Portugal

Here are some images from near our hotel here in Lisbon.

Gordon Takes the checkered Flag in Chicago!

I should have been there! Jeff won his 75th career cup race. Jeff's next win will equal those of Dale Earnhart Sr. who won a total of 76 races in his 27 years of racing.

Jeff has also now won $75 Million dollars. Richard Petty won only $8.5 Million in his entire 35 year career. And it just so happened that Jeff's first Cup Race was Richard Petty's last cup race.

Jeff has a lot of great things to boast about.


Like:
He's the only driver to ever take Rookie of the year in both the Busch Series (1991) and the Cup Series (1993).

He was the youngest driver to ever win a Cup Championship (24 years old in 1995).

He's won at every track except Miami, Phoenix and Texas.

He's won the Daytona 500 3 times.

He won the inaugural Brickyard 400 in 1994 and has won it three additional times since then.

Holds the record for eight road course victories...including one in Sonoma just two weeks ago.

Jeff's first Cup Race was Richard Petty's last cup race.

And the list goes on.....

So you can boo him, throw beer bottles at him and call him names but you can't change the fact that he's one of the best stock car drivers of all times. And he's not done! Jeff will celebrate his 35th birthday on August 4th. Salute.

Mike's Graduation Party

Last Saturday we had Mike's College Graduation party. It was a great time. A lot of folks showed up. We partied way into the night. I'm proud to say Mike's done with school, took his Minnesota Post test and past it. He can now be a licensed police officer in the state of Minnesota.

Day seven in the BWCA

Thursday June 22, 2006

Holy Cow! We did 11 portages on this day. We got to Bat lake, where we had planned on staying the night, but it was only 11 am and we thought we could go further. So we decided to go to Brant where we had planned on staying the next night. When we got to Brant lake two of the three campsites where already taken and the third, which was not only in one of the areas of the 1999 blowdown but also had had a fire in August 2005.
And much to another group looking for a campsite, we again decided to move on. So three more portages later we were completely out of the BWCA. We stopped by SeaGull Outfitters and bought some cold beer and went to the Trails End Campground to spend the night. We made chicken tacos and an apple pie and drank our nice cold beer.

Day six in the BWCA

On this day we went out fishing before 7am. Right away Makita and Ellie each caught a trout. We all came in and by 8am Ellie and Makita were celebrating with a Mountain Dew that Ellie had sneaked in. Makita was very excited to partake in this treat. Ellie kept only enough to mix herself a Whiskey Dew. Thus our sixth day was started.... Ellie seemed a little loopie from this breakfast.

Dave cleaned the trout and Ellie made stuffing out of cornbread bannock, dehydrated vegetable soup mix, dehydrated red peppers and spices. It turned out really good...we gobbled down the first fish but quite frankly I can't eat anymore trout. I've had my fill. We tried to choke down the second fish and it was hard.

We had some storms that threatened us but they ended up going around us. These thunderstorms can be frightening because there's nothing you can do to protect yourself from the lightning or wind. We happened to be in the blow down area of July 1999, so a lot of the trees are already down. But by looking around you get a sudden reminder of what devastation can happen from the wind.

Day seven we will move back to Bat lake on our way out and then maybe day eight will be on Brant lake.

Day five in the BWCA

Tuesday June 20, 2006....day five.

Today we just hung around our new camp on West Fern. It was sunny and warm. Here's our camp unoccupied.

We watched a mommy loon with her babies. They were still fuzzy but getting too big for her to carry around on her back anymore. Daddy loon was there a lot also. They would spend the entire day diving for minnows and giving them to the babies.

We did some laundry...

and took a much needed bath (even though Ellie brought the camp shower and it heated up to be over a hundred degrees, I opted for a nice COLD dip in the lake....yikes)
We went out fishing and Ellie and Makita each caught another trout. We stuffed them with stove top stuffing, wrapped them in foil and baked them. That was really nummy.

Day four in the BWCA

The day started out really windy and rainy. It rained most of the night and continued into the morning. We stayed in our tents until almost 10am. It was rather cool too. Ellie had her long johns on. We went out fishing after lunch and I caught a laker (Thirston). We decided then to pack up and move from Powell lake to West Fern lake where we had heard (from a couple from Grand Rapids MN) that there was big lake trout. We went through Malaria portage again. The wind had pretty much stopped. We drug Thirston with us. On the way paddling to our campsite we all drug a line and Makita picked up a really nice lake trout and Dave picked up an equally large one as well.

