Friday, July 13, 2018

After we ate breakfast. Scott and I went to the pool. He only stayed a couple minutes. I hit the hot tub again. After we checked out we stopped at Wally’s Auto Repair in Orr and they replaced our flat tire for us so we would have a spare. It was nice and cool so every once in a while I would close the windows for a break on my ears and eyes.

We stopped in Duluth at Fleet Farm for gas and headed out again. On our way down the biggest hill on Miller Trunk Highway, one of the stoplights turned red and Scott went to break only to realize our breaks on the camper were not working. Needless to say it was another trust God situation and we had to slow down a bit to be cautious. Our goal was to stop in Mingong to eat at A&W and check out RV’s at the Jayco place there. After lunch we hit the road again stopping for gas off and on. Traffic was steady through construction south of Madison.

We stopped at a pizza place, Toppers in Janesville to cool off and take a break. Once we were back on the road we could see a crazy storm coming from the west and the wind suddenly picked up. It was pretty scary the camper was really blowing. Then the rain started and visibility was not good. Scott was pretty sure we could out run it. It was a lot “longer” than it appeared in the sky. When we hit 94 East we ended up ahead of it and by the grace of God it never caught up to us. There was construction on 355 and it was down to one lane so that was stressful. We pulled into the farm around 11pm. We were greeted by a very happy Honey.

Thursday, July 12, 2018

Woke up to more wind so we started packing up. It took us almost all day. We headed out around 4:30pm only to discover we had a flat on the trailer. We went back to Deer Trail and Scott changed the tire. We didn’t hit the road until 6pm. and we had no spare for the long trip on 502, but God provided and kept us safe. We made it over the border before 9pm and stopped at Hotel in Orr around 10:30pm. They said we could just sleep in the parking lot but when we got out the mosquitoes were horrendous so we just got a room instead. I sat in the hot tub for awhile and then we got a frozen pizza from the hotel.

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Unfortunately we had to go back into Dryden again. Luckily there was rain in the forecast. After lunch we went to lodge and visited with Kim while Scott attempted to get the gas line ready for the stove to be hooked up. Scott and I took a quick kayak ride to the island and back. There were storms heading our way so we didn’t want to take a chance going any further. After our baths and quick grilled cheese in the camper, we went to the camper to visit with Mom and Dad. They were working on their puzzle so Scott read and I watched YouTube videos on how to use the Lawrence. Then I found an iBoating app that had a map of Eagle Lake. I spent the rest of the evening working on it. It rained and stormed when we first went to bed but not much else the rest of the night.

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

The stainers got back to work after Bible study and breakfast. I did some laundry and got packed for my kayak trip. Kayak trip from dock to mouth of Bottle Bay Lake entrance. It was probably about 9 miles. It was slow going the lake was almost as smooth as glass so you had to earn every stroke. The pontoon boat followed and stopped to fish here and there. Scott got in with me in Portage Bay. When we reached the mouth we loaded back on float boat and headed home. Once we got home we swam a little bit the water was actually hot on top.

   

Monday, July 9, 2018

It was a Dryden day. We had to take separate vehicles because we needed to fill our truck up with gas for the trip home. When we got back we rested and then around 5pm Scott and Mom and Dad started painting the west side of the cabin. They were still working after 7pm. I did laundry and worked on cleaning the camper. At 9pm, we watched My All American.

