Delayed Wisconsin stuff!

Well, I decided to make the steam devil stuff my priority and quickly got that stuff on the blog - but during a busy week quickly forgot about anything else. I was lucky enough to have the steam devil stuff featured on both SpaceWeather.Com, and Wired Science Magazine - thanks to them!

I meant to get a few of the other non-steam devil photos up from last weekend in Wisconsin. The trip ended up going perfectly, even if the weather was iffy at first. Leaving DeKalb under sunny skies and temperatures in the middle 70s, things looked great! However, and I knew it was coming - we punched through the cold front that had been waiting for us on the Illinois/Wisconsin border and were greeted by howling winds and a rapid drop from 70F to 52F by the time we arrived at the lake. Dealing with a completely saturated ground (which is all sand up there) and howling 45 mph winds there was no way the newly purchased tent was staying up. After combating the elements for a half hour, I managed to get the tent upright but as mentioned, the wet soil and howling winds weren't having it so I quickly packed things back up and we moved indoors.

We awoke to beautiful sunny skies and cool, but refreshing temperatures. Scott Weberpal joined Tia and I around noon and with a fire in the fireplace we enjoyed some good ole college football. The Wisconsin game ended up being blacked out by DirecTV so we marched over to Parker Lake Lodge and enjoyed the game with some good company, including a group of cyclists that had just finished biking from Chicago.

That evening Scott and I hit the lake in the row boat where he armed himself with the fishing arsenal, and I armed myself with the camera arsenal. We were accompanied by rather good sized fish leaping at times five feet into the air and flopping back into the water. I'd never seen anything like it on that lake before. It resembled the Asian Carp, of the Illinois River. Unfortunately, after a cold front passage all Scott could muster was an 8 inch or so northern pike that fell off his line before any photo could be taken.

Sunday was supposed to be the first frost of the season with temperatures plunging below freezing. I knew the lake temperature was still in the middle 60s so I figured plenty of lake steam would be present. Well, you all know the rest.

The rest of Sunday ended up being a beautiful day without a cloud in the sky. Excluding the debacle that Friday night was weather wise, it was a perfect fall getaway.

Mr. Weberpal giving a face as he awaits that first "bite".

A perfect October evening on Deep Lake.

The morning of the steam devils. Hard to be this. Nothing but myself and the row boat under me making any noise except for the birds.

She won't win any beauty prizes, but this thing has certainly served it's purpose for many a year.
I'd sure trust it over the row boat with camera gear strapped around my neck.

Another hard to beat - the peace and serenity of a middle of nowhere lake, some spicy sausages on the grill, and the lovely Tia standing by with a book in hand.

Tia and her buddies sharing one last moment before the lake freezes over.

I feel like I've still got plenty of ramblings, but I'm just lacking the verbal creativity at this moment. This was hard enough in itself to plug out, but the photos were long overdue.