Ah yes, quoting Sylvester the Cat and Daffy Duck are right up my alley. Regarding succotash, I tried that dish for the first time while on a bike trip in Iowa. I thought I would hate anything with lima beans, but it turns out that when lima beans are fried in bacon fat with other veggies, succotash is pretty darn good.

Nothing wrong with skipping riding when it's raining. I've learned that I'm the only one who suffers if I'm suffering, sufferin' succotash. Last summer when the heat wave rolled through Ohio during my 8 days there I retreated into hotels at night rather than sleep in my sweat lodge, er, tent at night.

You don't choose your spirit animal(s), they choose you. A pileated woodpecker led me along a country road for about a mile in Kentucky on the Transam in 2015 - it would get ahead of me a bit, wait for me to catch up, then fly on ahead as if to say "this way, follow me!" My other spirit animal is the coyote, also encountered during my Transam adventure - you read the story of my encounter with coyotes before dawn on the high plains of Montana - the coyotes were talking to me. Perhaps spirit animals occupy a mystical position within the Church of the Great Outdoors?

Another cousin lives in Williamston.. is this “ ok”? 🧐🤣

Yeah, Lansing is okay. So are Detroit and Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo. If not for those cities, along with Marquette, Michigan would be a solid red state.

I will have to ask! Stay tuned!

However, my late cousin was the director of the division of fish and game for the state of Michigan. He resided in Lansing, but I suppose this isn’t a good “ place”, because it’s not in the U. P. 😬

If they're from the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, that doesn't count. The U.P. is the place to be. The L.P. is like a completely different state. If your neighbors are, in fact, from lower Michigan, don't call them apple-knockers like us Yoopers do. LOL

Thank you for being nutty enough to like my journals. I know they don't make sense for everyone, but they work for me. ME is the guy I most have to please, because if I can't please me, how could I possibly please anybody.

I really like pileated woodpeckers too. A few seconds before I got this photo, there was another one of them just a foot away. I'd be curious to know what your other spirit animal is. I don't have a spirit animal, per se, but if I did, it would have to be the mountain lion. In the bird department, it would be either the bald eagle or the loon.

I know you do, Marilyn. Consider this picture my gift to you.

Yum!! Love pasties.

Guess my neighbors can’t be “wrong” here, as even though 3 do live here NOW, they are all from Michigan.

Thank you, George, for pointing this woodpecker out!

Why?

Well, at first all I “saw” was a black spot and a red spot and the limbs from the tree, resulting in a Rorschach test, and imagining a red ( nose) black (open mouth) and limbs gaping as if to mimic “what’s the problem”? 🙄

Good journal, as usual. And I have added the U.P. to my list of places I should visit on bicycle someday.

Pileated woodpecker, one of my 2 spirit animals. A sure sign that this was a good place to tour.