Living in Spicer

During my week living in Spicer I stayed in a camper cabin at Sibley State Park.  I shared the cabin with a friend who took the same class.  We had the spacious cabin to ourselves.  This kind of camping is luxurious compared to the walk-in campsite I had rented at Afton State Park.  Here we could drive right up to the cabin.  Unloading was easy.  The outhouse was right across the road from us and so was the water supply.  Showers were about 3 blocks away.  The showers were nice.  A green tree frog lived in the women shower room.  I took 3 showers with the frog in attendance and so did my cabin mate.  One morning I got up early to go to the shower house.  Some other woman was in there taking a shower and I heard her say, "Oh, hello little froggy.  My little froggy!"  We had it pretty nice in the camper cabin.  Unfortunately the cabin wasn't available Thursday night - our final night.  I had reserved a tent campsite near the lake.  When I heard rain was in the forecast for Thursday evening I wasn't so happy.  On top of that I was getting tired of black beans and rice that I had packed for my suppers.  One can eat black beans and rice only so many nights in a row.  Some other master naturalists were staying at the Spicer Castle.  They said we could get a room for $50 or $60 dollars.  I had looked at their website earlier and remembered much higher prices.  Because they raved about the place we decided to ditch the camping and stay at the Castle.  We drove out there after class and went to check in.  The two women who were staying there went up to their rooms to get rid of their bags.  We were shown prices of $89 and $119 for a night.  We weren't sure what to do when one of our friends came back down. Her name is Virginia.  Virginia is a force to be recognized.  I knew she was a pistol but had no idea how magical Virginia could be.  She "Virginiacized" that desk clerk.  By the time she was done talking we both had rooms for $53.  My room was in a separate building.  I got a room with an electric fireplace, a fridge, a microwave, and a hot tub big enough for four people to sit in. The hot tub was in the bedroom area. This was an amazingly large tub for a room with a bathroom so small my knees touched the wall when I sat on the toilet.  Still, I had a nicer room than Virgina!  We met for dinner at the Spicer Castle at 6:15.  The rooms at the Spicer Castle might be overpriced (unless you know Virginia) but the food is totally worth the cost.  The four of us had a great dinner.  We got a great dinner salad topped with a real orchid and a fresh popover.  Virginia ate her orchid.  I saved mine and put it in my room. One of us had steak, another elk, another fish and yours truly had ravioli. We had a great discussion about evolution and intelligent design.  After dinner we all wanted some alone time and I went to my room.  The Spicer Castle is a little run down and some of the art work is, um, how do I say this, terrible?  Here is the original artwork that stared at me from the wall at the foot of my bed.  

Here is a photo of a painting showing a boy sitting on a box holding a diffenbachia stalk with a goat behind him.  The eyes of the goat caught my attention.