I really never gave any thought to space travel for myself...I figured until they give me a really good reason to go, I can just watch it on TV and look at the pictures.

Then I saw this:

http://www.earthsky.org/shows/show.php?date=20060807

Now I want to go there.

Also, if you're into this sort of thing, here is some information on our upcoming Harvest Moon:

http://blogearthsky.blogspot.com/2006/09/in-2006-what-direction-do-i-look-for.html

Have a great day,
Jim

Check this out http://phoenix.craigslist.org/zip/212408812.html

What?? No description? Heart? Liver? Kidney? And in storage? That can't be safe. And what blood type, etc? And of course, who did they belong to? See? you can get ANYTHING on Craigslist. Even for free...

ST. IGNACE, Mich. There's one thing missing at a new Indian casino in Michigan's Upper Peninsula: gambling.

It was mistakenly built in an area where gambling is illegal.

The 36 (m) million-dollar casino and hotel complex opened in June. It has restaurants, a lounge and an indoor pool, overlooking Lake Huron's Horseshoe Bay north of the Mackinac (MAK'-ih-naw) Bridge.

But its 29-thousand-square-foot casino with 800 slot machines and 26 gambling tables has been unable to operate. The U-S government says part of the casino was built on land where Indian gambling is not allowed.

Members of the Sault Ste. (soo saynt) Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians are debating who was responsible for the mistake, with the tribe's current and former chairmen blaming each other.

**I thought this was humorous, especially because they're debating who's responsible. Who cares? It doesn't matter, they can't help you change the rules, I bet. Ha, I said bet.

Back Yard Friends

I was out in the back yard harassing Gus the other day when I noticed not one, not two and not even three, but four Garden Spiders. They are really a lovely creature with their distinct and detailed markings on their backs and their perfect looking webs. I took Sage out to show them to her (no, I didn’t do it to scare her, she actually asked to go see them!) and we had walked out under our gazebo where the most obvious and largest one was. She was on my shoulders for a good view. She was looking for them as I was pointing to them and I knew the very second she saw one because she squeezed me and started trembling like crazy. She wasn’t crying or all freaked out per se but she definitely was not comfortable being that close up. I could tell she wanted to be so brave though. She wanted to see them and she still asks about them. Mom won’t take her out there for some reason though…

Can you spot the one in the tree? I saw him and he was ten feet up there...look closely and remember, you never know who's watching you from up above...

Finally…hiking in Michigan. This morning, my brother Dave and I hike a small section of the North Country Trail. The whole trail starts in New York somewhere and ends up in North Dakota. We didn’t get that far, but we did travel about 11 or 12 miles along the trail. It was from M-20 (some of you Hesperians may know the parking area on the south side of M-20 between Stone Rd and M-37…see my map) down to 40th st. south of White cloud. Directly from M-20 to 40th st. is 6+ miles. The trail, by our best estimates, ended up being somewhere between 10 and 12 miles; nothing in comparison to the 4588 miles to the east and west of where we went today.

The coolest thing I saw today which unfortunately went unphotographed by me, was a bald eagle that Dave spotted from way out as we were headed to the M-20 trailhead. We were watching it as we drove closer and it flew down in front of us and grabbed a black squirrel out of the middle of the road, then proceeded to fly into a tree next to the road and began feasting. It was absolutely huge. It looked like it was 3 or 4 feet tall. It was just cool seeing a bald eagle in the wild and particularly here in Michigan.

So back to the trail…it is beautiful. We walked from about 9am until about 2 I think if I remember correctly, so that’s 5 hours straight walking. We actually only rested about 15 minutes total throughout the whole trip too. So, needless to say, I am rather sore tonight. Dave? Not even affected. He said no pain at all. I can hardly walk to the bathroom. Kudos to Mr. I’m in shape—Dave!

The photo of the random items is all the trash I picked up along the way.Dave had his pockets full as well and we likely could have filled up a large trash bag with more stuff we saw and could not handle ourselves. Don't do that if you go there or anywhere. Be responsible with our mother...

Well, we talked it over while we traveled and, even though I barely made it to the end of the 11 mile hike, we planned to hike the section north of M-20 to Nichols Lake which is right around 18 miles total. Yes, we can and will do it, too. Even if we can’t, we will.

It’s supposedly open to mountain bike and equestrian traffic to the north of M-20 (not so, to the south) and I want to see what it’s like as I would like to ride my bike (a mountain bike) off road, where it has never been. If it’s like the south part, it will be fun and it starting to looks like something I could enjoy.

So if anyone reading this wants to go on a good hike or wants more info on how to get there, etc. feel free to contact me. If you want to go on the hike and need or want someone to go with, I’m up for it again, as soon as my feet feel better…which will likely be shortly after my wonderful wife massages them for me tonight…