Wan and Amy's Road Trip
August 5th - August 6th - August 7th - August 8th - August 9th - August 10th - August 11th
I began the day by playing a few last games of Ladybug, before we drank a couple of cups of coffee, and began to load up the car. The packing went really super-quick, and we were ready to go in no time. I had the foresight to pack this laptop, which is already coming in handy, and a variety of entertainment options including a DVD player and a couple of VHS movies.
On the way out of town, we stopped by the gas station to pump up the tires and purchase some water. We then commenced our trip. Amy took the first shift, and I spent most of my time bullshitting with her, and reading Cryptonomicon, which I definitely hope to finish by the time this vacation is over. In fact, I will be disappointed if I don't manage to finish it by the time we are out of Kevin's cabin. In any case, I read a lot of it by the time we rolled past the Hinckley exit. We decided not to stop because we were running a little bit behind. We were supposed to be at Kevin's at 2:00 pm, and we didn't get out of town until about 12:00 pm. I had been told it was a two-hour trip, so we were cutting it close.
But, it was about 1:20 pm, and we were already following that latter portion of the directions, which were not entirely accurate. I had scribbled off the last portion of them while on the phone with Kevin, and I remember abbreviating things a bit liberally. Enough so that we wound up going down Pine County 51 instead of Pine County 50, which was the correct way to go. And then, going down a dead end, and then going in circles for a few minutes before we finally zeroed on in Kevin's cabin, which was cleverly disguised with a new garage sitting next to his driveway.
We saw Kevin's truck, but when we entered the premises, it was empty. So, we farted around a little, and went out to the dock. There was a little boat elevator sitting there, and it was empty, so I figured that Kevin was probably out on the lake somewhere, possibly water skiing with someone. We did see a boat with water skiers, but there were several others. Eventually, we tired of being on the dock, and headed in for a spell, which is, of course, the moment that Kevin pulled up to the dock and came in. I went out to meet him, and he said that he and Colleen had been out on the lake listening to the Minnesota Twin's and the Hall of Fame inductions of Puckett and Winfield. He said that Winfield had spoken, and now they were stopping back in before Puckett.
We ate lunch, and bullshitted, and Melquist and I brought some of our stuff in and got dressed for swimming. We also prepared a couple of beverages, and headed out to the boat. Kevin took it out, about halfway between the island and the dock, and parked it. We all dove into the water for a little bit, and continued to bullshit, and then we got back on the boat and soaked in the sunrays while listening to the Hall of Fame inductions. After Puckett spoke, we took off, and did a lap around half of the lake. After that, Kevin aired it out, and we cruised around the rest of the lake. Then we came in.
Kevin
and Colleen packed, while Melquist and I finished taking in all of our stuff.
Somewhere along the way, Kevin showed me around and told me the rules of the
house and stuff. He even introduced me to his neighbor, Roy, who shook my
hand and bullshitted about the Twins with me. Melquist and I then made plans
to go into town and do a little shopping, so we got some directions into town,
and took off for the small community of Moose Lake.
Melquist
and I then went down to the dock. Then we came back to the house, and we put
in Dude, Where's My Car, and just watched it. It was pretty bizarre, enough
so that it would never be considered better than a mediocre movie, however,
given our circumstances, it was a pretty good idea. The movie seemed to last
forever. After this, we sort of took a break, and had some food treats. I
put on Brazil. I started making a Star Wars deck, and I finished it up, even,
and we wound up turning off Brazil and watching Empire Strikes Back.
We arranged the cabin into sleep mode, and put down our mattresses. Melquist got a sheet with an elastic fringe, while I got an inferior sheet with no elastic fringe. We bedded down for the night, and fell asleep.
I woke up briefly at 7:00 am, but I really didn't feel like getting up that early, so I went to bed. Melquist then woke up briefly at 8:00 am, and she felt the same way. Eventually, we started to get out of bed around 11:00 am. Melquist finally woke me up by pelting me with grapes. We then went through our standard morning activities. I started the coffee and brushed my teeth, and Melquist did whatever she does. We then lounged around and drank coffee. We cleaned up the mess from the night before, and were just about to figure out what we were going to do first when we heard a pop. At first we paid it no mind, but eventually we realized that the electricity was out.
