Things I Saw - Part the Ninth

Seagulls. In the middle of Ohio at a service plaza. An Internet search says that these are "Ring-billed Gulls", the most common kind of gull in Ohio. They were all over the truck parking side of this plaza.

I see them so much, living in Chicago, that I often don't even notice them.  We're in the middle of Ohio here and the parking lot is filled with gulls. My sister calls them "dumpster chickens" because they are opportunistic feeders. They tend to congregate in areas where there is a ready food source, such as a service plaza where there are three different kinds of fast food as well as two convenience stores. Oooh, you dropped your bag of Cheetos. You'll instantly make two dozen friends.

When I was growing up in Iowa, a seagull elicited a mad frenzy of bird watching. I guess, it still does with me since I'm blogging about it. If you saw one, it was because the bird hitched a ride on one of the barges that plied the Mississippi River. You can see them along the river but rarely far inland unless there is a steady food source and open fresh water. And, most likely, the one you see cruising the Target parking lot is a Ring-billed Gull.

I watched this crew, standing like sentries just waiting. A couple of truckers walked toward their truck which was parked to the right off this photo. One of the guys had potato chips and tossed a couple in the direction of the gulls. They charged those chips like they hadn't eaten in weeks. The birds that got the chips tried to take off with them but were nearly overwhelmed by others seeking to snatch them away. You know they aren't starving, but I wonder if they know what is their natural food anymore or if Doritos, bread crumbs and french fries have supplanted that.

Beverage:  Huckleberry tea

Deb

The Things I Saw - Part the Eighth

I was headed home and stopped for gas.

It used to be that craft beers, the kind where there is a limited distribution and only a few hundred bottles are brewed, were the stuff of legend and then, only within a certain location. I grew up with regional beers; Hamms, Blatz, Old Style for awhile until they became the "official" beer of the Chicago Cubs for a time, and a very, very regional beer, Dubuque Star, which was definitely an acquired taste in beer. These smaller brewers were good for the local and regional economy. If you were interested in sampling local cuisine, adding a local brew to your breaded pork tenderloin sandwich gave you a taste of life in that part of the country. But start talking about them outside their region and people gave you a blank stare. Even within their region, particularly the case with Dubuque Star, they weren't well known outside of, say, 50 miles from Dubuque. These kinds of beers were more like the bathtub gin of prohibition era, made for a very limited audience.

As tastes changed and profits fell, these brewers declined and went out of business, taking decades of knowledge with them. People came to assume the Budweisers, Millers, Coors of brewing were the only beers to be consumed. So clear, you can read a newspaper through them, we were told this was the beer wave of the future, the best we could have.

Slowly, however, this attitude has changed. Regional and local brewers are back. Some don't make it. Some do. In the, now, over a year since alcohol was removed from my life, I've found more and more uniquely named breweries popping up. And those are the beers I gravitate towards. Weird name doesn't always indicate quality, but, hey, I'll drink something called Smuttynose before a Budweiser. Supposedly, Smuttynose is in Illinois.

Since I can't have alcohol, would someone try this and let me know how it tastes? I certainly like the graphic on the side of the truck.

Beverage:  Huckleberry tea

Deb

Things I Saw - Part the Seventh

Ever think about the smells of a drive? You probably haven't because you roll up your windows, pop on your air and cruise at 75 down the Interstate. Oh the sights attract you. You probably have a CD or 2 or 3 ready for the changer or you button punch until some radio station comes into range that's playing close to things you might want to listen to for the next hour or until the signal disappears. But, I'm betting you've never thought about the smells of the open road.

I come from an era when air conditioning in a car meant opening all the windows and driving 60. Smells were everywhere. The Jeep doesn't have air conditioning. It's an "open the windows and drive 65" machine. On the way to Virginia, the wind was chilly so I spent most of the drive with the windows half open. On the way back, however, I was driving into heat, so the windows were open.

There is the smell of hot pavement. There is the smell from a semi full of cows, hogs or chickens. Chickens are the worst. Trust me on this. May you never find yourself stuck behind a truckload of chickens. The air rushing in through the windows brings the smell of haying in the fields, the smell of dirt, the smell of rain if you drive through a storm. I love the smell of freshly washed earth and the smell of driving into and out of a rain storm.

I came upon this as I was heading home on Thursday.

I had to follow him for a time because we were going uphill, into the mountains, in western Maryland, and the Jeep had slowed. At first, that natural slowing; how dare gravity tug on my vehicle; annoyed me. It was costing me valuable minutes in travel time. But then I realized that I got a better look at the scenery and had a chance to smell things I'd have passed right by.

Why is this important? This truck was hauling reasonably freshly cut pine trees. It wasn't quite like the smell of Christmas as there were diesel fumes mixed in with the pine scent, but it was close enough that I didn't mind being behind him until his speed dropped to 50 and I could easily pass.

In two months, the truckloads of Michigan fir trees will pass through the Chicagoland area on their way west for Christmas. For some reason, those don't have the smell this one load had. Made me remember that I really need to get back into crocheting scarves for presents.

Beverage:  Mixed Berry Seltzer

Deb

Last Gem of Summer

We interrupt this recitation of a road trip to present

The late summer cantaloupes are in the store now. So sweet and juicy that I can, easily, eat a whole one in a day.

I suppose there are worse things to consume...

Beverage:  Mixed Berry Flavored Seltzer

Deb