Lakes, Trees and Cicadas

We really enjoyed visiting Darlene, Steve and Lisa and seeing where they live.   They are in a very beautiful area in a subdivision built around four lakes that they just refer to as Lake 1, 2, 3, 4.  Since we got home I had not posted yet some pictures of the area.

Looking across one end of Lake 1 the largest lake at sunset

I spliced together 2 of the pictures of Lake 1 at sunset to try to make a panorama

Darlene and Tessie at Lake 4 in the evening. 

Elaine, Darlene and Lisa swimming at Lake 4 on a hot afternoon

Sitting out at the end of a long narrow peninsula that goes out into Lake 1

When we were visiting there it was the year of the cicada and they were out in full force and full volume.   In some heavily treed places the high pitched whirring sound of the cicadas was deafening.  I saw some information that the sound of some cicadas can be up to 120 db and cause hearing damage if you are up close.   Most of the southeast US is covered by the 13 year cicadas this year.  I looked up some information and the varieties of  periodical cicadas have a 13 year life cycle in the southeast US and 17 years in the northeast US.  After hatching the nymphs stay underground until the year they appear all at once.     

This short 10 second video clip has the sound of the cicadas while out on the front porch at Steve and Darlene's.  It is a continuous high pitched whirring sound but not that loud in the video since the trees are a ways away.

Other than getting educated about cicadas, it was great visit and a very beautiful area.

Graduation BBQ

Today after church we had a BBQ at the park for four graduates.  Janice and Jeff graduated from university and Max and Carl graduated from high school.   It is quite a while since we went out to the park for a BBQ like that and we had a great time.  It was sunny most of the time but started to cloud over later with a cool wind.   We got cleaned up and ready to leave just before the rain showers started. 

More Rain and Flooding and Wind

After the spring flooding this year we have continued to get more rain.  Thursday night and Friday central and southern Saskatchewan got 50 to 75 mm ( 2" to 3") more rain and more flooding.  Many areas in southeast Saskatchewan that were disaster areas already are now in a state of emergency.

 

We took this picture of flooding in the fields near Midale on May 23 when we were heading south on our trip to the US.  Water was flooding the fields all the way south to the US.   So the rain this weekend further worsened the flooding problems in the area since the spring. 
 
We did not see much farming happening in either southeast Saskatchewan or in the midwest US.  All we saw turning in the fields were wind turbines.  There were wind turbines in all the midwest states for mile after mile in the fields.  Wind is certainly an abundant resource in southern Saskatchewan and the midwest US.  But we need some drying winds with sunshine to get the farmers back on the land. 

When we were traveling in the midwest US the water was flooding the low areas and up to the edges of the roads in many places.    We follow the Missouri River  all the way down on our trip from North Dakota to Missouri and we crossed it several times.  It was very high with adjacent valley areas flooded. 

One evening Elaine and Lisa rode about 6 miles on a bike path (see inset in the picture below) along the Missouri River starting at Washington Missouri.   Darlene and I sat on a bench looking at the river and visited and I took some pictures.  The river was very high and flowing very fast.  

 

The bike path was partly flooded as seen ahead of them in the picture above.  The river is quite wide and the trees on the other side are farther away than it appears in the picture due to dim lighting near sunset.   You can get an idea of the width of the river by the bridge in the distance in the upper picture. 
  
Meanwhile back at home this evening it is still raining ...

Our Scientist

Yesterday Elaine and I were at Janice's convocation for her B.Sc degree.   We were very proud to see her get her degree knowing how much work went into it.  She also added extra classes in science education to be able to be accredited in secondary physics education.  After the convocation we met Mike and Nicole at the Fainting Goat restaurant for supper.  It uses meat and produce mostly from local farms and I think everyone enjoyed their meal there.

US Trip Fuel Costs

We were keeping track of the fuel we bought on our trip and today I added it up and calculated the average fuel economy.

• We traveled a total of 5427 km (3373 miles) on our trip including a lot of touring around in the St. Louis area.  The distance over which we averaged the fuel use was 5238 km (3256 miles.)   
• We spent a total of $500 on gas for 133.6 US gallons ( 505.7 litres) at an average price of $3.75/US gal.
• The average US gas price of $3.75/US gal =  $0.99/litre which is less than our price in Regina of $1.36 (down to $1.27 when we got home.)
• Our average fuel economy was 9.65 litres/100km = 24.4 miles/US gal = 29.3 miles/ Can gal

I was quite pleased with the fuel economy of our van on the trip considering it was heavily loaded with equipment ( the oxygen tank is 124 lbs) and luggage and driving at the faster speeds on the US interstate highways as well as the hills and curves in Missouri and stop and go driving in the St. Louis area.

Home Again

We arrived home this afternoon after being away for 2 weeks.  We had a great time but it is always good to be home after a long trip.  We spent 9 days visiting Darlene, Steve and Lisa  (and Tessie) and then this past weekend we visited John and Mae and others in the Minneapolis area.   We put a total of about 5400 km on our van and all the traveling went well after the one day of stormy weather on the way down.  We had a lot of  hot humid weather while there which we enjoyed after the cool weather at home.  Darlene had a 2 page list of things to do (or things for me to fix)  while we were there and I think almost everything was crossed off the list.  We took a lot of pictures and will try to post some and tell  about the trip and visits.