Rain or Shine

With rain forecast, campers pulled up tent stakes and headed home early. By noon there were only eight occupied sites. Then it didn't rain.

There is no accurate way to know what weather will be in a rain forest. The Nicolet National Forest seems to have its own system. We can check the forecasts for Rhinelander, Pembine or Laona but they don't seem to have anything to do with Laura Lake. If we drive the five miles south to Highway 8, we can go from sun to thunderstorms and vice versa.

So we occupy ourselves according to the weather. When it is pleasant, we sit in lawn chairs at the fire pit, paddle around in the canoe or take walks.

When it rains, we come inside the camper. Gary takes the couch and I take the bed in my office which is now fitted out as a sort of day bed. He took the top bunk off and shoved it under the lower bed which makes it the right height for comfortable sitting. Each in our own spots, we read. I've just finished the fifth book of this trip and started on the sixth.

I'm reminded of a Twilight Zone episode with Burgess Meredith as a half blind bank clerk who likes nothing better than to hide in the bank vault with a good book. He comes out to everyone in town wiped out. He has food, a place to live but best of all, he has all the time in the world to read. He perches on the steps of the public library and picks up books but accidentally breaks his thick glasses.

I am in heaven when it rains and there is nothing else to do but pick up yet another book. As long as I know where my readers are....

Other than reading today, we took time to go up to camp site 41. There was a rowdy bunch there last night and they left a mess. For some reason, they spread toilet paper around. Gary picked it up and put it in the fire pit for burning.

My task today was appeasing the chipmunks. They come right up to the door in the morning demanding peanuts and I do my best to oblige. I've run through half of a three pound bag so far. On a stroll, I passed another camper. The fellow was seated on a lawn chair. Next to him on a boulder was a chippy staring at him. The guy said he had run out of peanuts and was currently resorting to peanut butter M&Ms. I commiserated. He'll probably go on a peanut run tomorrow.

Gary says it is all my fault. Everyone worries about bears, but when I leave here on Wednesday morning, he will be over run by chipmunks. “Death by Chippies” will be on his tombstone.

Just another day at Laura Lake.