Third Day of Camping - Osprey and Mozzies

The mosquitoes come and go here at Laura Lake. If a breeze comes up, they disappear. When the breeze disappears, mozzies (the Australian term) appear. The trick is to get out and walk around when conditions are right. If I walk down the middle of the camp roads, they don't bother me at all. I managed a nice hike down to the boat landing where I circled around to the lake and back. Two loons popped up right beside the spot where Gary moors his canoe.

For the past decade, Gary and I have had mosquito-less summers. The north woods has been in drought, keeping the bugs away. There have been times when Seymour had a week or so of mosquitoes, but I've never been around then, but off on a tour somewhere.

Gary and I agree that mosquitoes are a sign of a healthy rain forest so we don't complain. The chance of a forest fire is almost nil this year and the birds are pretty happy chowing down.

The rain is keeping campers away so we have this section to ourselves. Only four of the forty two campsites are filled this weekend.

Before the rain started up again, we walked over to the blueberry bog at Gordon Lake. The blueberry bushes are in bloom. By the end of the month there will be a fine crop. We checked on the osprey nest and sure enough, they are in residence. 

Gary has fallen in love with the Subaru and suggested I could take a bus home instead. I think he is kidding. When I drove up here, I found out that on the open road I get over 33 miles per gallon.  I should be able to fill the gas tank just once in Canada since I can drive 500 miles on one tank. 

Tonight we took a short drive to check things out. We found a tree down, half covering the road and blocking the exit from the campground. We wonder about flooding. I must return to Seymour tomorrow so we hope the road crews are out with their chain saws soon. If I take Wozniak Road to Highway 8 I should be OK.

We are snug in our camper, reading and watching television. We await developments.  

Second Day of Camping

Gary is setting up the cook tent as I type. With a fully equipped camper which includes a stove, a microwave, a refrigerator and a freezer, why do we need a cook tent? Only Gary knows.

Ranger Kevin arrived this morning with a chain saw to take care of trees that fell during yesterday's storm. All day we would find the remains of fallen trees already cut up along side the roads. That must have been some wind. The mosquitoes were swarming around Kevin and his assistant. We gave up on campground life and drove to Iron River to do some errands.

Iron River has the biggest Ace Hardware we've ever seen. Gary was there to buy some nuts and bolts while I took the opportunity to walk around some for exercise.

At Angeli's Supermarket, we got chili and some egg-rolls at the deli and took our lunch to the open court area to use the wi fi to catch up on mail. I had time to read Bettyann Moore's short story and to send her an e-mail to tell her it was perfect. I never saw the end coming and I should have. It is now posted at Black Coffee Fiction  .http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com

Gary was off wandering in the grocery store for a while and came back with one of Angeli's custard pastries which we split.

I continued to work, catching up with my storytelling tour contacts. Gary went to wash the Subaru but suddenly he was back. The car was in the car wash but the keys were locked in the car. Good thing I had thought to bring mine. There is a third set but that was in the glove compartment. I razzed him good about that and told him I was saving the story for the next time I did something stupid.

Next it was St. Vinnie's where I bought two sleeveless shirts because I was hot, and put one on but it turned out to be a very, very small X-Large and looked terrible on me. But it was cooler so I wore it the rest of the day. After all, who knows me up here? Gary got two pairs of pants to wear until I can bring him his pants from home.

Gary stopped at the Miner's Bank and opened up an account to use in the Upper Peninsula. Like W.C. Fields, he'll have bank accounts all over the place. Fields didn't trust banks so he had dozens of small accounts all around the United States but forgot where they were. It is possible that is money is still resting in financial institutions.

At Schuettes store, Gary bought some citronella candles, at the Shell station gas for the generator, at Family Dollar, more small items.

At the Lake Ottawa campground, we stopped to talk to Anita, the camp hostess. At 82, she still works there every summer. We didn't stay long because the mosquitoes drove her back to her little trailer and us back to the Subaru. We'll see her later in the summer.

Back in Wisconsin, we next checked out the Lost Lake campground. The weekend is coming yet only two campsites were filled. Trillions of trilliums fill the woods along with what promises to be a bumper crop of wild strawberries.

We'll be camping there later this summer.

At the Chipmunk Rapids campground, Gary filled our water containers at the artesian well while we chatted with four other men waiting in line. It was a long process because the water runs slower every year. One of the men described four birds he had seen at Lost Lake so back we went to take another look. We did see the four birds, but way across the lake and neither of us had thought to bring our binoculars. As best as we could determine, they were scaup.

