Fall Travel to Moab

Time to start a new journal. My first entry is a trip to Moab.

I find myself interested lately in traveling to Moab (i.e. Liz).  This time they have the Moab Folk Festival, community Day of the Dead celebration and Liz's studio hosts a Soup Bowl meal to raise funds for a local charity. Good enough reasons for me. This time I fly out. I didn't look close enough at the ticket options and selected one that required me to wake up at 2:30 a.m. 

I check out the two quilt supply shops and find they have a selection of outdoor-themed fabric I'll never find in Kansas. I have a quilt retreat coming up and need a quilt pattern. They had that, too. I chose a Rocky Mountain National Park 4-panel fabric.

Of course, we (I) need coffee time. After spending time helping in her ceramics studio we chill out at a local coffee shop.

I've purchased a second touring bicycle to keep in Moab for convenience. It arrives and I assemble it. Then we have the Moab Folk Festival. Headliner is Sam Bush, who I've followed for 45 years. The festival grounds is not that large so it's a more intimate feel that the Walnut Valley Festival back in Winfield, Kansas.

Tried a new (to me) espresso drink: affogato. That's a different way to spell heaven. 

This community really supports their soup bowl fundraiser. This year the money goes to a kids nutrition program administered through the schools. Liz volunteered me to help, so I washed pots and pans for my shift. All a good time. I got a bowl out of the effort. The day before Liz and I cooked up some broccoli and cheese soup for it in a commercial kitchen. I love cooking in a nice commercial kitchen. It's the right tool for the job, as my dad would say. 

While Liz prepared to teach a class tonight, I took my new (to me) bike for a test ride. I stopped at the Moab Springs Ranch for a coffee and a sketch. This view to the west is superb! A local told me this formation is called "The Portal". 

Time to go home. This time I found a really nice view at the first leg of the trip: Grand Junction, Colorado. This part of the country received some snow over the last two nights. A light powdering of snow stayed on the flanks of the cliffs here and by a fluke of good luck my terminal had a great view of it. This is my last sketch of this trip. 

Sketch Workshop Sketchout

 I spent a week at a workshop for watercolor sketching. This was at the Madeline Island School of the Arts. We had four instructors from overseas, all specializing in mobile watercolor sketching/painting. This is my third class at MISA. I just love it there! It's a short ferry hop from Bayfield, WI. On the Thursday night of our week-long workshop the instructors suggested a sketchout at a local pub. 

This is my first totally watercolor journal entry. My "standard" is watercolor pencils. I wanted this workshop because it would push me to try watercolors. I've taken a couple on-line classes in watercolor, which got me started. It also required me to buy a lot of tubes of paint. However, can one really own too many art supplies? Not. It felt great to finally start using them. Much to learn but I'm on my way.

Fountain pen, watercolors, enhanced with colored pencils. 

Coffeehouse Discovery

 I'm always on the lookout for new coffee shops, and I love to travel. Therefore, I combine these two interests and revel when I succeed. On a drive to son Brian's place I spied a food option listing sign on I-70 that mentioned a Casey Coffee Company. Casey, IL is JUST off of I-70. Always room for coffee, so I stopped. It's a little town of  2376 but one that is big into self promotion in a neat way without being overbearing. They have a whole list of "worlds largest" features to see. This just calls out for sketching. 

I fell in love with the world's largest mailbox. They built this thing so you can walk up the stairs and look down at Main Street from the front edge! And this thing was in view of a window seat at Casey Coffee. So I ordered a coffee and sketched. I sketched it too large just because I was too engaged with it. That happens to me.

The coffee shop is great! On my return trip I stopped for breakfast (oatmeal, choose your toppings). I'll be back.

Fountain pen, watercolor pencil with waterbrush. 

LBL Homeplace, Revisit

 I camp at Land Between the Lakes in western Kentucky a couple times a year. I always visit The Homeplace where staff interpret the history of the area. I've sketched the main house a couple times already and posted them. This is the second house. It's a "single pen" and is smaller. It was an overcast and misty day but I found a dry spot under the eves of the woodshop. Talked to a couple history interpreters and had a relaxing time sketching.

