I’ve posted the photos of my weekend camping trip and I will give you the lovely highlights…

• I gave the dogs special bones as a treat to have as we left. They both decided they wanted the same bone. They got into a very violent fight over the bone. Maddie ended up bleeding from her face and I ended up with a nasty bite on my arm. My trip has not yet begun
• For some reason we decide to get lunch at Arby’s. We are fools. When will we learn?
• Things get remarkably better fast! We pull into the DNR station to get maps and info on the area. As we head in we are informed that we are closed. We’re bummed. Who told us the place was closed? The dude who works there! His parents were in town from florida and he was showing them where he worked. It was pure dumb luck that we pulled into the driveway while he and his parents were enjoying an afternoon ice cream. This was the perfect opportunity for him to show his parents what he did and he let us in and logged onto his computer and pulled up all kinds of special DNR maps of the area and printed them up for us and gave us all kinds of info. He had access to all kinds of crazy maps and stuff. Also, he showed us the special press where they pressed walleye scales onto plastic slides so they could keep a record of the age of the fish in all the lakes in the area. He was like the dude in charge of fish in northern minnesota. he pretty much ruled.
• We headed into Tower and hit the local grocery store. My phone finally got a signal and let me know that I had voicemail. Unfortunately the system I was on was not allowing me to access my voicemail and I worried that Anna had killed my dogs. She had not killed my dogs, only clogged my sinks and lost track of the q-tips
• We forgot the camping pan for cooking stuff over the fire so we bought brats to cook over the fire on sticks. David suggested veggie hot dogs. I’m not opposed to veggie hot dogs as a rule, but this is camping and, well, you know. Camping!
• The campground was found with no problems as we had excellent maps (thanks DNR dude). We set up, went on a little nature hike, came back and started our campfire.
• I love campfires
• I also love roasting wieners over a campfire and eating them right off the stick. And I love roasted marshmallows and making MRE s’mores (MRE saltines with MRE peanut butter and a roasted marshmallow. YUM)
• The campers a couple sites over were enthusiastic and boisterous. At first this bothered me because I wanted a secluded camping experience. Then I realized that it was not my place to begrudge someone their fun, besides, I don’t want to spend my evening irritated with them, that would ruin my fun. I’m starting to see what a shitty and asinine thing it is to begrudge someone their good time just because it is not the good time you would pick.
• Something shuffled through camp in the middle of the night. Bigger than a squirrel, smaller than a bear and not interested in the food we left on the picnic table so my money is on porcupine or skunk.
• When we go camping I sometimes wish I could bring ghengis along because I know he would love it. Then something ambles through camp in the middle of the night and I am reminded of how vehemently he likes to remind things of his dominance over his territory.
• We ate fire roasted wienies for breakfast!
• We saw many deer.
• The neutrino lab was cool, but the tour was led by a non-scientist and she was nice enough but it wasn’t the tour I wanted. Mostly she was just showing us what was there. I wanted to learn more about what the hell was going on. I did learn more about neutrinos and dark matter, but it was not enough. Also, I did not get to touch the big iron collection plates. There are 485 of them
• Remember seeing “March of the Penguins”? Remember Morgan Freeman telling you every few minutes how easy it would be for every damned penguin to die from whatever was going on and yet that wasn’t even the worst of it and things were going to get worse and worse and it was awful and you really expected piles of penguin corpses? Yeah, the mine tour (after the physics tour) was a lot like that. You expected the entire Iron Range to be littered with the excess corpses of iron miners.
• We explored the option of kayaking out to an island in Lake Vermillion but the lake was clogged with motor boat traffic, they were practically stacked up on each other. I was afraid that some drunk jackass in a motor boat would run me over in my little kayak. We went off in search of quieter camping accomodations.
• My faith in humans was restored when two trucks pulled over to help pull us out of the ditch we got stuck in (I wasn’t driving). The ditch had a really really steep drop off that you could not see for all the grass growing there. David went to turn the car around to explore camping options and *POP* the car fell right in. The car as at such an angle I had to climb out the window. Soon enough we were rescued and on our way.
• Our second campsite was so lovely and perfect and beautiful that pictures and words cannot describe it. Was it the seclusion? the peace? the burbling stream? The culmination of a very happy weekend with someone so sweet? I don’t know, but I could have cried for happiness a few times. and I did.
• On monday we meandered home stopping at a tiny cafe in Isabella to listen to the accents and drink the weakest coffee on the planet.
• Outside of Duluth we came upon Beaver Falls. David wanted to climb to the top but I was unconvinced. I’m not athletic and certainly not much of a climber but he prodded and supported me and I made it to the top. I celebrated by making up a victory song and eating licorice.

There was no perfect way to end the day, we just made it home singing along to cd’s and laughing about wisconsin. The dogs missed us and Anna clogged my sinks and the lizards were apathetic about it all.
Go. Go see the pictures and feel the love.

at a little wooden cabin
up in northern minnesota
we ran together down to the dock
and you jumped right off it
and from out in the water
you called me to join you
and i said baby i cannot swim
if i jump i’ll surely drown you
you said life has no limit
if you’re not afraid to get in it
and oh baby i jumped to you
since then there’s nothing i can’t do
“IF YOU AIN’T GOT LOVE”
Mason Jennings
I’m home from my camping trip. I’m tired but freshly showered and snuggled with the dogs I missed so much. There is so much to write about but I am exhausted and I don’t have time. This weekend I did a lot of things I never would have tried had David not been there to prod and support me, to convince me that I can do the things I never would have tried.
When this song played today I held his hand and a few happy tears fell. The weekend was lovely and I will leave you with this brief perfect moment snapshot…
Laying on my back on a blanket at our campsite. To my right is a popping campfire keeping me warm, to my left is a burbling stream. When I open my eyes and look up I see the sky filled with stars and ringed with trees. David holds me as the owls begin their nightly conversation.