We took Fay Lake Road toward Long Lake because we've seen bears there before, but not this time.

We wound up at Fritz's in Long Lake. Fritz was living in Milwaukee when he decided it would be a good thing to own a bar and grill in Northern Wisconsin. He's been trying to sell it ever since with no success. We don't wish him ill, but Fritz has the best Friday night fish fry in the area. We pigged out on walleye dinners.

As we we drove into the Laura Lake campground we heard the bell like calls of the hermit thrushes and even later, the call of the loon. I'd love to be out there with them but the mosquitoes are still terrible. I sit here in the camper typing with the air conditioner running, trying to convince myself this is camping.

Early to bed tonight, I think.   

First Day of Camping

I arrived here at Laura Lake campground first, a kind of scouting party. Gary followed two hours later hauling his big camper. I was to make sure there was a campsite big enough and to check out the roads for problems. It was smooth sailing except for Wozniak Road west of Armstrong Creek which was undergoing construction. The gravel had turned into washboard consistency. I called Gary and told him to take Wall Road instead.

I found site 24 empty as was most of the campground. With thunderstorms threatening the area and dire warnings about mosquitoes and wood ticks, not too many brave souls wanted to brave the north woods, just foolhardy souls like us. Of the forty-two campsites only three were taken and the tent camper was pulling up stakes.

I drove into site 24, opened the car door, and mosquitoes swarmed in. I slammed the door and did some serious mosquito carnage. Then I sat back and realized I would have to wait for Gary in a very hot car. Thoughts of suffocating dogs and babies came to mind.

Earlier I had told Gary to bring repellant but he pooh-poohed that. We haven't had a mosquito problem in years...but those were drought years. The north woods had so much snow cover this past year, there was a two week delay in opening the campgrounds. It was what our national forests needed, lots of moisture. There will be fewer forest fires but a lot more flying annoyances.

I left a few things on the picnic table to hold our spot though I doubted we would have any competition for it and drove the seven miles to Armstrong Creek and the Corner Store. I came back with my repellant, sprayed myself top to bottom and settled down with a book. At that moment a wind came up blowing away the mosquitoes.

Gary arrived, set up the camper. I set up my office while he put away his clothes. We were storing ` canned goods in the cupboards when we heard the first ominous rumblings. The sky grew dark. Gary found the weather alert radio and found out there was a tornado watch.

When things get dicey, I do the most sensible thing I can think of...I take a nap. When I awoke, the storm was over. Then it was mosquitoes again, followed by another storm. When Gary drove to the water pump he found that trees were down on the roadway.  He called the ranger station but it was the Goodman Fire Department that came to work on the trees.

Tonight we are in our camper working on our computers, reading e-books and watching television. Not what I consider real camping, but in this case, I can live with it. Tomorrow is another day.

At least my office is set up now.

Four to Go

Today I began to map out the October trip to Tennessee. I would like to go to Kentucky and to Ohio to visit friends so that makes it a circular trip. When I looked at possible routes I realized I wouldn't be that far from South Carolina, one of the four states I have yet to tell in. That will be part of the trip.

Then today, Gary suggested that for our winter trip we could go to Hawaii.  Another state down if that works out. And Hawaii in January and February?  What bliss!

So that will leave Delaware and Rhode Island.  Perhaps I can manage to hit both for the summer reading program in 2014.  If everything works out, I'll have reached all fifty states by the time I am seventy.

Meanwhile, there is summer of 2013 to get through.  Tomorrow Gary and I start our camping season by taking the camper to Laura Lake in the Nicolet National Forest. We've agreed to take turns coming back to Seymour to collect mail and check on the house and gardens.  There will be days and nights when I am alone in the camper but it will probably be easier than staying in a tent.

Every two weeks we have to pull up stakes and move to another campground.

I've heard the mosquitoes and ticks will be bad this year, but that usually means that great birding. We'll put on repellent and head out to the swamps.

And of course in July I will be making the circle around Lake Superior going through Upper Michigan, Ontario and Minnesota in sixteen days.

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On Monday, June 3, at 4:00 pm I will be at the Appleton Public Library signing Black Coffee Fiction,  Decades of Love and Other Disasters and Yesterday's Secrets, Tomorrow's Promises and talk about blogging, writing, and storytelling.  I hope to see a big crowd there.

