End of summer 2021

 

Hard to believe we are now on the cusp of September!  Summer 2021 was a typically busy one for Bragg Family South, although not really dominated by big family trips as in the past (thanks to covid!).  Life did go on, and so here's how we finished out our summer!  First, Kenny (pictured above) served in a fellow Scout's Eagle Court of Honor...Lucas (sitting next to Hope on the bench) did his project at our church, and as he and Kenny have been good friends for years, it just followed that Kenny would help out this way.

Kenny worked most of the summer at a farm supply store, and Beth babysat a young boy across the street.  By the beginning of August, they had both largely wrapped those jobs up, so we were able to take a long weekend down to the Gulf Coast.  En route, we stopped at the ruins of the following plantation house in southern Mississippi, which had burned at some point in the late 1800s:

We stayed for several nights in Mobile, Alabama, but also made a trip about an hour east to Pensacola, Florida, to visit my high school buddy Matt Hodek at his home there, and spend some time on the beach.  Below, Stephen soaks up some sun and surf:

While in Mobile, we also spent the first half of a day touring some World War II-era warships.  This included a submarine, the USS Drum:

Here's the bell of this sub:

Here's Hope on one of the Drum's deck guns:

While the sub seemed big on the outside, it is (not surprisingly) quite cramped on the inside:

The USS Drum, as neat as it was, was not the featured ship...That was the battleship the USS Alabama.  Below, Kenny stands next to one of the 12" shells that would have been fired from the Alabama's big guns:

(for scale, Kenny is about 6'1" tall!).  The Alabama, though not the biggest battleship the US ever developed, was still huge and very well armed...  Below, Hope and Stephen "man" a couple of the .50-caliber machine guns, with larger (5", I believe) guns in the background:

Even though a massive ship, it was still so crammed with equipment that its vast interior still felt almost as cramped as the sub:

Here are the boys standing next to the 12" guns on the USS Alabama for scale:

By mid-August, Beth and Stephen had started school...we got them to pose with Kenny for their traditional first day of school picture:

(the cat perched on Stephen's shoulder, Draco, stayed home with me!).  I took Kenny back to his school the following week (Hope stayed behind with Beth and Stephen so they didn't miss any classes).  As we headed up to Michigan Tech, we stopped just east of St. Louis to visit a major prehistoric Native American site at Cahokia.  This site is most notable for its massive earthen mounds, such as Monk's Mound behind Kenny in this picture:

Monk's Mound is breathtakingly large, and offers a great view of St. Louis in the distance (look closely and you can see the Arch):

You can also see a mound beyond Kenny but before the skyline of St. Louis...That mound is of much more recent development (it is a landfill with a mound of modern garbage!).  Kenny and I spent a little more than a day in the Madison, WI, area visiting my brother Bob, who took us on a nature hike to see some briar-filled box canyons near there:

We also visited this large, pre-Civil War octagonal-shaped house in Watertown, WI:

Our primary destination was to see the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team play:

While the Brewers lost this game, we had a good time, and the game included a surprise visit from the comedian and TV show host Stephen Colbert:

When we arrived in Rhinelander, we had a chance to do many of our favorite things, such as having a campfire in the backyard of Mom & Dad's house:

We also took many hikes in the woods and enjoyed seeing a lot of wildlife, including this young porcupine:

I was able to visit a nearby stand of big timber, and measure some of the biggest trees (a hobby of mine).  Below are pictures of several of the white pines I saw:

After a few days visiting my folks, Kenny and I head up to Houghton, MI, so I could drop him off at Michigan Tech...  En route Kenny posed by a 4-H sign for his mom:

Kenny got in his dorm room fine--he's actually staying in the same one he had last year--and he got to meet his new roommate, a pleasant young fellow (just off of the following picture):

We took advantage of the time to visit the Quincy Mine part of the Keweenaw National Historic Park, which focuses on the copper mining of this era.  Below, Kenny leans up against a huge piece of native copper from one of these mines:

Below is the big mine hoist building (note Kenny near its base for scale):

All too soon I had to head back to Rhinelander, so one last photo with our young man before he starts his second year of college:

I spent a couple more days with my folks before heading back towards Arkansas.  I made another Madison-area visit, spending the night with my sister Laurie.  Brother Bob and his girl Nancy joined us for dinner at Mark and Laurie's excellent restaurant Bistro 101 in Mt. Horeb, WI:

Another wonderful meal!  Now that I'm back in Arkansas, we're getting things caught up and preparing for a visit from Hurricane Ida...  Hopefully, next week will go smoothly for everyone in this area, but we do expect disruptions due to this tropical weather event.  Still summer down here in Arkansas!!