Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

This past weekend we went to see another lighthouse. This one was the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. It is the tallest lighthouse in America and the tallest brick lighthouse in the world.



The automated beacon of light from the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is visible every seven seconds. Over 1 million bricks, baked in kilns along the James River in Virginia, were used during construction between 1868 and 1870.



It is believed that the engineer who was originally assigned to paint North Carolina's lighthouses got his plans mixed up. Apparently, the diamond-shaped figures, which were supposed to warn traffic away from Diamond Shoals, went to Cape Lookout. The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse received spiral striping, thus obtaining the nickname ''The Big Barber Pole.''



We enjoyed the visit very much. We did not grab that many pictures though because of the smoke that was in the air today. There is a fire on the mainland and the smoke was courtesy of that.

She was the chief cook, I was the dish washer.

About 1958, probably influenced somewhat by her brother, William Hale Brubaker, and her uncle, Maurice James Wise, who both owned restaurants, my grandmother became manager of Miller's Ice Cream Store located at Five Points on Goshen Road in Fort Wayne. A few years later she moved to North Webster and opened "The Dairy Bar" which provided jobs for several family members, myself included.

My grandmother in the kitchen of the Dairy Bar.
Caption written by grandma for the picture below.
A small horseshoe shaped bar surrounded by 10 stools was positioned just outside the door to the kitchen, far right. It was the most popular spot in the Dairy Bar. Shown above were customers Helen Ravely and her daughter Jane, then Grandma and my mother, I'm not sure who the girl next to mom is, could be Wanda Wysong, but the one on the right is Beverly Penrod.

Grandma opened the restaurant every morning at 5 a.m. in the summer and 6 o'clock in the winter. While breakfast was being served she made the pies (some of the best!) and preparations were underway for the daily lunch special. Swiss steak, fried chicken, liver and onions, beef heart, ham and beans - just a few of her specialties. Sunday was the really busy day with the after-church crowd starting about 11 a.m. and continuing through until about 2 o'clock.

Closing time during the winter was 9 p.m. while in the summer the restaurant stayed open until 11 o'clock. It usually took another hour to get the place cleaned before we could go home. I did not enjoy working the late shift, or the morning shift for that matter! For the first few years (before I legally became old enough to work) I cleared tables and washed dishes, eventually moving up to waitress and finally grill cook. I peeled a lot of potatoes and did prep work, but grandma and mom were the ones that cooked up the daily specials. It was by no means an easy job.

Notice the prices for breakfast items:

Ham or Bacon & Eggs, toast, coffee 75¢
2 Eggs, toast, coffee 40¢
a glass of fruit juice was 15¢

Contributed to the "they worked hard for the family" edition of Smile for the Camera.

Midsummer Storm at the Spirit Tree

Yesterday throughout the day and all through last night we experienced one incredible thunderstorm after another. Some particulars from the weather warnings throughout the day: 70 MPH winds, possible golf-ball size hail, heavy rainfall and flood advisories. To top it off the power was out for most of the night as well. We ended up with anywhere from 2 to 4 inches of rain, depending on where the measurement was taken. The Pigeon River in Grand Portage State Park went from a discharge rate of roughly 4,000 gallons per second yesterday morning to about 28,000 gallons per second today. The storms also produced the best lightning show that we've seen so far this year.



As day turned to night I couldn't resist the light show that was going on all over in the sky. I ended up spending about two and a half hours standing on the Lake Superior shoreline trying to capture photos of the lightning. I went down to the Spirit Tree, which is not far from my home. I've always wanted to capture a "knock your socks off" photo of lightning behind the tree (similar to a shot that my dad captured on slide film years ago), but the photo I dream of still eludes me. I am getting closer, however. Last night's storms yielded my best results yet at photographing lightningbehind the tree. The photo you see here is the result of two hours of standing in the rain trying to capture the perfect bolt of lightning while thunder rumbled all around me. It was definitely one of the most uncomfortable periods of time I've ever spent outside with my camera, but an effort that I consider worthwhile when I view this image.

His and Hers Bicycles: Matching Looks vs Matching Performance

I love the idea of "His and Hers" bicycles: an elegant pair of lady's and gentleman's bikes from the same manufacturer. When we first decided to ride bicycles, the Co-Habitant and I envisioned ourselves exclusively on such matched pairs. We acquired a Pashley Princess and Roadster as our transport bikes.We acquired a Motobecane Super Mirage and Mirage Mixte as our roadbikes.And we acquired a Raleigh DL-1 Touristand Lady Tourist as our vintage 3-speeds.



