Crow Wing County Fair

Well well well. Could it be it's fair time again already? Yes siree Bob. It is fair time in Crow Wing County. And for those of you that know me, you know the one attraction that will get me to go! It's not the gamesIt's not the ridesIt's not the exhibits Or the smelly animals (don't you hate it when people say "Oh Gosh, I just love the smell of the barns. It smells like hay". Kiss my grits....it smells like %$#@).No, the only reason you'll ever get me to a county fair is for the food!!! You can check out what's going on at the Crow Wing County Fair at www.brainerd.com/fair

And FYI Aitkin County Fair is August 2nd - 5th.

BWCA Fire Update

The Cavity Lake Fire, located near the end of the Gunflint Trail, has grown to over 31,830 acres. As of last night the fire is 45% contained. Crews continued their mop up efforts, using direct attack suppression tactics where feasible. Explosive cord has been used to create natural-looking fireline along approximately 3800 feet along the southwestern fire perimeter. Many of the lakes affected by the fires are areas that we visited earlier this summer. There is a number of portages that are closed that we traveled over on our June trip.
From what we saw of the blowdown area, these fires where inevitable. There are tangles of trees and brush that actually need to burn. It's going to be really ugly there for a few years but it will come back as beautiful as ever.

There are actually two fires burining up there now. The one pictured above, refered to as Cavity Lake fire and one in the Southwestern part of the BWCA, called the Turtle Lake fire. We've visited this area in past years as well. We've walked those portages that are now closed.

Lightning stikes are being blamed for both fires.

Our next Boundary Waters trip is scheduled for August 16 - 20th. It will be on the Western side of the BWCA and far from where the Cavity Lake fire is now and a ways from the smaller Turtle Lake fire.

Kierah Kay's last T-ball game of the season

Monday night was my oldest grand daughter Kierah's last T-ball game for this year. She was a rebel and wouldn't wear her team shirt. But she didn't need any darn old shirt, she was still a good hitter and a great runner.

Weekend in Thor

This past weekend was spent in Thor with the Boeckermanns. They've been working on building a new shack.....the Party Shack. The photo above shows what it looked like when we got there Friday night and the photos below show the weekends progress. Pictured here is Makita taking directions from forman Scott Nissen. (Dave's nephew/Davey's cousin from Benson). Katie seems to be listening very good also. There were seven people and five dogs. The pooches almost took over.
Makita and Brian (AKA Spike) carrying trusses. Dave supervising.
Up go the trusses. Then on went the plywood sheeting.
Our first visitor Saturday was Jeff Thompson (Tommy) who was an expert in door installation and took timeout to hang they new door.
After the felt came the shingles. You may notice my job was to hold my cocktail up high and to pose for this photo.
Our second visitor, one Mr. Jeff Gui, wasn't so well received. He rode in on his Harley and preceeded to offend almost everyone there. I was offended by his shirt and Scott was definately offended when Mr. Gui jumped up on the roof, in his socks, to take over the foreman position. Thankfully no one was injured or pushed off the roof during this uncomfortable time. Mr. Gui came down from the roof, in his socks, and soon afterwards left the "job site".
Cheers (with Ice Hole) to a job well done.

A Visit to a Royal Palace in Queluz Portugal

Not far from Lisbon is the community of Queluz. Sharon and I took a tour bus to visit a royal palace on Saturday July 15, 2006.

It was first built in the 17th century as a manor house for King Pedro II, but was later enlarged and transformed into a graceful palace. Today it is well preserved and open to the public, while also often accommodating state guests and dignitaries (former U.S. presidents Eisenhower, Carter, Reagan, and Bill Clinton all stayed or dined here). In the summer months it also hosts classical music concerts (part of the Sintra music festival) as well as equestrian shows.

One of the highlights inside is the grandiose but elegant Throne Room, once the scene of splendid balls and banquets, lined with mirrors and adorned with crystal chandeliers and gilded statues.

Beyond is the Music Room, where the queen's orchestra ("the best in Europe", according to English traveler William Beckford) performed operas and concerts.