Sunday, July 8, 2018

We got Bob’s boat taken out of the lake this morning. Scott, Bob, and I drove to the public launch and Scott backed the trailer up to the water. We had to wait for a couple minutes for someone else. Then another guy drove in just after we backed up. He walked down and visited with us while we worked. Mom and Dad drove the boat over and we loaded up fairly easily. When we got back Scott and Dad helped Bob do prep work to his boat, like emptying the oil. Mom and I went home and made pork chops and potatoes and beans and salad for our lunch. After our naps, we went out to mark spots in the boat. Scott rode with Kim because she hadn’t driven Grove’s boat before. When we got out it was a lot rougher than we thought and I couldn’t get the Fishfinder to do what I wanted so we were only out for an hour and only got a couple spots marked. We headed back and helped her secure her boat and picked up Scott. I made Scott and I grilled cheese for dinner and then Scott and I went for a kayak ride. Scott didn’t want to go past the little island so I paddled on to Cedar Point. On the way back I followed the shoreline until the little island. The sun was setting and it was beautiful. After thirty minutes of paddling I set up so I could float in and watch the sunset. When we got back, Bob was over visiting and saying good-bye so we sat and visited. In the camper, the mosquitoes were annoying and I got attacked by something weird. It stung or poked me not sure what it was. I couldn’t find it.

Saturday, July 7, 2018

Lou's Bday! It was a lazy morning. We did our own Bible studies today because Scott and I slept in. I went over to give Jason a hug good-bye as he was leaving. There were heat index warnings but it never got up to 90 like forecasted. It was really windy again.  I went down and laid out on the deck. I got my phone hooked up to Lawrence so now I can see and control it from my phone. Then Scott and I went swimming. Then all four of us went swimming. We went about a third of the way to the island. We all laid out for a little while longer. We decided to take our baths but I hopped in the kayak and went out and in a couple of times. There were really big waves and it was fun. We took baths and headed up to the cabin. Bob was there and wanted to put his boat in but it was too windy. Everyone else had fish at the lodge. I stayed home this time and slept and read. It was nice having some time to myself. My back and back of my legs were sunburnt so I got sore sitting around. I moved outside and sat in my chair on the hill. It was really windy so the mosquitoes weren’t biting.

Mom, Dad, and I sat on the float boat and visited for a while. It was the first time I have ever seen a Canada goose in Canada. Although I'm not sure if they are actually that. They may be the Cackling Goose? 

The wind died down so Jason and Julie tried to have our Fourth of July fireworks show. The mosquitoes were horrible. The last firecracker in the sequence wouldn't light so we all ran to our cabins to get away from the bugs.

Friday, July 6, 2018

We got up at five to get ready to meet the fishing guide that morning. We hired Cal Ritchie to guide us on Eagle Lake. We asked that he show us some places around our camp where we can catch Walleye. After we finished our Bible study, we got all of our stuff loaded in the truck and Dad drove Scott and I to Deer Trail where Cal was going to meet us at 8am. Dad was hurting really badly so decided not to go. Jason and Bob met us shortly before 8 at the dock. They were going to follow in their boat. Cal pulled up in his huge boat. It was 21 feet and 104 Kingfisher (one of his sponsors). He had an automatic trolling MinnKota on the back (twice the size as ours) with three batteries hooked up to it. He also had a trolling motor on the back of the boat for days when he needs to troll backwards due to the wind. He had a Lawrence about three times as big as ours that had all of the bells and whistles. He started us out at the reef by Sunset. He said that he almost always catches walleye there. He set my pole (I was using Dad’s ultralight pole) up with a Lindy rig and a nightcrawler. Scott used a windy with a jig and a minnow and Cal used a variation of that. Scott caught a walleye and a perch but there didn’t seem to be fish there so we moved on. Cal said we would “Run and gun” all day. If they aren’t biting after a few minutes we head to the next hole.

