The week in review - back to the homeland.

As I typed the title of this blog I chuckled to myself - I guess back to the homeland refers both to my heading to Fargo for the 4th and to my current perch in a Caribou coffee shop on the way back home. I spent the last days driving all over central and northern MN and ND, and oh what a glorious journey it was. The trip began with a trek to Sibley State park near New London, MN - the second annual summer camping trip with my friend and I. We camped from July 1-4th, and it was a bit soggy for most of the trip. That didn't stop us, however, from finding plenty to do and enjoying ourselves a great deal. Fishing, biking, cooking hobo dinners, spying on turkeys, getting the heck scared out of us by whatever woodland creatures were lurking in the trees surrounding our campsite - a well rounded trip. The rainy days were spent poking around Spicer, playing cards at the top of Mt. Tom, watching movies, and taking a peek at Green Lake Bible Camp, where we enjoyed tremendously the lillies planted outside the offices.



Another highlight of our camping trip trip (or mine at least...) was finding (and catching!) a skink (little somewhat snakelike lizard, for those of you who were wondering...) on a walk at a nature center we stopped at. It managed to do a pretty good job of frightening my friend, who is afraid of snakes and thought that's what she had seen, after which I went looking for said snakes and found the two reptile friends. After seriously considering the possibility of a new pet, I let the scaly visitor return to its home and went on my way.

On the morning of the 4th of July, we packed up camp and headed for Detroit Lakes, where we spent the afternoon with a friend of ours (and one of my former coworkers) and their family at a lake home. (There were a buttload of cops out that day due to the area we were in, and also the date, and I managed to get followed by an unmarked cop for the better part of a few miles.) I made good use of the water trampoline, tubes, and lake in general, and despite not putting on sunscreen (an incredibly stupid move...can we say lobster), had a wonderful time. I even got to do some waterskiing (which I hadn't done in 2 years or so), and managed to get up on the 4th try. After some lunch and goodbyes, we headed up to Fargo, dropped off our stuff, and then headed over to the park for a picnic of fried chicken. Yum. Being in the park was an adventure in itself - owing to the beautiful weather, everyone else in Fargo appeared to be there also. We staked out a spot and chowed down, and even got some dinner entertainment - a family next to us was shooting fireworks right in front of three parked cop cars - not a smart move as it is illegal within the city limits.

The fireworks that night were great - they shoot them off in Moorhead at the college - so it's basically a field and stadium full of people watching together. Some really awesome fireworks too. We rounded out the night with slushies, and headed home to bed.

I spent the last two days running around Fargo/Moorhead - getting a haircut, visiting friends, having lunch dates, helping my friend out at work, and just enjoying myself. Friday night - my last night in town, was at an amazing jazz concert put on by some of the Fargo South High kids - it was wonderful. Then, Saturday was time to go home - but not before a stop in the Twin Cities to see a friend of mine, and a stop at home to share the fudge I'd bought at the Russel Stover Outlet in Owatonna. MMmmm.

So thus ends my crazy road trip - 7 days and 850 miles later. What a ride. I think I need an oil change now...once again I've reached the miles faster than the time... :) But what a great reason to have done it.

Now, off to the Boundary Waters... :D