We went to camp, cleaned the fish, fried two and baked one of the trout and ate trout until we couldn't eat anymore. Good stuff.

We were the only people on West Fern Lake.....just like on Powell the night before. It's so quiet here.

Day three in the BWCA

Words right from my journal: "Sunday June 18, 2006 Day 3. Got up around 6:30am. Packed up. Most everything was wet due to the rain that fell on and off all night. Had some coffee and paddled to the first portage. The wind was UNBELIEVABLE. We paddled to the first campsite on Gillis Lake. We thought about staying there but it was only 9:30 am and we thought maybe we could go further. So we tried. We made it a couple more lakes and then we were forced back (turn back = our official name for this situation). Dave and I would have gone further but Makita was skeptical and Ellie refused. So after going across the horrible muddy Malaria portage twice we carried everything back and stayed on Lake Powell. Ellie thinks she saved our lives...she could be right. We had "Turn Back Stew" (potato soup with spam in it) for lunch and took baths in the freezing lake. That evening we had chicken stir fry and Ellie made apple muffin cake with a fresh apple baked in it. What a nice treat. We were in bed by 8:30 pm. "
Makita found a golf club on the portage enterance from Bat lake to Gillis lake. When we came back several days later it was gone. The Forestry Service probably removed it.

Day two in the BWCA

Saturday June 17th was day two. We were all still pretty beat from the first day and someone suggested we stay on Bat lake for the day to try our hand at fishing for Lake Trout. No one hesitated to agree with this. We could move forward the following day. It seemed like we had all the time in the world to get to our final destination, Ogishkemuncie. "Ogish" was rumored to have some of the best Walleye fishing available in the BWCA. But in the meantime we would see about these Lakers. So we rigged our rods. Ellie and Makita put on the recommended three way swivel with a heavy sinker and some kind of wild crazy spoon. While Dave and I opt for a more conventional crank bait. Deep diving of course but with no added weight. Well we barely got off shore and Makita hooked a trout. Ellie caught one too and we went in and had a fish fry.

We went back out fishing in the afternoon and Dave caught two lakers (he's by now changed to the suggested three way swivel method) and Ellie caught another one. This time we fried two and tried "gutting and gilling" the third and baked it on the fire in foil with butter and onion inside. It was very good.

Day one in the BWCA

A view from the top...................


Good golly Molly what a day! We portaged our butts off. Lots more walking than paddling. We got up before 7am, drove to the Round lake landing and piled in the packs. We each started with one pack but before we left home we ended up with a total of six packs. Me and Ellie would carry two and the guys would carry one pack and then a canoe. So it was three trips on each portage.

We portaged a total of seven portages the first day. None where too long but all where pretty elevated and very rocky. When I get a copy of Ellie's photo's I'll post one of a portage I know she took a picture of. We stopped part way through to have a little lunch and to drink two of the four beers we drug along. Our good deed of the day was when a man from Roseville Minnesota and his two young sons where using the same portage as us, except heading in the opposite direction, and we helped them carry two of their packs and some other items as we went back to get our second load.

We had originally intended on going into Peter lake the first day but only made it to Bat Lake. We setup camp on a big rock hill with a beautiful view. Pictured here is Ellie and Dave up in the camp.




Ellie made us pizza over the fire for supper and it was awesome.
They should have named Bat lake "Snake Lake" because we never saw one bat but did see several snakes. Each time Makita or Ellie would see one they would scream. Good grief. Dave would scream too just to make fun of the "girls".

We made it back....

This was taken the morning we left to go in to the BWCA. As you can see we had a lot of gear. Stay tuned for lots more photo's and stories.

Talk to you Later.........

Well I'm off now until the 25th having another Boundary Waters adventure. My pack is way too heavy. We're going to try to fish for Lake Trout this time. Most of our time in the past has always been spent on Walleye but the lakes we're visiting this time are predominately filled with only Lakers. So talk to you all when I return with stories and photos.

Happy Fathers Day

To all the fathers out there....have a great Fathers day this Sunday the 18th!

Saturday at Winstock

I got to go on Charlie Daniels bus. He was super. And he sure can play. Very entertaining.
Little Big Town put on quite a performance as well. They played most of their new (only) album "The Road to Here" including their hit "Boondocks".

Blake Shelton...what more can I say.
Terri Clark rocked the house. Her new husband, who is in her band, is from Grand Rapids Minnesota.
Johnny VanZant of Lenard Skynard...good stuff.

I also met a six pack!