Dunes and Dinos - Sawyer, Michigan 7.30.24

 

Bon Voyage – Family and Food  5.13.21

For quite a while, I have wished to do a longer road trip than our usual 1-2 week vacations, perhaps 2-3 months.  The opportunity to retire at the end of April 2021 gave me that chance.  The trip I had always hoped for involved driving north and west, up through Canada to Alaska, then back down along the California coast, possibly as far as Baja California, seeing various family members along the way, before turning back east through the U.S. back to Chicago.  Because of Covid-19, Canada is closed to Americans for leisure travel.  Therefore, we are embarking on Plan B, which is the same idea but staying in the continental U.S.

Somehow I always get flustered and stressed out at the beginning of the trip.  It’s not the packing, we’ve done that so many times it’s not an issue.  It’s the volume of detail that goes through my head.  I keep trying to see what a law school professor referred to as “the blinding flash.”  It never comes.  This time, we had hoped to be in Oconomowoc, WI at 6 pm.  My sister and her family had organized a party for me to celebrate my retirement, complete with an awesome cake with tiny camper and chairs on top.  But first we had to get a spare tire from a junkyard in Aurora, IL.  I did not know Aurora was so far west.  Perhaps foolishly, I agreed with my spouse to set the GPS to “avoid tolls.”  We spent in time what we saved in money.  We were close to two hours late for our own party.  Everyone was kind and welcoming anyway, and we did get to see the kids and grandkids, as well as hanging out with my sister and brother-in-law that evening.  We parked in front of their house for the night and continued to Madison the next morning.

It’s positively embarrassing how much wonderful hospitality and food we’ve had so far on this trip.  At some point we’ll get back to our routine of salads, sandwiches and eggs, but meanwhile we’ve been treated to herbed salmon, delicious Chinese food, quiche, pasta with vegan meatballs, grilled walleye … We saw Mom for a while, then continued on to Minneapolis where we have spent time with LCR’s brother and my sister.  It’s wonderful to see so many people we haven’t seen in over a year!  The kids are taller and the adults are a bit greyer, and everyone seems to be doing well after the crazy year we’ve had.

We’ve been at a campground at the Lebanon Hills Regional Park, off a road picturesquely named Johnny Cake Ridge Road.  We have full hookups which is a nice luxury even though we are accustomed to doing with much less.  We also noticed we were placed in the paved, “better” loop of the campground, presumably based on availability of a spot, since we did not request it.  Our initial plan to stay in Minneapolis a few days kept getting extended due to a piece of equipment sent to Pete’s that arrived late, and car and bike issues – see below. 

June took us on a bike ride around one of the Twin Cities’ many lakes.  Bundled up against the crisp temperatures, we did around 6 miles, a piece of cake for her (she routinely does 20-mile rides whereas we are rank beginners), but we were exhausted after the ride, especially LCR.  A day or two later, we discovered why.  In adjusting LCR’s bike, Neil determined that the frame is just too small.  Makes sense, because the bike was my dad’s and he was shorter and also shorter in the leg than LCR, but we did not realize it would make that much difference in safety and comfort.  Neil has several bikes because he volunteers for a charity which refurbishes bikes for kids, so LCR tried one with a larger frame, and broke out into smiles, saying he did not know riding a bike could be so easy.  Next project, therefore, was to search for a different bike.  Neil searched Craiglist and came up with two possibilities and without delay, the next day LCR drove to White Bear Lake and bought a used bike!  Some parts of the older bike were swapped onto the newer one, and we donated the rest.  Neil devoted hours of painstaking work to getting the new, used bike in working order and we are extremely grateful to him.  LCR also got a mirror to attach to his helmet.  We are excited to try the bikes the next chance we get. 

On Sunday (Mother’s Day), we went to lunch with Pete and Julie in the Mall of America and walked around the mall for a bit afterward.  I realized it had been a year and a half since I had seen a crowd that big.  So many people, so much diversity.  It’s hard to describe how it made me feel – it wasn’t the noise, and it wasn’t uncomfortably crowded, everyone was masked and behaving themselves, but there was just a buzz about it that I hadn’t felt in a long time.  It was just a bit intense and tiring.  We needed a nap when we got back to the campground.

We visited George Floyd Square with June one evening.  The intersection and some distance on each side is still blocked off to traffic.  There are several structures, including a striking metal raised fist sculpture, many flowers, artwork, poems and pictures, and the place where George Floyd died is still outlined on the pavement.  It was sobering and moving all at once.  There is so much pain there, so much sadness and frustration, but still, so much hope.

On Tuesday afternoon we visited the Museum of Russian Art.  LCR was hoping for older works, but most of what we saw dated from the 1950s and 60s.  It’s a small museum with a large collection that is rotated.  We saw paintings of farm and factory life from the ‘60s, many so large the human figures were life-size, as well as abstract collages made from found objects and brilliantly painted, and the works of one particular painter who used monster themes and Don Quixote images to express his views on both Communism and capitalism.  There was also a small exhibit of dolls with various ethnic costumes.  Accompanying that exhibit was a poster showing the various ethnic groups in what used to be the Soviet Union.  I confess I had no idea of the huge diversity that exists throughout the region, even given more recent migration to large cities.  My favorite was a painting of a party, with women in ethnic costumes swirling around.  One danced with a tambourine that had ribbons streaming from it.  You could almost hear the balalaika music. 

On Tuesday evening we noticed the car making an ominous noise.  Wednesday morning found us at an auto repair shop first thing, getting bad news that the brakes needed to be replaced.  LCR remarked that we had just had them done.  Then we started thinking back and realized that “just” was a term of art, and in fact we’d done several long road trips, thousands of miles, including a lot of mountain and off-road driving, so maybe it was not such a surprise ... some discussion accompanied the timing of this expense.  

Thursday morning saw us leaving the Twin Cities  Next stop is the Badlands, where we plan to meet up with several activist friends who will be going there from Chicago.