Trip to North Woods, Upper Wisconsin

It has to be a sin to have so much fun and see so much beautiful scenery.
Well, if it is, then I am sure to go to Hell after this past weekend, because I saw amazingly beautiful countryside and laughed until my sides and face hurt.

I met Dennis (Snowman) online many years ago. Over the years our families have become very good friends. He and his wife, Kris, have visited us in Missouri quite a few times. This was our second time visiting them in Wisconsin. They have a cabin in Northern Wisconsin in an area called the North Woods. It is where Dennis hunts and where they go just to get away. We drove the 9 hours to their house on Thursday. Thursday evening we ate a light meal of ham sandwiches and solved the world's problems over a bottle of rum. Friday morning Dennis' brother, Larry and his wife, Joyce, joined us for the 4 hour drive North. First stop was about 30 minutes from home for breakfast. I knew right then and there this was going to be more than a 4 hours drive! Anyway, the further North we went, the more vivid the scenery became. It got mighty cold too. The top temperature was mid-50's.

Bar hopping was on the agenda for our first evening at the cabin. Now, we are in a very remote area, but there seemed to be a bar around every corner. Funny thing is, we made it to one bar, drank more pitchers of beer than I've ever seen (I'm not much on beer, so I had no trouble staying sober) and had some of the most wonderful fried fish (I have no idea what kind!) and laughed at anything and everything. It seemed everyone knew everyone else and the fact that we were strangers made no difference. They felt very comfortable poking fun at us just as easily as they did at each other.

On Saturday we started our day out with a huge breakfast of bacon, eggs, fried potatoes, homemade V-8 juice, and lots of coffee. Then we headed out to drive the backroads looking at the scenery. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Later on we headed back to the cabin and just kicked back, taking naps, reading books, or sitting around just visiting. Everything was very relaxed. Big steaks were the order of the meal that evening. I can honestly say I don't know what kind of steak it was, but they were big and tender. And people kept showing up! People from the bar the night before, the couple who lives upstairs in the cabin (Joe and Honey - oh what a colorful couple they are!), their grandson. I was like, OMG, we are not going to have enough food. But it was like the loaves and the fishes - on a bit smaller scale lol, but somehow there was plenty of food to go around. Nobody left that table hungry, that is for sure. And of course there was plenty of beer, rum and other liquor. I wasn't quite as sober when I went to bed that night lol.

Sadly, we had to head out Sunday morning. We had to be back in Missouri by Monday afternoon. So, we drove as far as we could on Sunday - made it pretty far into Iowa. Then Monday was back to reality. We were in Missouri by 1:00, I was into work by 2:00 to finalize a few things, was at the nursing home by 5:00 to visit mom and home to fix a big pot of stew and do laundry by 6:30.

I hope you enjoy these few pictures of the 70 odd ones I took.

This picture is one of my favorites. The lake is called Black Lake. The waters are a coppery/black color. The brilliant red of the trees are reflected in the lake. It was so peaceful there.

Jim, Deanna, Kris and Dennis


Alright, so the devil made me do it. I just couldn't resist taking this picture of Jim and Dennis' version of solving the world's problem. You can bet they had a beer can in their hands.

This is a picture of most of the people who showed up for the steak dinner on Saturday night.