Trout Lake, I'll be back next year!

Thursday morning brought a cloudy day. We had a nice walk back to an abandoned homesite deep in the woods where the chimney of a three story house remains. We took a ride to see some of the other lakes in the area, Louie told us there are 109 lakes in a 9 mile radius! This is wild, beautiful country. Louie also told us about a woman who had her car torn apart by a bear who was after a small package of gummy bears she had left on the seat!

Part of the reason we were in the car is we went into the library to bid on the kayak, then took a long ride hoping for a response when we circled back through town. And we got one! I now own a yellow Dagger Axis 10.5 which is being shipped to St. Louis.

The wind was really up and much too rough for the inflatable kayak so we weren't on the water.

I really don't know where the day went, we visited other campers, walked, had a great fire.

Friday morning brought rain, wind and cold. I had on my long underwear all day long. It was just one of those days, but we made the best of it. Luanne knows I like history so she took me to see "The World's Largest Penny" which was oh so cool (ahem) but the story behind it was wonderful.

The penny was erected to commemorate the debt-free opening of a badly needed hospital here in 1954. That feat is credited to a beloved physician named Kate Pelham Newcomb. Known as the “angel on snowshoes” and also as “Doctor Kate,” she frequently trekked through impassable roads to make emergency house calls. Dr. Newcomb covered 250 square miles around Boulder Junction and delivered over 4,000 babies during the years she practiced.

Born in Kansas in 1886 and raised in upstate New York, Kate Pelham enjoyed a comfortable life as her father was president of the Gillette razor company. He initially refused to allow Kate to attend medical school, so she became a teacher instead. Her father later relented, and Kate graduated from medical school at age 31.

Dr. Kate is credited with inspiring a penny drive to fund the hospital. Word of Dr. Kate and her accomplishments spread and she was surprised by an appearance on "This Is Your Life" with Ralph Edwards.

During the program, Edwards mentioned Dr. Kate's dream of building a hospital and the fact that a local high school class was in the process of collecting a million pennies to help defray the cost. Edwards asked viewers to send pennies to Dr. Kate Newcomb in Woodruff, Wisconsin.

“Pennies came here by the tons— $105,000 worth of pennies"

She died at the age of 71 after surgery for a broken hip. We saw her grave in the tiny Boulder Junction cemetery where she and her husband lie between two soaring pine trees.

Saturday, no rain so we started a fire early in the morning and kept it going all day. We got the washers out and played with the kids of the camp host. Several other people joined in the fun and were drawing plans to build their own games. When Luanne heads north next spring there will no doubt be at least two more washer games. Just think, I have single handedly spread this game from the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Superior!

This was really a fast week. I love being on the Lake and am hoping to go back again next year.

We left Trout Lake Sunday morning, driving as far as Madison with Luanne and Tucker. We stopped at the Camping World store with great anticipation, but it was a small store and didn't keep much of our money. After goodbye's, Teddy and I went on to the KOA we stopped at on the way up, Luanne made her way home.

We pulled into our driveway middle afternoon Monday to gusty warm winds after a bit more than 1300 miles this trip. I really enjoyed wandering through Iowa, it was a much prettier drive than coming home through northern Illinois. Now to pay the piper for two weeks of having fun, lots of wash and cleaning up Saffire to get ready to leave in three weeks for the Big South Fork National Recreation Area in Tennessee just south of the Kentucky border.

See you on September 30!

Wednesday, Trout Lake

Last night the rain finally came, perfect timing as our campfire was dying down. I drifted off to sleep with deep, rolling thunder and rain on the roof.

After wishing Luanne a Happy Birthday this morning, we were sitting watching the day start with blue skies and a slight breeze. Today is sweatshirt weather, going to be in the 70s for a high.

Luanne’s big birthday gift this morning was a beautiful eagle soaring along the shore line right in front of our campsite. It is really, really beautiful here.

I think I’m going to have to do some housecleaning today. After almost a week on the road and a wet, sandy Teddy I think it’s time!

As the day turned out, it probably was the best one all week long, Luanne says it was the perfect birthday. It was just too pretty to clean, so we went to a neighbors campsite where they have Dagger 10.5 kayaks they love and wanted me to try out. I’m sold, and have a bid on ebay for one, we’ll see, hope I can get it to STL and get Saffire rigged for it before Big South Fork.

After using theirs we headed back to our campsite and took a bike ride into town. I needed the computers at the library to get more info on the kayak than my phone could provide. Well, I provided Luanne’s comic relief for the whole darn summer, I couldn’t remember my screen name and then my password, she had a great time laughing at me while I struggled to bid on a kayak. And remember, I’m the woman who bought a motor home on Ebay!!!!!!

There is a cute little coffee shop in Boulder Junction and we had the best cup of coffee I’ve had in a long while. It was really chilly when you were in the shade and riding, but sitting outside in the sun at a table with yellow Provencal table cloths watching the world go by was pretty OK.

When we got back to camp we had lunch, the last of the fish we bought at the flea market. Then I got Teddy strapped into his life jacket and down we went to the lake. Note to Jack...Teddy’s life jacket is macho red!! He sat in the front of the blow up kayak, a little unsteady at the very first but after we paddled a bit he fell asleep in the bottom of the boat! It was a spectacularly beautiful day on the water and he was happy as a clam.

We eventually got cleaned up and went to town to meet Louie and Jeanne for dinner. It was a nice place, good bar and lots of family style food, I ate and drank too much, but it was so much fun! We went to see their house which they built up here about four years ago. It is really, really nice and they went on about coming back in the winter. I can imagine it would be so beautiful sitting in their family room, surrounded by windows, heated floor and blazing pot bellied stove. My kind of winter, but they would want to be out ice fishing on the frozen lake (who could believe this whole lake freezes?!?!?!?!?) skiing, snowshoeing, think I would survive?

Louie gave us a whole pile of wood from his woodpile so we had another fire when we got back to camp. There must have been a million stars overhead, it was a perfect evening for a perfect day.

Tuesday, Trout Lake

Tuesday dawned with rain pattering on Saffire’s roof. The shower didn’t last long, but brought heavy, cloudy skies and steady winds all day. Being out on the Lake with all the whitecaps was obviously not going to happen today, and a bike ride with rain threatening didn’t appeal either. Tuesday is Flea Market day in Boulder Junction, so we headed in to post the blog at the library and poke around the flea market for a while. We found this wonderful potter who made very interesting flower pot arranger. Luanne and I both bought one, I’ll post a picture.

While we meandered through town we ran into Luanne’s brother and sister in law, Louie and Jeanne who live here. It was nice to meet them and we’re going to have dinner with them tomorrow night to celebrate Luanne’s birthday. Yep, today’s her birthday, I’ll just tell you she’s not quite the big 60 yet.

We took a couple of nice walks and collected rocks to go in our new flower pots. Fall is coming to the north country, the maple trees are beginning to turn and you see an occasional flash of brilliant red in the forest. Teddy rolled in sand and muck while we were at the Lake and was a mess most of the day. After lunch of smoked white fish we got at the Flea Market we had a two games of washers which Luanne won (don’t tell her but I threw the games as a birthday gift!)

Later in the afternoon we went back to town for an ice cream cone and then explored a few of the other lakes here. It is amazing that every little road you drive down brings you to another lake, one prettier than the next. Luanne was a bit taken aback by two lakes she’s known since her childhood which weren’t quite what she remembered in terms of beautiful sand beach and great long fishing dock.

We ended a day that never brought more than another sprinkle with the sun setting behind the clouds, a loon singing to us as the water lapped the shore, the crackle of a great fire and the company of a good friend. Who could ask for anything more??