Fountain pen, watercolor pencils and waterbrush. I'm still exploring use of a wash I mix in an empty half pan. I'm touching my toe into the world of watercolor painting.

Long Weekend in St. Paul

A while back I had a technical conference in St.Paul. The conference was Tuesday/Wednesday. We like the area, so we pulled off Monday as vacation and made a short 3-day weekend vacation. We've been here once before, so we had some places to re-visit and some new ones to explore. Sketching during a vacation can be a tough assignment. Time is short. However, I did find some time at a neat casual restaurant right on the Mississippi River edge that I could sketch. Then I simply listed the places we went, as a memory jogger.

While we were chilling out, a new tug came upriver and lingered around some barges next to the restaurant. The tug never exactly halted, but was slow enough for me to put together a rough sketch. These new tugs amaze me! This one had two engines and was not noisy and yet could probably push the Empire State Building down the river. Such understated power.

KATY Trail - Almost

It's early in the year but it's starting to be bicycle weather. Rita and I were talking about how much we love bicycle trails and concocted a plan to get together, with Wilma and Jana, and hit a trail somewhere. I recommended the KATY trail in Missouri. Wilma and I have been on parts of it over the years and I wanted them, as newbies to this sport, to experience a top-notch rail-to-trail. We made plans for a place to stay and figured we'd bike in the day and base ourselves at a place to stay, and pulled a couple days vacation to create a long weekend. Rocheport fits the bill.


Unfortunately for me, the week prior to the trip I over-exert my right knee and it's barely functional. I can walk - but no biking. Plan B: I drive the other three to and from the trail and I use the down time, while they are on the trail, to SKETCH. This is a great compromise and it works out fine. I still miss riding, but the other three get in some great riding time and we have plenty of time over meals to catch up on things and the evenings are all spent doing things together.

We spend time in Columbia. Being a college town it has plenty of things to do. We wanted to catch Pokey Lafarge the first night at The Blue Note, but he cancelled due to illness. We caught other live music though.

Then there's the FOOD! Restaurants at both Rocheport and Columbia fit the bill. Missouri University at Columbia is their state's land grant college, so it has Vet Med and agriculture. That means a retail room that sells ice cream! Buck's Ice Cream, with Tiger Stripe ice cream as one offering. We hit all the retail stores in Rocheport, numbering almost a dozen. Many artist studios.

Great long weekend. Hope to do trips like this again. Hopefully do trips where I can ride, too, but these sketches would not have happened if I were in the saddle. Too many ways to have a good time.

August '16 Alaska Cruise, Part II

That's it for the trip. We could sure do that more often. Just need to find that money tree.

August '16 Alaska Cruise, Part I

This is our first cruise. Took 35 years of marriage to pass before we made it happen. I didn't know if I'd have time to sketch or not, but I took my gear, anyway. As it turned out I was able to get plenty done and saved enough spaces to finish at home. The journal doesn't capture everything we did, but works with our photo album that, together, helps us remember the trip. Glad I did. I'll let the sketches speak for themselves. We sure enjoyed the trip.

Just one clarification: I don't post these to brag about what we did. I post them because I really enjoy seeing the travel journals of other sketchers and figure maybe somebody might have an interest in how I do it. That's all. I'm not impressed by people that brag about all their worldly travels and won't become one of them.

Lake Superior Vacation

We took a short vacation to see some big lake country. We already have seen Duluth and the North Shore. We like Ely, MN and the Boundary Waters. This time I chose Isle Royale National Park, which is an island on Lake Superior. I sketched some but not as much as I would have liked. The trip was almost two months ago so you can tell it took me a while to finish the sketchbook entries.

Before we could drive up there we stopped my Minneapolis and St. Paul. We like this area, too. I learned my bookbinding at Minnesota Book Arts with Roz a few years ago so I like to stop by the store when we are in the area. Then we (I) had to check out Wet Paint art supply store after hearing so much about it. The next day way drive through Duluth on our way to Copper Harbor.