Also noteworthy is the royal bedroom, a square room with stunning murals of Cervantes' "Don Quixote," a domed ceiling, and a floor decoration in exotic woods giving it a circular appearance.

The Ambassadors' Room is just as outstanding, with a marble floor and a ceiling painting of the royal family attending a concert. English and French-style furniture, fine porcelain, and Arraiolos carpets fill the other rooms.

The original kitchen is now a restaurant called Cozinha Velha, which retains the old stone chimney, arches, and vaulted ceiling. It is celebrated for its desserts, many of which are based on ancient convent recipes.

The beautiful formal gardens overlooked by the Rococo façades are adorned with elaborate statues and fountains with themes of classical mythology. The azulejo-lined canal is where the royal family went boating.
Curious Fact

Queen Maria I, resident of the palace in the late 18th-century, was an intelligent and brave woman, but went hopelessly mad when her son died from smallpox in 1788. Visitors to the palace were often dismayed by her agonizing shrieks as she suffered visions and hallucinations. She never recovered and her younger son João eventually took her to Brazil after the French invasion in 1807.

Interesting food in Portugal

Pictured here counter clockwise is Sharon Harris (my co-worker and friend whom came with me on this job), Pedro Louro (the Traffic Director at the radio stations we were working at), Luis Costa (IT at the stations) and myself.

As you can well imagine, the Portuguese eat a little different than us Americans. We found that wine was always served with lunch. Lunch breaks normally lasted a minimum of three hours. Two of the three days we worked there we returned from lunch at 5pm.

Sharon and myself both found one Portuguese wine we really liked. 'Green Wine,' known as Vinho verde is a unique Portuguese wine. It comes from Portugal's Northwest. The wine isn't actually green. It's referred to as green (verde) because it is a young wine - as in green, not-quite-ripe fruit. This is a simple wine. It is also carbonated so it's bubbly. It was very good and refreshing. Especially since the temps soared into the high 90's and there's little air conditioning there.

As you can see in the photo above there is a iced champagne bucket with Vinho Verde in it. This was taken at lunch on Friday at a seafood restaurant.

They give you bibs if you want...of course I want. Somehow my bib fell into my purse and ended up here in the states.
This is some of the food we ate. Pictured here are what we would call "barnacles". They were very salty and tasted, in their words, like the sea. We also ate lobster brains (that's the stuff in the dish...we spread it on bread) and oysters on the half shell, clams and shrimp. Interesting to say the least.

A Visit to Cristo Rei (Christ King)

Well we made it back from Portugal with many exciting stories to tell. One of them would be of our adventure on Sunday July 16th when Sharon and I went to visit the statue Cristo Rei. If you look really hard in the top photo above you will see a very tall statue across the river up on the hill. You can see it better in the second photo which was taken from a ferry on the river. The main reason we visited the statue is because my father had been to Lisbon in the late 50's while this statue was being constructed. He never got to see the finished statue so we decided we would.

Finished in 1959, in thanks to God for having spared Portugal during WWII, this enormous monument to Christ is a replica of the famous statue in Rio de Janeiro. The 28m (90ft) figure of Christ opens its arms to Lisbon, and there is a sweeping view of the city and 25 de Abril Bridge from the top of the 82m (270ft) high pedestal.

To reach it we walked to the river from our hotel. It probably took us an hour to reach the correct ferry on the river because we weren’t sure where we needed to go and no one seemed to speak English on Sundays.

From there we took the commuter ferry from Cais do Sodre Station across the river to Cacilhas, from where we took a taxi up to monument.

The statue was a gift to Lisboa (Portugese for Lisbon) in 1959 by ex-dictator Salazar because of the pre-existing one in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was given to the country because Portugal didn't fight in WWII. So yes, for those of you who are curious, the one in Rio was the original.

You can pay 4.00 euros and take an elevator to the top, climb a few stairs, and stand at the top of the pedestal. Cristo Rei has wonderful surrounding views. There are four arches that comprise the pedestal and they are a symbol of the four directions of the compass, also symbolizing the sovereignty of Jesus.
This photo is of me from the observation deck at the top of the pedistal and the base of the Christ statue. You can see parts of Lisbon behind me.A photo from on top of the Christ King platform.

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.