In Pursuit of Wonder

“Next, I’ll show you the old box car. It’s over this way.” I explained. We walked westward. We paused to admire a large, lone oak tree standing a little distance away from the barn. It was a grand tree, branches reaching for the sky. The green grass was fairly lush…

I turned the jeep around and headed back up the sand lane to 84 and continued south, then turned left on to Pritchard’s road. I told Jesse as we drove that the prairie on our right was restored prairie – predominately little bluestem. But where we were going wasn’t restored…

April 23, 2017 I took Jesse to the Kellogg – Weaver Dunes today. Our first destination was the Town and Country Café in Kellogg. I wanted to eat there with Jesse because the café is an important part of Thelma’s history and the history of the sand prairie. It’s a…

March 28, 2017 The fog was quite thick, but despite the foggy morning and the temperature around twenty eight degrees, Larry and I decided we’d take the canoe out. We thought the fog would burn off quickly since the sun was shining brightly but it didn’t burn off until 10:30…

March 22, 2017 Larry and I were itching to go canoeing, there had been several good days for it but we weren’t able to get together on those days. This morning was cutting it close on temperature; it was around twenty eight degrees. Larry said, “It’s a little too cold…

We went down a small incline passed through trees on either side of us; there was a patch of short scrubby trees. I looked back again and could make out the stone wall through the trees. Hank meandered about always looking for a stick to play with. There was a…

After taking a look through the window I walked to the side of it where Larry stood examining it. “I think it’s an old train box car. It’s really well built,” he said. “An old box car? Cool!” I replied. Part of the roof, again right above the doors, was…

March 10, 2017 Larry and I sat at his table deciding what we should do this morning. With the warm weather, we were eager to go canoeing but the temperatures had fallen precipitously yesterday afternoon; it was nine degrees this morning so canoeing was out of the question. However, even…

February 15, 2017 Larry and I set out around 8:00 am from his place; once again McCarthy was our destination. This time we went up from the bridge. We began our walk at 8:17 am. It was a beautiful morning, only a few wispy clouds, the temperature was still crisp…

We turned more westward into the tangle of vegetation and trees. We pushed into the line of trees, branches sliding along our coats. We ducked under branches and pushed others aside, stepping over low or fallen branches. We came to an old rusted fence, just three strands of barbed wire,…