Ye Olde Southern Rock

Some times when the opportunity presents itself, you just gotta go on a little adventure. We headed down south tonight to hear some southern rock. And by south, I just mean Wisconsin Dells. With a stop at Mo's Bar north of Adams for dinner.

Our destination was the Crystal Grand Music Theatre to see the Marshall Tucker Band. For their 50th anniversary tour! Not only was the band's music classic, but so were its members. The band was led by original vocalist Doug Gray. His voice isn't as strong but the musicians were phenomenal. When's the last time you saw or heard a flute in a rock band?!

We had great seats for our friends Mark, Lisa, Jim and me. Second row!

We got to hear their biggest hits "Heard it in a Love Song," "Can't you See," and the closer "Fire on the Mountain," but there were a few I wasn't familiar with. I mean the band is on their 50th anniversary tour and I'm only on my 50-something tour around the sun!

You could tell they love what the do. And we just loved having a Friday night double-date night.

Got home just in time to turn into a pumpkin, too. 

Have a good weekend, y'all!

Stop and Smell the ... Road Construction

Now that I'm back in the office (a.k.a. commuting) 3 days a week, road construction matters. 

On a typical day – winter or summer, pandemic or pre-pandemic – the thriving metropolis of Plover is the bottleneck to work. Anyone commuting from Rapids to Stevens Point would agree. Always busy in the morning with the traffic going to work and same on the say home. And so many stoplights!

Now there is road construction on my main interstate route to work and the backup route through Plover and into Whiting then Point. 

The only good thing about being stopped for the length of two stoplights is that while I'm idling there, I can see the pretty purple and yellow Viking flowers in the median.

I stop but on't have time to get out and smell them. But do have enough time to snap a picture or two and take a deep breath or two. Calm down. Enjoy the view out your driver's window. Appreciate the orange barrels, too. (That's right, I do like orange!) And remember the traffic will move eventually. 

Work will still be there when you get there.

And there's a good chance the purple, yellow, and orange "decorations" will still be there on your drive home.

Be careful out there! Find the beauty, folks.

Just Hanging Around

Just hanging around upside-down on this Hump Day!

Ended up with a free evening so I made my way down to Windy Waters. Actually Lake Arrowhead by Windy Waters is the "location" of the Shermalot Water Ski Show Team's program this summer. 

The cloud cover made things a big too dark. And several of my favorite skiers must be off on vacation somewhere, but I did the best I could to capture some of the fun and some of the tremendous talent! 

Am only a third of the way through photos so if I find any gems, I'll share tomorrow. 

Seriously thought... If you find yourself with a free Wednesday or Saturday evening, trek on down to Windy Waters and watch the story of the Barefoot Bandit unfold. They ski at the Lake Arrowhead Dam every Saturday at 6:30 p.m. through Labor Day and Wednesday evenings in July.

 Oh and it's FREE. Can't beat that for summer fun!

July 4th Foggy Fireworks

After on-and-off rain Monday, we were excited that it cleared up a bit by early evening when we were going to dinner with friends at Bullseye – and then out on their boat to watch the fireworks. It was our first time doing that so the photographer in me was especially excited to be close to the action.

It didn't quite go as planned. Even though the rain had stopped, the air was thick with moisture. So humid it was almost foggy. We still trekked up river a bit in their pontoon and dropped anchor close to downtown Wisconsin Rapids – along with a handful of other boats.

As the first ones went off, I was like yes, this is very cool!

But then we noticed that because it was so still out and so humid, the smoke cloud from the fireworks just hung there. Each time, gathering smoke and blocking our view of the actual fireworks.

It was weird. Like mushroom cloud weird.

But at the same time, kind of cool!

The most unusual "natural" no-filter pictures I've taken, that's for sure!

Thinking Armageddon-type movies!

Every color of firework reflected in their respective cloud!

Here comes the grand finale!!

Is somewhere in there!

I do hope the hundreds and hundreds of people on shore had a better view. But I wouldn't trade the experience. Another bonus – not much traffic on the way home! #foghorn

Hope you had an enjoyable 4th of July!

