Camping

Here is a picture of one tough dude kayaking on Lake Alice.  Later, I kayaked the length of William O'Brien State Park against the current, stopped at a sand bar/creek entrance at the northern most border of the park, switched places, and let him ride the current back to the boat landing area.  While I struggled against the current, he kept pace with me walking on the lovely path along the river shadowed by tall white pines.  That was hard. I was tired.  For me it was like pushing a kid's bike up a hill and letting them ride the bike down the hill (which is something I once did for my neighbor friend Patty and still remember to this day). I had to walk as fast as I could to keep up with him  while he floated south.  Lest you think I'm some kind of saint, eternally giving and putting other people's needs ahead of my own, a sort of Minnesotan Saint Terese, I should tell you that 1. he's 13, 2. he got braces put on his teeth this week and 3. he has a broken wrist and is wearing a plastic bag over his bright orange cast. On the other hand, I did the same trek against current on Sunday and let him float back.  Twice.  Twice I did that.  So, if you want to think of me as a Saint, yeah go ahead.  I'm down with that.  To be honest, it does give me a good feeling to know I helped made a boy's weekend a happy one.

Here he is waiting for me among the white pines while I paddle, paddle, paddle.  I lost ten feet just stopping to take this picture.

We also went on a hike which includes this passage under the railroad tracks.

A boy loves his dog.  I got two wood ticks on this hike and they both bit me behind the knee.  I pulled them off, looked them in the eye and said, "Do you want a piece of me?"  Actually, they had a piece of me in their little mouths.  I stored them in the Sunday morning compartment of my pill container. When I got home I strung a piece of duct tape in my kitchen and taped both wood ticks to it.  I call it my ticker tape.  If I get any rashes of symptoms of Lyme's disease, these ticks might come in handy.