August 8; I am sitting in the air conditioned comfort of a study room in Ludington, Michigan’s public library. It’s hot outside. The weather app on my smartphone says it’s only 83 but it’s hot. Still, if you’ve got nothing to do but wait, no place in the shade to take cover then ‘Hot’ is about how you feel and not a number. I parked under a shade tree on a side street but that only lasts a while. Then I thought of the library and it’s really nice here. I’ve got a few hours to kill before they start loading the ferry for the evening run to Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The Badger is a big ship by anybody’s measure and the hold will accommodate (I don’t know how many) but it takes an hour to load all the cars and trucks. All the people ride topside with lots of deck space to walk and retreat to a huge lounge. There will be a running bingo game, game after game until we dock in Wisconsin. You get one card and the prizes are token trinkets but it’s more like meet & greet than serious bingo. We get a free hour as we cross the line between Eastern Daylight and Central Daylight time. So we dock around midnight central time and I’m not driving in the dark so I’ll find a corner of the parking lot and wait for sunup, get some zzzzzz’s.
The concert last night was good. The concert crowd from Grand Rapids is a heady, middle age collection (my idea of middle age is 60+) and they favor artists and their music from the 80’s, 90’s and early 00’s. Mary Chapin Carpenter (I Feel Lucky) fit that niche perfectly with old favorites and stuff from a new (to be released) album. I have new hearing aids and they hear everything, maybe too well. I have trouble filtering out background noise and lots of the band showing-off makes lyrics difficult if not impossible to comprehend. I know, I know; if it’s too loud then I am too old. But the beauty of that generation was in the lyrics, they told a story and if I can’t follow the story then it may be wonderful but still, if the vocals are just other instruments making awesome noise then I should have spent my money on something else. She did one song solo with the band off stage and her magic is still there.
Meijer Gardens Amphitheater is surrounded by residential neighborhoods and the city requires all concerts to end by 9:00 and I’m told they enforce that rule vigorously. In that case they will be paying a fine as the encore went well beyond the 9:00 hour. They finished with a flurry and left the stage but everybody knew we would get the encore. The song was “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her” which is a pushback against male dominance and without missing a beat, within the chord structure of the first song they slid right into “I Take My Chances”. It was an 9 or 10 minute treat and I loved it.
“Now some people say that you shouldn't tempt fate - And for them I can not disagree - But I never learned nothing from playing it safe -
I say fate should not tempt me - I take my chances.”
Addendum: 8/10/25
Lake Michigan was windy with big waves and we were late into Manitowoc. The ferry offloads late every nigh and the local authorities don’t want unauthorized travelers hanging around, waiting for sunrise so there is a curfew. Nothing is open and the my only choice was to drive after dark. Fifty some miles up the road I found a truckstop that was open and I stopped for a long nap. Back on the road at 5:30 there was just enough Gray-light to see up the road but still need headlights to be seen by others.
Arriving at my son’s place near Saint Paul, Minnesota just in time to unload and go into Minneapolis. Yesterday was the first exhibition game for the NFL and the Vikings were playing the Texans; we had tickets and off we went. In a few words, none of us really wanted to sit through an NFL game for the sake of the game. Our seats were six rows from the top of the top level, looking almost straight down at players so far below you had trouble telling the color of their jerseys; so far we couldn’t see the football. We (my kids) wanted to be in the new stadium with the crowd and hype. Football is what it is and we like it when our team wins but going to a game is more like running with the bulls in Pamplona. Too loud, too far away to watch; without the jumbo screens at both ends of the field one wonders how far fools will go to brandish team colors and spend a ton of money. We enjoyed the game and left a few minutes before the half ended. Getting out of the parking lot and downtown was very easy; good lesson, if you want to escape the bumper to bumper crush, leave at half time.
It is Sunday morning. We are going out for breakfast. I am still really clean and fresh from my shower last night and the sky is overcast (weather is cool). The world is a pretty good place as long as you don’t watch the news.
The concert last night was good. The concert crowd from Grand Rapids is a heady, middle age collection (my idea of middle age is 60+) and they favor artists and their music from the 80’s, 90’s and early 00’s. Mary Chapin Carpenter (I Feel Lucky) fit that niche perfectly with old favorites and stuff from a new (to be released) album. I have new hearing aids and they hear everything, maybe too well. I have trouble filtering out background noise and lots of the band showing-off makes lyrics difficult if not impossible to comprehend. I know, I know; if it’s too loud then I am too old. But the beauty of that generation was in the lyrics, they told a story and if I can’t follow the story then it may be wonderful but still, if the vocals are just other instruments making awesome noise then I should have spent my money on something else. She did one song solo with the band off stage and her magic is still there.
Meijer Gardens Amphitheater is surrounded by residential neighborhoods and the city requires all concerts to end by 9:00 and I’m told they enforce that rule vigorously. In that case they will be paying a fine as the encore went well beyond the 9:00 hour. They finished with a flurry and left the stage but everybody knew we would get the encore. The song was “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her” which is a pushback against male dominance and without missing a beat, within the chord structure of the first song they slid right into “I Take My Chances”. It was an 9 or 10 minute treat and I loved it.
“Now some people say that you shouldn't tempt fate - And for them I can not disagree - But I never learned nothing from playing it safe -
I say fate should not tempt me - I take my chances.”
Addendum: 8/10/25
Lake Michigan was windy with big waves and we were late into Manitowoc. The ferry offloads late every nigh and the local authorities don’t want unauthorized travelers hanging around, waiting for sunrise so there is a curfew. Nothing is open and the my only choice was to drive after dark. Fifty some miles up the road I found a truckstop that was open and I stopped for a long nap. Back on the road at 5:30 there was just enough Gray-light to see up the road but still need headlights to be seen by others.
Arriving at my son’s place near Saint Paul, Minnesota just in time to unload and go into Minneapolis. Yesterday was the first exhibition game for the NFL and the Vikings were playing the Texans; we had tickets and off we went. In a few words, none of us really wanted to sit through an NFL game for the sake of the game. Our seats were six rows from the top of the top level, looking almost straight down at players so far below you had trouble telling the color of their jerseys; so far we couldn’t see the football. We (my kids) wanted to be in the new stadium with the crowd and hype. Football is what it is and we like it when our team wins but going to a game is more like running with the bulls in Pamplona. Too loud, too far away to watch; without the jumbo screens at both ends of the field one wonders how far fools will go to brandish team colors and spend a ton of money. We enjoyed the game and left a few minutes before the half ended. Getting out of the parking lot and downtown was very easy; good lesson, if you want to escape the bumper to bumper crush, leave at half time.
It is Sunday morning. We are going out for breakfast. I am still really clean and fresh from my shower last night and the sky is overcast (weather is cool). The world is a pretty good place as long as you don’t watch the news.
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