Thursday - really morning, 9:00, 44 degrees
Gonna be a slow start today. I woke past 8:00. Breakfast hasn't even started yet. Bill threw up, and Mark is still sleeping. According to the log book, fishing was good last week, but at specific places we're not finding [the prior group mentioned places by names we don't know...]. They probably had different weather. What we need is a break in the weather. Maybe today. Or maybe I'll get more reading done.Sunset, 10:00, 45 degrees
We did get as warm as 58 degrees. Today was the best fishing weather yet. I read and napped. Bill and Mark spent their day in bed sick. Maybe flu they could have picked up running to [Lodge] the other day. Most of us never did see Mark today, and Bill only for a couple hours.Nick and Chad spend three hours fishing, and caught one. Total for the week about six, which we had for dinner earlier.
Dragonflies go through a pupa stage that looks a bit beetle-like. Today we watched a dozen or so emerge from those shells as proper dragonflies. Very neat. They come out through the back, head first, until they're hanging by their tails. Eventually they do this sit up type exercise so they can grab the shell and hang on to the old shell while their wings unfold. The whole process takes a couple hours. But apparently they eat skeeters (amongst flies and other bugs), so this island must be something of a paradise buffet for them. Now I kind of wish I had taken the picture of the process I had considered takign previously. [They blend in very well with the cabin wall, and the camera that I had was too automatic to get a good picture of it.]
I am going to miss that sauna. It feels like getting clean from the inside out. It's soothing and relaxing more than any shower. It's a bit lik soaking in a bath, but not the same.
I have to admit to myself that I miss Amy and Jareth. If they were here I could live like this months at a time, if not forever. The weather has kept us mostly inside, which leaves less to do. I have read enough for this week.
There is some wondering if we might leave tomorrow. We at least need to make a trip out with some geat to lighten the boats for Saturday. Nick and Chad were planning on just leaving at that point. Nick has places he needs to be, and could use the extra time getting home. Bill or Mark would have to go with that gear run, so we'll see how they feel tomorrow. Nick wonders if they (Bill & Mark) might not prefer to just give in at that point. It hasn't been discussed in their presence.
No Northern Lights, no spectacular sunrises or sets—too much more or less constant cloud cover. Also makes for very dark nights with few stars. We've seen the moon once the whole time. It's very dark out now. I can't make out the dock on the river right now.
Dad and I are the last ones up, and I'll be crawling into a sleeping bag shortly.
Friday, mid-afternoon, 53 degrees
Earlier today I made my entry in the log book. Everyone makes one. It's amusing to look back on how others sum up their time here. Other entries very frequently refer to great fishing. Our week's weather has not been the norm.Bill has already run out with Nick and Chad, and should be returning any moment. I'm partly waiting to get a picture of one of the hummingbirds. I have time to write, with the camera before me on the table. I'm listening for the bird [to fly up]. How often can one say that?
In some ways I'm ready to go home, and in many I'm reluctant to return to that world and its ways. Here one can return from the sauna/shower naked and stand around and converse a bit and it's as if no one notices. here one can walk out in the night and just go over the porch rail. Here the traditional rules of an uptight society have no merit. There is no need for them. There is a freedom here that I know I must surrender tomorrow.
Some groups bring families here, and I can see how the atmosphere would be totally different. With family would come society with its expectations and restrictions. I would love to be able to raise Jareth with this sense of freedom, this deep spiritual connectedness, but I know our society will not react positively.
In [Australian] Aboriginal culture, children learn about their bodies and sexuality by watching their parent. They have no shame of their bodies, none of the hangups we so excel at. I wonder what the compromise point can be. Amy and I have so much to talk about, so much I want to share. I do very much love that about our relationship.
Conversations here, while sometimes very deep, lack the intimacy that allows for the best dialogue. There is a lot of sharing, but sometimes people forget to listen. Reminiscent of both the best and worst of family table talk.
Some time between 9:00 and 10:00, 49 degrees
I've gotten into the habit of checking the thermometer outside when I start writing. I look at the clock as infrequently as possible.We've done the evening sauna, and now we're winding down for the last night. Most of the cleanup is done. All that's really left is mopping the floor, which we'll do as we leave.
Tomorrow we get up as early as we can to get started. I hope to remember to notw the mileage on the car before we get out, but I don't expect any more entries past this one. I still have the vast majority of this book left. I'll find other, similar uses for it then.
Once we're out of here, we'll make the boat trip back to [Lodge]. The way the boats are acting, the 45 minute trip will take 1-2 hours. From there we sqaure up some final expenses and drive the 45 minutes or so to town for breakfast.
The expectation then is lunch in Duluth. We'll start off caravanning with CB radios. How long that will last we dont' kow. We've discussed the option of changing car loads depending on how they [Bill and Mark] feel. I'd drive one and dad would drive the other. Bill and Mark may also catch a motel en route.
Apparently we can expect to be back at Dad's around 2am. That would put me home at 3:00. That may assime some greater-than-speed-limit driving. Getting up here certainly did.
Quick note about the drive up:
We all met for breakfast in Bristol, WI. We were supposed to assemble there at 6:45. We (Dad and I) were one minute late, which was 15 or 20 better than the rest.From there we discussed plans and set up CB radios. Our antenna showed a propensity for falling and dangling along the back window. We frequently found ourselves with a range in blocks rather than three miles.
We did get left behind at one point at a rest stop. That entailed some additional speeding to catch up. My car runs very smoothly at 90. Most of the trip was at 10-15 over limits. 90 was a half-hour exception.
We stoped at a motel at International Falls at the border. We ate a late dinner and crashed. After breakfast was the border crossing. Dad and I were picked for what we suspect was a random check. We had to get out while a guy checked and dug through the car. That killed most of an hour.
As we drew closer, we found more problems. The pontoon boat barge was out of commission, which necessitated the heavily loaded boat trip. As we drew closer we also watched the beautiful sky ahead turn dark and foreboding. At each of the three or four preparatory stops there were additional delays or uh-ohs.
As for the trip in across [big lake]...
It's supposed to be a 45 minute trip. It was very nearly two hours in water we weren't certain was entirely safe to cross [as heavily loaded as the boats were]. We stopped a ways out to move people around on boats to even loads. It's a twelve mile trip. They were a long twelve miles. But we got here.We fired up the saunas and got warm and slept. (Oh, we toasted to survival as well.)
Dad likes to talk about the harsh crossing he had two years ago. At one of the calmer points (when it was possible to have a conversation) I asked Bill how our trip was comparing to two years ago. He pointed at the water around us, fairly calm in a wind shadow. This is about what we had two years ago, he said.
Bill has since said that he hasn't had a rougher arrival than this noe. If we had had the barge, things would have been far better. The wind and water have been pretty much the same all week.
In the morning the wind will be at our backs. It's also gentler in the early morning. So we're hoping for an extra early start.
On that note, I'll close this out.
And that's my vacation journal. It was a fun trip, and I came back more than I was when I left. As I noted in my log entry there, "What more can one ask for, except perhaps fish."
We dropped off the film yesterday, so I'll have pictures in a few days. I'll get them scanned and then I can post them with captions.
Posted by fictionman at July 4, 2004 09:34 AM | TrackBack (0)