# 100 — Visit "baby Paul" at college

... CHECK!!!!!!!!


Last weekend while I was in Chicago for Lori and Derek's Engagement session, I made plans to visit my youngest brother in Urbana/Champagne, Illinois.

We started with a tour of the campus, especially the lab where Paul works.


This is plasma ... I thought it was made up in Ghostbusters, but evidently, it's a real thing and Paul had photos to share. :-)

We then went around the rest of the campus. Isn't it beautiful?!?!!??!!!!


More fall beauty!


Check out the stunning leaves! I can't get OVER the awesome color. :-)


So glad to get another item knocked off of my 101 in 1001 list. :-)

On my trip to Chicago, I took a less conventional method of travel. When I was hanging at Joyce and Billy's wedding, one of Joyce's co-workers was talking about the Megabus. While I never found a ticket for $1, I *did* get tickets for under $50 one-way. Yup, that's a round trip to Chicago for less than $100! Unbelievable! And the best part was ... NO AIRPORT SECURITY!!!!!!


It was a long trip ... 10 hours up ... but pretty good. I rode on the top of the double-decker bus and was able to watch and be sure no one ran off with my luggage. :-)

And tickets to/from UIlli were less than $20 one-way.

I *did* get stircrazy on the trip ... and if the bus has been on the road for awhile, the toilet might be full and then you have to wait for one of the stops .. but stops are reasonable.

And a great part about using the bus ... it uses less fuel than a plane would, so I was actually hugging trees! :-)

I also have to give a big shout out to my awesome mother-in-law for letting us crash in KC, and for also meeting Erik half way to drop me off. Thanks, BA!

Mikols Men

On any given Saturday or Sunday afternoon, it's a given that you will find someone passed out on "The Green Couch" at my parents' house. The thing seriously swallows people whole!

Paul crashed out, and was having a snore session, when I grabbed this photo of him! Being a college student is hard work, so I understand the need to nap during spring break. ;-)


After Easter dinner at the Sheldon household, Grandpa Benny crashed out ... sitting up! He is a sleeping champ! Anytime, anywhere! I wish I could do that! In the background, you'll see Carl sprawled out on the couch, nabbing a few zzz's also.


Lastly, here is dad. When I was in 8th grade, he taught me to work a SLR camera, and you can't tear it out of my hands now! He continues to take photographs, but not in the professional realm. He's more of a "prosumer." He got a new camera recently and has been having fun with it!

Here is the photo he took of Max:

Paul + wind farm = field trip

My brother Paul volunteered to come collect me from Salina on Friday night. This was important because Erik was joining me in Wichita on Sunday and we wanted to be able to ride back to Salina together Monday afternoon.

So...we went to Martinelli's, one of Erik's favorite places to go.

After dinner, I asked Paul if he had a little extra time and would like to go on a field trip. He agreed, so we headed west from Salina, heading toward Ellsworth on I-70. He filled me in on his engineering classes, and it turns out the subject of wind energy has come up in one of his classes. I filled him in on the back and forth debate over the wind farm in Ellis County as well.

We headed off the Interstate and hit some back roads. THEN we took Paul's little Honda OFF ROADING! It bottomed out once, but made it up the hill to where one of the turbines was. This photo was taken basically at dusk. Minimal sunlight, and mostly moon light. It was taken at 1/7 of a second, which is SLOW, but sometimes possible for photojournalists. :-)


So...it looks like Paul is going to do a college project on wind energy! Excellent! (yeah, this photo is a little blurry, but it's at about 1/7 of a second, which didn't hold still this time!)


This last one is NOT in focus at all, but I like the eerie feel of it ... sort of ghost like. I'd not been up close to a turbine in a long time ... and both Paul and I were certainly given a sense of perspective about our place/size in the universe.


I'm also hoping to make a longer term documentary project out of this wind project, which was also strongly contested. I'm going to apply for a grant next month, so we'll see what happens.