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.

Mark Twain called New Orleans and upholstered sewer. I always called it a dirty lady with a pretty dress.
Well her dress has been pushed up over her knees. It’s tattered, worn, even torn in a few places but she’s back. She’s going out every night making money. A little cheap make up on the bruises and she’s almost as pretty…if the street lights are dim.
And they’re always a little dim.
She’s a filthy lady, she’s dirty deep down inside, but she works hard and she works alone. People have tried to pimp her, unionize her and franchise her, but New Orleans works for no one and can never be conformed or duplicated. She’s walking the boulevard with a limp right now, but she’s proud and it keeps her spine straight.
You can love her, buy her gifts and sacrifice your good health and well being to her an hour at a time and she’ll whisper in your ear and fill your mouth and knock you cold. She has a story to tell you but you have to ply her, cajole and caress her. She’ll tell you her story, but the price is steep.
She’s a beautiful lady, New Orleans, a fiery slut with good manners, the kind of girl you only let your mom meet briefly for fear your secrets will be spilled.

I am home.
The temperature is actually higher here than in New Orleans but I would bet 8.5 million dollars that it FEELS cooler here, that it is more comfortable here than there.
Not that I can get comfortable with this sunburn.
Okay, so where did I leave off?
Saturday
Saturday was one of those days where we did very little and cared very little. It was a day of decompression. The highlights of the day included bug-hunting for the anoles, discovering that the “Mochasippi” blended frozen coffee drink at CC’s has only 90 calories which is like 8 billion fewer calories than the frappuccino! Adding sugar free hazelnut syrup added like 10 calories to the mix. It seems a little odd that after a week of scarfing down gumbo, sausages, ribs, jambalaya, beignets and god knows what else, I’d be concerned about the calories in my coffee drink. I’m a bubbo and it’s my prerogative to not make sense and to care very little about that.
So, David and his dad hammered out a plan for David and I to take the boat out on Sunday. The motor had just been repaired and needed to be installed. Sunday came around…
Sunday
Smithers was right, women and seamen don’t mix! Seems I’m bad luck on the sailboat. As they were lowering the motor into place one of the handles snapped off and the whole thing fell into the marina. Saltwater is immediate death to all those little engine parts and they debated if they even wanted to retrieve it. My silent vote was for “no”. That water in the marina was stagnant and filthy and the last thing I wanted was for David to go into that foul stew of disease.
But of course he volunteered to go in and dive for the motor. Luckily, the marina is not all that deep. Unluckily, as he was climbing down the ladder the little notched supports snapped and the whole ladder fell off the boat and he fell into the water. I was very proud at how I did not freak out or scream!
They got the motor up and cleaned and back into the van to go get repaired so our plans to sail were scratched.
Instead, David’s dad took us out for Mexican food and sangria.
David’s dad is faculty at The Gulf Coast Research Lab (you can see him here) and as such he has access to the faculty apartments that they keep open for faculty that live out of town (which he does). He invited us to stay the night, but I declined. I didn’t really have a change of clothes with me for the next day as we were going to be sailing and no one cares what you look like on a sailboat, especially of the other person is your boyfriend. David and I had to run back to the sailboat to get some things for our Monday plans and he called again to offer the apartment. This time, there was some confusion and we were under the impression that we would have our own apartment to ourselves and I agreed thinking “hell yeah, a night without parental supervision!”.
Yeah, miscommunication, bummer. We shared the place with his dad but luckily he let david and I have the big bed and he took the smaller one.
Monday
We got up bright and early and had college center cafeteria breakfast and David and I headed out to Gulfport to catch the ferry out to West Ship Island. It was amazing. I wish I could describe everything in detail. A thunderstorm rolled in and chased everyone out of the water and into shelter except for David and I. We were adventurous or stupid? Only history answers these questions.
I fell in love with snorkeling once I got the hang of it, but we lost both snorkels in short order (they don’t float…why wouldn’t you make a snorkel that floated?). There was a great big crab in the water being pushed around by the waves and he kept threatening the current with his big claws. I saw a jellyfish a little smaller than my fist, David saw one bigger than that. The hermit crabs were plentiful under our feet and we picked them up and said “hi” as often as possible. I learned the hard way that nematocysts break off jellyfish all the time and will still sting you so occasionally you will be happily swimming along and you will get a singular jellyfish sting from a stinger no longer on a jellyfish. I found this out 5 or 6 times. I also found out that these things are so tiny they can easily get in your bathing suit.
The whole time we were swimming and playing in the water a sheepshead fish named Walter hung out by us. Anytime we went under he was there swimming not more than a few inches away. I’m pretty sure he hung out with us because we would stir things up from the bottom.
The coolest thing I saw was a porpoise that jumped out of the water not more than 36 inches from me. It was so cool and so fast I just could not react.
When we were alone in the water David took me, floated me on my back and swam me all over the place. It was so perfectly peaceful to have his arms around me as we floated over the waves and watched the storm roll over us. Very truly, I did not want that moment to ever end.
But end it did. We walked down the shore for a while and dug up the clams with our toes and watched them burrow back under the sand. If you dig the clams up and then keep your feet in the wet sand under them, they will burrow between your toes.
He took off exploring while I played in the surf and came running back with a giant horseshoe crab shell.
So sweet that way.
After the ferry ride back we met his dad at the sailboat with the newly washed and repaired motor which they installed with no problem. I sat on the dock and cooked an MRE using the special water activated heating bag.
And marvelled at how sunburned we’d gotten.
Tuesday
I cried in the car. I didn’t want to leave David again.
But I cheered up once I got my Mochasippi and we met Holly Peach for brunch at Stanley’s (the casual version of Stella! located around the block, same chef/owner). The food was excellent as was most of the stuff I’d eaten on this trip.
New Orleans is a place of magic, truly, the proof of which is the magic that brought me tgether with Holly Peach. How the hell else do you explain suddenly becoming fast friends with a person you met out of coincidence? Magic. The magic of new orleans is the yin to the gutter filth yang, it is the balance. It is what makes the city different from atlanta or houston which have the filth but not the magic.
Then I flew home. The trip was mostly uneventful. There was a hang up in atlanta and my flight was delayed but I was not so worried, these things happen. My dad and Kit bought me dinner and I blabbed on about fish and lizards and gumbo and sunburn and all that. and they listened patiently because they are good that way.
And the dogs missed me., and I missed them, and I missed my home and I am glad.

It’s a grey morning and I am sunburnt as hell. It hurts to move.
But the time has come to say goodbye to this city I’ve always loved. Goodbye wild anoles, funny smells and the most ungodly bad for you but so so delicious food ever.
When I get home I will write about my experiences with the sailboat, snorkeling in the gulf with porpoises, and whatever else I can think of.
Also, I’ll probably write about how much I miss David since he’s staying for a little while longer.
ah well, time to stop being maudlin and start trying to force a bra on over my sunburn. ow.
ps: Owen, the ocean did something nasty to my hair color….HELP
pps: pictures updated. go look at bugs and crabs and baby lizards