Visiting an Undisclosed Location

 Notice that I didn't say a "super secret undisclosed location"? That's because these particular owners blab about it to everyone. I am just surprised that they were able to keep their pie holes shut while we were there. But the minute we left their driveway they plastered it all over the internet. Let's just call them Jethro Buckhumper and Bambi Poledancer. I may have mentioned them before in a blog but I don't remember. But if you have read their blog I think that Jethro may have mixed up some of the facts. So I would like to set the record straight.

For weeks we would get messages and texts from Jethro and Bambi saying things like this. "Please come for a visit! We are so bored and you two are the most spectacular people we know and we need a piece of that!" Every day we would get messages, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day. Then one day they sent a message saying that they swallowed the Kool-aid and got the "VAX" and were having some side effects from it. A little worried we agreed to visit them out of the kindness of our hearts.

We loaded up the fifthwheel and made our way to their undisclosed location. Jethro said that the vax had affected him so I went in first to check on them and this is what I found.

He asked me if I thought anyone would notice? I said "No, hell I don't see a difference at all". Then Bambi walked into the room.

Again I said "I don't see a difference at all". In fact I thought she never looked better.

But all kidding aside, we had a great visit. Now that we are safely ensconced in our super secret undisclosed location again I can share all of the details of the trip. We arrived Tuesday afternoon. There was even a sign to welcome us. 

I am not sure what the hole meant but was willing to find out. That was just one of the weird things that happened that week. Another was that Jim said that I should sit outside their bedroom window. I said "what?' Sure enough, I went around the house and there was a chair there for me.

I thought the vax was really playing with their minds because I am not that kind of guy. We enjoyed Barb's tacos for dinner. Shrimp tacos so we felt special. The next day was filled with fun and frivolity. It started with us building Crepes.

This was my first attempt. Not bad.

My second one got a little more creative.

They were very good but I thought they were blintzes. I have never had one before because I always thought that my man card would get revoked but Jim assured me I was okay. We then went out and picked flowers.

This is turning into one of our strangest visits. He wanted to hold hands and skip through the forest but that is where I had to draw the line.

Now anyone who has been invited to their undisclosed location knows that he only invites people with marketable skills to help him build his house. Lucky for me, I have no marketable skills. At least that he knows about. But that didn't stop him from getting work out of me the entire week we were there.

Here I am helping him fix his Ranger.

Here I am helping Jim work on his porch.

Here I am helping him load the skidsteer for a job.

Here I am about to help install trusses on a persons shop that I don't even know.

Here I am helping Jim at someone else's house doing something or other.

Here I am helping Jim clear some trees.

If you want a relaxing vacation, go to Cancun or anywhere else for that matter. Maybe that is his plan for keeping us away. In between all of the work, we did get out and do some fun things. One day we drove through Custer and Hill City to look at all of the people clad in leather. Unknowingly to us though, we became part of the "Super Spreader" event. Oh well.

One day we were going to get into the Jeep when Lisa saw a big snake crawling up the windshield.

We yelled for Jim since it was his Jeep. I was cowering in the corner with Lisa and Barb. I think I even wet my pants a little. But Jim was our hero. He said it wasn't a rattlesnake but a 5 foot bull snake. Whatever it was it wasn't happy. It was hissing and lunging at us anyways. Jim was so cool and calm. He grabbed a stick to try and get it off of the Jeep. Here's a short video of him being a superstar. Turn up the volume.

We had a little archery challenge. I saw a tree stump out in the middle of their meadow. Jim got his range finder out and determined it to be about 240 yards. So we used my bow and we each had two shots to see who could get closer. After our shots we went to look for the arrows.

Just as we found the arrows Jim yells "BEAR!" So I turn around to look behind me expecting to see a grizzly or something. He chuckles and says "Ooops. It was just a chipmunk. Hey I found my arrow!" Right where he was standing. Imagine that. Mine is in the foreground of the picture. He won the five dollar bet and he gets bragging rights.

