Last Saturday, my friend and I took a road trip to Benton Harbor to pick up handblown glass pumpkins from Eli Zilke.  It began with heading to the Kalamazoo area to watch a grandchild’s soccer game.  The grandson scored a hat trick (3 goals in one game).  I had forgotten how much fun soccer can be on a sunny Saturday morning.

Eli Zilke Glass Blowing Studio

We got to watch Eli make a glass pumpkin with his interns, meet two other artists, and just hang out for a few minutes.

Eli Zilke making a glass pumpkin

Here’s when the “goat rodeo” really started.  A term I had never heard before.  I looked it up.  The slang dictionary says this:  A goat rodeo is a slang term for something going totally, unbelievably, disastrously wrong, and there’s nothing left to do but to sit back and watch the trainwreck.  Bruce’s friend didn’t mean that every time he takes a road trip with Bruce it’s a trainwreck. He meant that you never knew where you might be stopping to see something.  After the glass shop, we stopped at an antique shop, Elephant’s Breath Antiques.  We found some wonderful Stickley Furniture.

Earlier in the week, it took us 13 hours to get home from the Upper Peninsula.  We stopped to see Miner’s Castle Rock; the Big Springs; the Mackinaw Bridge; and Petoskey.

 

 

Several hikes at different locations where we could easily get to the beach.  We climbed 262 stairs each way down a ravine to get the water.

 

But, I digress.  The road trip to get this year’s hand blown glass pumpkins!!  I think these are the best ones to date.  I have been collecting Eli’s pumpkins for the last 7 years.  Not sure which color I need this year.

Glass Pumpkins for this FALL!

Back to the goat rodeo, of course, we had to stop to find a beach for sunset and look for beach glass.

Take care and do something creative today.  C2.

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