Sailboat at Sunset

The picture with this post was taken by Anne, my summertime northern correspondent. While I’m back in Saint Louis, she is still at the cabin, with her folks. She said that the sailboat spent last night in the bay, leaving about noon. That’s Round Island on the right. She goes on to explain, “We don’t know who they were or why they were here.” It makes for a nice accent to the photo.

I spent all of yesterday in the car, driving from the Soo back here to the Lou. It was a 750+ miles drive that took over thirteen hours to complete. I lost over an hour in traffic around Chicago. There were a lot of other people on the road. Everytime I stopped all the gas pumps and restrooms were full. I listened to a an audio book on my iPhone, The Practice Effect, by David Brin. It really helped the miles pass by. Because I only had my bike to bring back, I stowed it inside the car. It really paid off. On the way up, with more luggage, a second person and two bikes outside on the trailer hitch, I only averaged 45 MPG. With only half the luggage, only one person and only the folded trailer hitch on the outside, I averaged over 54 MPG on the way back.

It was an exhausting drive, so I went to bed early last night. I was awaken at 4:45 AM by the sound of someone trying to open the front door. It is a familiar enough sound, one that I’ve heard many enough times at that hour, when one or another of my sons came crawling home, after staying out all night, but neither of the boys are in town. As I was lying in bed, now wide awake, with eyes wide open, I noticed a flashlight going around the outside of the house. I relaxed, when I realized that the supposed intruder was actually a local police officer doing the vacation check that we had requested. You see, I had originally planned on not returning until tonight and not last night. I don’t know if the policeman saw me lying in bed or not, but he soon left. I called to cancel the vacation hold as soon as I got to work. Before that though and still wide awake, I got up and went for a bicycle ride in the park.