I’ve been travelling a lot lately, which both delivers the promise of one of this site’s charters and keeps me trained for the rigors of rambling. In the last five weeks, I’ve done long weekends in Kansas City, Carmel-by-the-Sea, and Okoboji (IA). Expect reports from the fields and beaches soon…

Meantime, this shot happened during sundown from a deck in Okoboji, a beloved getaway  of mine since childhood. Obviously, the dock crews work harder than vacationers know. Here, hundreds of docks and lifts await their annual migration back to the lake, in a twisted and noisy dance not unlike the spring rituals of the birds and animals hiding all around.

Soon, the weather (and water) will warm up, the vacationers will barge in by the thousands, and summer will spring into hot action. Then the season will fade away, like a beautiful but too-brief sunset. Summer is short. Step out and find your warm comfort zone before fall and the chilled docks come cashing ashore again!