Cell Phone

I bought my first cell phone for $5 at the Shell station over a decade ago. It came with $15 worth of time. In those days, I was the first in my circle to embrace the technology. I liked being able to connect with someone to get help whenever I got into trouble and to get directions when I was lost. When I had a collision in Illinois, I was able to call Gary who connected me with an old high school friend who now has a body repair shop.

When I was in New Zealand I watched my Kiwi friends texting and thought that was cool, so I learned how on my little phone.  The problem was that once again I was ahead of my American friends.  I had no one to text to.

I still have that Cellcom phone.  I recharge it every month with an additional $15.  Because I don't really like to make phone calls all that much, the balance keeps growing since I don't lose the minutes at the end of each month.  Whenever I go on a trip somewhere I get more use out of the phone and run down the balance, but right now there's $188 on the phone.

It isn't a fancy phone, just  little gray thing for making and receiving calls.  When I checked with the Cellcom representative down on Main Street, he looked at it with surprise and said these old phones had great reception.  He was right.  When I stood at the Fourth of July pass in Colorado, I was able to call my friends at 11,000 feet.

Today, Gary bought me a new cell phone that has all the bells and whistles.  I can take photos, text, keep track of appointments.  It connects with my car radio so I can have hands free conversations.  The problem with that is that I never have my cell phone on when I am driving. It's not safe.  The only person I know that texts is Gary and he is right upstairs.

All I really need in a phone is the ability to call someone and to get messages.

But I guess given time I'll learn all the bells and whistles on this one so I can catch up with all the friends I left behind so many years ago.  If only all the instructions weren't in Spanish!

Trails Ahead

It's a holiday here in the United States but not in Canada, so this morning I began to get replies from libraries and senior residences in Ontario about my summer tour. 

I already had agreements with most of the libraries since the summer reading program is set up during the winter, but  at this point in my planning I am firming up my itinerary on the computer with the names, contacts, addresses, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses set out along with dates and times. I double check my information with the librarians and this week I am being reassured my itinerary is correct. 

In the two months before the tour, I add in nursing homes and senior residences.  They don't pay as much and activity directors don't plan months ahead so now is the time I contact them by e-mail, using Google searches to locate them along the highway I intend to drive. 

By tonight I had enough work to break even on the trip. By June 10th, I will be done with the process. I will add the final bookings.  I expect to make a profit which is lovely considering I get a summer trip out of it.  

I am already turning my attention to October and the National Storytelling Festival in October. Once I've worked out the route I want to take, I'll start working on bookings.  I need to have those sewed up by the end of August. 

And where should I go this winter?  Gary at first thought we would be headed to New Zealand but decided we would wait a year on that one until the final probate of his aunt's will.  That won't happen until spring of 2014.  I still want to travel south in January and/or February so I am thinking about destinations.  

I am up for suggestions.   

 

Currently Reading

Time to bring my readers up to date on what I am reading.

Sparky Rucker, folksinger, posted on Facebook the welcome information that Walter Mosley has just put out another Easy Rawlins mystery, Little Green.  I immediately put a hold on it at the Muehl Public Library but found out in doing so that I missed one in the series, Blonde Faith.  I quickly got that one as a digital book and just finished reading it. Now I can't wait for Little Green (all the Easy Rawlins books have colors in the titles) to find out what happened to Easy when he drove his car off a cliff after making sure his children would be taken care of.

I suspect Mosley was trying to kill off Easy, much like Arthur Conan Doyle tried to kill off Sherlock Holmes only to have him return from the dead a few years later.  It didn't work for Mosley either because Easy is back.  I am the next in line for Little Green so I expect to be picking it up at the library some time next week.

I'm midway through Sister Queens, by Julia Fox, about Isabella, Queen of Spain, and her daughters who became queens in their own right. One of them was Katherine of Aragon, who was Henry VIII's first wife.  Keeping track of royal marriages throughout Europe is difficult. I expect all the intermarriages had something to do with Katherine's problem pregnancies.  Lack of a male heir led Henry to divorce Katherine for Ann Boleyn and the beginning of his string of six wives.

Finally, I'm working on The Long Earth, by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter.  I don't expect great things from the book.  Terry Pratchett wrote great satire but he is currently suffering from Alzheimer disease. He cannot read and can only write by dictation. Now he has turned to co-authors. Still, I will work my way through The Long Earth because a little Pratchett is better than none.

I have stacks of books purchased at rummage and library sales.  These will be placed in the camper before we start our camping season on Thursday. Long summer days beside Wisconsin lakes would be no good without books to read.

So many books, so little time.  I wonder what books my readers would recommend.