Michigan International Speedway

This past weekend I spent most of Sunday at Mach 1 Racing School at MIS learning to drive a racecar and running laps, it was a blast.

The school runs ex nationwide or cup cars with new motors, around 450 HP.

Not as fast as the cars that are racing but fast enough to scare me.

Suited up and ready to go, the racing suits are fire resistant and really hot inside.

They allow passing but not bump drafting :-)).

Our safety guy, he looks stern but is really nice and funny, although he did warn us, you get "talked one time" then screw up again and you're done.

Ready to go, well almost.

Fire suit - check, helmet - check, gloves - check, HANS (head restraint) - check.

Climbing in and out of the car was the hardest part!!!!!

Really ready to go, the car is running, right before the screaming starts.

Running laps, well over 120 MPH.

Overtaking a slower driver.

I swore I hear the crowd cheering then remembered, no crowd, it must be me screaming. The cars go through the corners so fast it's scary, I was sure it was going to just drift up the track and into the wall. Thankfully it didn't

You can't tell under the gloves but my knuckles are white from hanging onto the steering wheel.

Made it alive and you couldn't get the smile off my face for the rest of the day, oh wait, I'm still smiling.

Starved Rock State Park

If you hike this park, get used to stairs, lots and lots of stairs. Everywhere you want to go involves hiking up or down the bluff.

Most of the riverbeds looked like this, dry with just a trickle of water. The thunderstorms every afternoon helped but I look forward to coming back during the spring when all the canyons have waterfalls.

The park is on the south bank of the Illinois River. This is Eagle Cliff Overlook.

In addition to all there stairs, there are lots of boardwalks and bridges. It does make it nice to hike around and avoid the mud.

The view from the top of Starved Rock.

One warning to pay attention to, there are steep cliffs everywhere you hike.

Aurora Canyon.

Starved Rock State Park - St Louis Canyon

This was one of my favorite canyons, probably because it was the easiest to hike into and out of. With the others you have to hike up and down the bluff at least once. For St Louis you drive in off the main road and park almost at the bottom of the canyon so the hike in is pretty flat.

The entire hike in you're deep in the woods and all you notice is the trees, then suddenly you round a corner and realize there are vertical cliff walls on both sides of you.

Starved Rock State Park - Wildcat Canyon

It took me 2 days to find how to hike into this canyon. The bluff trail takes you over a bridge at the top of the canyon, but it wasn't until the second day I found the trail that winds into the bottom of the canyon.

Starved Rock State Park - LaSalle Canyon

I spent several days hiking the trails and canyons in this park in northern Illinois, it's an hour or so southwest of Chicago. It's very beautiful, but it so hot and humid while I was there. We got thunderstorms every afternoon, but on the plus side, there were waterfalls in many of the canyons from all the rain.

These are the falls in LaSalle Canyon. It was a zoo on Sunday with lots of kids standing under them like a shower. I had to come back the next day to get some shots with no people in them.

You can't believe how steep and deep most of the canyons were. Sometimes you'd be walking in the woods and not even realize how deep into a canyon you were.

A view I don't usually get to shoot, from behind the waterfalls.

The view from the falls looking down the canyon.