The Road Led North

The Road Led North

By John W. Vander Velden

 

Those that know us were surprised that our first escape came so late in the year.  They remember how we venture “away” in mid-March or there abouts.  But circumstances beyond our control stole those opportunities...or rather postponed them.  October was a long time ago, and that was the last chance we had to “get away” just for the sake of getting away.  Oh there were a couple of overnights since, but a real get away...no.

The hotel at Gordon's Lodge sits on more than 100Acres
along the edge of the North Bay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



We learned the story of why there are goats on the roof
of Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant 

Last week we ventured to new places, not that they had just been created you understand, but they were new to us.  The praise we had heard about Door County Wisconsin peaked our interest.  The peninsula that forms Green Bay was all we had heard and more.  The three days we spent there was mostly a “see what’s

 

Cana Island Lighthouse is a gem

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 there” expedition.  What we saw and learned will prepare our next longer stay because we will be back.

The unreachable...for now,
Copper Harbor Lighthouse

When the window for our vacation materialized, I felt fortunate to have found us a room.  But on our arriving we discovered that Gordon’s Lodge on North Bay was more than just a find...it was a fabulous room in an unbelievable gorgeous location.  We overlooked the sun bursting out of the waters of Lake Michigan from our room each morning, and watched it set across the bay a few steps from our door.  Perhaps it’s just a bit out of the way, but you can be assured we’ll be back.

The road goes up and up, then you park and walk even higher
The Lake of the Clouds

After just a taste of the lighthouses and wilderness of Door County we ventured north to another peninsula...Keweenaw, in Michigan.  The year was 1982 when I last saw the northern most part of the U.P..  I was thirty when my brother Jim and I motorcycled up to Copper Harbor, the place the highway ends.  I had yearned for years to return to the place that becomes buried in snow for nearly half the year.  A sign ”post” (literally) displayed last winter’s white stuff total of more than twenty-five feet.  I should never complain about winter again.  The highway wound between stands of pines and birches as we drove beneath a brilliant blue sky.

The jacket limited the insects access.

The lighthouse at Copper Harbor is unreachable at this time.  Sealed off by privately owned land the boat service that had taken sightseers over has ceased operations.  Clouds moved in as we made our way south along the cliffs on Superior’s edge and a stop in Eagle Harbor after some fourteen miles traveled offered us a wonderful lighthouse on the rocks overlooking the water.  We were directed to the “Mountain” eight miles north, the highest point on the peninsula, and there at nearly two thousand feet on a blustery afternoon threatening rain we overlooked the wide and wild northland and the lake not so many miles away.

The following day we went west to Porcupine Mountains, our first stop Lake of the Clouds. Though the day was overcast it was warm and the view will be one we will long remember.  We spent the day hiking to the mountain top and searching out some waterfalls only scratching the surface of an amazing place.

We hustled about the Upper Peninsula for six days using Houghton as our base camp.  Lighthouses, waterfalls, hikes along Lake Superior’s shoreline, an outing to Marquette, and a mine tour filled the days to bursting. 

There are many waterfalls in the Porcupine Mountains
Overlooked Falls

Time came to turn our back upon the “North Country” and so, regretfully we returned our sites on home and work and fetching our dear sweat dog from her visit to the spa (kennel).  No one would say our trip was a restful respite, but that’s not why we go to the places we choose.  We go to see and to do, and are grateful for the road that led north.   

A view few will venture to see.  5.5 miles of private unimproved
single lane road and a two mile hike along the top of the cliffs
brought us a chance to see Lake Superior from near
Montreal Falls 

We're going in!
University students enlarged the drainage tunnel in the Quincy
Copper Mine, Hamilton, MI.
We went a mile into the side of the mountain and reached
the old mine's seventh level.
The air is COLD (42 Degrees) and water is dripping from above
The 85 levels below are now flooded

Fiction

Fiction           

By John W. Vander Velden

 

I write fiction, and at times I wonder from where my stories and characters come. 

Imagination is an amazing thing.  It drives new thought, new ideas, and moves our race forward.  Imagination is the central location for fiction’s growth.  My fiction comes out of my imagination.  So fiction might be called fantasy…and it is, even though fantasy is a specific genre’ within the fiction spectrum. 

I use the disclaimer “in this is a work of fiction…”, all references to…“reality” is purely coincidental.  The reality includes people, places, and events.  And that is true, as far as it goes.  But I believe that all fiction grows from “seeds” of reality.  Misty Creek is set in the American frontier of the late 1800’s, a place that existed.  But as far as I know my Misty Creek did not exist…I made it up.  But I shaped it by what I had seen or read of the land that existed at that time.  You see, I used the seed of reality to grow a new place, a new situation, new people…and a new story.