We
then made preparations to get whatever had popped fixed. I collected my cell
phone, Kevin's number, and my wits, to go over and borrow an outlet from the
neighbor, Roy, so that I could plug in the cell phone and call Kevin to see
where to start. But, as it turned out, Roy also had lost his power, and, he
had already called the appropriate authorities, so we would have to put forth
zero effort. I went back and told Melquist, who was overjoyed. We then just
hung out and waited for the power to be fixed. I read my book some more, and
began devising plans to keep this journal. Eventually, the truck came by,
and some guys started working on it, and eventually, the problem was solved
and our lights worked. The guys gave us the wave, and took off.
Melquist
and I decided to go on another excursion into town, to purchase Melquist a
little bit of wine, and perhaps see some sights. We hopped in the car, and
after burning myself terribly on the seat belt, I drove us into town. We crept
slowly through Moose Lake, looking for some place that we could find Pretty
Things for Melquist, but nothing appeared, so we continued on to Barnum, a
town a couple miles down the road. We spied a thrift shop, so we stopped,
but it turned out to be ridiculously ghetto, and we went across the street
to an on/off sale liquor store, where there were a dozen people inside at
the bar on a Monday. Strange. Melquist picked up her wine, fought off the
barrage of looks she was getting on account of her attractive form, and we
left.
We
headed back through Barnum, continuing to look for Pretty Shops. None appeared,
so we made our way back to Moose Lake. We circled through Moose Lake a couple
of times, and eventually found a place. It was called Grandma's House or something.
We went inside, and shopped around. The place was huge, so it took a while.
If anything, it was air conditioned, which was nice. Grandma was there and
everything. Melquist found nothing to her liking that she could afford, so
we headed out. Straight back to the cabin we went.
By this time, it was getting to be about supper time, so I made up a couple of peanut butter jelly sandwiches. Melquist wasn't sure what she wanted for dinner, and she dawdled for a while before deciding that she wanted to barbeque shrimp. I lit up the grill, almost frying my face off because I had the top closed, and I paused after turning the gas on before lighting it. A little hair on my face got singed off, but that was it. It was also neat to feel the whoosh of an explosion. In any case, Melquist fried up the shrimps while I entered the deck I had made the night before into the computer.
We chowed down on some Suddenly Salad with some grilled shrimp on the side while watching television. After we had finished, we set up the cabin the way we liked it again, pushing the couch forward and the television away from the wall so we could see it. We planned to watch Dude, Where's My Car again, because we had been so messed up the night before. So, we prepared to play a game of Star Wars, and opened up the middle of the floor for our game. I had my new deck and I was fairly confident that I would come away with a win.
We started the game. The movie was not quite as fascinating as it had been the night before, and I really wasn't paying that much attention. As a result, I won the game of Star Wars in the Final Battle, somehow managing to cut through the Melquist armada for a 2-2 victory. Which was nice, because I can't even remember the last time that I beat her. I made a malt in celebration.
We then popped in our mystery movie, a movie called The Gift that Charlie had purchased from the Rendezview going-out-of-business sale, and sat on the couch together. We watched it. Despite Melquist being a little puzzled by the ending, it was a halfway decent flick. Not a five-star movie, but a decent movie nonetheless. Afterwards, I had some more treats, and then we started laying down our beds for the night.
Melquist popped in her movie, another one that we picked up from the Rendezview going-out-of-business sale called Women In Love. We had seen a portion of the movie on HBO one night, and Melquist liked it because there were a lot of penises and naked men in it. So, she turned that on, and I watched it with her, fighting off sleep for as long as I could, and dealing with the heavy horniness that had taken hold of me.
We
woke up at about 9:00 am, quite a bit earlier than the night before, and gathered
our wits. I immediately made some coffee and some sausage hash with eggs,
and before I ate it I brushed my teeth. Melquist and I then dined on our feast,
and Melquist popped in another movie, Little Women. I wrote in this journal,
completing it all the way up to this paragraph before putting it down.
Melquist
prepared a little lunch for us, and we threw that and a couple of sodas in
the cooler to take out with us. We brought our books, and Melquist also packed
a few magazines. We launched the little rowboat from the shores of Kevin's
cabin, and hopped in. I rowed us out to a point between the dock and the island,
and we relaxed and read our respective literary works. I really did some damage
to Cryptonomicon, and I really want to finish that bitch by the time we leave
Kevin's.
After
a while, we moved around to the other side of the island, and since we didn't
drop anchor this time, we floated all the way up to someone's little alcove
and floating dock before I grabbed the oars and corrected us. I paddled us
out right next to the island, which was a lot of work, and we dropped anchor
and hit the books again. After Melquist had had enough, we paddled back to
the cabin, around the other side of the island and up to the shore. Melquist
got off pretty quick, and headed to the bathroom, while I packed up all of
the stuff and carried it up to the cabin in two trips.
