Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Wild Weather @ Tulaby Lake

Kristen and I spent the weekend up North, mowing lawn and enjoying some well needed rest and relaxation. We left the Twin Cities Friday evening around 6:20 PM. Feeling excited and ready for the weekend, we jumped onto 35W northbound hoping to make great time and have few stops.

Boy did we make a mistake, as soon as we hit the junction of 35W and county rd C we could already see traffic backing up from the single lane reductions in both directions starting at 35W and highway 694. We lost a lot of time on this stretch of highway, but were able to get off and found our way to County Rd 10, eventually merging with Highway 10 and on our way North.

Road Construction has been horrible this season trying to get North of the cities, lane closures on both 35 and 94 westbound in Rogers have made the necessity for side routes and new ways of getting to the cabin. We hit all greens on highway 10 and were able to make up some time.

Friday night we rolled in around 11:20 PM, got settled, and watched Star Wars: the Empire Strike Back (that celebrated its 30th Birthday on Friday) and made microwave popcorn as a snack before bed.

Saturday morning we enjoyed a breakfast of Hormel thick Bacon and Pancakes before heading up to the garage to prepare the mowers. We also got to enjoy a few cups of coffee: Starbuck's Yukon blend.

Saturday's weather was overcast with very high winds that made it difficult to mow, but we were able to finish a majority of the cabin property and Kristen taught me a new trick with the riding mower: by engaging the parking brake, you can keep the mower running and dismount without the mower shutting off. Saturday evening there were high winds which forced Kristen and I to cook our steaks on the stove as opposed to on the grill, of which we couldn't get lit because of the wind. That night a thunderstorm moved through that lit up the sky and had some soft thunder, but left very little rain.

The best day of the weekend came Sunday with clear skies and a slight breeze. Kristen and I took a hike to the Fire Tower near Tulaby Lake off of Highway 113 and we had gone a long ways before we realized that we had missed the turn to get to the tower and had instead followed a snow-mobile trail…Usually I hike this path with my dad in the fall and winter and forgot to turn left to ascend the hill. As we got further from highway 113 the bugs got worse and the wind couldn't keep us cool. So we hiked back to the cabin, changed into swimsuits, and I took a well needed dive into the frigid lake.

Sunday night we enjoyed watching some movies including Pixar's UP and The Box. The Box was an interesting science fiction/mystery film and starred a good friend of ours as an extra as a reporter dressed in1970's attire. We might have seen the back of his head during a scene but were both unsure. Also Sunday night more sever weather entered the region and dumped rain, hail, and strong winds knocking out the power Monday morning around 5:45 AM. Kristen and I woke up, did our best to clean up the cabin and then hit the road.

It feels nice to blog again, I know I say this a lot but I am going to try and update as much as I can. I have been meaning to write a post about some of the books I have been reading over the past number of months and some of the games I have played through notably: Dead Space for the Xbox 360. I received Dead Space as a gift from my older brother last Christmas and it was a very satisfying entry to the survival horror universe and a joy for fans of horror in space.