After dinner last night at Jeff and Karen’s, I picked up US 41 (your typical four lane divided highway) at the end of Bellemeade, and I headed north towards the Marriott. As I passed over the Lloyd Expressway, I saw a white van coming up the off ramp, entering my lane, heading in my direction. This has happened to me only once before, and I can say even in a non-highway situation closings speeds are such that you have very little time to react.

Two cars in front of me swerved out of his way, as I did. Open jawed, I watched in my rear view mirror for the inevitable head-on collision, but the cars behind me did as we did. No one honked, no one veered off the road to move safely away, no one ran into him for an easy insurance settlement – they just got out of his way and kept on going.

Last night’s storm dropped sixteen inches of snow on Torroemore where Susan lives and Diane is hiding.

On our way home from Kansas, Peter suggested we stop at the Missouri Botanical Museum. The first display was a room with eight thousand orchids, followed by a greenhouse with Camelias in bloom, then a rainforest dome, and finally an outdoors Japanese Garden.

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I finally bought a heater for working outdoors. It’s a tricky thing to use. First, it works best if the only job scheduled for the day is sitting in front of it drinking coffee. Secondly, turning the thing on reminds me of our old unpredictable gas grill where safe operation depended on distance from the thing.

You press one red button to release the gas and a second one to ignite it. However, if your timing is not right, you get no flame or a perfect replication of a solar flare. The first time I tried the heater I burned most of the hair …wait a second, let me look…no, all of the hair off my left hand. The second time – and this is I believe is a patentable discovery – I incinerated my nose hairs. A most amazing, painless event accompanied by the quick crackling sound of mini-forest fire.

Niagara gallery.

This trip I ran into two monster traffic jams. The first one, right before Cleveland, I dodged by following truck drivers who seemed to know where they were going. The second one, near the center of Louisville, forced me to take the first available off ramp and right by the Louisville Visual Art Association. How could I not stop in? This was their featured exhibit.

Stopped at Panera Bread for dinner.

Clearly, the best broad view of the falls is here from the Canadian side, but for getting close to the action I liked that slick overhanging platform.

I found another Eric Grohe in Niagara Falls. The problem with his early work is that his paint fades, as it has here.

I was delighted to catch this woman with her stroller because she looks like she’s in the painting.

See, she’s gone now.

Given that I was in the area, I decided to walk over and visit the real thing. I haven’t seen the falls in forty-two years and I’m really happy I happened by in the winter. No crowds and a forbidding, frozen landscape.

A whole lot of people aren’t going to find this guy funny, but it is Tuesday and I am in control. My friend Rob introduced me to Sam all those years ago.

More photos by Brian.