We skeedaddled out of there on Sunday with what was left of our dignity. It is always a fun time when we get together. It's too bad they didn't offer up their spare bedroom and save us $500 in fuel money. It was worth it though. Maybe we will get to do it again in the near future.

 

Mayo Update

 

I don't always use Mayo.......but when I do, you know it's serious. Now picture the guy in the beer meme saying it.

Jokes are not that funny when you have to explain them. Sheeesh.

So the time has finally arrived. It was time for my Mayo Clinic appointment in Rochester, Minnesota. As we were driving the 4 and a half hours to get to Rochester, we were thinking we were lucky to have possibly the best hospital in the world so close to us. There are people that have to fly in here from around the country and also from around the world to get here. We went the day before so that we could easily find where we needed to go. If you have not been here, this place is huge. Covering many city blocks. I told Lisa that this is like Disneyland for sick people. Lisa laughed and spilled her wine.

Now before I go on, I want to put out a disclaimer. (Funny how we have to do that in the world today.) Some things I may say are from my observations and experience at the Mayo clinic and are not said to be mean or anything else. I can't believe I have to have a lawyer to express my opinion.

Well anyways, we got there the day before and found out where we needed to go and park. So thankful that we took the Jeep and not our 1 ton Dodge dually down there. We would not have even fit in the parking garage. 

We then located our hotel for the night. When the ad says that it is in the Mayo clinic area, that is code meaning it is in Rochester only. There are many hotels within walking distance of the clinic as we saw them when we drove through there. Once checked in it was time for dinner. I looked for restaurants on Tripadvisor. The place I picked was called Canadian Honkers Restaurant and Bar. Number three on their list of the best restaurants. I was kind of in the mood for Canadian cuisine since we haven't had Canadian food since our Alaska trip. We are so international.

This restaurant is very near the Mayo Clinic. So as we are sitting there watching people coming and going, I make this observation to Lisa. I said to her "There are so many old people here, and now we are one of  them". She belly laughed and spilled her wine. Actually she kicked me under the table and then gave me "The look" and then spilled her wine.

The next day was the big day. I felt like Dorothy going to meet the mighty powerful Oz. My appointment was in the Gonda building on the 15th floor. Coming from a place where a 3 story building is considered a skyscraper, this was amazing. It was like an airport. People rushing everywhere, gift shops, coffee shops and people rushing everywhere. Did I mention that there were people rushing everywhere? The people at the information counter pointed us in the right direction to our bank of elevators.

Once on the 15th floor we checked in with the receptionist for my xrays. This is one well run operation here. This area of the 15th floor deals with nothing but hands. Again, amazing. I heard my name called and was escorted to an xray room. Five pictures later I was back waiting for the hand specialist to see us now. Lisa and I were both a little nervous. This is the big leagues now. We didn't have to wait long.

We were escorted back again to a room by a nurse who was very nice. She went through our information and asked us lots of questions. She took measurements and ran some tests. She spent at least a half hour with us. Once she was satisfied with the tests she went to get the doctor. Dr. Shinn came in. Very friendly and right to the point. He looked at my hand and finger. He wanted to do an ultrasound on my hand so we went into another room. Lisa didn't come with. He found the nerve he was interested in and traced it up and down my hand but everytime he got to the middle of my palm he lost it. He said there was too much scar tissue to see it.

We went back to the other exam room and Lisa asked how it went. I said "It's a boy!" Dr. Shinn laughed, the nurse laughed and Lisa laughed and then spilled her wine. I think Dr. Shinn had an idea of what the problem might be but he didn't say anything. He did say that this perplexed him and he wanted to dig deeper into my problem. He ordered another EEG nerve test for my arm. Also he wanted an MRI done on my hand, forearm and elbow. 

I felt that he was very interested in my problem and quite willing to get to the bottom of it. I sure hope that he can. Lisa looked up his bio and he is a doctor and a scientist. He wants to figure it out one way or the other.

So I go back in September for more tests and also to see the doctor. Things are looking up.