Writers are in some ways an “odd lot”.  In other ways they are just like everyone else.  They move about like anyone.  It would be difficult, most of the time, to pick writers out from a crowd of people.  They are ordinary people…sorta’.  But writers, particularly fiction writers, continually jump from the reality that surround them into imaginary places of their creation.  They watch someone buy a magazine and picture another person in a very different time or situation, buying a magazine.  The seed of reality becoming something else entirely.

Careful what you say or do around a writer.  If they’re worth their salt they will notice.  You are offering seeds they might use in the growing of another story someday. 

And not all the seeds used are acquired by conscious effort.  Years of living have provided me with a treasure trove of subconscious “seeds” that flow through my fingers and into my stories.  My past makes up a veritable warehouse of “seed” waiting for me to draw out one packet or another. 

But I feel that fiction is more than “just” fantasy.  I feel that fiction presents reality in its own way. Revealing truths through events that haven’t really happened…at least not exactly the way I tell it.  I want my stories to be something which the reader can relate to.  I want the reader to say…”Oh that character reminds me of Uncle Mitch,” or “I would have told that guy off when he did that,” or “I’ve face that too.”  The greatest thing I could accomplish, would be to have some part of my stories connect with the person turning the pages.  It would be the place where fiction reaches within and offers a reality not known before.  It is a high target I shoot for…a high target indeed and likely well beyond my abilities to hit.  But does that mean I should not draw back the bow?  Does not lofty goals require not only hope, talent, and effort, but also the desire for the attempt?

So I take my feeble GOD given talents, hone them as best I am able, and seeing the prize take my best aim.  For if I am to use my fiction to reach the hearts of those that foolishly search within my words for…something, then I owe them the best I have.

(571 Words) 8-5-2017

 

I'm Never Moving...Again

 I’m NEVER Moving…Again

By John W. Vander Velden

Oh, I don’t know where I will spend all my remaining days.  It seems unlikely that I will stay at this location forever.  But the events of the past ten days have taught me an important lesson…I’m not moving. 

Our son’s achievements resulted in his location to a new state.  Beginning your career is a big deal and he was SO excited.  We should have known the drill, we had moved him before, three times before. But things were a bit different this time.  Distance for one thing and Nick, like all of us, had with the passing of time gathered “things”.  There were his things and there were “our” things.  So, it turned out for our good fortune that the things were divided so we needed to move less stuff each day.  On a Thursday, we rented a U-Haul and Jackie and I rumbled down the two hours to campus and near day’s end rumbled back…and unloaded our furniture.  My back will remind me for weeks that hauling a chest-of-drawers upstairs alone was a mistake.  It was only thirteen steps for crying out loud.  Once it would not have caused a sweat, well, maybe a sweat, but nothing more.  But now…the task was pure insanity.

On Monday we started early, drove that two hours to “college” town and rented the truck there.  Nick lived on the ground floor.  I had forgotten just how big a plus that was.  We had him loaded by noon.  A quick lunch and Jackie and I were on the road.

A truck driver would have thought driving a 15 foot U-haul a piece of cake, but I’m not a truck driver.  So interstates, bumper to bumper traffic at speed, and construction narrowed lanes made an interesting four and a half hours.  It must have been crowding five when we entered a really nice quiet apartment complex and the _____ began.

Yes, I knew that the ground floor in West Lafayette simplified things, but…

Nick has a really nice apartment on the THIRD floor.  Oh by the way, did I mention the six flights of stairs.  I GUESS NOT!  I had help…thank goodness.  And Nick handled the heavy…downward ends…but I’m never doing that again…I MEAN NEVER!

It was after eight when I nearly passed out.  Upper eighties and 114+% humidity, with a thunderstorm on its way.  Maybe it was the heat, OK the heat didn’t help.  Maybe it was not eating for nearly nine hours, likely, my sugars had to be in the basement.  Maybe it was all of the above, but my world spun and things began to get dark.

Food!  There are times when it is EXTREMELY necessary to take the time.  Microwaves, and frozen stuff can be lifesavers…

We nearly beat the storm.  I did say NEARLY.  But we got the truck unloaded.

No matter how much stuff you have, you need something.  A Target run provide a couple of vitals so Nick could make the night.  Steak and Shake fed us…officially.  It was well after 11:00 when the U-haul found its way to the hotel where Jackie and I would rest our weary, and in my case “OLD” bones.

But through it all I learned an important lesson.  I’M NEVER MOVING AGAIN!   

(544 Words) 5-25-2018

What Parents Do...

What Parents Do…

By John W. Vander Velden

My mind is reeling.  It would be no surprise the events of last weekend, including Nick’s graduation, and preparations for his move, fill my mind to bursting.  So for this week’s post I offer some of my personal thoughts. 

We spent a few hours wandering the campus with Nick on Friday last.  Hard to imagine that he has spent so much time at the university, and it was the first time Jackie and I entered the Mechanical Engineering Building.  So our son showed us the senior projects that were on display, including his.  He took us to some of the lecture halls the computer lab and much of the world that had been his over the last five years.