Then a ferry ride to Isle Royale. It's postponed by one day due to bad weather. That cuts our two night stay on the island down to one night. I manage to get motion sickness on the ferry because the waves are still 10'-15'. I survive. On Isle Royale we get in some hiking and eat at the restaurant. We could spend a lot more time here! I get some nice quiet sketch time in the morning as we wait for our ferry ride back to Copper Harbor. Quiet little harbor. I sit on a quiet dock and can sketch the marina and ferry before we board. The ride home was smooth and sunny. I was all over the decks watching the view.

Next stop is Bayfield for a couple nights. We had time to check out Madeline Island and eat out a lot. Found some great coffee. Had a glass bottom boat tour of some ship wrecks around the Apostle Islands. Did some sketching on the docks. I like all the boats. Again, could have spent a lot more time here. The sailing and boating culture is very strong here. I had one acquaintance assume I boated, and simply asked "motor boat or sail boat?". We're not in Kansas.

Then it's a drive back home. Time flies. Glad I brought my sketch gear, even if I didn't have much time to use it. The time I did grab sure felt nice.

Fall River Lake Camping

Last year a wind storm totaled out our travel trailer. We replaced it early this year and have been camping out more this year that in recent years. It's been nice.

We had our fourth outing this past weekend.  Packed our tandem kayak, too. We spent Friday scouting out the Fall River as it comes into the Lake. Our Kansas kayaking book tells us of the various put-in points. We scouted out where to go when Amy and Cody come out to visit us on Saturday with their kayaks.

Had a nice chat with a Wildlife & Parks field guy. He verified the book's information. The names for the access points are all correct. Water conditions are low right now so the flow is down. Several riffles would be present, but that was OK. It's an excuse to walk through cool clear flowing shallow water on a hot day. Felt like a little kid again!

Quick Bike Tour

Well, calling it a tour may be a stretch, but it was an over-niter for both of us and we used my pannier bags for our luggage. We hit the Prairie Spirit Trail in eastern Kansas. I've been wanting to try a rail-to-trail bike ride with motel so that Wilma and I could do it together. She doesn't sleep on the ground anymore so my loaded touring method with camping gear doesn't work with her. That will just be my solo thing.

All went well, and Wilma would almost agree with that assessment. It was a bit warm Saturday. I wanted to be off the trail by the time the day's heat arrived but we were running a little late. We hit 95F and there wasn't as much shade on the trail as I was hoping for. It took the wind out of our sails. But we made it fine and recouped in an air-conditioned motel room. We just waited for the sun to go down a little before we hit Ottawa for eating and seeing the sites.

I love cruising small town Kansas on a bicycle to see the sites. I learned that on my two trips with Biking Across Kansas (organized ride), where we'd cruise the cities each night where we stayed. Sunday we got up early to beat the heat and the going was better. We watched the sun rise as we were pedaling South, back to Garnett. We gave a dozen farmers having coffee at the local dive pit-stop something to talk about with our biking attire as we came in for a bite. I had a nice chat and ear-scratching with a blue healer in a pickup in the parking lot as we left, waiting for his gossipy master inside.

That all made for a 58 mile two-day outing, which was the most Wilma has ever done. I'm proud of her! Also, we're still married . . . so far . . . I think.

Spring Break

It's a little late, but here's my journaling for our Spring Break this year. Went to see our son at his new job, and it's in Seattle.


For this trip I didn't get to sketch much at all. Too busy and now time to myself. So, I took plenty of pictures for sketching after we got home. It's not my preferred way, mainly because I take too long to post-process everything (witness the slow posting). When I sketch in the moment, it's finished when the moment passes and not several weeks later. But, it's still fun to sketch it at home.

Seattle was fun to explore. Our son had the itinerary set, and all we needed to do was keep up. I've got sketching locations figured out for our next visit(s). We now have a feel for what Seattle is. Experienced some typical cloudy/rainy time and some partly sunny time. This Kansas boy wants to do some big boat sketching, and I want to research the different types of deep sea fishing and crabbing boats so I can understand the equipment differences.


