My Long Walk

Hi, everyone.
I'm going on "my long walk."
Want to come along?
Great!


(As always, click on a picture to see it bigger.
Then click back to continue on our walk.
However, I made these pictures pretty small,
since there are so many of them.
The only one that is sort of big
is the close up of the butterfly.
Oops. That was supposed
to be surprise. O well.)

Let's go...

We'll just stroll through the back yard and be on our way.
Hey, let's see what's growing in Jeff's garden.

Peeking over the fence I see a few day lilies,
a few purple flowers, and look at that!
Two white lilies have opened.
Aren't they lovely.
He got them from my mom.

Now we'll head northwest down West Street (New Ulm's a little off kilter).
Here's a nice stump. I like stumps.
I think I might even devote a future blog to favorite stumps I've seen.
There's one you won't believe...but I'm getting off track.

This stump sits in front of a home
that's been for sale for quite a while.
Thinking of moving to New Ulm?
You might want to consider this house...
if you like stumps.

Let's keep going. We have a long, long way to go yet.

Here's the hospital.

Time to take a left and start heading up the hill.

Hey. Look over to our right.
That's Loretta Park.

And if you want to,
you can go check out "The Way of the Cross."

As for me, I think I'll pass.
It's nice...but a bit too
Roman Catholic for my Lutheran blood.

But I will show you this statue of Father Berghold.
Because of him New Ulm is a better place.
It says so on that thing he's standing on.
I wonder what he's holding.
Maybe it's a list of all his accomplishments.

Enough of that.
Time to get back to our walk.
Let's go up to Highland
and then cut through the ECLC parking lot.

That's what I always do.

ECLC stands for the Early Childhood Learning Center.

It's basically a Daycare Center.

New Ulm has two Daycare Centers that I know of
and I have never seen any kids playing outside either of them.
Truth is, I rarely see kids playing outside- period!
I suppose they're all inside on their PlayStations or Facebook.
But not us. We're out getting our exercise and fresh air.

Right?!?

Now we're at Hazelwood,
so we'll take another left and go down to Center.

STOP! Here's the corner of Center and Hazelwood.
Time to take our first right and
head out of town on Highway 13.

Watch your step.
We're going down a big hill!

See that sign over there?
It says that this stretch of road has been
adopted by the Boy Scout Troop 25.

Good for them.

Hummmm.

Where's a Boy Scout when you need one?

Ahh. Here we are.
The best part of our walk.
Here's where we enter Flandrau State Park.

How exciting!

As soon as I turn off the highway and start walking
down this gravel road I get this wonderful feeling
of contentment and joy.

Part of it comes from the fact that
I'm walking on gravel again.
I grew up in the country, on a gravel road.

Another reason I love this part of my walk is because
this is where the butterflies like to hang out.
I wonder if we'll see any today.

I hope.

I hope.

I hope.

Yes! Here's one. It's a Red-spotted Purple.
I know it looks blue, but that's what they're called.

Poor thing. It's got a broken wing.

Hey look!

There's another one.

Ooo! This one's nice.
If only he would sit still for a minute so
I can get a close-up for my collection.

There he goes...over to that puddle for a drink.
Now I think I can get him.

Beautiful!

Time to get back to our walk.
Isn't this a beautiful park. I just love it here.

Hey, look at this.
It's a branch from a Cottonwood tree.
See all the seeds.
They look like cotton...hence the name.

You may not have noticed, but there have been
Cottonwood seeds floating all around
as we've been walking along.
Over by the Cottonwood River,
which is on our right,
the cottonwoods will drop so
many seeds it looks like it's snowing!

I'd take you there now and show you,
but I hear those trails are under water now.

Maybe next time.

Here's a pretty spot.

See the birches on our left.

I love birch trees in a forest.

Soooo pretty.

I hope you don't mind
but I'm going to make a pit stop
here at the bathrooms.
I had a couple of bowls of my
5-Star Soup for lunch
(See September 12, 2010 blog.)
and I gotta go.

Be right back.

Okay. I'm back.

Time to get off the gravel road and
take one of these great woodland trails.

This one leads us up to two lookouts.

Let's go!

This little bridge isn't on our route,
but we can take a minute to go over it,
just for fun.

What a pretty little stream.
Can you hear it bubbling along?

See these phlox?
A few weeks ago I went through this way
and the entire forest floor was covered with them.
I wish you had been with me then.
It was indescribably beautiful!

I hope you're not too tired.
Time to climb some steps.

Come on. You can make it.
We're half way there.

Okay. Catch your breath and enjoy the view.
Here's look out number one.

And here's look out number two.

I'll admit the view isn't spectacular,
but the audio is great.

You can always hear lots of birds and insects.
And if the "beach" is open,
you can hear kids
laughing and playing too!
Clear as a bell.

Well, we're almost out of the park now.
Just a few more steps down, then a few more up...
Feeling lost?

Perhaps this will help.

You are here.

Now we'll head down Indian Point Drive back to Highland.

Hey look! It's the house that looks like a dentist's office.

I know the guy who lives next door.
One day he told me,
"I live in the house next to the
one that looks like a dentist's office."

I knew exactly which one he meant.

Now we'll go through the MLC Campus.

See that big building on the right.
It's the new Chapel.

Well, it was new about 15 months ago,
but we still call it new.

It's quite spectacular,
but I'm afraid I don't have time
to take you inside to show you right now.

But I will show you this.

It's the statue of Martin Luther.

See that book he's holding.

It's the Bible.

Do you know what he's saying?

That's right.

"I shall not recant!"

Okay, time for more steps,
but this time we're going down
so it's not as hard.

We're almost home.

We just have to go through the park
with the baseball fields and...

Here we are. That's my house...and my new van!

Okay. It's not brand new, but it is new to us, and I LOVE IT!
It's a 2005 Dodge Caravan with all sorts of bells and whistles!
It has a CD player, power windows, power locks...
It even tells me what direction I'll going,
what the temp is outside,
and how many miles I can go
before I run out of gas!

Very cool.

Well. Here we are back where we started.
Time to sit down and put your feet up.


Thanks for coming along with me.

Let's do it again some time.

Remembering Grandpa

One year ago today, June 18, 2010, Grandpa Glende went to his heavenly home. That night I sent the following email. I am posting it here in his memory. I miss him still, but look forward to seeing him again one day.

Family and Friends,

Today at 2:00 pm I went to visit Grandpa Glende for the last time. It was a hard thing. But God gave me the strength to say “Good bye.”

About an hour after I got home I got a call from Jon. The nursing home asked them to come. His time was near.

I went upstairs and told Jeff, and just after that I saw a butterfly outside our window. I ran and got my camera. My first few attempts to take its picture failed because of low batteries, so I rushed inside, replaced them, and ran back to the window. He was still there waiting for me on the window sill.

I prayed that his wings would open one more time.

God answered.

The butterfly opened his wings, I quick snapped this shot, and then he flew away.

The name of this butterfly is “Mourning Cloak.”

We will surely mourn for Grandpa. He was the kindest, most loving person I will ever know. It’s so sad to think his life on this earth has ended.

But just like a butterfly, he will spring from the tomb and fly to the heavens to be with his Lord forever.

The last sentence Grandpa said to me was, “God still loves me.”

So true.

And He loves you too.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16

Grandpa passed away at about 7:00 pm tonight.

He was 98.

Thank you, Lord, for letting him be such a wonderful blessing to us all.

He will be deeply missed.