Alone

I haven't been able to post for a while, so I've got a lot to cover tonight.  I'm sitting in my camper on the north shore of Lake Superior, above Duluth, MN.  I drove up here after getting Jean to the airport in Minneapolis.  And now I'm alone.

We had a wonderful trip up through Wisconsin after leaving Lake Geneva.  After being there for 2 days, we were certainly ready to leave the snooty tourists behind.  I was continually amazing at how rude those visiting that beautiful spot could be.  They brought their big city manners and driving habits... let's just say that I'm glad to be gone from there.

The terrain and geography of upper Wisconsin is similar to the Willamette valley in some ways.  There are rolling hills and lots of forested areas.  And lots of corn!  That has been the most dominant crop that we've seen throughout the entire trip.  Miles and miles of it.  The second most common was soy beans.  Apparently they grow well together.  We made our way up to Eau Claire, Wisconsin for the night and found a nearly new motel that was just begging for us to stay there.  There aren't a lot of RV campgrounds here it seems, or at least none that were near us.  Jean negotiated a great deal since it was nearly empty, and we forced ourselves to enjoy a king-sized bed, big screen TV, pool and whirlpool, etc.  It's a tough life sometimes.

From the lap of luxury, we drove on to Minneapolis/St. Paul yesterday.  I had no idea just how big that metropolitan area is.  It took almost an hour to get from one side to the other.  Aside from having a big airport to fly out of, our purpose there was to visit some Salem kids who are going to college in the outskirts.  We went south to St. Olaf's College where Maren W. and Phillip B. are attending.  We had been in contact with Maren, but as we were waiting for her Phillip happened to be walking by.  He was quite surprised.  He and Patrick are good friends so it was nice to catch up with him too.  Maren is a sophomore there, and on the cross country team.  Her older brother Nelson graduated from there last year, and was an outstanding swimmer while he was there.  He achieved a total of 6 (I hope I have that number correct) national Division 3 championships during his career.  Maren has always had a special place in my heart because she tried swimming in high school her freshman year.  I had the pleasure of coaching her.  Even though her first love was and is running, she was one of the most coach-able kids I've ever had.  She always put in her best effort and never gave up.  Seeing her in this college environment made me very pleased and proud of how she has grown into beautiful young woman.  Maren is on the St. Olaf cross country team and seems to be doing very well.  I look forward to following her season again this year.

From St. Olaf's, we drove back toward Minn/St. Paul and the east to Crown College where another Salem girl is attending.  Summer P. was on the water polo team at West Salem High School for two years.  During that time, I had the pleasure to get to know her during practices and games as the team photographer.  We also worked on her swimming skills a bit.  Seeing Summer was quite special to me as well.  She is one of the most positive and enthusiastic kids I've ever known.  She is also doing cross country, and had just returned from a trip to Colorado with her team.  We had dinner with her and were able to catch up on her plans and activities there.  (You may have noticed that I get attached to a lot of kids.  I've always been this way, and try to maintain these connections as we grow older.  It is one of my greatest joys.)  I believe that Summer will make quite an impact in her college as she did in high school.

Jean and I then headed back toward Minn/St. Paul proper to find another motel for the night.  Since it was now the end of the Labor Day weekend, we happened on another great place with a great price for our final night on the road together.  One of the benefits of being in a hotel is that they have internet access and printers.  I was able to take care of Jean's travel documents quite easily.  We loafed around a bit this morning since she didn't have to be at the airport for a while.  I was hoping to be able to go into the airport to see her off, but found that with my tall truck and camper, there wasn't any place to park.  So, much to my sadness, we had a hurried goodbye in the drop-off lane in front of the terminal.  This was not the way I wanted to say goodbye to my wonderful wife and traveling companion.  I'm still feeling a bit distressed about it, even though I know that she is home safe and sound.

So, I'm on my own now.  It will take some time to get used to that.  Even with the magic of cell phone and computer communication,  not having her next to me navigating, conversing, laughing, counting white horses and cemeteries (I'll have to explain that in a future post) has been had to deal with today.  Seeing the beauty of Lake Superior would be so much more enjoyable if she was here to share it with me.  Perhaps tomorrow, I will begin to find my own rhythms and solo traveling style.  That was my original purpose.  I guess thinking about something is often different from actually doing it.

A note about photos:  I'm still posting them on my Flick page if you are interesting in seeing them.  It's just too slow to put them here.  Here is the web address:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/johndej/