Mouse-agedon and the Tale of Rambo Mouse

 

We love living in the country. The solitude and beauty is all around us. We love looking out our windows and seeing an abundance of wildlife. Deer, eagle, fox, raccoons, tree frogs and yes, even different types of bugs, especially the moths, that we never knew we had. Like everything good, there are trade offs. 

The mosquitos are not that bad this year due to a drought. The deer flies and horse flies I hate with a vengeance. I keep asking myself, "Dear baby Jesus, what is the purpose of these biting flies?" These flies love to just buzz around your head and then when you feel them land on your head, you instinctively swat at them, hitting nothing but your head. I then imagine the flies laughing at me and saying "Why do you keep hitting yourself?"

But the real reason why I wanted to share our (my) exploits is the mouse problem we have out in the wilderness. Granted, we cut out our homestead in the forest that used to be theirs and I honestly thought that we could all live harmoniously, hand in little hand. But NNNNNOOOOOOO! They couldn't stay out of our area. NNNNNNOOOOO! They just had to keep encroaching upon us. Wrecking our stuff with their ever nonstop chewing on things. I have on numerous occasions brought my ATV's into the shop because they broke down. Only to find mice have made homes inside them and chewed through wires. Built nests in air filters. It goes on and on. My sons camper had a water leak under the shower. So I tore it apart to find that mice have chewed through the drain pipe.

So I have officially declared war on the mouse population around us. I have set out a trap line that I check every day. I find that the old fashioned spring loaded trap works the best. I just put a little peanut butter on it and the mice love it. You know immediately if you have a mouse or not and they kill quickly. My trap line consists of 1 trap in the barn, 2 traps in the fifthwheel, 1 trap in the pickup camper and one trap in my sons camper. In the past couple of weeks I have trapped 10 mice now in those areas. I don't know how they are getting in the campers, but they are. The score is 10 and 1.

Which now brings me to the story of Rambo mouse. I set a trap in my sons camper and in the morning I checked it as always. Only there was no trap where I left it. It was gone. So as I am looking around I spot it behind the toilet and there is a mouse still attached to it. It came down on his front paw. That's never happened before. So I go out and get a 5 gallon bucket and my reacher thingy. I grab the trap and lift the trap and a very angry mouse and put it into the bucket. I then put that bucket into the Ranger and grab my 22 revolver to humanely put down the mouse, away from the house.

We have a clearing back in the woods. So I wanted to take the mouse out there. We were going to have a showdown, Clint Eastwood style(cue the music). To be fair I put one arm behind my back because the mouse still had the trap on his leg. So I dumped the mouse out of the bucket and stepped back. I lined up my shot and POW! I missed the mouse and hit the trap, breaking it. It took only a second until the mouse realized it was free and when it did, it's eyes became RED and it let out a tremendous ROAR and charged!

Now I have read accounts of men in battle. Your vision becomes blurry and things go into slow motion. The facts can get misconstrued. One thing is for sure though. I swear I heard a little girl screaming, just as clear as if she was standing next to me.

The mouse charged! POW! POW! POW! It kept coming and coming! Jumping this way and that way. It was like a crazed Ninja on steroids. POW! It's coming right for me. (Little girl screaming in the woods). POW! In desperation I kicked at it and missed. I jumped out of its path at the last minute. It was like a charging rhino. It then ran under the Ranger so I jumped in it and backed it up. As I was distracted the mouse saw it's chance to escape. It saw the tree line and made a break for it. I jumped out of the Ranger, guns ablazing. POW,POW,POW! I missed. The mouse got away. I looked around me for the little girl but saw no one. With all of the dignity I could muster, I saluted my worthy adversary, did an about face, and got the heck out of there. Hoping that some time in the future a mutant 3 legged mouse doesn't come knocking on my door looking for revenge.

I know that you are thinking that I made this little tale up for your amusement. Believe me, I didn't. It's the honest truth. I can hear you thinking, "You took nine shots. Isn't that a six shooter?" I have a 9 shot revolver. The real lesson here is not to take prisoners, and if you do, bring a shotgun.

