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We Dot Toads

Cheers to where you are!

I got that message on my Dove candy wrapper (Dark Chocolate Mint) and instantly adopted it to share with you here.

Shortly after we arrived in Wisconsin, I started feeling a little bronchial congestion.  There was a lot of pollen in the air, so I suspected it might be that.

I usually fight colds and things like this off, but this time it got hold of me.  I ended up going to a walk-in clinic where the Nurse Practitioner told me it was a virus.  And since I tested myself for covid and it was negative, it wasn't that.  But there are thousands of viruses and they could test me for three of them.  

I said no thanks.  The steroid prescription was an anti- inflammatory.   So I also got some turmeric and started drinking tea with honey, and at night a sip or two of brandy to calm the cough.  But there is no living in a 20 x 7.5 foot space and kisses before I knew I was sick.  So I generously shared the fun with Steve. 

He is coughing as I write this.  He tried the natual ways to avoid it with zinc and echinacea.  The NP said the virus lasts 3 weeks.   I have one more to go.  Which means I will carry a bit with me into the boundary waters in a few days.

Speaking of the Boundary waters,   I got a notice that they had eight inches of rain and the portage areas may be flooded.  There was a story in the news that some of the roads to the launch sites became impassable, stranding a couple from Wisconsin.

We are launching right from the outfitters, we will see what he says.

We will leave the camper in our camp site while we are off on that mini adventure.  The outfitter has a bunk house we will stay in the night before we launch.  The weather report is some rain, but mostly not.  We will learn if the expensive raincoats we bought are really rain proof.

After my last post, my friends Bill and Ruth responded to me with an email.  They wrote that they had been where we were in Germfask, MIchigan once on a biking trip. There we had stayed at a Winery one night on our way to my sister's. 

They had biked through the area with friends and stayed at the Jolly Motel.  And Bill sent me this awesome picture of them there.


Thanks for the smiles, Bill!

I had a good time in Rhinelander.  Steve offered Mary his help with any projects she might need done.  She said it would be nice to have a new compost bin.  Her husband had bought the lumber for it years ago, but never got it done.

Steve's vast experience shined.  We hauled out the lumber and he laid it out and figured out exactly what to do.  Mary was thrilled.





Mary and I tore apart the old compost bin and burned it.


I had scheduled our stay to be able to go to qi-gong on two different Tuesdays.  But the first Tuesday, the class was canceled.  Later in the week the instructor had a solstice party.  

Some of the women showed up with butterfly wings.



Someone brought a pretty focacia bread.


The instructor had buckets of wild flowers and invited us to weave them into crowns.



The next week I was able to do Qi-gong and afterwards us gals went for coffee and what fun! The conversation just flowed so well.  Each year I love reconnecting with these interesting and fun women.

And Mary was able to go kayaking one day on a Lake McNaughten with us.  It was a perfect day.


We saw eight different snakes sunning themselves.  


Steve saw one swimming.  We saw a pair of trumpeter swans with four signets.


The water is clear and in one part of the lake, where there used to be a lumber mill, there is scrap lumber cuttings laying on the bottom of the lake.  It is fun to find them.






Afterward we went to CT's Deli downtown where they have an awesome salad bar at lunch time.  Mary's friend, Rhonda, is part owner.  She was working the cash register.  She, like many small business owners these days, is having a hard time finding good staff.  

While we were in Rhinelander, WI, there were two big rains.  Each 1.5 inches.  One night was accompanied by lightening and wind.  I was a bit afraid because my son had texted me a couple nights before that he and his wife were hunkered down in the basement and he was pretty sure something fell on the roof.

The next morning he sent me pictures.   Omg!  This on top of being unemployed and zero income for two or three months!

















He lives in Janesville, WI. There were at least five tornadoes that night. If you know anyone in the area good with a chain saw and willing to do some charity work...  

Like I said, when we had the winds a couple nights later, I got worried.  We were surrounded by lots of trees.  But none of them fell and I was feeling lucky once again.

We are contemplating going down to help my son with some tree cutting after we do the Boundary Waters.  I will call him to get a status update after we get out of the wilderness.  His insurance company only pays $500 for tree removal.  

