Connections

 Hello!

My nephews wife commented that I have not posted in a while.  My sister replied, "She's been having too much fun!"

But it isn't all waisted play-time, some of it is taking care of myself and things.  

For Example

This morning I got up early, by six, and decided I would write to you before I was to meet up with folks for a "senior" activity that my sister had arranged, a pontoon boat ride at 1:00.  It is kind of a neat program that is in Wisconsin and Minnesota called "Let's Go Fishing".  They give boat rides or take people out fishing.  Qualification to get a free ride, you need to be a veteran, or disabled, or be over ... I don't know what age qualifies as "senior citizen", maybe over 62 or over 65?

I needed to go for a walk first to get some exercise in because writing and sitting on a boat are not good for the body.  So I walked on the road by the campground.  There was fog and the woods were popping with the drops falling from their leaves.

 And then I noticed the mushrooms.  It is mushroom season and there were a variety of mushrooms poking up from the dead leaves next to the road.  

I started taking pictures because I wanted to share them with you.

The big moldy ones gave off a mushroomy-rotting odor.

And then I had to add on a trip to the beach in the campground to look at the lake in the fog.

I took the computer and phone down to a picnic table in a campsite where I got good cell service earlier in the week.  But I only had two stripes this morning. Not enough to blog.

I decided to pack a lunch and go to a park where there was cell service.

But before I left I had to wash yesterday's dirty dishes.

By the time I got to the park it was after 9:00.  The first thing I had to do when I got online was to book a site for a campground where I am meeting up with Sisters on the Fly in South Carolina in October.  Then because it was a volunteer event to raise funds for Breast Cancer Research and celebrate suvivors, I had to pick shifts to work the event.

I remembered I had arranged to call Terry in Tennessee.  I had not had a chance to chat with him yet and I wanted to talk about his whirlwind road-trip to Sturgis, Montana, Texas and back home.  We talked a while. Then I made reservations at a campground by his home .  We have not met in person yet.

I uploaded the pictures from my phone to my computer so I could share some with you.  I was about to start wrting to you when I looked at the time.

Whoops, time for the boat ride already! 

The boat ride was with my sister and her husband (who is living with dementia symptoms) and my sister-in-law and her husband.  I should say "Ex-sister-in-law".  She and my brother were married 40 years so she is still part of our family, of course.  Her husband, Cal, is a childhood sweetheart and they do well together.  My brother has also happily remarried.  I am pleased it worked out well and we can still keep our Sue in our lives.

Her son Tom (my nephew) and his fun wife Sarah also came to town for a few days.  They are from Minnesota.

Tom and Sara and I kayaked and hiked and all of us ate out together.

One of the lakes (McNaughten) we kayaked had waste boards from years ago when they produced lumber on the lake.

We saw two adult tundra swans with a baby.  We found the nest on top of a muskrat or beaver den I think. But it was covered in big big poop.  Is that swan poop or is that beaver or muskrat or??

All the way from Florida I have been trying to make due with a cable from the truck-hitch to the emergency brake on the Weeroll.  It was too long.  I went to three different stores to get a new cable. Finally I went to Ace where they fixed me up with a new cable. "Ace is the place with the helpful hardware man!"

But the thing I bought to attach the cable to the brake was too thick to fit into the connecting hole on the emergency brake.  I now have an appointment with a Schroeder's Boats and RV to install a new cable and brake mechanism.

Last night I came home hungry and looking forward to heating up leftovers.  I had spent the day with family playing cards.  It was fun.  But when I got into the campsite I saw some cute small trailers and when I went to investigate I learned it was four Sisters on the Fly on a road trip!  Two of them I had met in Hayward at the Sister's event in June!

I hung out with them for a while, eventurally getting my lefterovers and eating them there at their fire.  What a fun encounter!

But I excused myself around eight when I saw that Steve had called me.  He had been on a canoe all day paddling five lakes and portaging between them.  I wanted to hear how it went.

Tonight is the start of the mushroom festival in Woodruff.  I think I signed up.  But my sister-in-law is still in town, so tonight I will dine with them instead of going to that.

Mushrooms are growing inside my screen tent and on the hard packed surfaces where I park my truck.

I borrowed my sisters ladder so that I could re-caulk the top of my weeroll.

I have to have a few dry days without dates to ride, kayak, or hike. And that may not happen until I get to Florida.

This writing has been difficult.  I need better connections to the internet.  My screen has been jumping and I can type a whole sentence before it appears on the screen. So I will say goodbye for now and hope we connect again soon.