The Vacation,
Part 6; Going Home,
We woke up the next morning with a little more time than I had anticipated.
The boat was suppose to pick us up at twelve thirty, but I didn't take into account that even though we were west of Milwaukee we were in the eastern time zone. So we hung around camp for awhile waiting for the dew to dry off our tents. I came back from being somewhere else (don't remember where) and some Gray Jays or there much cooler name Whiskey Jacks came into our camp. My expert told us they were very curious birds and it being a camp ground we all got pictures of them taking peanuts from our hands.
Shortly after that we went down to the dock to wait for the boat. We had a couple of hours yet and went on an unimpressive interpretive walk and had sandwiches and $1.37 cokes at the little store. I read some more Kerouac and went out on the dock to look around. I gazed deep into old Gitche Gumee admiring the crystal clear waters, knowing this was all about to end too soon. I worked my way around
the pier, looking into the waters and eavesdropping on the conversations taking place, when a bit of action prompted me to look to my left. A moose was walking right out into the lake. He was walking along the edge of the deposit left in the lake from Washington Creek, which let him walk a good distance into the lake without getting his knees wet. The boat arrived no more than five minutes later, while the moose was still in the lake, making a perfect ending for the trip.
I tried to ride back sitting on the bow of the boat, but it got too windy. So I set on the side for a bit and ended up trying to sleep inside the boat. We landed on the dock and I rounded up my pack with an empty flask and forty pages left of Lonesome Traveler, got in the car and drove south along MN-61 towards Duluth. 61 was is a very scenic, pleasant drive, hugging the shore of Superior most of the way. Great country if you like scenery.
A couple of hours later we arrived in Duluth were we were staying for the night. We took turns showering for the first time in six days. Then I picked a pizza place to go to. It was a very college town pizza place, binders for menus, vegetarian options for meals and a young crowd. At first it seemed like great choice. The waitress came and took our orders. She didn't write anything down. I've seen this done before and don't understand what they are trying to prove. I think I even made a comment about how that makes me nervous. My pizza finally arrived with one of three toppings right, she really should have written it down. I just didn't have any luck with waitresses on this trip. However she got a good tip for three reasons; she was cute, she gave the check to the guys who got what they ordered and the most important reason she kept the beer coming.
After that we went to an Irish bar where we watched a band play one song before calling it a night. We went out and sat on cushy chairs and drank for awhile. There were a bunch of board games on the wall and Aaron pulled out some questions from a trivial pursuit game and quizzed me and Adrian. I really enjoyed this. I like trivia, but the only chance I get to play any games like this is when I talk to my TV when Jeopardy is on. That was short lived do to the amount of beers consumed and we went back to the hotel bar were we had 2for1 drink coupons. Calling were we went a bar was pretty generous. It was just some old lady serving beer and telling weird bestiality stories. We quickly finished our beers and I went up to our room while Adrian and Aaron went somewhere else for ten minutes (?). I turned on the TV and this is when I learned about the Larry Craig scandal! Seriously I was gone for a week and two major White House officials resign and a antigay republican plead guilty to soliciting gay sex in a men's bathroom. I think it's safe to say some Jontown post got missed.
The next morning we got in the car and made the cross state trip from the very northwest corner of Wisconsin to almost the very southeast corner. Along the way it all started to hit me. The return to work, the big empty house, bills, cleaning... Oh how I longed for the island. I still had the holiday weekend ahead of me, but I knew that would mostly be me just sitting around drinking hoping Monday never comes. There was a party and other opportunities to do something, but I knew I would pass them all up and I was right.
The vacation was over.
We woke up the next morning with a little more time than I had anticipated.
The boat was suppose to pick us up at twelve thirty, but I didn't take into account that even though we were west of Milwaukee we were in the eastern time zone. So we hung around camp for awhile waiting for the dew to dry off our tents. I came back from being somewhere else (don't remember where) and some Gray Jays or there much cooler name Whiskey Jacks came into our camp. My expert told us they were very curious birds and it being a camp ground we all got pictures of them taking peanuts from our hands. 
Shortly after that we went down to the dock to wait for the boat. We had a couple of hours yet and went on an unimpressive interpretive walk and had sandwiches and $1.37 cokes at the little store. I read some more Kerouac and went out on the dock to look around. I gazed deep into old Gitche Gumee admiring the crystal clear waters, knowing this was all about to end too soon. I worked my way around
the pier, looking into the waters and eavesdropping on the conversations taking place, when a bit of action prompted me to look to my left. A moose was walking right out into the lake. He was walking along the edge of the deposit left in the lake from Washington Creek, which let him walk a good distance into the lake without getting his knees wet. The boat arrived no more than five minutes later, while the moose was still in the lake, making a perfect ending for the trip.
I tried to ride back sitting on the bow of the boat, but it got too windy. So I set on the side for a bit and ended up trying to sleep inside the boat. We landed on the dock and I rounded up my pack with an empty flask and forty pages left of Lonesome Traveler, got in the car and drove south along MN-61 towards Duluth. 61 was is a very scenic, pleasant drive, hugging the shore of Superior most of the way. Great country if you like scenery. A couple of hours later we arrived in Duluth were we were staying for the night. We took turns showering for the first time in six days. Then I picked a pizza place to go to. It was a very college town pizza place, binders for menus, vegetarian options for meals and a young crowd. At first it seemed like great choice. The waitress came and took our orders. She didn't write anything down. I've seen this done before and don't understand what they are trying to prove. I think I even made a comment about how that makes me nervous. My pizza finally arrived with one of three toppings right, she really should have written it down. I just didn't have any luck with waitresses on this trip. However she got a good tip for three reasons; she was cute, she gave the check to the guys who got what they ordered and the most important reason she kept the beer coming.
After that we went to an Irish bar where we watched a band play one song before calling it a night. We went out and sat on cushy chairs and drank for awhile. There were a bunch of board games on the wall and Aaron pulled out some questions from a trivial pursuit game and quizzed me and Adrian. I really enjoyed this. I like trivia, but the only chance I get to play any games like this is when I talk to my TV when Jeopardy is on. That was short lived do to the amount of beers consumed and we went back to the hotel bar were we had 2for1 drink coupons. Calling were we went a bar was pretty generous. It was just some old lady serving beer and telling weird bestiality stories. We quickly finished our beers and I went up to our room while Adrian and Aaron went somewhere else for ten minutes (?). I turned on the TV and this is when I learned about the Larry Craig scandal! Seriously I was gone for a week and two major White House officials resign and a antigay republican plead guilty to soliciting gay sex in a men's bathroom. I think it's safe to say some Jontown post got missed.
The next morning we got in the car and made the cross state trip from the very northwest corner of Wisconsin to almost the very southeast corner. Along the way it all started to hit me. The return to work, the big empty house, bills, cleaning... Oh how I longed for the island. I still had the holiday weekend ahead of me, but I knew that would mostly be me just sitting around drinking hoping Monday never comes. There was a party and other opportunities to do something, but I knew I would pass them all up and I was right. The vacation was over.
posted by Jon at 1:41 PM
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