September '06 Newsletter - Trip #3

Bob and Susan on the Road (7/9/06-9/1/06):

Bob's mom was delighted when we showed up at her care center bearing gifts, cards and a cake. She enjoyed the cake eating, singing and socializing, though she asked repeatedly whose birthday it was. After doing our best to make her 90th special, we were on our way home to switch vehicles and hit the road - destination: a cooler climate. We took turns driving and by the wee hours Bob was crawling into the back to join a snoozing Suz. We awoke near a Flying J gas station in Montana and after a leisurely breakfast at a small town café, resumed our journey arriving in Glacier National Park by mid-afternoon. We secured a campsite in the St. Mary area and took it easy, resting up after the long drive.

Early the next morning, we took the Going to the Sun Road up to Logan Pass and hiked up a snowfield for views of Hidden Lake. A bighorn trotted by as we were ascending; then we noticed the shaggy, white mountain goats. Bob took loads of pictures of a mother and baby, only to find the entire herd congregated around the stunted trees on the saddle. It was nice to stretch our legs before moving on to the Many Glaciers campground at the northeast end of the park. We spent one night there and while breakfasting the next morning were fortunate to watch a cow moose with two calves in tow, feeding her way along the back of the opposite row of campsites. We haven't seen all that many moose over the years so we were quite excited! The mother seemed unconcerned by the onlookers. The babies were particularly gangly and awkward looking.

We breezed through customs at Piegan, admiring Scott McCollough's handiwork at the border station. He has spent quite a lot of time in Montana the past few years contracting the work for border stations, restrooms, and staff housing. Since Calgary was in the throes of Stampede week, we took our time meandering north and spent the night at a rustic out of the way RV park on a river about thirty miles south of town. The next few nights we stayed at the Mountainview Farm Campground in NE Calgary that was proximate to the auto rental, trailer rental, the group meeting place and the shops we needed to visit. Stampede is a wild time in Calgary and we tried to avoid the downtown hoopla as much as possible. See Scott's trip report below for more details of our Canadian Rockies trip.

On our own again after a round of goodbyes to all who had joined us in the Canadian Rockies, the two of us retreated to the safe haven Mountainview Farm to repack, reprovision, and relax. They have Wi-Fi service so Bob was able to catch up on our email with his new Dell laptop (a real steal at $500.00, including CD/DVD drive). The next morning, refreshed and ready for more excitement, we were off for the town of Drumheller, about 90 minutes northeast of Calgary, to see the Royal Tyrrell dinosaur museum. The Rockies trip had enjoyed beautiful weather, so we couldn't complain too much about our first rainy day in a couple of weeks. The rain deterred us from seeing the bones in situ in the Burgess Shale in the badlands around the museum but we've seen dinosaur bones in situ in Rabbit Valley along I-70 near Grand Junction. The museum is surprisingly large, well-organized and touring all of it easily ate up a day. The displays are fabulous, but especially for children. The town of Drumheller has funny looking plaster dinosaurs at almost every intersection.

From Drumheller, we drove through a province a day, camping at commercial RV parks and a few provincial parks along the way. The terrain was pastoral with rolling hills, large farms, and mind-numbingly straight roads - it would be pretty easy to go to sleep at the wheel. Needing sanity breaks and a good stretch at times, we stopped briefly in Regina to do laundry. We had hoped to visit the RCMP Museum there but it was not to be. It happened to be closed that day for the memorial service held for a couple of Mounties who had recently been killed in the line of duty in northern Saskatchewan. There was an impressive turnout for this sad event. We also took the time to drive through the downtown areas of Regina, Moosejaw, and Winnipeg to look at historical buildings. Moosejaw has wonderful wall murals on many downtown buildings.

After four days of cross Canada travel we finally reached the great north woods. Bob stopped at the Kenora library to use their Internet connection, while Susan perused the antique shops. Kenora is located on Lake of the Woods and we later heard that the boat ride out onto the Lake is quite lovely. That night we camped at Sioux Narrows Provincial Park on the shore of the Lake. The following day we continued on to Fort Francis and International Falls, crossing the border and leaving Canada behind.

Our first stop in Minnesota was the Vince Shute Bear Sanctuary near Orr. Thirty to forty black bears of all ages and sizes lumbered around feeding while volunteers walked among them doling out scoops of gruel made from berries, grains, and syrup. Small cubs lazed safely 30 foot above the ground in tall birch trees while their mothers foraged below. The bears are wild and not enclosed. We noticed that one volunteer's camper rig was surrounded by a short electric fence and their other vehicles had buckets of urine placed by each of the four tires to prevent the bears from eating the rubber.

