Bill enjoying a breakfast chat before going to the boat..


Mary helps Chloe with her life-jacket..


Bob Ott watches as others join him on board our boat for our day of lighthousing..


Harry and Tony are the next to board.


Chloe seems to really enjoy the second time on a boat in her life, the first time on a Great Lake,Lake Michigan..


Rip's at the ready to shoot pictures of our first lighthouse stop..


The group is enjoying the great weather on our cruise around the islands off of the tip of Door County Peninsula... Roy seems to have zigged when the boat zagged..


Bill and Chloe friendship has grown over her short 2 and a half years to the point that Bill now calls himself Uncle Bill..

St. Martin Island Lighthouse is our first lighthouse stop..


Then on to Poverty Island Lighthouse..


Carolyn taking a picture of Poverty Island Lighthouse..


Then she poses for a picture with Bill..


as we leave Poverty behind...


Dave lays out the fixings for our picnic lunch in the bow of the boat..


We arrive next at Rock Island and a glimpse of Pottawatomie Lighthouse up on the hill..


At the far end of the Island the boat is docked at State Park dock and boathouse..

The sign said 1.2 miles to the lighthouse it seemed longer since it is uphill almost the whole way..


The group at the lighthouse gave little Chloe a cheer when she and Nana arrived at the lighthouse. Her little legs carried her the whole way; she did get a ride back with the Ranger on his ATV cart.. She had a blast riding back and waving as she past us..


Friends of Rock Island have done a wonderful job of restoring the lighthouse..


There is still a lot to be done but what a great job so far.. Friends of Rock Island


The group enjoyed touring the inside as well as the outside of the light..


The period furniture really lets you go back in time..


Bill, Harry and Tony had a litle presentation (images in the Legacy coming out soon) at the light before we all head back to the boat..


Heading back down the trail to the boat, luckily it is down hill most of the way..

Back on the boat and the first stop is Plum Island Range Light..


Everybody finishes up taking their pictures of the lighthouse..


Kim takes one last image as we leave Plum Island..


Pilot Island Lighthouse doesn't look like it is long for this world..


Chloe seems to want one final look at her first Lighthousing boat trip!!

2007 Door County Regional Dinner


Harry signs Bob Ott's regional buttons..


Gary purchases some more entries for the Hoosier Lighthousing money making project for OMC, the fantastic Quilt by Kat


Sue joins some fellw Hoosier Lighthousing Club members at their table..


Everybody found a table and shared stories..


As the tables filled up...


Some Hoosier Lighthousing Club members start through the buffet line..


Dave tells the group how the rest of the Regional will proceed..

Chloe's Road Home from The Regional

Wonderful pictures Paul. Looks like you had great weather for the whole trip.

The weather was great once we got to the hotel in Door county... There was a major storm to drive through on the way there... Ask Dave H how his drive was through Chicago on Thursday night before the Regional and his time beat a lot of others that took over 4 hours to go through or around Chicago..

We took the 'long' way from Indy to Door, over to the middle of Illinois then up the middle bypassing Chicago. It's an hour plus longer according to the map programs but it seems to get me there a lot quicker in the long run most of the time..

Yes, we had some weather around Chicago that Thursday. That was indirectly why we missed the Regional. The northwest suburbs where I and other family live got 4" of rain in an hour and a half to go with 80 mile per hour winds. Streets flooded, trees down all over the place and 600,000 people lost power. My mother in law was without power for 72 hours, and she was one of the lucky ones. It was quite a storm.

Mike

Love your pictures. It would be nice if that rain came to NC we need it bad.

As usual Paul your pictures are great!!! Looks like a good time was had by all. It's a;ways great when people get together, and in a special way when it's about lighthouses!!!

My trip to Door County regional? It was fantastic once I got there, but getting there was worse than an excursion to hell and back.

I left my townhouse in New Jersey at 9:45am Thursday morning and didn’t arrive at the motel in Door County until 2:00pm Friday afternoon. And NO -- I didn’t walk! So why did it take me almost 29 hours to get there? Let me tell you a tale straight out of Disney’s Fantasy Land.