So now the war on mousedom has escalated. I have researched and researched on how to build a better mousetrap. I built a bucket trap. Easy, affordable and according to the buzz on the internet where everything is true, it catches mice like crazy. 

Start with a 5 gallon bucket. Drill 2 holes through it so that you can put a metal rod across the top. $3 dollars at home depot.

                                              

Take a plastic bottle and drill a hole in the cap and the bottom so that the metal rod goes through it. Make the hole a little bit larger than the rod so that the bottle spins freely. When the time comes, you will smear peanut butter all over that bottle.

Then attach some wood ramps so that the little critters can make it to the top. Here I engineered it a little bit differently. I offset the ramps so that the mice can see and smell the peanut butter but can't reach it unless they take a leap of faith. Once they do, they will be quickly dispatched to Davey Jones' locker. Because in the bottom of the bucket you put a couple of inches of water in it. The mice hit the spinning bottle and fall into the water and quickly drown. I know. It's a cruel world. I knew we had a mouse by our wood pile so I set the trap up near it and then checked it in the morning.

It worked. One less mouse that did not get in the house or campers. I know of a spot with lots of mice so I will be testing the trap there next. The only good mouse is a dead mouse. Another motto to live by.

Rumors

 Rumor has it that we ventured out of our super secret undisclosed location. Well the rumors are true. I can say that now because we are locked up inside our super secret undisclosed location, safely ensconced behind the safety of our walls and moat.

Very similar to the one pictured here.  That's not actually our fortress of isolation but a close facsimile.

Our daughter called us up and wanted to go on a vacation with us. (Isn't that sweet?) So we agreed, and quite frankly we needed a little break from our fortress. Not having been anywhere now for over a year. (Thank you Covid.) She wanted to go to the North Shore of Lake Superior. We love going there and it has been a few years since we were there so we made plans to head that way. Luck would have it that when we would be there, it was during the dreaded heat wave of June 2021. It is always cooler around the lake and that felt great.

We loaded up the fifthwheel, which is strange to admit. We used to live in it fulltime and everything we could possible need has always been inside it. But now living in the cabin, we had to actually think about what we would need and then pack accordingly. Just one of the trade offs for not being fulltimers now.

Our first stop was going to be Duluth for a couple of days. From there we could do our exploring. Most of the state parks along the North Shore are not big rig friendly, and even if they were, it is virtually impossible to get a reservation in them because they book out a year in advance. (Thanks Minnesota for  going to a reservation system.)

Our first obstacle to get over was going to be our driveway. Yep our driveway. We have only traveled 300 yards and we have obstacles.

It is steeper and longer than it looks. Especially with a 16,000 pound forty foot camper behind you. That was the first time we ever went down the driveway but now that we have done it once it will be no problem. I just don't want to do it when there is snow and ice on the ground. The next obstacle was getting used to pulling that thing around again. It has been almost a year since I pulled it before and almost 2 years since we have gone farther than 25 miles in it. 

To make a short story long, we made it to our campground outside of Duluth.

It was a nice shaded spot to relax in. The only downside is that when you sit outside, the gnats will feast on you the entire time. So bugspray is a must. But duh! This is Minnesota. Land of 10,000 lakes, taxes and the occasional mosquito the size of hummingbirds.

The first thing on the agenda was to drive along the North Shore. The day was perfect. Sunny, mid 70's and no wind. Which is rare to see a lake the size of Lake Superior without a wave on it. I have never seen it so calm before.

It was a beautiful day for a drive. We stopped many times along the way for photos so I will shut up here so you can look at the pictures.

Seagulls on a rock. It was hard to tell where the water ended and the sky began.

Freighter heading into Duluth.

Is that ship flying?

My ship has come in.

Two Harbors.

These freighters can be over a thousand feet long.

Two Harbors lighthouse.

Falls at Gooseberry Falls State Park.

Black sand beach.

Mother, daughter time on Gichi-Gumi.

