You know It's Hot When...

... I stand in front of a fan to dry my hair instead of a blow dryer.

... I drink beer instead of wine (beer placed in freezer for aprox. 15 min. is ideal)

How you all doing today?

I hope that this crazy weather is not affecting you as much as it is us. At this time, the corn in the fields is probably going to be chopped down. You might as well look forward to prices of anything that uses corn in any way, shape or form, to go up.

Suggest eating rice and wheat for duration.

My husband and I decided that we need to get away. And not just a few hundred miles, this time. This time it will have to be over 1,000 miles.

I knew we were looking at Montana, because at this report, they are not in floods or fire danger, so I think we'll be safe.

I didn't know that my husband was going to do this, but he actually booked us a room at Glacier Park Lodge. He wanted to get St. Mary's but it was booked. In fact, this one was too. He didn't even think he'd get the night he wanted. He gave them some dates, and lo and behold! They had one room for one night left!

He came into my office to announce "We're going to be staying in Glacier Park Lodge on the 5th of August!"

I was so excited and surprised tears burst to my eyes. He isn't one to make arrangements like this. He had to prod himself into doing it, and he was doubtful about even getting a room. So, good for him for getting up the courage to calling and talking to them. The woman said that they were having rain when he called. Ah! Rain! What is that????

So, I've got 9 more days to drive, and hopefully someone will take the remainder of my runs so I don't have to worry. I've been envisioning us on a long journey. I knew it was going to happen. We both like those long interstate road trips, winding up in a new state by night fall, and possibly 3 states away from Illinois on the first night.

Oh, here's a picture of the pool:

Hope you're Monday went well!

Day Two: Lake Superior

I think I like especially the names of towns up here. You have Ironwood, and there is a town called Land O' Lakes. Really there is. That was where we entered Michigan and followed Rt 2 for a while. Very wooded, and a nice smooth road with hardly anyone on it. We followed a logging truck, and once it got up speed, it was well ahead of us. You never want a logging truck behind you. Never!

Now, in my last entry, I told you about the snowmobile signs for those crazy snowmobilers in the winter. People up here also have boats in their drive. And the closer you get to the lake, it's not a fishing boat, but a sail boat.

One of the smaller towns we ventured to--and I can't remember the name of it--had a bay where dozens and dozens of sail boats were docked. There were these cute little shops you can blow money on junk you don't need. I love trinkets and junk I don't need, I just don't have money to buy them. We took pictures, but our camera was acting up, plus we lost sun under the clouds. But we wanted to get a little further, which we would soon be upon, thus got back in and followed our road until we came to a little town called Cornucopia. What this place had was character. Obviously it wasn't as huge a draw as the previous town with a lot of shops. This was older. The old boats which had been sitting on shore a while were on display. We had to pull in and go take a look. Here, there weren't that many people. You can't get nice pictures with lots of people in your way. We were able to walk up a sandy hill, and there was the lake. It looked like an ocean to me. The waves were making those little white caps. And while we stood there taking it in--no one around us--two bald eagles swooped down and went into hunting mode.

The wind was whipping and chilly. Why we thought we would not need our jeans--well, it had been hot up until the day we left. We should have brought the jeans. At least we had jackets.

We stopped inside a little shop. These places--maybe a half dozen--had once been little shacks for people to live in. And I suspect that some lived upstairs. The first one we stopped in was a shop filled with various stuff including antiques. An old, rickety-looking stairs went up to the loft. And a calico cat sauntered down and seemed to take a liking to my husband, who is not really a cat person. But it acted very un-cat like. It sat on its haunches and meowed, trying to get his attention. He later told me that he thought that the owner had changed herself into a cat. Like in Harry Potter, Mrs. McGonnagal's being able to do this inspired this thought.

We went to the last shop--as it was open. Then the rain started, and we were stuck, but the shop owner was very friendly and we spoke with her. She recommended a place to stay close by, but we wanted to get to Superior and Duluth.

We ate at Ashland, a larger town, and it still was cloudy. And very windy! We saw large ships now, in a distance. Then the closer we got to the bridge that spanned the river, we now had a very up-close look at these ships that apparently haul grain.

Duluth was a busy, congested town. We escaped it--thus was not soaked by exorbitant prices both in food and motel. We went on into Minnesota, and stayed in Cloquet. The drive was nice. We had wanted to drive up the Lake Shore Drive the whole way, but we simply ran out of time.

We had a nice room with a large-screen plasma and it had Satellite radio, and we found a New Age station and just relaxed. I took a full-blown nap. God, the day wore me out.

The rest of our trip was nothing to talk about. We should have not come through Iowa, though, just too much happening--that was something I posted when I got back.

