBX reachable the next day. Driving through the Blue Ridge Mountains and across the Shenandoah Valley was beautiful, though the I-64 snakes tightly with several seep grades both up and down.

We spent more than a half hour moving less than a quarter mile while we were in Norfolk, Virginia. So close and yet surrounded by an ocean of near stationary cars carrying countless passengers all hoping to reach their own destinations, but wedged together on lanes meant to be traveled, but for that time virtually a parking lot.

The sun had long set when we checked in, but one of the reasons we had come was the Atlantic, and to the beach we went, dark or not.

Our Home at the OBX

The ocean was almost dead calm, maybe six inch swells. Yet there, in the dark with the sky reflecting off the water I felt it. There is something about the sea shore. Something that reaches deep within me, rumbles places that are unreachable by sights and sounds. Something primal. Something emotional. But most of all something spiritual.  A power I could never describe. Something real, but intangible. It made the long stressful drive worth the effort and more.

The sun comes up early in May, but its rising found me walking the nearly
deserted beach, bare feet on the cool sand and splashed by cold water of the rising tide. I beat the sun three mornings in a row watching the coloring sky for the moment the sun’s sphere escaped the water. I live for those brief times when the day begins so clearly, when I find myself where the horizon is distant and clear. That I had the beach very nearly for my own an added bonus. It is too seldom that I find myself where wind water and sky intersect in such a way, and even now look forward to the next opportunity.

(490 Words) 5-15-2019

 

2018 Christmas Letter

 Can it be? Can it be December once again? But the calendar tells me that Christmas is near, and so I find myself at a familiar place attempting to put together a few words about our year.

Where to begin? 2018 has been a whirlwind in so many ways that I couldn’t go into everything in less than fifteen pages. So allow me to pick and choose a bit to give you the gist of this year’s adventures. Hmmm...OK...well I’ll try to stay in chronological order...mostly.

They are real and spend time on the roof of
Al Johnson's Restaurant, Sister Bay, WI

Door County Sunset

Lake of the Clouds, Porcupine National Park, MI 

January saw the release of my novel, Misty Creek. The years of work came at last together at last. I cannot completely describe my feelings when I first saw a copy of my words in print. January was also the month I began work on revising the sequel, a task that is not yet complete.

 

 

 

We’ll push past winter snows and such and jump to May. That was the month that Nick graduated from Purdue University. Our son graduated on Mother’s Day no less. What a crazy weekend that was for all of us. We spent days wandering around campus taking pictures and meeting up with family to show them around too. Seeing the thousands of young men and women in their caps and gowns gave me optimism in the future. 

May was also the month we moved Nick OUT-OF-STATE...hmmmph. What a day that was, renting a truck, unloading his apartment, rumbling down the interstate between all the construction barrels, and trying to get things unloaded before the thunderstorm hit. I did say trying...not succeeding. Carrying “stuff” and furniture up three floors reminded these bones just how old they are. Too old!

But Nick is settled into a nice apartment on the outskirts of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, just ten minutes from his work.  He’s a design engineer for Altec a manufacturer of bucket trucks. The kind of trucks used by utilities and tree trimmers. They keep him hopping but he is settling into the area.

Things at work prevented Jackie from taking vacation days until July, so our usual spring escape was pushed back. So we headed out just after Independence Day on our first outing.  We went north. What can I say it was summer. We checked out some new territory along Lake Michigan’s western shoreline. Door County Wisconsin came highly recommended, and just between you and me they weren’t foolin’. Spent three days near the tip of the peninsula just “checkin’ things out” and knew when we left that we were coming back.

Lake Superior

Eagle Harbor Lighthoue, MI

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Door County we went north to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I had longed to return to Keweenaw Peninsula. My last visit a whirlwind pass on a motorcycle in 1982, so I was glad to have the opportunity to go back.  We love the UP, the shoreline, the waterfalls, the lighthouses, and the hiking trails. Went to the Porcupine Mountains National Park to see Lake of the Clouds on an overcast day. It was beautiful all the same. On another day we went north to see the lighthouses at Copper Harbor and Eagle Harbor. We took time to hike along the Lake Superior Shoreline to reach Montreal Falls. Went into a copper mine. It’s cold down there...42⁰...and dark too!

