Back again. Back home from the last mini-vacation of summer. It was the quietest one of all. Maybe it was the nicest of all. Not that everything was perfect.
The game plan: visiting my friend S and her husband at a clothes-optional "lake" in eastern Wisconsin. Calling it a lake does a grave disservice to all real lakes, since this one is really, really small. But it does have a beach on one side; on the other three sides, tall weeds. I bet I can throw a Frisbee from one end to the other. This pond (for that's what it really is) is located at a former farm in a rural area. I first visited it last month.
The trip, from start to finish, only lasted about 36 hours. Not too long, but that's all the time we had available.
After a lot of thought, my wife decided to go along this time. We left late on Wednesday morning, later than I had wanted to. First, I went to the office for a planned meeting to set up coverage for a local fest this weekend. The meeting was never held--too many people were missing. Eventually I went home ... to find my wife in her PJs and on the computer. She had gotten trapped by a sewing website and placing an order.
That meant she was well behind in her packing and preparations for the trip. She can go only so fast, and that's all. She got her stuff selected, filled the kitty food dishes, loved up her favorite kitty for a while, got some water bottles filled, looked around for a craft project to work on in the car (finally found one; the other is still hiding). Then we were set to go.
Due to the delay and stops for lunch and to buy other items we needed, we reached our destination at about 3 p.m., about an hour later than planned. Well, it happens. I wasn't mad. Just impatient, that's all. S and her husband had already set up their tent and stuff. S was wearing a beautiful sky blue see-through, long-sleeved blouse and a dark blue sarong. Her husband was wearing his glasses and some sandals. But within minutes, all four of us were in their tent ...
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We had driven through rain showers on our drive south, and other showers were moving through the area. We saw some lightning flashes and a couple bolts hitting the ground. Zap! Zap! So into the tent we went for some talk and snacking on corn chips. It was easily big enough for the four of us and their two dogs.
The shower passed. They said they had been in the pond earlier, floating on air mattresses, but the water seemed cooler today, especially below the surface. The day had mostly been cloudy, and a cold front was moving through the region--that's what was causing the showers and thunder. But now the shower was over ...
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About time for us to put up our tent and move our stuff inside. After that, I took a shower to wash off the sweat--they have an outdoor shower with solar-heated water--and relaxed with them.
Her husband had found an appropriately named beer for our trip ...
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It's from the Point Brewery in nearby Stevens Point, Wis. Point beer is a very popular regional brand. Here's what it says at the end of the box ...
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By now, it was the late afternoon, time to start making supper. But the wood they had brought along with them was wet and wasn't lighting. They forgot to bring a fire log with them. I volunteered to get dressed again and drive into town to and get one--after they explained to me what a fire log is. Earlier, S had asked me to bring some wood with me, too, but I forgot. Since I was going to town, they also asked me to get some paper towels--they had forgotten some stuff, too--and a box of smokes. They both smoke, and neither of us do.
Once the fire was burning happily, they made some supper--some veggie burgers. My wife and I shared a foot-long sub we bought at Subway earlier. After supper, we went to the campfire, added some more wood and sat around and talked about this and that, occasionally messing with the wood and dodging smoke, as daylight faded away.
Well, what do you know? Seems they also forgot to take a flashlight. I can fix that--I had brought a lantern for the tent plus a pair of small flashlights, so I went to get one of those. I looked in my bag--and only found one. I looked and looked, but the second one remained well hidden. So I took the lantern back for them.
Around 10 or so we all decided it was time for bed. My wife and I went to our tent and got ready. She took her pills while I held the flashlight. Then she held it while I reached for mine. And reached. And reached.
The pills weren't there! I was sure I had put them in the bag--right about the time I put that missing flashlight in. But as hard as I looked, they weren't there. I emptied the bag. Not even that worked. So I just took some Tylenols and went to bed.
The cold front had gone through, and it was getting cooler as the night went on. We had taken one sleeping bag (spread out open as a bottom blanket) and two thermal blankets. The weather forecast had predicted lows of about 60, but it must have gotten down well into the 50s. My wife and I cuddled up close and pulled the blankets around us, and I put on some socks for a while.
But it wasn't hard to get to sleep or to get back to sleep when we had to get up during the night. All things considered, especially that we rarely sleep in a tent, we slept fairly well.
Morning came, and we decided 8 a.m. was a good time to get up. We had brought some breakfast bars, but S made some scrambled eggs, veggie sausage, mushrooms, cheese, etc., and that was yummy. We started consolidating our stuff, deflating the air mattress, folding it up, sweeping out the tent and then taking the tent down. Packing it up gets easier each time as long as you don't trap air inside.
The air was crystal clear that morning--not a cloud to be seen--and the sun quickly got intense. After a shower (lukewarm water--no solar energy during the night), I was careful to keep the towel between me and the solar disc. We all talked about places to visit, what it's like up north, and it wound up with us offering them our home as a motel if they take a drive up our way next year.
We have a couple extra rooms--the kids' former bedrooms, which are sort of used for unorganized storage right now--and it shouldn't be too hard. They can stay here, save on motel costs, and we can go on day trips to several places in northern Wisconsin and the western U.P. that they would enjoy.
Then it was time for hugs, good-byes and some breaking Brett Favre news. Then it was time for the car to head north. We stopped at a Target and a Hobby Lobby in Green Bay, then back north. We visited my mom then went to dinner. It was our anniversary, so no fast food this time. Then home to our kitties.
The inevitable second guesses: We should have left earlier on Wednesday. We should have stayed two nights. But that wasn't an option this time; we both were on limited time off from work. The weather was too cool; but it's been coolish all summer. So for what we had to work with, it was a good visit. And we had a good time. That's what matters most.
For the record, we only walked to the beach once, and neither of us got into the water. Only the males got completely undressed. And I'm still thinking about S's sky blue blouse. That was really pretty. Ah, yes!
And about the missing pills and flashlight: We found them at home shortly after we got home. Things like that happen.
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