Summer Adventures 2007: Take 2

This past weekend was the kind of summer weekend I live for; getting out of town.

Once again I had the pleasure of my friend Mike's company and he was a trooper yet again in accompanying me to my family's cabin on Big Lake in Richmond, MN.

After being stuck in bumper to bumper traffic for a good 30 miles, we stopped at Cabella's in Rogers to get Mike a new fishing rod. I had never been to a Cabella's before. Holy sports equipment! And holy prices ot match! Yeah I guess they had some reasonably priced stuff, but it probably wouldn't be my first choice in places to shop for sporting goods.

Fortunately the traffic broke up soon after Rogers and we made it to the cabin shortly before dinner. Mike and I decided to take a quick reckie around part of the lake before making our grand entrance by boat to the cabin. I'd never arrived by boat before.

About 75 feet from the cabin, Mike's boat ran out of gas- and I mean completely out. Neither of us had remembered to check if we needed gas at the 2 gas stations we stopped at on the way up.

He got out the one little oar he has for his 16 foot boat, but it was just windy enough to make it pretty problematic. Fortunately I had my cell phone on me and called into the cabin. My dad and sister's boyfriend, Joe, ferried out some gas to us. ......so much for the grand entrance.

It was kind of funny though.

I also found it pretty humorous that my mom, who was hell bent on having steaks for dinner and therefore said I didn't need to bring the kabobs I'd made, couldn't wait for me to pull out the kabobs so she could try one. it was almost obsessive. :) In fact, the kabobs went in a hurry as they became the preferred dining choice. Even my uncle Jerry, who was a chef at one time, said they were outstanding.

After dinner, Mike and I decided to try fishing. It's been a long time since I'd caught any fish in our lake. As it happened i did catch one little bitty sunfish. Mike had a couple nice bass, including this one:

It was a beautiful day up there.

We stayed out fishing until just after 10pm when the stars came out. The bugs started to get bad so we packed it up and were about to head in, when Mike couldn't get the boat started. We knew we had gas this time, but it was the battery that had died. He had 2 other batterires in the boat, but knew they were both also dead. That didn't stop him from trying them though, but alas to no avail.

He did what he said was the "unthinkable" and pulled the top off the motor so he could try to pull start it. The given rope was exceedingly small so he tried a longer rope. No luck. I suggested we call in for help again, but Mike was determined not to do that.

Fortunately for us, the lake was as calm as glass. We took the 1 oar. I sat at port bow, he at starboard and we paddled our way in.

Grandpa and Joe were sitting on the dock as we got in. I told them we were travelling in stealth mode though I know they didn't believe me.

The battery got put in the charger straight away.

Saturday morning, we went for a walk and as we got back, my uncle Jerry rode up in his Harley. the 2 of us had a cigarette and chatted until the rest of the gang got back from town.

Mike and I decided to try fishing one more time. He caought a couple more bass. I got nothing.

Just after noon, we procedded to drive to his family's cabin on Mille Lacs.

This time there were no boat problems! We trolled around. Mike got a couple walleye including a 16-incher we were able to keep. We stayed on the lake 'til 10:30 or so drinking Vodka lemonades.

There was a band playing at the picnic pavillion so we decided to catch the end of it.

As we walked up to the pavillion, Mike saw the drummer laying in the grass with an almost empty bottle of vodka. The band had picked a guy out of the audience to fill in and he was actually very good. We caught the last 3 songs or so. The lead singer had left mid-set go go drink with some people and she wandered in at the end. I almost wanted to take up the microphone myself. It all ended when the fill in drummer started a drum solo at behest of the audience and the original drummer got off the grass, walked up and kicked over his own drum set.

There were some people we hopped on a golf cart with to go hang out with but we ended up somewhere we did not intend which was hosted by a lesbian who was not shy about proclaiming her orientation to anyone. When she came up to me she told me she wouldn't hit on me because she knew I was married- which I'm not and how she deduced that is beyond me.....but hey- if it kept her from hitting on me.......

We soon left that little gathering, Mike cleaned the walleye and cooked up a Heggie's pizza that he insisted I try. By 1:30am we were both snoozing on the couch so in a brief moment of consciousness I crawled upstairs to bed while Mike meandered down to the bedroom.

Sunday morning it was rainy. That didn't stop us however, from taking a 4-wheeling trek.

I'd never driven a 4-wheeler before in my life. Mike gave me the basics. Fortunately I drove his mom's which is an automatic.

On our way out of the resort, the guy operating the security bar across the driveway must not have seen me behind Mike because he brought the bar down right away. I thought I could clear it until it belted me in the head. I quick checked for blood-- none-- so I was good to go.

We rode quite awhile all the time it got rainier. Mike decided to try an "adventure trail" he saw. Adventure was right......though I don't know if you could call it a trail. I fared pretty well for the first half of it. Then on one turn I thought I was in Mike's wake, but suddenly I found myself on the ground with a rolled over 4-wheeler. Mike was oblivious to this happening and kept on riding.

Somehow I managed to roll the 4-wheeler back over and get it restarted. I caught up with him a good 1/4 to 1/2 mile down the trail where he'd gotten off and started to walk back to find me. He would've had a long walk. When I told him what hed happened he couldn't believe it; saying he's never rolled one before. I said "when you fall off the horse you just have to get right back on though". He said "don't fall off the horse".

A little further down the trail, I thought I was going to roll again. It was a flase alarm. All I did was throw myself off as I went one way and the wheeler went the other. I had a good hard land on my left kidney. But I got back on and caught up to Mike, who was once again oblivious to what happened.

When I told him he just got a concerned look and told me to be careful, still in disbelief how I could fall off. From there on out, he watched me and told me to be careful at every turn and hill.

Hey- it was my first 4-wheeling experience but after that trail 4 wheeling was a piece of cake!

It was a good 30 mile run and we got back just drenched.

After drying off and cooking up lunch, we took the boat out for one last fishing excursion.

This time I scored with a 21" walleye!

Mike also scored with a 36"+ Northern! It was a monster fish- the biggest I've ever seen come out of a lake!

Despite all the trials and injuries I had an absolute blast! Another successful summer weekend.

Cheers!

Last week's bowling scores: 154, 162, 156. go figure I only needed a 155 for a free drink.