We were up early, and bid a fond farewell to our hotel staff at the Microtel. They had been so friendly and helpful for our days here. The breakfasts there were hot and good. Then, we started heading up the road to get to northern Minnesota for our nearly weeklong stay at Unitarian Church camp.
As we drove around the west side of the Twin Cities, we passed the Carlson Buildings where Dick had worked. This brought up many memories for him of his time working for the Carlson Companies, as Director of Quality Service Management. It was this job that had brought him to the Twin Cities.
Once we got out of the Twin Cities, we started seeing signs that we had moved into rural Minnesota. One of the first ones that caught our attention was the sign for one little town, “Little Falls, where the Mississippi pauses.” And a billboard saying “Eat your steak, wear your fur, it’s the American way.”
We had now officially arrived in Paul Bunyan country. Paul Bunyan and his giant blue ox, Babe, were characters in American folklore that focused around stories about the tree cutting industry in the US. As a storyteller, Patti really enjoys these references to stories and folktales. We drove about a half an hour out of our way to see Babe the big blue ox. They also had a huge Paul Bunyan, but he was within the section requiring a fee. No time for that in today’s drive.
We got a quick drive-by view of a Babe the Blue Ox dressed as Elvis Presley. Didn’t get to take a photo, but he was sure something! We also drove by, but didn’t see, Paul Bunyan’s foot prints in the parking lot of Kohl’s Store. Gosh, there are so many Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox sightings that we are having to go by. We had a boat to catch a boat to the island for our family week at camp.
After about a 5 hour drive, we arrived at the marina where we would load up our luggage to go out to Star Island. We had a chance to begin meeting our fellow campers as we boarded the boat. There were many fewer campers than would normally be coming for a week at camp:.This week there would be 20 campers and 14 staff people. This included ourselves and our friends who we were meeting there. Ann and Keith were delayed and did not join us on this boat, having to catch a later one. All together, there were about a total of six families. We would really get to know one another in the next six days.
The staff are all lined up and welcomed us at the end of the dock when our pontoon boat arrived. They were enthusiastic, and also helped to unload the piles of luggage for the week.
Since Ann and Keith were coming a little later, we headed up to cabin to to get our things set up. We appreciated the help from the staff in hauling a very large wagon, filled with all luggage for the week, up a big hill. The four of us would be staying in a cabin by ourselves, due to Covid limits. We were also nearly immediately introduced to the chipmunks who hungrily, often boldly, hung out begging for food all week. They were very cute, but we know human food is not good for those pesky animals.
We were so happy when Ann and Keith arrived. Lots of hugs and help settling in. Patti and Ann are long-time best friends and immediately headed it off for a soak in the very warm water of the lake to start catching up. This would be a great week!
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