The good news is that 15 people showed up the next afternoon to help get the brush and trees off the house.

If you are ever in or near Rhinelander I highly recommend you get tickets and go to the Frank Kovak Planetarium in Monico.  The show and the story are inspiring and amazing.  

This man was inspired at a young age and spent 10 years building this wooden planetarium and now giving presentations in it.  It is the largest in the world, right there in the Wisconsin north woods. 

The presentation is very interesting and educational and entertaining. 







On our last night in town, I rushed home from the gym to cut Steve's hair and prepare for dinner guests.

We got all the hair cutting stuff ready.  A Wahl clipper with spacers.  Steve told me, a number three on the sides and a six on the top.  I got ready to buzz the sides, clippers in hand.  Steve says, now you gotta make small talk like the barber does.  

As I was thinking of what to say, I did a swipe down the right part line, right top of his head with the wrong spacer.

Oops" I said.  And then I started to laugh. Steve laughed too.  Good thing!

It doesn't look too bad...


I did better making soup and salad. Mary and Dave came to our campsite for dinner and a campfire.  It was a lovely time.  I will miss them.

On our way to the Boundary Waters we stopped for a few days in Duluth at the city park campground, Indian Point.  I am always impressed when a city has a little nature set aside for camping guests.  This one is on a peninsula that is surrounded by some back waters of the St Louis River.  And it is adjacent to the Willard Munger State Rail Trail. 

Yes, we rode it on a lovely day on our trikes.


We went over a canal that diverts some of the river water to make power.  It was really flowing fast. 
 

A paved branch off the trail goes down into Jay Cooke State Park.  At the visitors center Steve bought a couple books for Erin's classroom.  Then we walked to the swinging bridge.  Someone was taking pictures of these beautiful lady slippers.





The water was ferocious!  The kiosk had pictures of the river as it is normally.  Roaring then, but not this much, and not so brown.


There are a couple places on the Willard Munger Trail that I remember from when we rode it with the Fabulous Four (four of us couples regularly rode trails together) and with George in 2008 when we biked around Wisconsin on our trikes.  One of those places I remember is a bridge that goes over a rocky gorge where the water rushes.  It is a lovely spot.  This time, with all the rain, it was hardly recognizable.  I took a video to share with my Wisconsin biking friends.

From the Campground there is a trail and low traffic roads that took us to the downtown waterfront on Lake Superior.  Duluth is a working town, we passed many factories and railroad tracks.   But then we got to the downtown and it has been reclaimed with hotels and parks and restaurants.   It's lovely and such a contrast!









Well time to call it a night.  Tomorrow we head to Grand Marais with the camper and then, in a few days, into the Boundary Waters with our dry bags.

For now, we are coughing and blowing and coughing and blowing.  We dot toads.

Comments

  1. Sorry about your colds but what wonderful stories you tell of your adventures in spite of them. Fred and I know the town of Germfask as we pass through there every summer on our way to Bemidji via the UP. I am also glad to hear that lots of good hearted folks showed up to help Jeremy remove all the fallen trees. I do hope he also got immediate help with roof and chimney repair- and hopefully some car repairs..
    While you were in Duluth riding the Munger Trail, did you have a chance to bike on or over the Bong Bridge that has the separate bike path on the bridge. You certainly get a spectacular view of the St. Louis Bay and Duluth from that bridge. We hope your trip on northwards along Superior is as beautiful as we remember. The pieces of the Gitchi Gumi Trail are beautiful, the railroad museum in Two Harbors is interesting (my grandfather is in one of the photos of the railroad work crews) and the city campground in Grand Marais is lovely, too. Have more fun adventures!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Sue … until I said it out loud I didn’t get “we dot toads”. Love it! Hope you both get better soon and can enjoy the boundary waters. What a great birthday you will have. Happy birthday and many more Kathi.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for the post. I'm so glad you got to spend time with your sister and the women you met on your previous visits. Steve is a gem. Patience, kindness, and not being afraid to work. I'm sorry you got a virus. Sounds miserable but you both took it in stride. Carry on and continue living the dream. Beth

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  4. Looks nice and sounds like you two are having a great time. Making notes as we are heading there in August. Keep the adventures coming.

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