Red, white and blue

For the longest time I thought it was going to be red, blank and blue.  Nothing white appealed to my eye and I was making a solo final loop for a couple extra miles before the white appeared.

Probably best not to get too far ahead of myself here.

We had a guide for the first portion of the ride but important shopping obligations led to the guide turning back before we arrived at red.  The GRider and I were on our own by the time GRider began announcing that she was seeing cardinal flowers in the ditch.

The ditch is the natural habitat for this wild flower as the guide has previously informed us.  Apparently they only do well in an environment where the roots are perpetually damp.  These are on Sand just before it intersects with Van Buren.

You could Google map that if you are actually EXTREMELY interested.

I considered, given the post title going with white here next but I decided instead to retain chronological integrity.

We had deviated slightly from a strict out and back and found ourselves below Riley on 160th instead of the usual 168th.  You could Google map that if . . . blah, blah, blah, blah.

South on 160th takes you right past the side entrance, or maybe the front entrance, to our perennial favorite source of blueberries.

The confusion over whether the 160th street is the side or front entrance stems from the fact that although this certainly LOOKS like the front entrance, the entrance much more frequently used by the public (which would include us) is the blueberries for sale stand over on James.

There is newly expanded paved parking available over at the blueberries for sale stand and even though I am probably not in agreement with the Bowermans themselves, that rapidly expanding retail presence is going to feel like the front entrance to me.

I was almost but not quite desperate enough to photograph the white painted grandstand at the Ottawa County Fairgrounds and call that white.  Then I spotted this beauty.

I am no military aviation expert but I believe this to be a Korean War era vintage F-86, one of the very first widely used jet fighter planes.  The opposition in that war fielded MIG-some number, maybe 15s?  There is bound to be a Wikipedia article.

In addition to being mostly white and a handsome looking devil silhouetted there against the brilliant blue sky this particular photographic model also has the necessary color scheme to tie the whole thing together, sorta like the Dude's rug. Red, white and blue.

This one is will be understood best by the three whose name tags are displayed on the dining room table.

Not to worry anyone feeling out of the loop, the story will eventually be widely disseminated.  Perhaps even as soon as the comment section.  There is no way to keep this one out of general circulation.