Up North

This post is a couple of weeks late but better late then never. Nikki and I had a terrific time up North with Phil and Aralee, Rita, Sam and Sara, Dean and Amber, Moon and Laura - we missed you John!

I wanted to get my 65 mile training ride out of the way so I had Nikki drop me off in Antigo and I rode to the cabin from there. It was pretty cool. My route was highway 45/47 to Monico, at Monico I took a left onto Hwy 8/47, that took me into Rhinelander were I continued on Hwy 47 to McNaughton. The majority of the ride was on busy highways, but I still very much enjoyed the scenery. Once I got into McNaughton the only traffic I had to worry about was deer. I only ended up with 60 miles when I was close to the cabin so I went along the old logging roads to get my needed mileage. When I pulled into the driveway everyone was there to greet me and congratulate me on the ride. All I wanted to do is jump in the lake to cool off. After a swim and some much needed food, I was in relax mode for the rest of the day. That night we all went out to veiw the meteor shower. It was fantastic, I saw several meteors with long vapor trails streaking across the star lit sky. What a sight.

Another high-light of the trip was SCUBA diving. Moon brought all of his gear. He has an extra regulator so two people could dive on the same tank of air. Moon and I went off to look at the fish crib, that's right off the pier in 10-15 feet of water. On our first dive we missed the crib completely, visability wasn't very good. On our second attempt we hit the jackpot, the crib was massive, there were several fish hanging out. We saw some tiny fish that looked to be transparent. I had a good time, that dive made me want to get back out in the ocean again.

Grandpa Phil and Moon built a ski board thing, to help Sam and Sara learn how to ski. Both of then did a good job. I did a little skiing myself. My legs were screaming at me to stop, I was sore from my ride, but I wanted to get a few laps in. I got a little too confident in my ablilities and I crashed hard. I was moving across the wake and lost my balance. I fell and skipped across the water like a rock. I thought the water would be forgiving but I was wrong, I got the wind knocked out of me and I lost a contact. Needless to say I had enough water skiing after that.

One night Dean and Amber and Nikki and I went to see Pirates 2. It was flippin' hilarious; Johnny Depp is such a great actor. We had a good time hanging out with Dino and Amber. We should do that more often.

On our way home bad luck hit us twice. Nikki got a speeding ticket in Fond du Lac and 10 miles down the road after that a rock hit my windsheild and put a crack in it. A bad end to a great getaway.