I Wonder as I Wander…

In 2001, we did a huge backpacking trip. We were so proud of our accomplishments that we rewarded ourselves by getting backpacks and a tent—which we had never used. Every summer, we say that we’re going backpacking and then suddenly the summer is over and we haven’t gone. So we took a few days off in June to backpack. We got our gear all ready and made up packets of dehydrated food. We went over to Kara and Paul’s and headed out—however, the forecast was for heavy rain every evening—so we wimped out and just did some day hikes on Thursday, went to Duluth on Friday, and did a hike on Saturday. We did eat a fair amount of our food and even cooked the spaghetti and chili for a couple meals.

So a few weeks later, we were determined to use our packs and tent. This time Kara drove us over and dropped us off along the trail and we left our car at another parking area. We left Friday around noon and hiked until noon on Sunday—we covered 24 miles in that time. It was nice hiking—not too hot and it only rained one evening. There was one camp site that had quite a few bugs, but we made a fire and it seemed to keep them away pretty good.

We got back to Kara and Paul’s and had a chance to play a few games of cards—I think we have Paul addicted to Pinochle. Neither Bob nor I felt too achy after our hike. We’ll have to make sure we get in a good backpacking trip every summer!!

So it’s not a long trip or has lots of new things to see or do, but we did end up going to the cities for Bob’s spring meeting. We picked up Kara at Hibbing and brought her down with us. She wanted to go to the State Speech meet, so took a personal day. Paul came down later and met us there. We stayed with Ross and Richard and played with the Wii—Each person makes a Mii (a character that looks like them). We had a lot of fun making them for each of us. It’s kind of fun now because when we do some of the activities, we see all the family members.

On Saturday, we drove over to St. Cloud where we helped Kara and Paul sheetrock in the basement of their duplex. I had never been involved with sheetrocking—it is an interesting (and very dirty) experience. We had sheetrock dust all over us. Kara and I got pretty good at measuring and cutting—although we cut a piece for a closet, but then couldn’t maneuver it into the closet—so ended up having to cut it down to get it in.

We went back to St. Cloud the next weekend and then had a lot of sanding to do—that’s even dirtier than the cutting and rasping off the edges—especially when you are sanding the ceiling and it’s all falling in your hair and face. We also discovered the joys of mudding! Now I can put sheetrocking on my resume!