Casa Blanca: May 2019

How wonderful it is to be retired and able to celebrate good times with old friends! This dinner group started back in the '80's.

Di, Greg, Linda, Lorvey, Peggy, Rusty

It has been a very cold, wet, windy spring so my rides have been pretty limited.

55 mile ride to Wahoo and back

On Derby Day, Rusty fixed me a mint julep to enjoy in the swing.

Rusty and I took our usual May trip to the Boundary Waters, however this one turned out to be quite the unplanned adventure. Because we have to portage all of our gear, weight is always a huge consideration. We are constantly looking for ways to save a few ounces. This year Rusty purchased a very small axe to replace our larger, heavier one. We were on Knife Lake, which is on the Canadian border. We were 9 miles of paddling and 5 portages from the nearest outfitter, and another half hour from town. We had set up camp, fished a little, gathered firewood, and were just starting to set up for happy hour before dinner. Rusty was splitting small logs into even smaller pieces so that they would burn better in our fire. When one wields a small axe, it requires a lot of physical force to make up for the lightness of the axe. Unfortunately, Rusty's full-throttled swing missed the log and landed in his left hand. Blood immediately went everywhere---and I mean everywhere. Steve came to the rescue and pinched the opening in Rusty's hand closed and helped Rusty hold his hand in the air. After a very long time the bleeding slowed and we were able to clean and dress the wound as well as one can in the wilderness. Rusty had to hold his hand in the air the entire evening, even through the night.

Bloody Rusty and Steve holding the offending small axe

As daylight began to appear (after very little sleep) we had a quick breakfast and then formed a plan. Steve and I would paddle our tandem canoe and Rusty would sit in the middle holding his hand in the air. We left nearly all of our gear in camp. Steve had already climbed to a very high hill and was able to send a text to the outfitter who would send in a boat as far as is allowed in the BWCAW area. This saved us about 3.5 miles of paddling. After the 5.5 miles of paddling and 5 portages, Rusty and I were motor-boated to the outfitter landing and then drove to the ER in Ely, MN. The ER doc said it had been too long since the accident to put in stitches. He and several nurses admired the cleanness of the cut and said it must have been an extremely sharp axe. (No surprise Rusty keeps his tools nicely sharpened.) The wound was cleaned and some steri-strips were applied to pull the skin together, and then everything was wrapped.

Meanwhile, Steve had paddled and portaged our tandem canoe back to the campsite. He took a nap while it rained and then awoke to a full moon. He packed up our tent and all of our gear, packed his own tent and all of his gear, and made it across 3 lakes and portages in the middle of the night. The next morning he began the long trip out. Because of all the gear and two canoes, Steve had to quadruple portage, which meant crossing the portages 7 times. While paddling he put all of the gear in the front of our tandem to balance his weight and then attached a rope to tow his own canoe behind the tandem. What a guy!

Steve made it back to town and we sorted out our gear.

This spring Steve splurged for a new topper on his pickup, but resorted to homemade racks for carrying canoes.

While waiting for Steve to arrive, we took a short trip to see the Kawishiwi Falls.

A rather unusual tree along the Kawishiwi Trail.

Meanwhile, back home...

Between spring rains, I tried to get most of my garden planted. Each year I harvest seeds from the Zennia flowers to use again next year.

I look like I'm processing drugs. In reality I'm separating Zennia seeds from the flowerheads.

Pretty flower pics from our garden area:

Pierce (grandson, 11 years old) and I had our 3G Adventure (GiGi and Grandson) over Memorial Day weekend. We rode the Pedaler's Jamboree ride on the KATY Trail in Missouri. What a blast to have one-on-one time with my grandson!