The Gasoline of Life

Love when local businesses have inspirational or just plain factual signs. This is 100% what I needed after church today. And it was actually cheaper than a gallon of gas! That's telling you something!

We haven't tipped the $5 mark for regular unleaded gas here – yet. But it's so close. I wish coffee would fuel my car as much as it fuels me. Did you know a gallon of gas only cost 31 cents in 1963? A cup of coffee – 35 cents!

Why do we care? Because also in 1963 a certain someone came into this world. On this very date!

Yup, someone is spending his last year in his 50s. I was just wiki-researching his birth date and it turns out Jim was born on the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. The fact that that is a reference point on his birthday seems way too historic for my taste!

Probably the coolest fact was the day before his birth. On July 2, 1963, baseball pitchers Juan Marichal of the San Francisco Giants, and Warren Spahn of the Milwaukee Braves faced off against each other in a National League baseball game that one author would later call "the greatest game ever pitched". Tied 0-0 after nine innings, the game was won in the 16th by the Giants on a home run by Willie Mays. A perfect stat for my baseball-loving man!

Of course what he enjoys about having his birthday on the 3rd is that he always has the day after his birthday off! Thank you, America!

He didn't exactly whoop it up today, though. He had to be the lector (or something like that) at 5 p.m. church so he was well-behaved all day, relaxing on his recliner with some John Wayne on TV and listening to his Reds baseball on Sirius radio. I offered to take him out after church, but he was fine with just staying home. 

So I went to King Cone myself in observance of his special day. After all, ice cream is the gasoline of life when the coffee shop's closed. And sometimes even when it's open.

Yard Workers

My intention today was to do as little as possible. Just sit on my swing with my morning coffee and watch pretty birds...

And lazily watch the rest of animal kingdom hustle around and work. Eventually I had to join in.

Didn't help that I was staring straight at that "landscape area" (I use that term loosely) straight ahead. After that snake went in there 2 weeks ago, I haven't dared. But, since I had absolutely no plans for the day, I guilted myself into it.

I did work hard pulling vines and weeds from that area, plus right in front of the house, and yes, the dreaded back yard. Who else was working along side of me?

This bee was busy doing something something with his flower date.

And I wasn't the only hard-working Robyn! Look how much of a potential nest he or she is carrying.

Not sure how they could see to fly, but they flew off without dropping a "branch."

And Mr. Squirrel was working super hard at hiding his prized walnut or acorn or whatever. 

Oh there's a good hiding spot – right in the middle of the yard. Duh.

He was a digging maniac. Covering it up and like a cat rakes up litter.

Off he goes. "Nothing to see here."

Checks back to make sure no one followed him. Look at that left arm. It's like he works out or something.

Sylvester wasn't impressed. Naps are a much better way to spend a free Saturday. I agreed after seeing these two "ghosts."

This one I saw on my own free will.

This one scared a scream out of me when the rake caught it and I thought a snake was flying at me. Whew. It's just a skin. Apparently my back yard is clothing optional now.

Pretty sure that's not going to entice a crowd. Until every part of Freddie and Frankie are gone!

But there's still two more days of the weekend if you wanna come over!

Twenty and Counting

Good thing I had my friend take this picture of hubby and I on my birthday so we have something to represent our anniversary week! Yup, birthday Tuesday, anniversary today and someone else's birthday on Sunday.

How does one celebrate 20 years of marriage? Well, per usual...

We golfed. That doesn't always work out – depending on day of the week July 1 falls on and weather of course. But a Friday afternoon right after work was perfect. Nice weather in the low 80s. And a surprisingly quiet golf course for the start of a holiday weekend. 

We golfed the Lake Course at Lake Arrowhead. We usually pose by a sign for the hole number representing our number of years together. Since golf courses only go up to 18, I took a picture of the par 4 5th hole. 4x5=20.

I figured you'd get it eventually.

After our OK round, we stopped on our way home to eat. Some places were crazy busy so we ended up at Sportsman's – not to far from home. Good food. Saw several people we knew. And saw a great sunset as we left there.

Now we're home by 9-ish so this old couple can get to bed at a decent time. In our defense, there's a lot of weekend left.

Be careful out there!