Melquist was a little sick or something, and just layed down on her bed, which she hadn't put away. I read my book for a little while, until I was gripped by a terrible desire to sleep. I layed down on the couch and went night-night. Eventually, Melquist got up from her bed, and sat in the chair, and I replaced her on the bed and went night-night there instead. Eventually, it was getting a little ridiculous, and I didn't want to be sleeping all day, so I got up, went out to the dock, and jumped in the water for a little while, and ran back, toweled off, and hit the book again.
Eventually,
it came time to prepare supper. I lit up the grill, without incident, and
then we barbaqued some chickens and ate them. They were, of course, fantabulous,
and I also had a side of baked beans with them. Melquist and I watched a little
television, the Simpsons and Seinfeld, before hitting our books once again.
I also wrote a couple of paragraphs in the journal that you are now reading.
Melquist
finished up her book, a book that she has been working on for a long time.
I still had about 100 pages of Cryptonomicon to read, so I was pretty certain
that barring a barrage of reading in the near future, I wasn't going to finish
the thing before we left Kevin's. We lounged around for a little while, and
then made ready to watch O Brother, Where Art Thou?. I did half the dishes.
We arranged our beds, and layed down, and watched it, and went to bed afterward.
Melquist was scared that we were going to be killed in our beds while we slept,
because she heard spooky noises outside, so I went outside and looked around,
but there weren't any axe murderers. We closed and locked the doors.
We woke up early to the sound of a brewing thunderstorm. The lounge chair cushions were still on the deck, not to mention my underwear and my shirt. So, we went out and brought all of them in, and Melquist closed the windows on her car. And then we went back to sleep. Melquist woke up a short time later and started doing the remainder of the dishes. I woke up and put away the beds, and folded the blankets, and started packing up the car. We watched some television while we worked, and enjoyed our coffee, and made ready to leave. We were set on leaving early, because we had some errands to run in Duluth.
However,
as fate would have it, the tire was flat. Searching the car yielded everything
except a car jack. Kevin didn't quite have the tools for the job, so yet again,
we were forced to go to neighbor Roy in search of the help. He provided us
with an entire cabinet full of tools, as well as an air compressor. I changed
the tire and then we finally left the cabin after thanking Roy repeatedly.
Melquist
drove the first shift, and, as it turned out, the only shift. About five minutes
out on the road, Melquist got pulled over by a state trooper. He dutifully
reminded her that a cracked windshield was not kosher, and let us off with
just that warning. It would be nice to say here that the rest of the trip
up north was uneventful, but that was not the case at all.
We
stopped in Duluth, and walked around the shops. I purchased a new hat, and
also looked around a couple of used bookstores for old engineering books.
I've just now decided that I am going to collect old engineering books. I
didn't find any that fit into my economic outlook, however, I did come across
an interesting looking Ayn Rand book and the Jesse Ventura autobiography.
To cap things off in Duluth, we stopped at a pizza joint, specifically, Sammy's
Pizza, and had a pie before we pulled out. Then we hit up a Cub Foods, which
Sammy himself supplied us the directions to. On the way, we picked up a tire
iron.
Then
the real journey up north began, after our rebirth in Duluth. It wasn't long
before it started raining on us, harder and harder, as the terrain got rougher
and rougher and the turns got tighter and tighter. Melquist, never having
surrendered the wheel to me, suddenly screamed out in pain, which ripped my
attention violently away from Cryptonomicon. She was batting at the air, and
then kicking at the floor of the vehicle. I didn't know what was wrong until
a moment later, when she claimed that a bee had stung her on the chest. I
was then made to look around the vehicle until I found its dead body so Melquist
could begin calmly driving again.
A
little while, we reached Temperance State Park. Which, it turned out, was
packed. It was far too late to try and weasel into a spot - we knew we were
going to have to find an alternate campground. We headed back south towards
Tettagouch, only to find that it too was full. There was a sign at Tettagouch
with directions to all of the nearest campgrounds that might be empty. We
decided to head for one that was just up the Baptism River. We got there just
as it was about to get dark, and set up camp. In a few moments, we were asleep
inside the tent for the first time.
I
woke up early and made a fire. I realized that we were still missing the frying
pan, my boots, and our silverware. Since we had already supposedly hit Cub
and covered all of ours bases, this was a little disheartening. I immediately
started making a master list of all of the stuff that we were missing, and
all of the stuff that we would typically need on a camping trip. Because,
apparently, we were not wise enough to be trusted with keeping track of it
ourselves. We packed up the camp and left.