Next, we went to Flattop Reef. I think I caught one and Jason and Bob both lost one because they had forgotten their net so I called Mom and asked if they could bring them a net. Cal said we could run back because we could literally see the dock from where we were but I said this would be good because maybe Dad would stay. We weren’t catching much but we had to wait for Mom and Dad to get ready and come out so we stayed there a little longer. Just before Mom and Dad pulled up in the boat we started catching. I caught about three (two keepers) and Cal caught even better ones. Scott lost one and caught at least one. I think Jason and Bob both caught a keeper there. Jason caught one in the slot so it had to be thrown back. Next we headed to a reef off of Strawberry that was seemingly in the middle of the lake but it was on a reef from about 15-23 feet. We had a couple bites. I think Cal and I both caught one or two there. We left Bob and Dad’s boat there and we went to check out another place a little further west. We each caught a couple and then lost them. The “hump” kept moving so we couldn’t stay in one place very long. That is the lesson that I really came away with. Cal showed me a how to read the Lawrence. He taught us to turn off the “fish” mode and put it in on auto. The screen that shows the fish pictures are misleading because it’s usually small fish or mayfly stuff. On auto you just see humps on the bottom. Usually those are fish. Every time he would mark (which I figured out meant see those humps on the screen) we would catch fish.

We lost our hump so we headed over to the west end of Burnt. This is one of his favorite spots because he said a lot of people don’t know about it. We were down to about twenty minutes of our four hour session and we weren’t having tons of luck. Then Cal caught one, then Dad caught one, then Cal and I caught simultaneously. Then we all started taking turns. Everyone caught their limit except Bob and Jason needed one more. Cal went over time but finally had to take us back because he had to take his boat into Kenora to get the oil changed. Mom and Dad followed us back to pick us up and Jason and Bob stayed to try to catch their last one. I later found out that they went back to Flattop. Jason came back with a big one. We put them on a stringer and took our picture by the Deer Trail sign. We went back to camp and filleted our catch.

Later that afternoon we took the float boat out with Kim, Alexa, and Olivia to Paradise and had an eagle show. I got quite a few pictures. We found a junk pile of beer bottles and cans. Scott hopped on the island and filled up a bag but there were too many to pick up. That must be a party place for people.

For dinner, we had a fish fry of course at the lodge. It was Jason’s last night so we played a round of golf. At ten, Jason and the kids tried to put on a fireworks display for us but the mosquitos were horrendous.  Bob left in the middle of the second sequence and on the last one Jason and the kids abandoned ship and we all ran to our houses.

Thursday, July 5, 2018

We got ready for our big fishing trip tomorrow. Scott and I kayaked into the wind because it was pretty breezy. We paddled to the west shore and followed the coast line up to the turn toward VB. It was nice. We hooked up the tow rope so that I could take some pictures but it didn’t really work because I was too far away from Scott’s boat and there wasn’t really anything to take pictures of. I did get a faraway picture of some Common Mergansers messing around and a loon from pretty far away. We stopped at a really nice beach and took a break and then headed back again. On the way back the wind had switched directions so we didn’t get a break paddling.

We have at least two families of groundhogs or woodchucks around the cabins. There seem to be one mom and baby that live toward Martensens and a mom with two babies that live under Jeff's cabin.

The men went out fishing in the evening and the girls and kids went to the Fort Vermilion for Busters and open mic night. It was pretty sad. I guess all of the vendors were in Dryden at Dryden Days. The band wasn’t very good. We said good-bye to Phyllis and John (Jason’s parents). They were leaving early in the morning.

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

It was windy again today, but not as bad as Monday. It was still pretty rough though. I headed for Eagle Island in my kayak it was quite a challenge. There were two boats out in the middle that were acting kind of strange and they weren’t as easy to see as on a calm day so after 12 minutes of paddling I turned around and headed back. It only took 7 minutes to get back. Once I got back I kayaked to the peninsula of Deer Trail and back again.

We ate hamburgers and hot dogs at the lodge. We tried to stay up for Jason’s fireworks show but it was going to be too windy. Instead we used sparklers as the sun was setting even though it was completely light out still. We sang the Star Spangled Banner. Alexa’s foot got burnt.

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

The guys went fishing with Bob and Colwells.
Spaghetti Night and we played: Play Nine (Golf).