Greenfield Village

With vacation stacked up August found us going to Eastern Michigan. Had never gone to Greenfield Village before and was impressed to say the least. A second day at the Ford Innovation Museum filled our time in the Detroit area then north to the Lake Huron shore and finally to Frankenmuth. Enjoyed good weather while we spent time in a part of Michigan we had not visited before.

High upon a lighthouse

 

 

If two trips almost back to back were not enough we went south in September. Oh, we had the most noble of motives, to visit Nick on his Birthday. So we headed down to Elizabethtown, Kentucky for a four day stay. Nick had to work so we visited with him in the evening which left the days for exploring. An    interesting area to say the least. Spent most of a day in Mammoth Cave National Park. The cave itself is amazing, but we also enjoyed the hiking trail. The next day we visited Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace. The monument there is older than the Lincoln Memorial in DC and is impressive, standing atop the hill. Our next stop was the site of the farm Lincoln spent his early childhood years.

We spent the remainder of our time visiting an antique car museum, the Kentucky Railway Museum, Elizabethtown Veteran’s Memorial Park, and the remnants of a Civil War era fort overlooking the Ohio River. We just wanted to touch base and check things out because we are sure to be back there again soon.

Mammoth Cave, KY



 

That pretty well covers the most noteworthy parts of the year. When it comes to work and such, nothing much has changed. Jackie works for Martin’s Super Market’s Pharmacy, and I sit at the keyboard trying to turn keystrokes into another book.

Lincolns' Birthplace , KY

 

 

So as we come to this important time of the year, as we reach out to you, family and friends, we hope you know that you are often in our thoughts. That Christmas carries a meaning deeper than Black Friday discounts and Ho, Ho, Ho.  For Christmas is a reminder of how love came...God’s gift given in the form of a baby. Jesus born for you and me...

Merry Christmas from the Vander Veldens here in the greater Tyner Teegarden area of Northern Indiana.

  

Up, U.P., and Away

 

Up, U.P., and Away            

 

By John W. Vander Velden

 

I believe that a body needs to get away from…well from the burdens of the ordinary every day.  So we as many others take vacations.  But where a person goes and what a person does on vacation tells a great deal about them.  So what does going to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and walking, and walking, tell about us.

It was not our first trip to the U.P., though our last one was three years ago.  But it was the first time we chose a hotel on the shores of Lake Superior, or Munising Bay to be exact.  We wanted to see Pictured Rocks on our last trip across the Straights of Mackinac, but it was too far from our base of operations, St. Ignace, to make it a day trip.  Munising gave us a new center point and from there we could take the scenic cruise to see the colorful rock cliffs that makeup the shoreline.  But there was so much more to see in this little piece of summer paradise.  But you have to like the outdoors.  We do.

Our first outing was to hike to Sable Falls.  The roar could be heard long before the crashing waters came to view.  There are dozens of waterfalls along the northern edge of the U.P. and over the week we saw several.  And there are lighthouses.  You know we like lighthouses.  Our favorites are the ones that are a bit off the beaten path.  Au Sable Lighthouse is a 1.7 mile hike from the parking lot.  Like I said it’s off the beaten path.  The trail on the top of the cliffs, a broad way for service trucks, was pleasant enough.  But we were coaxed two thirds of the way to go down to the beach.  The sandy beach lapped by gentle waves of a nearly tabletop smooth waters of Lake Superior.  Walking on the sand, looking at the remains of ships wrecked and rotting made the walk interesting.  But when the shore turned to loose stones that were pretty, but shifted and slid beneath each step, walking  became more difficult.

The walk to another set of falls was more than a mile of muddy slippery trail, where we took care not to trip over thousands of roots that crossed our path.  The hike took us off and alone among the trees.  We wondered if we had veered astray while I watched for wildlife…large wildlife.  I slipped and fell on that hike.  Silly us we forgot to pack our hiking boots, which would have made a world of difference. But the view of the falls made up for the careful walking, the slipping, and even the falling.

As you can see one of the common threads of this trip was walking, and climbing.  Climbing stairs, thousands of stairs.  There were stairs on the trails, well most of them anyway.  There were the spiral stairs up lighthouse towers.  There were stairs down to the beach.  Yes, there were stairs at the hotel.

