Diary from July 4th visit (2006)
This was the second year in a row in which I visited the family cabin on Wolf Lake on July 4th weekend. My parents (John and Karin, in case you know them) generally make a habit not to visit the cabin on independence day weekend. They are bothered by what they consider excessive numbers of vacationing people and noise associated with their boats, fireworks, etc. And in truth, I sympathise with this feeling, because the fireworks issue was the only thing that marred an otherwise beautiful and fun weekend this year.
I arrived Friday night with my cousins from Minnesota. We took the Highway 2 route through Superior, Northern Michigan, and from Iron Mountain, Highway 141. Since we drove mostly in the dark (we came all the way from Ontario, where we had all been fishing for 3 days), there wasn't much to see in those parts of the state except the trees on the side of the road and an occasional deer. Apropros deer, we drove about 55 the whole way, and they seemed to notice us coming and did not try to cross. Maybe the deer in the north are getting "trained" with cars?
In any case, I was able to relax around the cabin all day Saturday, Sunday and most of Monday. Both Saturday and Sunday we had visitors - mainly family staying nearby. There are relatives of ours, the Napierkowskis, who have a new place at the very end of Lassack Road. They are mainly from Colorado, although the children, who are my age, live all over the place. We had a nice dinner Saturday during which I cooked some of the fish I brought back from Canada (pike and walleye, in case you were wondering). Dinner was good - I think my fish tasted even better than Mom's roast pork, even though I didn't tell her this. As evening set in, we could hear the frogs and occasionally, sand cranes from the lake. I absolutely love listening to these sounds when I'm in Wausaukee. Then, suddenly, around 9.30 or 10 the fireworks started. I won't name names except to say some very near neighbors of ours seemed to be at ground zero. This went on for like 1 1/2 hours. And these were not the bottle rockets and sparklers allowed under state law. In fact, I would wager that this was probably the biggest single fireworks display by a private property on the lake. When I complained about this to one of my aunts, she said "you have to have some spirit". She is local in Wausaukee. I guess our views collide here. I didn't belabor the point.
To continue this topic, I don't understand why Wisconsin doesn't just ban all consumer fireworks like our neighbors in Minnesota and 9 other states. What the heck point is there to coming up to the north woods just so you can make a racket and bother all the neighbors. Isn't that why we all left the city in the first place? Personally I think it's really rude for some property owners to do this. Especially late at night (on Sunday night, July 2nd, a different property on the far side of the lake had some loud exploding fireworks at about midnight). Please sign my poll below about this topic.
The water in the lake, by the way, was excellent for swimming. A 4 to 5 foot layer of warmer, 70 degree water on top, with somewhat cooler water down below. I swum both days. Sunday we even put out the swimming raft, which, because my parents both have different opinions where it should go, I had to go out and adjust position for 3 times! I just hope it stays when the next windstorm hits. Since I am also a fisherman, I empathize with those who get their lures snagged on the climbing ladder of our raft. I had no choice in putting it out. Parents' order!
In other news, Mom's garden near the lake appears to be doing well. She says they don't really need to water it. Apparently it stays moist due to the high level of groundwater (our property has swamp land on both sides). Good thing, we have the swamp!
Well that's my diary for this year. I look forward to my next visit, hopefully in October.
Kent