One of the many harbors along the way.

The water was very clear.

Our final destination, Grand Marais.

We couldn't have asked for a better day. Next up is Glensheen mansion and Duluth Harbor.

Kendra wanted to see the Glensheen Mansion on the shores of Lake Superior. This is a 20,000 square foot mansion with 39 rooms. It was beautiful and amazing. There was a staff of 13 people that lived in the mansion, just to take care of the Cogden family. I can't imagine what it would be like to live like that. If it was just  Lisa and I, it would be impossible just to keep it clean. I guess we will stick to our cabin.

The front of this shack.

Looking down a hallway as you enter. The wood work was incredible.

A small portion of the main living room. It was too big to get it all in one picture.

The main staircase to the second level.

One of the many bedrooms. Also much larger than I could film.

The breakfast nook. This is my favorite with the greens and stained glass windows.

Basement hallway.

Lower level family room.

The back terrace overlooking Lake Superior.

Looking back at the back of the mansion.

The boat house.

Looking back at the pictures, I realized that I missed taking pictures of so much more. Our tour went through the main level, second story and the basement. There was also a third floor but that was in a different tour. We saw the servants quarters, kitchen areas, carriage house, gardens and the gardeners house. If you are in Duluth, it is well worth the money to tour this mansion.

You can't visit Duluth without going downtown and see the infamous aerial lift bridge. Luck would have it that when we were down there to to see the lift bridge a 1000 foot freighter was passing through.

The lift bridge

Here comes the freighter!

It's getting closer!

This ship is so long I had to break up the video into 2 segments. I hope your sound was on.

There is not a lot of wiggle room for these ships that size.

As I re-watched those videos, I realized that my dead finger got in the way a little bit. Sorry for that and because of that I fear I shall not win an emmy for that. Well that is it for Duluth. On to Hayward, Wisconsin.

Hayward, Wisconsin? Hayward was kind of a last minute thing for us. We originally planned on camping in Grand Portage but when the campground finally returned our phone calls (plural), all they could tell us is that they were booked full because of the road construction project there. (They couldn't tell us that months ago? Sheesh!)

Camping at the KOA!

We rarely stay at a KOA. Mainly because of the price, but when you are scrambling at the last minute, you take what you can get. I have always felt that KOA's can not justify their prices. $65 a night? I will have to say that this is one of the few that can. They have so many things here for kids to do. We got there Wednesday and there were maybe a dozen campers there. By Friday it was packed. Kids running everywhere and the adults were chasing them around with beer in hand. We were glad to leave Saturday morning.

The only thing worth mentioning that we did in the area was to drive to Bayfield, WI and take the ferry to Madeline Island. I would suggest not to go there until the weekend though. Most of the few stores and restaurants they have there don't open until the weekend. So it was a bust for us. The few places that were open, the staff was very rude, like we were a bothering them for shopping in their stores. So the ferry was the highlight of the trip.

The ferry.

The ferry is a car ferry and they have a state park on the island. If you want to camp there they can accommodate large rigs. On one such ferry we saw had a fifthwheel going across.

A nice day to ride the ferry.

That is basically it for our little outing. It was nice to get out and act normal again. Just like the good ole' days of 2 years ago.

Our cabin work has slowed down now. We have been working on some outside projects. Lisa is busy, busy, busy.

Our yard this spring.

Lisa has been busy growing grass.

Some landscaping.

More landscaping.

And more landscaping. Our back patio.

We still need to work on the grass back there. All in due time.

The best for last. My finger update. I have quit physical therapy because there wasn't any improvements. Just a lot of pain. I am still waiting to get into the Mayo Clinic. I was supposed to go June 23rd but they rescheduled me to July 28th now. (I guess the doctor had a golf game he couldn't get out of or something.) 

Lisa tells me that after dealing with this damn finger for going on 9 months now, that it is making me crabby. I don't believe it. I am super jovial all of the time, and if you don't think that is true then, as my mother would say "I will stick this finger where the sun doesn't shine."

So Nameste'.