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Northern Minnesota, Part 2
The days we spent in the Sawtooth Mountains above Grand Marais and Lake Superior were beautiful. We left sticky temperatures at home, so the cooler days and nights were a blessing. But we couldn’t linger in the campground because there were too many things to see and do. Every morning we drove from our campsite at Golden Eagle Lodge and Campground https://www.golden-eagle.com/, surrounded by the Superior National Forest, and traveled along the Gunflint Trail where Native Americans, French Voyageurs, miners, hunters, trappers, and loggers came centuries before us. The trail is now a 57-mile National Scenic Byway winding through mountains, lakes, bogs, and valleys. There are no towns along the…
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Northern Minnesota
We pulled away from our first night in our camper in that Walmart parking lot and went forward. We met one of Jim’s sisters and her family for brunch in Madison, WI because we could park on the street in front of our niece’s house. We stopped that same night at our son’s house south of Minneapolis because we could pull into his driveway. The next morning, we loved on our two beautiful grandsons for a few hours and left for northern Minnesota. After our son backed the rig out of his driveway. It felt uphill the entire way. The car pulled the camper well, and I was feeling very…
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The Adventures of Orville and Narvel
Many, many years ago, we were part of a band of free spirits who went to Big Bend National Park and spent the month between Christmas and college spring semester backpacking. We all had names like Orville, Narvel, Doc Emmit, Wandy, Hecker, and The Booze; names that were to be spoken with the longest, most drawn-out southern drawl one could possibly muster. We named our group the Big Belly Sunset Watchers Club and we watched gorgeous sunsets from the canyons and the Chisos Mountains in the Chihuahuan Desert. Fast forward 35 years: Orville and I (Narvel) bought a camper and new car to pull it. We are a long way…
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Dark Before Our Dawn
Last week, I didn’t have a thing to say here. It was a dark week and love compelled me to get to work heading problems off at the pass. It began when my husband Jim wanted to “have a talk” as we sat drinking coffee on the patio early one morning. A pit formed in my stomach and it ended up being accurate intuition on my part. He said, “I’m on an island and I’m drowning. I need to do something.” When he can string words together to convey his thoughts, it’s a good day. And after being together 41 years, I can often fill in the blanks when I…
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Not Even Remotely Ghostly
I am in the process of writing my first book, Elusive Spirits: Paranormal Memoir of a Smalltown Teacher. As you might guess, I have had different kinds of unusual encounters in many places. They’ve all been intriguing, but when they happen in my own home, it can be a little unnerving until I’ve had time to come to terms with it. Such were the recent occurrences involving our TV. Our TV has been doing some weird things in the last few months. It turns off and on while we are watching it. At first, it happened occasionally. Then, it began happening more frequently. One day when I was home alone…
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How to Survive
Every time I step out the door I’m thinking about what I need to do to stay alive. It’s not a dominating thought, it’s a comfortably familiar awareness that has been with me ever since my parents moved my family to a remote part of Alaska when I was six years old. Our first home in this new, raw world, was a floathouse. In this case, it was a regular wood-frame house that had been winched aboard a raft made up of massive logs, formerly ancient trees. It was of the “shotgun” type with one room seguing into the next in a straight line from front door to back door.…
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Paranormal Memoir
I was four years old when my dear grandpa “Poody” woke me in the middle of the night by sitting on my bed. My four-year-old mind didn’t wonder what he was doing at my house or why he wasn’t at the hospital. Instead, I listened to what he had to say. We adored each other. When I was at his house, I followed him around while he dug potatoes, painted, or organized his immaculate garage workshop. Every tool was in its place and nuts, bolts, and screws were carefully sorted into jelly and baby food jars, then screwed onto their lids which were nailed into the workshop walls. He would…
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LIGHTEN UP
I’ve spent a lifetime as a mom and teacher taking myself too seriously. I thought it was my job to try to keep kids on the straight and narrow pathway, always wanting them to learn and do the right things. Somewhere along the way, I realized I didn’t have much of a sense of humor. I kept things so serious because I felt I was put here to balance out the ridiculous. To right those who never took a thing seriously. To be ready for a heavy dose of reality or common sense smackdown wherever I saw it lacking. And believe me, there were often those lacking any kind of…
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Mrs. DG, the Legend
The rumors preceded her: mean, short-tempered, rude, and liked to paddle. She was a third-grade teacher in my school and I tried to avoid her at all costs. I didn’t really have contact with her since the classrooms were self-contained and I was in first grade. Running an errand for a teacher, going to the bathroom, or being on the playground when she had playground duty were the only times I glimpsed her. Until that traumatic day. I had been sick the previous days and stayed home. When I went back to school my mother had written a note to keep me in at recess because of the chilly weather.…
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On Hiatus? Not Really.
While working on my first book, I will be sharing stories and interviews from other writers. Maybe a little unconventional from my usual style of blogging memoirs each week for the past year, but I think you will enjoy it. When I mentioned to a reader I will be going on a blogging hiatus, she balked and said I couldn’t; she counted on and enjoyed reading them. Out of that conversation came the idea to keep up with this weekly blog in an interesting way while I focus my brain on the book. As a high school teacher, I appreciated a respectful student over one loaded with intelligence, creativity, leadership,…