I return to the work grind tomorrow--boohoo. It's been great having time to work on my books, and read a few, too. When I get a chance I'm going to talk about one, Dance On Fire by James Garcia Jr.
Have a great week!

Eagle River and Where to Eat

Hi, all. Well, as you may have gathered, my husband and I went on a road trip north. We needed to just get away, and although we live in the country, we needed something to look at besides corn fields, and our own park.

Since the west and everywhere near us was HOT, Dennis came up with the idea of going north. Way north. Like as far north as you can get without either needing a boat or a passport. Thus, Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota were the three areas that we decided to hit in a two-day drive.

bald eagle fishing

Once you get into Wisconsin, the change becomes obvious. You find yourself into more tree-lined areas. Heck, even as you drive the trees are between the interstate lanes, north and south bound. It makes the drive more enjoyable.

We saw our first bald eagle after Merrill, Wis. It was mostly cloudy, and the teperatures were in the high seventies. As you may know, we've been dealing with 90's and wicked humidity for weeks on end. We wanted to get away from that. It was as though our get away triggered the temperature change in our area.

And, it doesn't take you very long to figure out the little stop and yeild signs off in the ditches are for snowmobiles all along every road you come to. Yep. That's their second national past time, besides fishing and rooting for their beloved Packers.

Because it is not a very long distance to Eagle River, we arrived by early afternoon. This was an area which was used by French fur trappers to bring their pelts down from Canada, on these huge boats. I was told that these men had to be of Viking build to be able to paddle them because of the furs piled high on the boats, and the boats themselves were like small ships, had to wiegh considerably.

After getting a room in a local Super 8, we enjoyed a short walk, trying to figure out where we might eat. Somehow the whole idea of eating at a "family style" restaurant didn't really settle with us. So, we got into the truck and I had mentioned that I saw something on our little map from the motel a place that sounded interesting. Thus, we went in that direction.

And there it was, the White Spruce Restaurant. My husband liked it's spot right by the river, and the low, old look to it. Come to find out it was the oldest building in town, having been built in 1833. The original was burnt down, and then rebuilt. It was to feed the lumberjacks of the area, and you could just see it in the low roof, dark wood, the character of the place just oozed with abveance you just don't get in an IHOP or Denny's.
We had come into the little place, and found only a family at one table, and the woman hostes was pouring glasses of wine. I watched. OMG! She actually filled the glasses within an inch of the top! Unheard of!

The woman said she'd be with us in a second, and then she came out to us. "Just go ahead and seat yourselves at the farthest table by the window."

We did. Out our window we could see the river. We saw that there were a couple of docks and board walks, and a beer garden surrounded by different levels of shade-loving plants. I noticed that they had toad stools carved out of small tree trunks to add to the idea that it's a magical garden and I hoped to see a gnome. The trees were wrapped with the small Christmas tree lights, and I sat there trying to imagine what the place looked like at night. Probably romantic. Like someone's dream. That is, if you got rid of all the crazy people who might flock to a place like this and ruin it with their partying.

The woman told us that people came in to lunch, mostly, from the river on boats. And you could see people riding past, ejoying themselves.

Our dinner was not exciting, but we did have walleye, a salad, the soup was really good, and the salad was not made with "head lettuce". I would give it a 3 1/2 for quality. The ambience was what got to us. I ordered a white zin, and the woman brought it out exactly as I'd seen her fill the other glasses. It was chilled perfectly. The wine--local--was possibly the very best white zin I had tasted, bar none. Wish I'd written it down.

After dinner we, of course, had to venture outside and have an "after dinner drink". I was thinking Kahlua and cream. I never said this to Dennis, and while I went to the ladies room, that's exactly what he'd ordered. Either he knows me that well, or was reading my mind again. I'll put it at both equally. (Husband gets 10 stars for choosing this place and getting my drink desire correct.)

We were the only ones out on the beer garden, with the exception of the bar keeper. I had to guess he was married to one of the women who worked the place. Maybe an owner, I wasn't sure. But he did talk our ears off. At the end, when we were done with our drinks, Dennis steered the conversation to an end and we meandered down to the dock to simply enjoy the water, the place and to talk.

It sometimes amazes us that we are able to find one place during our trip--a new place--to eat a great meal/enjoy the ambience, take in the local flavor as well. We have found, though, that usually, we never can experience it the same, should we ever go back. But you always do, hoping for a repeat performance of the feel, the atmosphere, and not have anything alter your enjoyment of it.

And, as we strolled to the back entry to our motel, I spotted a deer. And then it was two, and then four. . . up to six I counted. Oh, and there was a male with his velvet coated antlers.

I hope to be back with Day Two tomorrow, if I can. Superior Lake was a new experience for us. It's too bad the weather didn't cooperate.