We purchased the last remaining items that we were missing from a Holiday
station up the road, and then headed to Temperance in search of a campsite.
We waited in line with all of the others, and eventually seized a spot at
the lower campground, just a short walk from Lake Superior. We briefly set
up our camp, and had a quick lunch. Then we got out to the lake, and looked
for agates for a while, before hiking up the banks of the Temperance River.
Once we got to the apparent end of the trail, we turned around and hiked back
to the campside. After downing a couple of sodas and taking some for the road,
we hit the rock beach again, and looking for more agates. By the end, I had
a fairly plump pocketfull of the suckers.
We quickly zipped up the road to the Holiday station again, having forgotten yet another short list of supplies, and then zipped back. We showered in the upper campground, and came back to the site. I passed out in the tent, while Melquist cleaned the car a little, and set up the camp a little more thoroughly. I woke up and started a fire so we could prepare our bountiful feast. Our neighbors, a small family of four, stopped by. They were from St. Paul. We bantered about the difficulty of getting a camping site this time of year, and then went on our merry way.
I cooked up the greatest barbeque chicken feast ever to be grilled out in Minnesota, bar none, and we ate it. I boiled up some water for some coffee, to wake up from my pathetic midday nap, and Melquist and I enjoyed a little game of Scrabble. As usual, I got spanked by the woman, but that sting disappeared quickly as we sank our teeth into wonderful s'more treats. And then went to bed.
I woke up bright and early at about 9:03 am, and zipped over to the ranger station to get in line for a campsite. When I got there, they just took my name, and told me to come back at 11:00 am when they were giving away the sites. I came back to camp and whipped up some coffee. Melquist joined me, and we just relaxed for an hour, until I got the bright idea to take down our campsite. We rushed through it in record time, and had the car packed and ready to move to our new campsite within moments.
We went back to the ranger station, and it turned out, that the best site available at the time was the one that we had been situated in. So, all of our packing and whatnot had been for naught. Score one for Melquist - she saw this one coming and even warned me, but to no avail. So, we slipped back into our old site, and quickly got it back up and running, and then drove down to Tettegouche State Park, where we intended to stay the day.
We
made up some sandwiches and nourished ourselves before our long hike. Then,
we loaded up a thing of water, and headed up the trail. It was the Baptism
River again that we were hiking up. It was a nice a rocky hike, mountainous
even, with lots of side trails that weaved across the rocky stream and a couple
of dead river beds. It was a fun hike. There were cliffs overlooking several
small waterfalls, and at the end of the trail was the tallest waterfall in
the state of Minnesota. High Falls, its called. We sat at the foot of the
High Falls, and immersed ourselves in its magesty, until we had had enough,
and we hiked across the small suspension bridge over the top of the falls
and began the hike home on the other side of the river.
I made a wrong turn right off the bat, and took us into the upper Tettegouche campground. So, we hiked through it, and it was wonderful. Quiet, away from the highway, nicely wooded and not real worn down at all. We wondered why we hadn't stayed there the whole time, but obviously, there was little we could do. We hiked through it, and then down a long road, towards the highway and our car. Then we whisked ourselves back to the home site, and I stated making a fire and making up the bed again, while Melquist went and took a shower. I myself was still as clean as a whistle from the night before.
We cooked dinner - some significantly aged but usable hamburger, and some garlic shell pasta which wasn't quite right. A fitting meal for our last night camping. Then, we just sat there in our campground, and burned the last of our firewood, and read our books. Melquist had decided to tear into the Ventura biography, while I had managed to finish Cryptonomicon and was now working on a book on philosophy by Ayn Rand. It was nice and relaxing, a fitting last evening of camping for both of us. We had a short nap in the tent, and then we came back out to the fire to enjoy some s'more for the last time.
And then we washed up, and went to bed...
We
packed up the site in no time, and hopped on the road. It was a wonderfully
uneventful ride home. We stopped in Duluth again, as Melquist had decided
that she wanted to purchase a particular chicken at a used furniture store,
the same store we had purchased our books. We bought the chicken, roamed around
a little, had some malts, and walked down by Lake Superior, and then it was
right back on the road with us. I drove the entire way home, and Melquist
slept the entire way home. When we pulled tp to my parents, I was pretty glad
to be home, despite the brief duration of our little camping trip.
It was a fine camping trip, and easily the best one that Melquist and I have embarked upon together as a couple...
