Such a summer

In just minutes I will head upstairs to pour the last glass of pilsner draft from the growler I picked up at Otto’s in State College, Pennsylvania, on the night I spent out on my way back from Hog Island this week.  

A good, safe drive.  (Except for my being called ‘An asshole from Ohio’ in the L.L.Bean parking lot.  But that’s a whole other story.)  The new Chevy Cruze averaged over 40 mpg both ways.  That’s what we were looking for.  Good for Lordstown, Ohio: GM’s final assembly plant for Cruze.  

I suppose this last glass of beer symbolizes the end of summer.  Noah starts school next Tuesday.  Alex, Ellie, and Jenni are in already.  

The end of summer means an imminent restart of my continued work on The Dressy Adventuress: Mabel Loomis Todd and her Camp Mavooshen on Audubon’s Hog Island.  The goal is to have a final working draft by late spring 2011.  Copy can then go out for review, correction, and final revisions.  I’ll have to get permission to publish images from Audubon and Yale, but that shouldn’t be too difficult.  

I mean, such a summer.  

The first big deal was Cindy and my going to San Diego to help celebrate Joanna & Gary’s wedding back in April.  A few weeks later it was taking grandson Alex to the Nation’s Capital where our best hours were spent at National Air & Space’s Advar-Hazy Center at Dulles.  Alex had a reverent visit with an F-14 Tomcat, one of his all-time favorite aircraft.  He was moved.  

The biggest event this summer, though, was to be a family expedition to Crestone, Colorado with grandsons Alex and Noah.  I hoped it would be an engaging adventure for both children and adults alike in a starkly beautiful part of this amazing country.  

Unfortunately, Alex was not able to join us because of his love of aircraft.  As mentioned before, the dude loves planes and had a tough decision to make.  

We found a willing traveling and playing companion for Noah in 12 year-old family friend, Adel.  Neither young man had been west of Chicago yet.  Neither had they seen the endless beauty of the Kansas prairie.  

When asked this morning about how he felt about the Colorado trip, weeks later, Noah responded awesome.  Noah’s favorite stuff in the Sangres?  

1. Horseback riding.  
2. Scenic train trip through LeVeta Pass and back.  
3. Scavenging the desert with Adel looking for antlers and skeletal remains of wildlife past. 

Not a bad list, you know?  He didn’t mention how much fun he had walking up mountain trails, but he doesn’t seem to bear any adverse effects either.  He experienced some pretty cool mountain stuff on his first trip out.  I assured him we’d make South Crestone Lake next trip.  He agreed.  

Cindy Lou and I took Ellie south to the Queen City for an overnighter that included visits to both the Newport Aquarium and the Cincinnati Zoo.  It was mighty hot, but we had a good time.  Ice cream on fountain square at the tail end of the LGBT festival ended our first day out.  When we left the zoo the next day, the thermometer in the new car read 107 degrees.  I couldn’t disagree.  

The last event of my summer was the solo trip last week to  the Hog Island Audubon Camp in Bremen, Maine.  Good work, good sunsets, good fog.  Good inspiration.  I look forward to re-engaging with The Dressy Adventuress.  

I am currently reading Rubicon: The Love Story of Emily Dickinson’s Brother, Austin, and Mabel Todd, the woman who saved Emily’s Poetry:  A Novel by Candace Ridington.  Let’s see how that one works as muse.  

Oh.  One last thing:  I’ve created a music list for the Colorado trip.  The e-collection is entitled Mountains w/ boys.  I could make you a copy of it if you asked real nice.   

Mountains w/ boys  collected summer 2011

1.  ‘Gates of the mountains’  Paul Winter Consort   Beginning with the absolutely marvelous song of the Swainson’s thrush.  How best to start any collection of music? 

2.  ‘Rocky Mountain High’  John Denver   A mantra of mine?  No doubt.  I wanted the boys to know it was a meaningful favorite.  I’m pretty sure they got it.

[Sorry the numbering just got screwy.  I don't know how to fix it.  Holy smoke.  I sound like the Wizard of Oz!!]

1. ‘Behind the waterfall’  David Lanz & Paul Speer    Great song. 

1. ‘Swans Against the Sun’  Michael Martin Murphy   I like to call the place were we live Wild Grace; an idea drawn from this cowboy pop song I’ve loved since the 70s.  And, BTW, Mr. Murphy lives in the San Luis and has been known to perform at summer concerts around those parts.   

1. ‘Colorado Rocky Mountain Home’  Suzie Ryan     A song by our friend Suzie who blessed us with an evening meal visit on this trip.  The ‘bridge’ she sings of is at a Nada retreat cabin up around 9200 feet.  A bit of a hike, but a meditative view and vocal mountain water flow nearby.  Powerful place.

1. ‘Common nighhawk’  Common nighthawk  A sunset call in both Ohio and Colorado.  A tough little friend, now, in two places.

1. ‘Prairie melancholy‘  Jennifer Warnes  A touching melody sung by the spirit of a deceased pioneer woman who reflects back on her life.

1. ‘Mountain‘  David Lanz & Paul Speer  A second cut from the Natural States album.  I found this Narada recording in a national park gift shop while on one of those famous Geology Field Trip events coordinated by my buddy Mark.  I still play the whole collection frequently. 

1. ‘Witchi Tai To’  Paul Winter Consort  A cut from the Crestone album.  

Witchi tai to -- 

Water spirit feeling springin’ ‘round my head;  

makes me feel glad that I’m not dead. 

Something to be said for that, don’t you think?  

1. ‘Ghost Riders in the Sky’  Marty Robins  Heavens, but I can hear my father sing this song while he worked in his workshop, or as we drove off on a fishing trip. 

1. ‘Cowboy Buckaroo’  Mason Williams  Just kind of cute.  Fun to sing at full voice!  

1. ‘Cosmic Cowboy’  Nitty Gritty Dirt Band  And to think we were staying just miles from the Cosmic Highway -- famous for UFO sightings.  I mean, some people take this very seriously.  I’m not kidding:  We had a strange light out on our Crestone horizon that just started moving around on a few nights.  It was a real mystery.  Got us to talkin’...  

1. ‘In search of kindred spirits‘  Kevin Wood  I’ve always loved the idea of ‘kindred spirits’ since I learned of the Archer Durand painting of the same name.  

1. ‘Cool water‘   Joni Mitchell & Willie Nelson  Thoughts on life in a very dry place, not unlike the San Luis.

1. ‘American kestrel’  American kestrel  Noah says this is the bird he really wants to find.  They’re in Ohio, too, so we’ll keep looking.  Now he knows what they sound like. 

1. ‘Down by the water’  The Decembrists  Buddy Bruce brought The Decembrists with him from LA on his Colorado trek.  Not only on CD, but he played this piece on his guitar and harmonica on the porch a couple of evenings.  Great camping feel.

1. ‘Happy trails’  Roy Rogers     Simply iconic. 

Today’s Elder Idea:  Happy trails to you, until we meet again /  Keep smilin’ until then....

my hero Roy

image:  The boys with a personal moment with old #18.