Night of the Rustling Sound

My Hoffman Estates Boys Club was at Union League camp in the fall along with select members of the Union League Boys Club. They took a joint hike together around the lake just after Dark. I led the group. About 2/3 of the way through we all heard a rustling sound on the high Trail. We had opted to take the lower Trail near the lake. The rustling sound got louder and then we heard a low growling noise. The Union League kids said it was Swamp Man. I had to explain to my guys what that was. Chris Borst indicated that we had passed the swamp on the first part of the hike. A Union League boy said that Swamp man gets around the whole lake. All the boys decided to move a little bit faster then. When we got back to the lodge all the boys felt relieved. Al came out of the kitchen with hot chocolate. Al was the camp director. I later asked Al if he was the rustling noise but he didn’t know what I was talking about nor about the growl either. Maybe It was Swamp Man?

What a Day for a Picnic!

Sometimes my wife gets unusual ideas. Just a few weekends ago she suggested a picnic in the middle of the winter. So we packed our car and went into the Manistee National Forest and found a picnic table set out in a remote site. With snowboots and parkas we took ourselves and our two huskie dogs to that picnic table and set out to have a picnic lunch admidst the blowing snow.

Needless to say, we were the only ones present so we didn’t have trouble getting a free table. The snow was almost up to the seats and so it wasn’t too hard to sit down. We had sandwiches and a thermos of HOT coffee and boy did that coffee taste good. For dessert, you see my wife has a sense of humor, we had her blizzard cake, as if we needed any more of that!

After lunch we took a brief hike- Back to our warm car and then departed. I just hope that she doesn’t get any more of those urges for deep winter picnics.

The Lonely Lighthouse Sentinel

Did you know that lighthouses are lonely Sentinels. They stand out there protecting ships at sea and take a pounding by the surf day in and day out. The real lonely Sentinel.

Can you imagine spending a night in a lighthouse On A Night Like This? Yet they take all this abuse with a good nature.

But the pounding continues Day in and day out.

You’ve got to love those lighthouses!