So what does our “away” say about us?  Woods, lighthouses, waterfalls, Great Lakes, hiking, and let’s not forget stairs.  I hope it would say we are in reasonable physical condition.  Well, fairly reasonable.  But what does it say about our mindset?  Hmmmm.  We love the outdoors, always have.  We love stuff that our minds tell us are solid, like old barns and mills and lighthouses.  Especially lighthouses.  Structures that have stood the test of time and just by standing proclaim, here I am…here I will be.  Perhaps it is a bit old fashion to seek comfort from those strong solid things we seek.  Then there is Lake Superior, the rocks, the clear water, the very immense-ness of it, places us in a clearer perspective.  There we recognize our smallness and GOD’s grandness revealed once again in HIS creation.  In truth maybe we seek the things that are absent in our everyday.  But are they absent, or have we just taken the things around us for granted?

Hmmmm---there maybe some truth to that.  Being busy can steal the subtle secrets that surround.  Maybe it takes getting away to notice.  To see truths from a new perspective.  For even here in north central Indiana there are those amazing things.  Woods and hills we drive by as we scurry on our way.  There are things all around, magnificent things, unusual things, and old things.  Things that are as frail as the Monarch Butterfly wings, or as solid as that big rock I had to dig out of my field.  There are white country churches that stand as testament that even here in the open spaces GOD can be found.  There are the old barns that were once sources of pride for families that tended the land.

Yet we need to get “away”, to experience new vistas, or rather to see different examples of what we know.  In doing so we see “life” from a new angle.  And each person chooses the places to accomplish that.  And the choices we make, the places we enjoy, shows just who we are.

(849 Words) 8-22-2017

Vacation Like you Mean It: A Lighthouse, A Lighthouse, and Oops

Vacation Like You Mean It

 

A Lighthouse, a Lighthouse, and Oops

 

By John W. Vander Velden

 

Friday was our third day on the Emerald Coast.  I woke up early because I  
 
 
 
 
wanted to photograph the sun’s rising.  But when I opened the balcony door all I saw was thick fog.   Hmmm…decision time.  The warm bed called…loudly, but I wondered if I could use the morning’s mist.  Bare feet, swim trunks and tee shirt, kissed Jackie good morning, grabbed my camera, and I set off.  I ran down the ten flights of stairs, walked quickly around the hotel, past the pool, crossed over the dune on the board walk, and went to the shore.  The sand felt cold, but the water was not.

Though there were not many on the beach that morning, I was not alone.  There were couples walking at the water’s edge.  A fisherman setting up for his morning’s task.  I was kept company by the sandpipers nearby but always dashing away as I approached, and the pelicans that flew into view and then absorbed by the fog.

I have never walked at the water’s edge in the mist before, but if the opportunity arises, I will not resist.  The photos I took were unique…at least when lumped into my other work.  Perhaps I walked a mile that morning…a very pleasant mile.

At breakfast we discussed the day…what we might do.  Those who know us understand that lighthouses have a draw upon these particular Vander Veldens.  I mentioned San Bas Point to Jackie and told her it was two and a half-hours east.  Seemed pretty far but it was the closest now that we had seen Pensacola’s light.

So began the real beginning of that Friday.  Traffic was heavy most of the way, we stopped for lunch in Port St. Joe, just a few blocks from our destination.  Fact is we could see the lighthouse from the McDonalds.

Now San Blas Point Lighthouse is an open frame steel structure.  If you think that makes it relatively new or short, well think again.  I thought the same thing before we went to see the lighthouse at Whitefish Point. Michigan.  That one was, and this one as well is neither.  But though it looks nothing like the other lighthouse we saw on that day it had one thing in common.  It had been moved.  San Blas was moved some twelve miles.  Just set on its side and hauled to its new location.  Kinda’ amazing since the thing is ninety feet tall.  So it stands on a secure place away from the worse weather in a picturesque park in the small town of Port St. Joe.

We climbed that lighthouse.  I mean, what’s the point of going to a lighthouse if you don’t climb it.  Actually most are just gorgeous to look at and that is worth the trip. We wandered the grounds and met some really nice folks from the area on what was a beautiful afternoon.

Now we had gone our one hundred miles, but there were two other lighthouses within thirty-five miles.  So onward, first to St. George Island.  It takes two bridges to get there.  The second is nearly three miles long.  But right at the island’s center stood their lighthouse.  It actually had been reconstructed.  A storm had toppled the structure, so they found the original plans, cleaned up thousands of brick and wa-la, St. George Point Lighthouse stands once again.  The unique thing about this light is the wooden stairs.  A beautifully made wooden spiral to the lamp room.  Since it no longer had a lamp, I could enter that space…a first for me.  The view was, once again, marvelous.  Jackie talked weather with one of the ladies in the museum…you know…tornadoes verses hurricanes…contrast and compare.

