Mom and Dad took us on a 10-day trip to New England. On the second day, as we drove through southern New York State, we cut through the town of Ludington. I just happened spot this sign.
I remembered the Sybil Ludington stamp I had in my collection at home, so I jumped out and took this photo. (Note that her name is misspelled as Sibyl on the sign.)
nyctea (nocturnal) scandiaca (of Scandinavia)
Saturday, January 4, 1992 — 9:55 am
Chicago, Illinois — Meig’s Field — Lake Michigan
When I got up on Thursday morning, I was greeted by an article in the Tribune about an Ivory Gull that was being seen on the lakefront in Chicago. Since I’ve never had any luck looking for birds in the city, I didn’t feel it was worth taking a day off work to see. I called the hotline just to see what was going on. I heard that, in addition to the gull, the lakefront was crawling with Snowy Owls, including one at Meig’s Field, very near where the gull was being seen.
On Friday the gull wasn’t seen, but the owl was still there. On Saturday morning, I decided to try my luck, figuring that I wouldn’t have to look for the bird, just for birders.
There was a small group of birders standing by the shore, so I parked my car and asked if the gull had been spotted. It hadn’t. I asked about the owl and was told that it was still there on the other side of the runway about a quarter mile walk from where I parked. As I headed over, I fell into step with two other guys on the same quest. We talked about our chances and laughed about how easy it was. We walked to the end of the runway until we were stopped by a barbed-wire fence. There was another group of four birders there and they pointed to the owl.
The Snowy Owl was about 40 yards south of where we stood. It stood on the ground a few feet off the runway and maybe twenty feet from the lake. It was in a strip of tall, dead grass and most of the time it was bent over, apparently picking at something on the ground. Occasionally it would pull up as if it were ripping at something, but we couldn’t tell what it might be. The owl would pick for five seconds or so then look up for five seconds or so. Often, it turned and looked right at us with its startling yellow eyes. The other guys had cheap binoculars, so I let them look through my scope. When two other groups of birders wandered up, we pointed the owl out to them, and I let them use my scope also.
The owl was an immature, with black spots on its wings, back, and head. It had pure white feathers on the face, chest, nape and a small round patch on the back of its head. Its small, black bill stuck out from the white whiskers in the center of its face. It was a beautiful bird, and very large, but something about the location and the ease with which I found it lessened the experience. I imagine birders pointed it out to each other in a chain all day long.
The consensus among all of us was that we were disappointed that the gull didn’t show, but the owl kept it from being a wasted trip. Indeed, if it weren’t for the possibility of seeing the owl, I wouldn’t have gone. I was back home by 11:00, less than two hours after I left.
There was a fort on this site for a few years during the early 1800s, but the fort for which the town is named was established in the 1830s when settlers thought there would be trouble after Andrew Jackson’s “Indian Removal” brought thousands of Indians into the region. It was abandoned in 1871.
The walls and most of the buildings have disappeared. The Commissary Storehouse, also used as a barracks, was built half inside, half outside the walls. Inside was a dark, dingy room that looked like a jail except that it had about twenty large wooden barrels inside.
The barracks/courthouse is now the visitor center. Prisoners tried in the court were held in the jail in the basement. It was dirty, dark, and unsanitary and gained a reputation as an awful place to spend time. Of course, it could be avoided by obeying the law, but I guess that didn’t occur to a lot of people.
Seventy-nine criminals were hung on the gallows (since reconstructed), but none were hanging here on this day, so I didn’t stay long.
The fort was interesting, but not riveting. The weather was overcast, hazy, and forty degrees. While I was at the park, there were three other visitors there.
Over Christmas break, we drove down The Trace through The Land Between the Lakes. It was cool and foggy but still a pretty drive, even in gray. We got to Fort Donelson around 3:00 and had the place almost to ourselves in the steady drizzle.
I didn’t take many photos because I’d just bought a video camera and spent most of my time taking video that I’ve never watched.
The fort itself was a bit of a surprise to me. It consisted of a low, dirt mound surrounding 15 acres. The interior had some scattered trees and was not at all flat. There was a ravine cutting right through the fort, and it seemed to us that a soldier could have found a lot of places outside the walls from which he could shoot over the walls at the soldiers inside.
My wife stayed in the car and read while my daughter and I got out at the various stops and looked around. Two cabins have been rebuilt to show what life was like for the Confederate soldiers stationed here.
Here’s my photo and a postcard shot of the river battery overlooking the Cumberland River. The cannon in the postcard can be seen lying on the ground in my photo.
Most of the stops looked like this. The bumps and dips in the foreground are all that remains of trenches.
The town of Dover has spread over the area and some of the stops were surrounded by residential areas. We drove into town to see the Dover Hotel, where Confederate Brigadier General Simon B. Buckner surrendered to Union Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant. It is the only existing original structure where a major surrender took place during the Civil War.
I went with two friends and a business associate. He took us to the Rosebud Italian Restaurant for supper. We enjoyed a leisurely and delightful supper and got the Comiskey Park just before the first pitch. The game was dull, so a friend and I entertained ourselves by watching the Nighthawks wheeling overhead in the glow from the stadium lights. In the bottom of the sixth inning, we went to the upper deck. We watched the next half inning from the third row from the railing, then climbed all the way to the top row and watched half an inning from there. It wasn’t a bad view if you don’t mind looking at very tiny ballplayers. The stands are very steep, so we weren’t far back from the field — just high up.
This was Bo Jackson’s second game as a White Sox after his recovery from last fall’s football injury. He went 0 for 4 and walked with a limp.
One of the guys was tired and asked if we would leave after the seventh inning. We didn’t really want to, but we were his guests and so we did. My friend had a pocket radio and kept us up to date on what was happening as we walked down the ramps and across the parking lot so we could keep score. I was home by 10:30 and still full of rigatoni. The White Sox lost 8-0.
I saw five White Sox games during their first season at their new stadium. They lost all five by a combined score of 47-14.
