Sunday Romp for the Blur

[BlueMark]

C'mon! Let's go Let's go Let's go Sunshine! Breezes! Let's go Let's go Let's go ...

I swear, I heard the Blur calling from the Scooter Port. It was straining on its chain ... C'mon C'mon C'mon C'MON! Let's go! Ride ride ride ride ride ride.!

Clearly I had no choice.

First things first - must fuel up - 87 octane for the scooter, a gyro from Charlie's for me. Then off into the countryside. Lots of motorcycles came out to play today, they were everywhere, lots of low waves, a few double takes what the heck is that thing?

Stopped at the old church by the State line. It is no longer in use, but not neglected, someone is maintaining it pretty well.

[BlueMark]

Hmmmm ... a mystery in the grass between the Blur and the oak tree.

Could this be a trap left by nymphs or fairies? Do I want to avoid the trap? Hmmmm... Redwings, in perfect condition. Would make darn nice riding boots.

Ahhhh ... size ten and a half ... too big for me, the trap must be for someone else.

[BlueMark]

Riding again.

Ooo. Lookit the birds. Kewl.

Thwack

Woah! Better check this out. Looks like the tiny little windscreen isn't just for looks. Its a guano shield!

[BlueMark]

Embodened by the Guano attack, we head south south south, we aren't afraid of nature, we embrace it! Into the largest park in the county we go.

[BlueMark]

Right in the middle of the park is this little cemetary. The headstones can't be read anymore - too worn. Looks like there was some attempt to preserve them - which makes it worse. A little research reveals this to be the Bird Family Cemetary, a small private plot in a large Metropark.

[BlueMark]

Just down the road from the cemetary is an unusual sight for this part of the country. A desert landscape in the middle of forest and prairies. This is a unique biome called the Oak Savannah which has developed where the shore of Lake Erie (now 30 miles away) once stood for thousands of years, creating sand dunes similar to those on the shores of Lake Michigan. This is one of the only places east of the Mississippi where Prickly Pear cactus are native plants, and wild orchids grow in wetland swales yards away. We got rattle snakes here too.

You are allowed to walk in the dunes, but this is a close as the Blur can get.

[BlueMark]

Right through the Park runs the Wabash Cannonball Trail - a Rail Trail ribbon park that extends 63 miles along the abandoned Wabash Railroad line. The song "Wabash Cannonball" isn't named for this railroad, at least not directly, but there are legends that the section of the Wabash trail from Toledo to Ft. Wayne, Indiana was unusually straight and level, thus a perfect place to attempt clandestine locomotive speed records - i.e. Cannonball Runs.

The Blur would love to make a cannonball run down that trail. Alas "no motor vehicles".