We made the trip back to West Lafayette on Saturday, for pictures.  Those that know me understand how often my Nikon is found dangling around my neck.  So though the light was just plain terrible with the constant threat of rain, we walked miles and I did my best to capture Nick and “his” school.  Someday perhaps those images will mean something special to him…they mean something special to me.

As we raced about the central portion of the campus with Nick in his black robe and his gold stole, he was careful to keep his orange tassel on the right side, and not cross under the bell tower.  Superstitions and traditions blend in ways not always logical.  But underclassmen do not cross under the tower until they hold their signed diploma.  For five years Nick has made certain he never did, and Saturday was the last day he would take those few extra steps to go around the tower’s base.

We met up with Jackie’s nephew and family on that photo shoot.  Having driven from South Carolina, their company was an extra bonus.  Nick showed them about the

Nick spending a few moments with John Purdue and
his cousin Stephen

campus, as we dodged raindrops.

Sunday.  What can I say?  Our day started early.  We reached Nick’s apartment by seven and made the long walk to the Armory.  It was there we left him for a time surrounded by a sea of black capes mulling about in the early morning sun.  It is hard to describe a father’s thoughts as he watched the child he witnessed enter this world surrounded by so many others that began their lives in much the same way.  But your head tells you, those soon to graduate are not children any longer, but young men and women, that like Nick are ready to begin the next part of their lives, but your heart will not allow you to believe.  You remember the road that has at last led us all here…all the stumbles…all the achievements…all the ordinary days that matter the most.  You look on and wonder how we have reached this point.  You wonder what new challenges lie ahead for him, and pray he will face them and persevere.   You pray that he finds the success he seeks and that in some way he finds the happiness that he deserves…just as he has given a happiness to his mother and father all these years.

The Hall of Music is a grand space.  We sat there, and by chance, found ourselves in perfect seats.  With a name like Vander Velden he was not among the first to parade past.  There must have been four hundred or more soon to be engineers that walked at my elbow before Nick’s turn arrived. I saw him, standing tall in pride with the gleam of excitement in his eyes.  Five hard years and five Co-op rotations in his wake.  All the work and moments that led to this achievement…Nick’s graduation…on Mother’s Day 2018.

Did the world stop to take a breath?  Not likely.  But Jackie’s and mine did…for a moment…just the briefest of time…we found ourselves between what was and what would be.

I think that most parents feel the same way.  At graduation we never consider our costs that have helped our child.  No we see the significance of a change in a way that no other is able.  We bite our lip locking emotions in places from which they scream to be released.  But it is not the time…it is not our time, but Nick’s.  And we do nothing to take away even the slightest glory he so richly deserves.

That’s what parents do.  That’s what parents always do.

(730 Words)  5-18-2018







At last he could walk through the clock tower.

Congratulations Nicholas John Vander Velden
2018 Graduate Purdue University School of Mechanical Engineering

Spring Brings Changes

Spring Brings Changes

By John W. Vander Velden

It seems that spring has really arrived and with it comes changes.  A sure sign that the weather has changed is the grass.  It’s green for one thing and it’s growing like crazy for another.  It seems to be making up for the time it waited dormant.  If you don’t like mowing you would have been pleased with April, but May has sent us into extra innings already.

The trees are filling with new leaves, fresh and green, the fruit trees are in bloom.  I see lilacs in full flower, yes, spring is bursting out at last, and it brings changes.

But nature is not the only thing that announces that the summer grows near.  Sunday is not only Mother’s Day but also Nick’s graduation.  Our son has completed this stage of his education, and a university degree is something that set’s his parents’ minds reeling.  But I remember when he graduated from John Glenn High School.  I remember facing the changes that meant.  Certainly Nick faced significant alterations to his life, but to me his father it seemed more of an ending than a beginning.  For though I was proud of the accomplishment, and I was rooting for his future successes, I understood that my day to day involvement was ending.  My little boy, the child I had watched enter the world, learn to walk, whose hand I held as we braved the Atlantic Ocean’s waves, the boy I cheered from the stands, was becoming a man.

When we settled him into his dorm, it was more than his leaving for the first time, I understood he was never coming back…not in the way things had been…always had been…again.  Now he has lived on his own for five years.  Between time at Purdue, and his five rotations of Co-oping he has proved his ability to “live” on his own.  I am proud of that too.

It has been a difficult five years for our son.  Achieving a degree in engineering from Purdue University is not an easy task.  Learning and negotiating a way to live under the pressures of campus and classes, is a difficult education of its own.  But it has not been easy on those left behind either.  We have watched from two hours away, seen only the snippets he has shared with us.  We had worried as much about his grades as he did.  But parents worry about other things as well, about diet, about the amount of sleep he’s getting, about the friends he has.  We worry if all the “stuff” that makes up college life isn’t too much for a young man to face.  Parent’s worry.  That’s in the job description.