I think it would take a lot of visits before I'd get bored of Seattle.

BAK 2010

Well, this is a delayed posting. I just finished it, but it's for a bike ride I did the first full week of June. Life has been hectic lately and I'm in a sketch idea backlog. It'll happen, just not spontaneously.

Anyway, for the second time I've done the Biking Across Kansas (BAK) organized ride. The first time was in 2007 with daughter, Amy, and brother, Dan. This time we add Amy's fiance, Cody. Actually, Cody was this year's spark plug to get us all to go. It's his first time and he had enough of our stories and wanted to experience it himself. The process of pedaling 6 hours a day and fighting 860 other people for showers and food at local high schools doesn't lend itself to sketch journaling. I kept a traditional journal and took pictures. So, what I did here was a recap sketch journal entry after the fact. For my blog I think I will take one day at a time for this seven day journey and make a post based on my journal and add some pictures. Then back to my regularly-scheduled sketching. Stay tuned.

Spring Break 2010

This year we decided to check out Santa Fe for our daughter's Spring Break (her idea). We've visited once before a few years ago and wanted another look. Made a 4-day holiday out of last weekend and took Amtrak from Kansas City to Lamy (closest train depot).



The main purpose of the trip is a family short vacation with a full schedule of things to do. I usually like a loose schedule with a few anchor events, but when time is short ya gotta keep moving. So, travel journaling had to take back seat and I sketched when I could work it in. Luckily I still managed to get most sketching done on the trip. The writing and maps followed when I got home.




That's it for this trip. Don't know if my travel sketch process will stay the same forever, but it works for now.

Walkabout 2009, Part II

This is the second half of the travel journal. The sketching worked well
because it forced me to slow down, which wasn't a bad thing.
I'm not in as good of shape as 40 years ago
when I started this backpacking thing. There's no hurry. I usually get in trouble when I have flashbacks of the energy levels of youth and try to do it now. Gotta keep grounded and hike smarter, especially since I'm solo. Don't need any overuse injury complicating things. And this trip showed me the enjoyment level is just as high as when I covered twice the distance. Actually more enjoyable because I'm absorbing more of what I see and smell and feel.

In reading what people are posting on the web about solo backpacking, one said that it's not better that going with a group, it's just another form of backpacking. It's still fun to go with a group but it's a totally different experience because you're always interacting with the others. That communication is fun but distracts from experiencing what's around you. I think that says it well. That's also why it blends so well with sketch journaling, which is also about absorbing what's around you. They were made for each other.

One last thing I wanted to note here. When Wilma and I took a week in July '08 to see Glacier National Park I created my first travel journal. It was a combination of pre-trip, trip, and post-trip sketching and photo transfers. I like that approach for big trips. But another approach is to have a goal that when the trip is over, the journal is over. I wanted to try it, so for this trip that was the goal. The sketches you see are done live (one from memory) or not at all. The only exception is the map (which took some post-trip analysis) and a couple factoid inserts. My conclusion: the "sketch now or never" is OK if you're in control of your time, but I don't think it would work for trips with others. That said, it sure is nice to be finished with the journal and not drag it out.

Walkabout 2009, Part I

Last year I took a 2 day/2 night solo bicycle trip to stretch my legs. It was backpacking the two prior years. This year I decided to try backpacking again. I like to have something to plan for and to exercise for. That gives me a chance to be in fair shape one week out of each year. It's a goal. Maybe I'll be in fair shape two week out of a year in the future.

Since I sketch more now, I'll pack my sketch gear. Had to reduce some, though. The graphite pencils and erasers and gel pens didn't make the cut. Only the watercolor pencils and Pitt Artist pens. The journal is the one I just made from Roz's class in Minneapolis. Looking forward to trying the new paper, and to carry my own handmade creation.


This day's post is the first half of my travel journal. The other half will follow. The trip went well. With no long distances planned and only myself to accommodate, I'd stop hiking when something struck my fancy to sketch, and I could hang around camp to get sketching in. Works well. Missouri has some beautiful country out there.