We went to my parent's land in Pine City, MN for a weekend of camping. I really don't think there could have been a more beautiful weekend as far as weather and fall colors go.
We drove up Friday evening and arrived around dusk. It was quite fun setting up an 8 person tent in the dark. We had a fantastic night of lemon basil drinks, a Heineken keg, 40s, the game Telestrations, and some scary story books (actually, the 40s weren't such a great idea because we all ended up in bed pretty early :).
The next morning we woke to see how beautiful the colors were (and hear the sound of cows). There's just something about waking up in a tent, getting up when you want instead of being forced to by your alarm clock, and being able to relax because you know there isn't a single thing you are obligated to do that day. We broke the cardinal rule of camping - we went in to town, just because we could. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of seclusion and being away from everything, but when you don't have any toilet facilities and McD's breakfast is the best hangover cure, it's just too tempting to turn down.
The rest of the day comprised of exploring. We drove through the boonies that we learned the locals refer to as "the badlands". Here are a few components of what we stumbled upon on our journey:
- A garage sale. Which was more of a pole barn sale. And it happened to be at some sort of animal sanctuary way back in the woods, where they had goats, miniature horses, lots of dogs, cats, etc. Niki simply could not turn down her purchase of salt and pepper shakers shaped like cats.
- A 4 wheeling path. The woman at the garage sale said "do NOT go down that road, people constantly get stuck and they can't get tow trucks back there and they have to bring in cranes to get cars out". So, what do we do? We drive down that road. Which gets more and more narrow, more and more bumpy, and more and more muddy the farther you go down. We became head-to-head with an actual 4-wheeler and had to drive backwards a ways until we found a tiny path to back into
- Abandoned buildings that were about to fall apart. We were just about to pull over to explore, but got sidetracked by the bar that happened to be across the road. Which brings me to the final stop:
- A bar. Straight up in the middle of a corn field. And not just your ordinary bar. First, they tell us that our dogs are welcome to come inside. Then, the guy informs us that it's "hat Saturday", and outfits us each with some pretty awesome hats. He also hands out bumper stickers to all of us, shows us a Christmas photo of his family, and tells us about how he has 7 dogs, including a "sheep dog", which is literally a sheep that he got as a baby and was raised by his dogs.
The evening including food eating, beer drinking, and a nice little late night visit. It was pitch dark, and we suddenly see a small light moving up the driveway. I yell, "HELLO?!" and the light turns off and we hear nothing. Yes, it was scary as hell. Even the dogs were going crazy and thought we were all going to die. Turns out, it was just our friendly old neighbor Bob (who looks like Santa Claus) stopping in to say hello and have a beer with us.
I'd like to mention the array of sounds we heard at our campsite throughout the weekend. This included: dogs, coyotes, birds, owls, french horns, cows, squirrels, golf carts, and neighbor Bob.
Yes, I love the woods, and the idea of seclusion. But, once in a while it is pretty darn nice to be able to go "car camping" where you can bring whatever the heck you want to bring, and drive the 15 min. into town if needed. One of the best comments I heard was something along the lines of, "I want to just stay here. I don't want to go back to work". It's in our genetic make-up to be outside in the natural world, not sit in a cube and do unmundane stuff day after day after day. It is not realistic to give up our city/work life completely, but we can at least create a balance once in a while that keeps us satisfied.
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