Odds and Ends

We are still camping at Long Lake with long days of not doing much, but I have a few things to report:

1.  As we thought, the people in the next campsite had a teacher to direct things and keep the children busy.  Other adults included a nurse, a mathematician and a University of Wisconsin - Madison professor.  They all see the financial benefits of camping, three families, $12 a night for a campsite, and cooking their own food makes it even more reasonable.  It's amazing more families don't camp.  When we chatted, we found out we all had been at the big Madison rally in March, but since the crowd may have been as big as 200,000, it is not surprising that they didn't remember me.

2.  Now that I am at Istanbul on my imaginary walk, I had to figure out where I am going next.  I decided to take one of the old Oriental Express routes which will take me to Budapest, Hungary, but first I must make it to Sofia in Bulgaria, 339 miles away.  Even with a sore leg, I should make that by Christmas.

3.  Gary and I celebrated his anniversary at Fritz's at Long Lake.  It seems appropriate somehow to eat fish at a Wisconsin bar as we mark his 17th year of sobriety.  Fritz moved to Long Lake and bought the bar when he retired from his job in Racine.  That's when he discovered he doesn't fish or hunt and there's not much else to do in the north woods.  He's now trying to sell the saloon.  We really like him so we are not out looking for buyers.

4.  We stopped at Lake Ottawa to check out our next camping spot and found Marty, Linda and Brandon there, friends from lower Michigan.  ("Trolls" Gary says because they live beneath the bridge.)  They are camping at the site Gary wants but will be vacating the day he moves his camper so that will work out well.

5.  I will continue to camp with Gary when I can but must return to Seymour to deal with bills, mail, and Rascal on Monday.  I plan on coming back on Thursday.  

Rainy Day in the North Woods

It's a rainy day in Florence County.  Gary has many gadgets but not enough to keep him entertained in  bad weather. 

He ran his generator so we could watch television, but reception is not all that good at Lost Lake.  We had a choice between Regis and Kelley or an old Monkees movie.  Neither appealed. 

These are the times he tries to talk me into investing in Veriozn's wi fi hotspot service.  He switched to a Verizon cell phone some time back when he found out that his old service was of no use in the national forests.Now he can text his friends from our campground.

Then Brad and Marilee joined us at Laura Lake and Gary learned that Brad could get on line anywhere.  He's tried to interest me in it, but that addicted to the internet I am not.  Maybe next summer, I say.  No point in signing up for a two year contract when we are charging toward winter when we won't need it.

So here we are on a rainy day in Florence, Wisconsin, where we can use the county wi fi service.  Once we are done here, we'll go the St. Vincent de Paul thrift shop where I have always found wonderful bargains.  Next comes the bakery for gooey desserts and the ice cream shop for a double scooped ice cream cone. 

If we had that wi fi service, we wouldn't be indulging ourselves here.  So why do we need it?

Good Neighbors

I know I sometimes sound cranky about the people who camp in the national forest, so I wanted to talk about our good neighbors today.

The national campground rules state that any campsite can hold up to three cars, and often that means a party of drinkers and noisemakers.  That's what we worried about when site 22 filled up with adults, children and a dog, all in a big tent and a pop up camper.  We were wrong.

The dog, a border collie, seldom barks.  The six children are kept busy with games, swimming and naps.  We seldom see them.   The adults take turns organizing the kids, cooking and cleaning.  No cases of beer have appeared.  When the children step out of line, an adult quietly discusses what they did wrong and how they could do better.  Our guess is that these are teachers in charge.

 By 8:30 pm sharp, the children are at the campsite being entertained with storytime.  I confess that I listen in from next door because the tellers are very good at this task.

By 9:00 pm the children are tucked in and quiet.  The adults quietly converse for an hour. At 10:00 pm everyone is in bed.  The only noises we hear are the call of the loon, the coyotes down the trail, and the nightly bard owl hoot offs.  

This afternoon, I will take a watermelon over to them in appreciation.

Canoeing on Lost Lake

Gary was asked which campground he likes best. "It depends," he said.

Each place we camp offers special treats. Last week's Laura Lake offers good swimming and big campsites that keep other campers at bay. This week, at Lost Lake, is another experience.

I like Lost Lake for the great hiking along the Lauterman system of trails, eight miles in all. I am thinking of blackberry picking, a bit of danger since bears are very fond of harvesting them, too.   Gary likes Lost Lake for canoeing.

Gary brought two canoes with him on this trip, the Bell and the Wenonah.  The Wenonah is a one person canoe.  It's made of Kevlar, which means it's light, about 35 pounds.  He can toss that one into the water in no time.