Monday, July 2, 2018

It was really windy today so of course Scott and I took off in the kayaks. It's the most fun when there are epic wavs. Our first goal was to just make it to the island but then we decided to go all the way around. It was really hard. The wind was crazy. If the weather app was right there were gusts up to 23 mph during that time (later it got worse). If you stopped you actually went backwards. I was actually having to duck to try to get less wind resistance.

For dinner, we had Dad’s famous hot dogs and played spoons under Olivia’s instruction. At one epic moment it was down to her and I for the win and I actually stole her spoon. I glanced up and saw her face at exactly the right time and could tell she had just gotten the last card so I grabbed the spoon first. It was John’s last day so we all got to say good-bye to him.

It was sooooo windy. I did not sleep well. I was awake almost every hour. Every time I woke up I unzipped my “tent” and used my spotlight to check the boats and kayaks. At four am, I noticed a boat going along the coast on the shore opposite of us and I noticed that even though the wind was still crazy hard the waves had died down. Sometime between 3 and 4am the wind had switched directions.

 

Sunday, July 1, 2018

I had my boat driving lesson with Dad this morning. We went out in the bay and around Paradise Island. We messed around with Lowrance to try and figure out how to do some things on him. We measured around the island but when we got half way it started subtracting feet. Then we tried to delete it and couldn’t get it to delete.

When we got back Mom and I kayaked over in Bear Trail Bay and then hollered up to Martensen’s to see if Jason’s Mom, Phyllis wanted to kayak with us. She and Julie came down and hopped in the double. We kayaked around Paradise stopping at the beach of course. When we got back Mom and Phyllis stopped to talk so I took my Kayak back to the tip of the island and back again before my bath.

For dinner, we had a potato bar at the lodge.

Saturday, June 30, 2018

Alan’s birthday is today. We took a truckload of garbage and had a taco bar for dinner with everyone at the lodge.

Friday, June 29, 2018

It stormed all morning. Lots of thunder, wind, and rain. Mom and Dad headed to Dryden. For lunch, we ate leftover ribs and pork from Busters and Jason, Julie, Scott and I started to play Shanghai Rummy. The rain quit by about 3pm and it was Brent’s last day. He really wanted to do the Boat Island Hike so we all headed out. We took three boats. In the end, it was just Julie, Brent, Elliott and Jamison. Julie was a little hesitant so I stupidly decided to go. The first hundred yards in there was a hug tree downed in the path that we had to break of small branches and climb over. Then we ran into another obstacle that Julie and I decided we couldn’t get under so we blazed our own trail around it. The ground was still wet and very slippery. I’m sure I slowed the group down. They were really nice though and waited and in a couple places Julie and I helped each other up. When we made it to the lake they all swam and I just enjoyed the break and the cool breeze. When it was time to head back we found two of the trail ribbons but then lost them. We quickly realized we were off the trail. We circled back twice and couldn’t pick the trail back up. Brent then went all the way back to the lake and was yelling that we were not anywhere near the spot we were because he couldn’t find the beaver dam. I had my phone which actually had a signal so I pulled out Google maps and gave the phone to Julie and told her just to head east and we would make it out. Once we got to the other end of the island I would be able to figure out how to get to the boat. So she did, she forged ahead and led us through lots of brush. We never did pick up the trail again. About a fourth of the way in I went to sit down on a boulder to slide down it but the moss was wet and I slid wrong landing on my left leg thus throwing out my knee. Most of the rest of the way Brent had to help me down from many obstacles. He was gallant and so kind about it. We came out about 500-1000 feet from the corner where everyone was waiting. Brent and I hit the water it was a nice beach that was only about a foot deep. We looked up and Dad, Scott, and Lennox were on the other side of the bay heading somewhere. I began to yell and whistle and everyone was waving at them. They were too far away and didn’t know to look for us. At the last minute before they disappeared behind a small island Lennox turned and saw us. They came over to save us and we all piled into the one boat - way over the limit. Dad slowly took us back to the other two boats where we all scrambled to our boats so we could go home.