Mike's Pictures and Thoughts

All Good Things Have to Come to an End - August 2025 On May 27, 2014, I preached my last sermon at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Cresco, Iowa. The congregation held a goodbye meal, and then Kathy and I went on the road. That first summer we stayed at Double J Campground near Springfield, Illinois. We were full-time for four years before cutting back to only ten months of the year on the road. Now Kathy’s mobility and my vision tell us that it is time to come off the road. I will continue to take pictures, and I will continue to post the occasional very good image, but this post, my 4,114th consecutive post, is my last daily post. MWM

Bonneyville Mills - August 2025 The Bonneyville Grist Mill is quite picturesque as you approach it. We were told it was an operating mill, but there was no visible mill wheel as we approached. That is because the mill wheel for this mill is a horizontal wheel located beneath the mill. The original wooden horizontal wheel was replaced with a cast iron turbine back in the 1860s. The mill continued to commercially grind grain until 1967. It was bought by the county park board and restored to its original state, or as close to that as they could get. The second image shows the water flowing beneath the mill. The final two images show the mill in operation. MWM

Indiana Scenery - August 2025 I took this image of a rural Indiana road on our last tour. I intended it as a tourist shot trying to capture an image of a walking wheel irrigator spraying out onto the road. But the composition moved me to post it. The powerlines and stripes on the road draw you into the image while the single car helps give depth to the image. The end sprayer on the wheel was still pointing at the road as we drove past and the windshield of the bus was covered with water MWM

Zebra Tegu - August 2025 There was one exhibit at the Indiana Dinosaur Museum which was alive, an Argentinian black and white Tegu. Many small lizards have striped tails and are called zebras. This tegu is evidently a small juvenile because tegus can get quite large. MWM

Sequoia - August 2025 This cross-sectional slab of a two-thousand year old sequoia was leaning against the wall of the Indiana Dinosaur Museum. The innermost brass plate says 4 BC. The outermost plate on the bark of the tree says 1952, the year the tree was felled. MWM

Dino Heads - August 2025 There are a variety of casts of dinosaur heads on display at the Indiana Dinosaur Museum. My favorite is the last image which was taken by Kathy. It shows the head of a modern-day alligator and a modern day crocodile placed within their ancient heads. Neither animal has changed much in millions of years, but they have thankfully gotten smaller. MWM

Juliet - August 2025 Workers and volunteers from the Indiana Dinosaur Museum unearthed an Edmontosaurus while digging at Hells Creek in Montana. They have named it “Juliet,” and are slowly cleaning the millennia of deposits off of the bones. The first image is a statue of what Juliet would look like. The second image is one of the museum’s technicians working on one of Juliet’s bones. MWM

Not a Bronto - August 2025 I grew up calling the Apatosaurus Excelsus a brontosaurus. By whatever name, it is a huge beast. There was no way that I could get the entire animal, including tail, in the same image. MWM

T-Rex - August 2025 On the same day as our tour of Notre Dame, we traveled to the Indiana Dinosaur Museum. The museum was founded by Mark Tarner, who also owns the South Bend Chocolate Company. The site includes a chocolate factory, a restaurant, and the museum which has many displays including “Juliet” an Edmontosaures from a site in Hells Creek, Montana, which Mr. Tarner helps fund. The first image is a T-Rex with its front legs properly positioned facing each other. I grew up with the legs facing forward, but the scholarly consensus on that has evidently changed. The next two images are a cast of a T-Rex skeleton. MWM

Moy Grande Hibiscus - August 2025 When I first saw the official name of these large, beautiful, perennials, I thought I was misreading it. Muy Grande makes much more sense until you realize that these hardy perennials were developed and cross-bred by Dr. Ying Doon Moy, research and development horticulturist at the San Antonio Botanical Center. Mr Moy was a very interesting person and it is very worthwhile looking up his life and his work. MWM

Grotto - August 2024 Notre Dame University, which is dedicated to Our Lady of the Lake, also shares a dedication to Our Lady of Lourdes. There is a grotto on campus which is a one-seventh scale replica of the Grotto of Massabielle in Lourdes, France. There is also a small stone which was sent from Massabielle to Notre Dame so that it could be displayed and venerated at the Notre Dame grotto. MWM

Golden Basilica - August 2025 The exterior of The Basilica of The Sacred Heart at Notre Dame is very plain. This lack of exterior ostentation hides an extremely ornate interior with gold plated altars, tabernacles, and pillar capitals. We have toured many churches and cathedrals and The Basilica of The Sacred Heart still almost overwhelmed us. MWM

MWM

Notre Dame - August 202 Notre Dame du Lac University (Our Lady of the Lake) is best known for the Fighting Irish. It is second best known for the “Golden Dome.” A lot of people think the golden dome is on the basilica, but it’s not. It is on the old main building. The first image shows the classic view of the golden dome. Image two is a quarter-side image of the old main building. Many of the buildings at Notre Dame are this yellow-gray color because that is what the local clays create. All of these bricks were made and fired locally here at Notre Dame. Images three, four, and five are closeups of the statue of Mary which is atop the dome. She is standing on a snake and a crushed, horned helmet symbolizing her defeat of sin and Satan. The point on the top of her head is not symbolic. It is a lightning rod. It is tradition to have your picture taken in front of the golden dome so the guide took everyone’s pictures with their cameras. The last image is Kathy and I posing with the dome in the background. MWM

Ducks - August 2025 These ducks were eating grass beneath the water alongside the shoreline of Fiddler Pond in Goshen, Indiana. The first image is the one I was trying for. Images two, three, and four are there just to show how frustrating it is trying to capture a good image of a duck near the shore. 75% of the time, you end up with “duck butts” sticking up out of the water. Those are interesting, but don’t really make for good images. MWM

Fiddler Pond - August 2025 This really beautiful pond is in Goshen, Indiana where Kathy and I went for a F.R.O.G. rally. That is Forest River Owners Group. There are many, many great bicycle paths in Goshen. And a great pond with a really nice path around it. The brown section in the water in this image is not pollution, it is the bottom of the lake. This is an unbelievably clear lake, I mean pond. I guess in Northern Indiana with the Great Lakes so close, you have to be a really big pond to be called a lake. MWM

Hot Rod - July 2025 I saw this hot rod and was very impressed with the paint scheme. Usually when someone flames out a paint job like this they use reds, yellows, and oranges. In this case everything is blue. It is more like it is waved out than flamed out. I really liked it. MWM