He’s graduating on Mother’s Day.  It is easy to see the success but not easy for us to ignore the significance.  A parent’s purpose is to prepare their child for life.  Graduations are a symbols of success in that area.  They are also a signpost of changes.  I am proud of my son…but I miss the child of my memory.  But that’s OK.  It’s a good sign that I have those special memories.  It is a good sign that I am forced to watch Nick take flight.  It is a good sign that he will soar beyond my vision.  But though his wings will take him far from me, he will never be beyond the reach of my heart.  That’s a good sign too. It is a good sign that he is capable of independence, but always knows that his mother and I will be available…to talk…and when the need arises…to help.

I know that Nick is no longer a child…that the boy that once rattled about in our home has become a man…and I am proud of the man he has become.  The man that will be moving even further away to a new career and home out of state.

Pride and tears…there is a place for both…this weekend…  As we are once more reminded that spring brings changes…

(675 Words)  5-11-2018

 

Late April Rambles...

Late April Rambles…

By John W. Vander Velden  

Throughout the years I have used this platform to share my thoughts and feelings.  I have written small pieces that I have shared with you, pieces describing day’s beginnings…and endings, sensations of a walk on a frigid night.  I have spoken of star filled skies, of tired old barns, of the fresh new leaves of spring.  I have shared my thoughts about the courage of the everyman in “Heroes”, of the importance of the unique individual in “Square Pegs”, and about how our view of the world changes by where we stand in “Perspective”. 

There were times I reached deep within to release thoughts in the hope that some meaning might be found for me…the writer…and you…the reader.  Those have been lofty goals…unreached perhaps…but sometimes the reaching is enough.  For it is only through the reaching we can stretch…and through the stretching we can become something larger.

I do not pretend that these few words, I post each week, will change the world.  I do not imagine that these few words will change any of my readers.  But I have found that these few words have changed…me.

That was never the purpose I had hoped to accomplish.  Times I have shared my dream for this enterprise.  Those particular expectations will never come to fruition.  Once that failing did concern me…I saw it as the value of this Blog…I was foolish…naïve… Now I understand that the journey is as much a part of the traveling as the destination…and these post have very much been that journey…and it continues.

So to those that travel with me…thank you for your time…and your trust. 

The road trip has changed.  The pace may be slower. But for now I must stretch…and it is my hope that I will grow…

Self-reliance

Self-reliance              

By John W. Vander Velden

 

I think self-reliance is an admirable quality, but, in truth, none of us achieve complete independence.  No matter how we strive to “deal with it” on our own, sooner or later we find that help is needed one way or the other.  Yet many of us strive to “take on the world” all by ourselves.  Hmmmmmmm….

This comes to the forefront of my mind because my son approaches an important milestone, his college graduation.  And having a degree opens doors he has yearned to step through.  Nick is very ready, mentally, to begin his life.  I am certain he feels that all the years of schooling are just that…schooling, and now the real “stuff” can begin.  There is a bit of truth to that…but just a bit.  For our lives start, at the beginning, even before our earliest memories.  Life is about steps taken…doors pass through…ordinary days and the extra ordinary ones.  Life is about living and it is made up of all the days we are given…including our youth and ALL the years of our education.

Yesterday Nick signed a lease agreement for an apartment out of state.  He moves soon.  He has done all the leg work, the research, the correspondence, the driving, the paying, on his own, and I respect him for that.  It is a sign of his self-reliance.  Nick has the need to prove himself, to his parents perhaps, but to himself mostly.  People tell me that he needs this job in another state to build his independence.  I just shake my head and think he has been independent for five years, living on his own, only reaching out for help in the most dire of emergencies…it practically never happens.  He would scarcely be more independent if he lived on the moon!

He’ll be living five or six hours away…not too far I suppose, but it hurts.  His self-reliance breaks our hearts.  Not because we do not want him to stand on his own two feet, but rather our mind clings to the time when he didn’t need to.  I think that is the crux of it.  As parents it is hard for us to accept the change in roles that we face.  Nick’s independence and self-reliance are signs of a “cord” cut that can never be knotted together in the same way again.  We stand quietly and watch as he takes a divergent road knowing that we are left behind…spectators…proud to be certain, but spectators all the same.

Nick is not the only one that will see a grand change in his life.

We want Nick to be self-reliant.  We want him to be independent.  We want him to live his own productive life.  Yet as we see our own involvement shrinking, we smile while feeling left behind…even though being left behind was the goal in the first place. 

There is something to be said about goals, of planning, of succeeding.  But with anything gained a price must be paid, and only parents understand the price of their child’s self-reliance.

 (510 Words)  4-11-2018