It was all so perfect!... except that it wasn't. I could never keep up when we were both on the Pashleys, which was a constant source of discontent (I am now convinced that the female model is just inherently different from the male one). With the Motobecanes things were even worse, as my semi-upright mixte was no match for his racy SuperMirage roadbike. Despite being perfectly matched in looks, our beautiful velo couples were plagued by a disparity in performance.

Having finally decided that the illusion of perfection was not the same as perfection itself, I shattered the symmetry - first by replacing my Pashley Princess with a vintage Gazelle, and then by selling my Motobecane mixte. Interestingly, the Gazelle is a better match for the Pashley Roadster performance-wise, and we no longer experience the same problem with discrepancies in speed when cycling together on our commuter bikes.



As for roadbikes, it is difficult to keep up with somebody on drop bars, while yourself riding with upright bars - especially if you are a weaker cyclist to begin with. MyRivendellandTrekroadbikesmay not look as sexy next to the Co-Habitant'sMotobecane as my vintagemixte did, but they are a better match when it comes to actually cycling together.



This particular discrepancy in "his and hers" bikes is something I wonder about when I see a man and a woman cycling together, where he is on an aggressive roadbike and she is on an upright hybrid from the same manufacturer (usually Trek,Cannondale or Specialized). While I understand that the idea is for the woman (who is presumably less skilled) to ride an "easier bike," surely it must make the difference in their skill levels all the more acutely felt?



Of the three "His and Hers" pairs we started with, only our vintage Raleigh DL-1s remain. These are actually matched pretty nicely in terms of performance, so apparently "back in the day" Raleigh got it right whereas today's Pashley did not. Although we do not ride these as often as we ride our main transport bikes, it is nice to have at least one pair of bicycles that matches both in looks and performance. Who knows, maybe in the future there will be more - but the performance aspect is a must. After all, a couple's chemistry is about more than just looks.

Cousins, all dressed up!

Even though none of my ancestors are included, this is one of my favorite family photographs. I love the hats and the dresses. And just look how small their waists are!

Hazlette Wise, Grace Zinsmeister, and Ethel Wise.
Not dated but I'd guess about 1905-1910.

Hazlette Wise (1885-1977), daughter of William P. and Sophia (Dunfee) Wise, married Harlo Burns on October 10, 1911 in Whitley County, Indiana. They had two sons: Maurice Wise Burns who was born on July 31, 1912 and died on October 2, 1912. The other son, Thagrus Burns, was born in 1917 and recently celebrated his 91st birthday. My grandmother, Hazlette Brubaker, was named after Aunt Hazlette, who was in turn named after her great-grandmother Sophia Elizabeth Hazlett Dunfee.

Grace Zinsmeister (1888-1983) was the daughter of Rosilla "Rose" Wise and John Zinsmeister. Rose was the sister of William P. Wise. The Zinsmeister's moved to Lorain, Ohio just prior to 1900 and lived there the remainder of their lives though, apparently, they made several visits to the folks back in Indiana. Grace was a school teacher in Lorain for many years.

Ethel Wise (1882-1966) was the daughter of James Roscoe and Miriam Minerva (Blain) Wise. Ethel married George Weick in 1919, when she was 36 years old. They owned and operated a shoe store in Columbia City.

The parents of the girls (William, Rose, and James) were the children of Jacob and Malissa (Stem) Wise.

Cottontail Rabbit

I finally got a photo of the cottontail rabbit in our little patch of grass. I think this is the same rabbit wat that was in the other photo when it was hiding in the sand. I frequently see it eating grass but usually it hops away to go under the hay shed where I can't see it. It knows where it is safe. The grassy spot is right beside the hay shed. I think this may be a female rabbit as we always have a female that has her babies under the shed each summer. It couldn't have been the same rabbit all these years but I would think it might be a daughter or granddaughter. What I would really like to get is a photo of a rabbit eating hay with one of the horses. Again I see them doing it but I'm never close enought to get a photo or just don't have the camera with me.

Snow Drifts on Hungry Jack Lake

Here is another shot from my afternoon along the Gunflint Trail yesterday. This was taken with my Canon 100-400mm lens from the Honeymoon Bluff overlook.