•9:45am -- Left my townhouse and drove to a hotel to wait for a shuttle.
•10:05am -- The shuttle picked me up at the hotel and took me to Newark Liberty Airport.
•My flight to Chicago was delayed for almost three hours.
•We finally taxied out to the runway and sat again. The pilot announced that if we didn’t take off before 6:00pm CDT, we would have to return to the gate – because the crew was about ready to reach its maximum hour requirement.
•We flew out at exactly two (2) minutes to six!
•After arriving in the Chicago area, we circled and circled and circled and circled for hours.
•There was a tornado reported in the area and the controllers had even left the tower and ran to hide in the basement. The lightning show that God provided was absolutely beautiful! It was better than watching a movie. The rain poured down with hurricane fury.
•We finally landed at 8:00pm Chicago time. We were the last plane to be allowed to land. Immediately after that they CLOSED the airport.
•Getting a hotel room in the general area was impossible. Everything and everyone was 100% booked.
•Absolutely no rental cars were available.
•The crowd of people trying to make next-day flight arrangements was impossibly long.
•FINALLY, the airport folks brought out hundreds of army-type cots and we all rushed to claim one. Many travelers ended up sleeping on the floor. By this time it was a little after midnight.
•Extra security guards and police were assigned to patrol the areas where thousands of people were trying to get some much needed sleep.
•AND GUESS WHAT! They opened the airport at 4:00am and made everyone get up. The bathrooms were packed. The restaurants didn’t open until about 7:00am. The pay phones all had long lines of people clamoring to place a call. I saw one guy offer $100 to borrow some kid’s cell phone. The kid took it.
•The first flight to Green Bay didn’t take off until 9:00am.
After we arrived in Green Bay, we were greeted with another unanticipated surprise. The airline, in order to put as many people on the plane as possible, elected to put our luggage on a truck and drive it up! The reason behind this brilliant piece of human ingenuity was weight limitation.
•That made sense – sort of -- except the truck failed to arrive before the plane landed. About 40 people lined up to report “lost” luggage.
•Then the airport received all call! The truck driver had gotten lost and couldn’t find the flipping airport!
•The truck finally arrived – and everyone rushed out to get their baggage. Airline personnel kept insisting that we all file a lost baggage report.
•Everyone just grabbed their luggage and left. The airline representative just stood there dumbfounded.
•I rented a car and finally arrived at our motel at 2:00pm

WHAT A TRIP! WHAT A FANFASTIC REGIONAL! WHAT AN UNBELIEVABLE 29 HOURS!

bobo

Bob, How was the trip back home to Jersey?

WOW WOW AND MORE WOW!!!! Bob, I bet you did a lot of this

What a dreadful thing to happen! Hopefully the rest of the trip made up for it!

There's a lesson to be learned by all here; AVOID OHARE AT ALL COSTS IF YOU CAN! I regularily fly out of O Hare for business. Of the last 15 round trips (30 flights) I've taken, 2, count them 2 hve NOT been delayed, leaving or arriving. I've been at airports trying to come home only to be delayed by "weather", I'll call Patti and she'll tell me there's not a cloud in the sky. It's just a terrible airport to use.

Fly into Milwaukee if you can.

Mike

I agree I went to Denver that same day and went through Dallas. Any gate that had to do with Chicago was a mob scene and very ugly. When I returned I went through Dallas again and the same thing. Flights canceled mob scene angry people. I plan on using a entire day for flying now because even if the flight takes 2 hrs there is always a problem.
At least you had a great trip and good weather that should make up a little for the travel.

Now that a couple of weeks has passed since the regional in Door County, we want to say how much fun we had with everyone who attended. It was a very busy couple of days. The stories from the attendees on how their journey went to get there was extra special because of weather conditions.

As always Dave did a super job of getting everyone up to speed on the events. He and Susan did a great job of making sure everyone had enough food on the boat trip. I truly believe eveyone had a good boat trip. The walk out to Pottawatomie was good exercise after lunch. Dave made sure those who couldn't walk the 1.25 miles still had a way to get out to see the light. It was great to see Jim Johnston again and see Bill and Harry give him the special #1 Pottawatomie light. This man has waited a long time for this lighthouse to be produced. The weather was great for taking pictures of the lighthouses.

The dinner and regional event went off without a hitch. The Rip and Roy show was in full force. We had a blast. Where else in this big wide world can you find people who will travel hours, days, thousands of miles to see each other and help out a lighthouse group that is in need of financial support?

Thank you to Dave, Tony, Harry and Bill and of course the AMO Gallery for bringing the lights to the regional dinner.

Mary and Jeff