Yesterday evening, we took the two person Bell across the lake to take a look at the National Forest cabins. This section of the forest was once a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in the 1930's.  Young men bunked there, ate their meals in the dining hall, and entertained themselves in the meeting room.  After the war, Purdue University used the site for a while, then it became part of the national forest system.

Now, with a stimulus grant, the rangers are having the site renovated.  We wanted to see what changes are being made.  

We slipped across the lake in the canoe.  Though the campground is busy, filled with screaming children and barking dogs, the lake was at its reflective best, the sky, trees and canoes doubling up.  

We took the landing and went in to wander around.  The big machinery was quiet, not even a watchman keeping an eye on the place overnight. 

The dining hall has been propped up.  The cabins now have screening along the base to keep critters out.  Many of the buildings are now handicapped accessible. 

We checked out the caretakers' cabin.  Our good friends Mary and Marty are not there this summer.  No one to hang a dozen hummingbird feeders.  No one to rent out showers.  No one to offer advice on the trails.   We miss them.  Will they be back another year?  They couldn't afford to be unemployed for a summer, Mary told me last year. They didn't know what 2012 would bring.

We wandered in the quiet that never existed there before. 

Then we canoed back and sat by the fire and made plans for the next week.

Facebook or not to Facebook

I am on Facebook, but I keep wondering why.  I found it annoying on my trip west, trying to keep up with the postings in the brief time I had wi fi access.

I am not a very social being...or at least not a very female social being.  I do my best to avoid baby and wedding showers, weddings and funerals. I don't make polite conversation. I am not interested in the Green Bay Packers or Milwaukee Brewers.

I say what's on my mind.  I can be really cutting when I want to be and I often want to be.  I like talking politics or literature, but there's very little of that on Facebook. Mostly it is silly games, what everyone is doing that day, baby photos, religious thoughts and songs and videos I am supposed to download.  

I've considered dropping out entirely.  However, Gary pointed out that I don't have to read all that stuff.  He reads the first recent postings and ignores the rest.

Susan, in Ohio, says that I should think of Facebook as a way of avoiding actual social obligations.  A quick e-mail happy birthday is easier than a birthday card.  "Go Packers" is sufficient for sports fanatics. I don't have to actually watch a game.   "Precious" "Adorable" or "Cute" works for baby pictures without attending a shower or children's birthday party.  She may be right in this.

So for the time being, I stay on Facebook.  

For the next week, I won't be reading any of it at all while we are at the Laura Lake campground.   I will likely miss a blog or two as well.

Off to the Forest Again.

Today, I met my best friend Norma in Oshkosh for a day of thrift store shopping and lunch at the Delta.  Good food, good fun, good catching up.  We are marking 53 years of friendship.  How is that possible?  

Tomorrow, I meet my other best friend Gary at Lost Lake in the Nicolet National Forest for another week of camping.  I can only stay a week because back here at Mathom House, those 19 tomato plants are starting to produce fruit.  I will be here for days freezing up soup, sauces, and salsa.  I'll have the two dehydrators running, too.

We glean what we can of the summer to hold on to for the winter.  The seasons fly by.  Can't be helped.

Istanbul

I've written about my imaginary walk around the world before, but now's the time for an update.

Decades ago, I decided to walk every day for exercise and to keep my weight down.  To make it interesting, I marked the miles on a map at the end of each week.  I began by walking west to the next town, Black Creek, six miles away.  As I recall, that took me three days.  I kept on walking.

I walked west to Minneapolis and visited, in my imagination, my sister Diane.  I visited friends in South Dakota then turned south, walking all the way down to Dallas, Texas before once again going west.  In time, I walked along the rim of the Grand Canyon, visited California's Big Sur, crossed Alaska's Bering Strait, spent more than three years traversing immense Siberia to Moscow before going south once more.

I thought that during my western tour, I would be spending more time on the national forest and park trails, but instead, I injured my knee and with no place to do the therapy, just suffered through, driving instead of walking for the most part.

Now I am doing the therapy in the heated pool at the aquatic center and building up the strength in the knee.  I am once more walking regularly.  If I manage to do ten miles next week, I will be in Istanbul, the crossroads between Asia and Europe.  From there, I think I will take a more direct route, to ensure that I manage the walk around the world that I set out to do.  Up until now, my route has meandered, taking me to interesting places, all while walking in Seymour, for the most part.

So far, I've walked 17, 803 miles.  I've learned a great deal of geography.  Other than that pesky knee, my health couldn't be better.  I give the credit to that crazy imaginary walk.    

I hope to finish the entire trip before I turn 80.