After a few hours and much photo documentation, we continued on to Rhonda's house on Lake Vermillion. Susan's other childhood friend, Yolanda (Winks), and her husband Antti were there to meet us. The five of us spent an enjoyable evening lakeside getting caught up on current Iron Range events and swapping outrageous stories. Rhonda's husband Marty later joined us. The next afternoon, Rhonda, Marty, and Susan took their powerboat to a wedding shower for a daughter of two friends they grew up with. Meanwhile Bob chilled out and tried to figure out how to make Outlook Express and his ISP cooperate when remotely accessing our email on the laptop. The showering threesome arrived home in the early evening but most of the people at the shower continued on to one of the local pubs and celebrated into the wee hours of the morning. Four of them arrived very late at Rhonda's to spend the night and could be heard giggling downstairs at the ridiculous party pictures taken with their digital camera that they were displaying on the big screen TV.

The good news was MN was having a warm, dry summer and the mosquito count was extremely low. To us desert dwellers the dryness was not apparent; swamps and lakes abound and it seemed awfully green. Bob continued to wear shorts each day; Susan wasn't being eaten alive (she is normally the mosquito bait). We could actually sit in her folks' garage this year without being swarmed and we only experienced problems in one campground, slightly after sunset one evening. We were delighted, since we were camping most nights, sleeping in our truck, and did not have a screen tent to keep them away. The weather and lack of bugs also boded well for the upcoming Boundary Waters trip.

After visiting with Susan's parents for a few days, Susan's oldest sister, Twila, husband Bill and their two grandchildren Cassie and William came up from the cities for a two-day weekend visit. Much fun was had boating on the local lakes, picnicking, roasting wieners and making s'mores one evening over a bonfire at brother Kevin's home. Kevin has a powerboat and about took Susan's arms out of their sockets by dragging her around the lake at high speeds on a tube with Sam, Kevin's 6 year old step son, on her back. Cassie did a righteous job of staying on the tube but Kev himself was the Velcro kid, with Bill driving the boat and the rest of us chanting, "dump him", he managed to stay onboard. Kevin recently retired from the Nevada gold mines and returned to Hoyt Lakes to be close to the family.

One day we went out to Kevin's place on the St. Louis River to water the sweet corn and pick up a couple of huge water soaked logs. Many people up there have a second place on a river or lake to get away from their house in town. Susan and Sam watered the garden while Kevin and Bob, with the help of a heavy duty come-along, wrestled two extremely wet, huge, heavy logs onto a very small trailer. Unfortunately, the raccoons had paid a visit the prior evening and sampled about twenty cobs of corn. We were all hoping they wouldn't sample it all before it was ripe enough to eat.

Concerned that the excitement of having family around might be wearing down Susan's parents, the two of us left for the north shore of Lake Superior when Twila and family headed back to the cities. We camped in excellent state parks for four nights and spent one day going out to Isle Royale on the Wenona. It was a perfectly calm day, three hours out, three hours at Windigo and three hours back on the boat. We did some hiking, took in the small visitor center, and looked at the camping accommodations. After visiting these places it seems like a group trip out of Duluth that visits the many scenic areas and waterfalls along the north shore coupled with several days on Isle Royale may be in our future.

On the way back we stopped to visit our outfitter in Ely to make sure all was ready for our trip. They showed us the accommodations in what they call the pink house. It was rustic but there were beds for 16 or more and lots of rooms in which to isolate the snorers. Cable TV was also available so the guys checked out the sports scores and weather forecast for the following week. The full kitchen with microwave and coffee maker was going to be perfect for serving the light first breakfast prior to leaving for Mudro Lake.

Then back to Susan's folks and her basement bedroom that is fondly referred to as "the Dungeon", the place where no light of day interrupts sleep. We arrived just in time for another weekend get together, this time with Susan's youngest sister, Laurie, her husband Carl, and their fifteen-year-old daughter Leah. We had reserved a picnic shelter at Fisherman's Point, the local campground on Whitewater Lake. Joining in were Kevin, his significant other Anita, Sam and a friend, second older sister Joy (who lives locally), Carl's sister Mona and niece Kelly, and Susan's folks for a picnic. Wouldn't you know it! The wind was too extreme to even think about a fire for roasting hot dogs. We made do with our camp stove and the blaster. We had to position our truck near the serving table and rig a tarp a keep things from blowing away. Kevin had harvested eight-dozen ears of corn and they were delicious! Later in the afternoon, we had surprise visitors. Susan's nephew Lance, his wife Tiffany, and their 9-month-old baby Oliver drove up from western MN to see us. It was so nice to finally meet Tiffany and the baby!

Laurie and family left around noon because she had to go back to work on Monday. The weather was not great that afternoon and evening, so we delayed our multi-daytrip to the enchanting island cabin of Winks and Antti (the Hakala's) until late Monday afternoon. Their White Face Reservoir cabin is two miles from their home and is the only cabin on this particular island. There is no electricity or running water, but they have a propane stove and oven. Antti has rigged up a car battery for electric reading lights and to play the "Finnasonic" radio. He is a wizard with wood and has redone all of the woodwork inside and out, much of it knotty pine. Another highlight is the old fashioned wood-fired Finnish sauna, located a short jaunt down the path. The serenity of the cabin is unrivaled. The Hakala's ferried us out on their pontoon boat and stayed for a few hours to chat before Winks left for sewing club. The weather was fabulous again and loon calls floating in through the open windows serenaded us all night long.

