Becky and Jason got up early to finish packing. We rounded up as much trash as we could for them to take out. Jason and I were momentarily possessed by the spirit of Godzilla while we smashed cans.
The plane showed up on time, around 10:00 am. Milly got excited and ran around barking for a bit. All their stuff fit easily into the Cessna, and they were off.
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The weather started clouding up after they'd departed. The wind picked up as well, although it continued to fight tradition, blowing east to west.
We ate a big lunch, then headed out for some fishing. Kristen caught a 4 pound northern on her glow-jig, but other than that we had no luck. The wind really continued to pick up, it was a fight to keep the boat pointed in the right direction, even under power.
We napped, then decided on an early dinner so that we could fish as the sun was going down. Cooked up some pork chops, rice, and potatoes.
We headed out for more fishing, but had no luck. The shifter handle on the 25 hp motor broke. Upon further inspection, it'd been broken before, but patched up.
During the night the wind continued to build. We woke up at some point and closed a few windows. It was pitch black outside, but we could see flashes of light occasionally. We debated over whether it was northern lights or lightening, and settled on lightening, since it felt stormy.
We fell back to sleep, but were awakened by some amazing thunder a few hours later. We don't get thunder like that in Colorado. It was shaking the cabin, making the windows rattle in their frames. Waves of rain hammered the cabin in between lightening strikes. I started to wonder if Dad had left the lightening rods installed when he put on the new roof...
We survived the night. The boats filled up with water pretty significantly, the big boat on Donley was only about 2 inches out of the water when I got in to bail it out. Next time I'll pull the boat out of the water if it starts to rain like that.
Kristen cooked a huge breakfast, trying to use up all the extra food we had. At some point we started whispering to one another instead of talking. It was quiet with only the two of us up there, whispering back and forth.
We went down to Manitumeig to bail out that boat and to do some fishing. Kristen caught a bass, a walleye, and a northern all on the same spoon.
Afterwards, I started making a new shifter out of a broken hammer handle. We briefly considered cutting down a large dead tree near the cabin, but decided it was too late in the trip for such a big project. We had Mac & Cheese for lunch.
We headed out for another fishing trip, this time on Donley. We were really hauling them in, including a really nice bass and a 4.5 pound northern. We headed back as the sun was going down.
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We had chili for dinner. During the meal on the porch, something smacked into the screen. A few moments later we could see something crawling up the screen that looked like a mouse. Upon further investigation we realized it was a bat. We weren't sure if he was eating mosquitoes off the screen, or looking for a roost.
We had an interesting 1/2 sunset. One half of the horizon had a beautiful sunset, the other was filled with storm clouds. We were hoping that the sunny side of the horizon would win out by morning.
Wednesday morning started out nice and clear, and with no wind. It was our first day to close up camp, so after a healthy breakfast of cereal, fruit, and something resembling yogurt, we started on our list. The weather was a nice change of pace from two years ago, where the vast majority of work was done in the rain.
By 10:00 AM we had blasted through a good portion of the list, so we decided to take a break. The weather was amazing, easily the nicest day in camp of the trip. We read on the dock, and sunbathed a bit. We stayed out long enough to both get sun burned a little. We saw a grouse near the outhouse. Very chicken-like, it even sounded like one.
We had lunch, and then knocked another 10 items off the shutdown list. We then headed out for some late afternoon fishing. I installed the new shifter on the motor, which made navigating a bit easier. The wind had eventually picked up, today blowing a more typical west to east direction. We had good luck, a 2.5 pound bass was the best of the bunch. Kristen practiced her rowing a bit.
We had another round of pork chops for dinner, trying desperately to use all the meat up that we had in the freezer. We both felt a bit strange from the sun burn, so it was a quiet dinner, and early to bed.
We got up early again on Friday to try to get a jump on the remaining items on the list. Kristen cooked a huge breakfast, and we ate ourselves silly. We started on the list, then took a break around 11.
We took our last fishing trip catching a few small northern and a few nice bass. With a tear in our eye we eventually turned back toward the cabin.
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We cooked an early dinner, then hustled afterwards to finish up the last few items on the list. We signed the guest book, and got the main cabin shut completely down right at nightfall.
All we have left is to shutdown the hill house. We set an alarm the best we could for an early rise, and headed to bed.
The plane showed up about half an hour late, which seemed typical. It gave us a chance to double check everything, and be fairly certain we didn't miss anything.
I was sure we had too much luggage and garbage to fit in the Cessna, but it all fit without too much trouble. It was fairly cloudy, but the ride out was smooth.
We paid our bills (or Kristen did, I'd left one credit card at home, the other had been blocked due to suspicious Canadian spending), and headed west toward Winnipeg.
We made good time, and had an amazingly easy time crossing the border. We suspect this was partially due to a very suspicious looking Indian guy trying to walk through the line of cars to talk to the border patrol. Kristen mumbled something like "Just don't let him detonate his briefcase near us". The guard talking to us was very interested in what the guy was doing, and didn't give us any trouble.
We drove to Sisseton South Dakota, and found a Super 8 to stay in. We gorged ourselves on pizza, and enjoyed at least one shower a piece, and then settled in to the clean sheets.
After sleeping in and driving most of the day, we gave Nono a call around 3:30 from Wall Drug. She was excited to hear from us, and before too long we were showing her the 400+ photos from the trip. She had very vivid memories of staying in the lake house and being terrified by the loons, not knowing what they were.
We took her out to Red Lobster. She really liked the shrimp scampi, Mom wasn't kidding. We only got slightly lost heading the the restaurant, I certainly don't remember my way around Rapid too well. We visited a bit longer after lunch, then went our separate ways.
We stayed at another nice hotel near the mall. We had a few drinks at the hotel bar, which was having a Karaoke night. It was fun to people watch somewhere other than Boulder.
Sunday morning we headed out of town toward Boulder. I felt like I was coming down with something, so Kristen did most of the driving. It was an uneventful day of driving, and before we knew it we were back home with the cats. Zack was so excited that he started drooling profusely, which we hadn't seen before. He didn't stop meowing for about two days. It's good to be home!
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