In regards to the third lighthouse we saw that day, I must say oops.  The internet can be a wonderful.  And either the site I visited failed to tell me or I failed to see an important fact.  I will not blame that particular site or the internet for that matter.  The fault is mine…and none other.  And so I apologize here and now to the owners of the St. Joseph Point Lighthouse.  Please forgive my ignorance.  

We took the side road on our way back from St. George Island to see the last lighthouse of our trip.  Another unique structure that resembles a house with the lamp room set at the middle of the roof.  Beautiful grounds on a beautiful afternoon.  We parked the car at the edge of the property and wandered around the yard.  That’s right the yard.  I had assumed…now there’s a bad word…that we had come at the wrong time.  After all, Amelia Island Lighthouse is only open for two days a month, and it had taken us three trips to Point Betsy to arrive at a time it was open.  So silly me did not notice the basketball hoop…oops.

We were not there long, perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes, but again I apologize for wandering around YOUR yard…whoever you are.  Sorry.

The fact is that this lighthouse’s nickname is the moving lighthouse.  It had been built for service in 1902 but the site washed away, so it was replaced.  The structure was moved…repeatedly.  It served as a farm building and finally as a private home. (OK I apologized already).  The present owners have restored it to a grand state.  And though it would not fit the mental image we have of a lighthouse, St. Joseph Point Lighthouse is simply beautiful.

Having completed more than we had expected we drove the hundred plus miles back to our base camp on the shoreline.  We finished the day as I had begun, with a stroll on the beach as the sun slid down behind the row of hotels, tired but amazed at what we had seen.

The next installment comes next week…Let’s Go Shopping…

(973 Words)                  5-9-2017

 

Vacation Like You Mean It

Vacation Like You Mean It                 

By John W. Vander Velden

 

We don’t get away as often as I might like.  Now I like where I live, my house and all that, but sometimes everyday life just gets to be too much.  So I enjoy our “escapes” form this reality, and seeing new things…or maybe it’s different things that I seek for just a little while.

It took some planning to find a week when we could go south this year.  All the same it was the first year that field work did not dictate.  So we pushed the date a little later than our usual mid to late March…”spring break” time.  The internet warned when “spring breakers” would congregate.  Now I don’t mind meeting people from “everywhere”, but we love deserted beaches.  So it became the back half of April this year.  Wishing to celebrate Easter at home shortened our time.  We left the Monday after and the road part of the trip took two days.  I have never driven to Florida straight through, and I certainly was not up to that much adventure.

Tuesday afternoon found us on Santa Rosa Island on the gulf coast.  We walked the pure white sand and splashed in the emerald water.  We watched the sun paint the sky all orange and red with its departure.  Our room was on the sixth floor and had a balcony that faced that beautiful water…ooooh…ahhhh…

Now the hotel offered beach chairs and an umbrella and perhaps if we had a couple more days we would have just watched the surf and sea birds, but there were things to do.  We love lighthouses so Pensacola Lighthouse was first on our list.  Talk about new experiences, I had never been on an active military base before.  But that was where the light we sought was to be found and so we entered by the west gate. 

We strolled the grounds of the lighthouse and its museum while the “Blue Angels” put on their show.  Wow!  We watched as they streaked across a perfect blue sky.  When they finished our chance to climb arrived.  Over the years Jackie and I have climbed many lighthouses, and each is different.  This one had a tight narrow spiral staircase without landings.  So this guy that evidently had gotten out of shape had his heart racing by the time he had reached the catwalk.  But the view from the tallest lighthouse on the gulf was breathtaking.

We spent the afternoon at the Naval Aeronautics Museum just a hop-skip-away from the lighthouse.  A wonderful exhibit that reminded us of the Smithsonian.  150,000 square feet of indoor displays of aircraft some that date as far back as WW1.  A must see for anyone that has any interest in aircraft.

We returned to our room in time to watch another amazing sunset to end our first full day on the Emerald Coast.

Next week I’ll tell you about our day on Destin Harbor Walk.  Until then.

 

(492 Words)   5-27-2017