Antti borrowed a canoe from his sister for us to practice with for the BWCA trip. We packed a lunch and paddled a good distance before the wind came up. Around the backside of some uninhabited islands, we found a wooded weekenders' camp that made a great picnic area. It was sheltered back there so the paddling was easy until we came back around to the main channel to head back to the cabin. Winks and Antti joined us after work for dinner, which Susan made while Winks fished from the end of the dock. She caught a nice crappy and a nice walleye. Antti cleaned them for our breakfast. They stayed until dusk and headed home since the pontoon boat is without running lights.

The weather had changed again and the wind was howling throughout the next day. The breakfast of fresh fish melted in our mouths and Susan has declared that in her humble opinion, crappy is even better than walleye. Canoeing was not an appealing plan, so we cleaned up, read books, washed the windows, played with the GPS etc. Early that evening the Hakala's showed up with a surprise guest. Rhonda has decided she can clean house in the winter and rest when she is dead, so she drove the long miles to have dinner with us. Winks had also invited her sister Ank and husband David, who came over in the fishing boat with their puppy a bit later. Matthew Hakala, their oldest son who lives in Homer, AK had caught a large Halibut on Friday. He had it cleaned and processed over the weekend, it was Fedexed on Monday, arrived on Tuesday and Antti cooked it for us on Wednesday. They actually received 45 pounds of Halibut from this one fish but we didn't eat the entire shipment.

Antti is a great camp cook and made us a delectable fish and chips dinner, while Susan created a salad. Stuffed to the gills, we were still able to munch down Ank's gourmet cookies that were a meal in themselves. Bob had fired up the sauna but only Rhonda and the two of us tried it out. It was steamy, but a quick dip in the lake chilled us right back down. Winks and Ank don't sauna, though David and Ank have a sauna that he uses regularly. Winks and Antti have a deluxe sauna at their home, one at the cabin, one at the hunting shack and a portable for when they travel. Again racing to make it to the landing before total darkness, our company returned to their homes and we were again alone.

It rained a bit and the wind howled during the night but by the time we finished breakfast it was calm. We packed up and as soon as there was a break in the sprinkling, we were in the canoe and headed for the Mainland. That night Joy and Kim treated us to Jamaican food at a restaurant in Gilbert. It was unusual and we thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the sweet potato fries. Friday we headed back out to Rhonda and Marty's place on Lake Vermillion. We went out for dinner at the Vermillion Club, the only place we've been that serves sauerkraut pizza and garnishes Margaritas with a filbert. The next morning both of them had to work and we were excited about getting to Ely, so off we went. See the trip description for the details of our nine person Boundary Waters Canoe trip.

With the Boundary Waters trip behind us, we stopped at A&W in Aurora for a burger and a cold mug of root beer before going back to Susan's folks for our last night in the northland. They were glad to see us home safely and Joy came over to say goodbye. A surprise call came in from one of Susan's cousins she hadn't seen in perhaps forty years and he and his wife stopped in to say hello. We weren't much company as we were sorting dirty clothes, repacking the truck and getting ready to pull the pin early in the morning.

Saying goodbye to Susan's folks is always difficult. They are wonderful people and so accommodating, we always feel totally welcome. But we had been away from our own home long enough and were itching to be under way. We took secondary roads across the state arriving in Alexandria mid-afternoon to visit Nancy, Susan's other partner in the high school foursome. Jim and Nancy have a gorgeous home on the lake and were the consummate host and hostess. After a few glasses of wine on the deck, their adult daughters appeared on the scene and we were off for a pontoon boat ride. Jim captained and Nancy served drinks and hors d'oeuvres while the rest of us socialized. Across the lake, we picked up their son, his wife, and the two grandchildren who were quite entertaining. It was the first time we visited with them and it was a very pleasant evening. Susan is blessed to have retained close friends for most of her life. We were off early Monday morning, destination: the Badlands of South Dakota.

Bob had not yet traveled through South Dakota, so this was all new. Susan visited with her family as a kid but that had been decades ago. The first part of the drive was rather dull but the spectacular Badlands made up for it. We took some short walks and shot many photos as we drove the loop. Back on the highway by late afternoon, we drove through Rapid City and found a beautiful forest campsite on Stineman Lake just as it was getting dark. The next morning we took a walk through Mount Rushmore National Monument and moved on to see the Crazy Horse Monument, which though unfinished was equally impressive. We spent the night in our truck near Cheyenne, so Susan could finally get a look at the Sierra Trading Post Outlet store. We had planned to visit various friends in Colorado and our kids in New Mexico but Susan's sore back added to our overwhelming urge to be home. Taking turns driving we arrived at our destination before midnight on Wednesday.

Participants: Susan Groth & Bob Marley.

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