Zach LarkinsVACATION (Part 4)
"Just got home from Illinois,
Locked the front door, oh boy,
Got to sit down, take a rest on the porch..........."
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Okay, so I've never been to Illinois, go ahead, sue me. We had unpacked and set up house keeping and looked forward to 2 weeks of bliss. The cottage is clad in red cedar logs and has a front porch running the length of the place. It's surrounded by cedar trees and a walk of about 25 feet will get you to the lake. It reminds me of the Ponderosa. There's a picnic table in the sunny spot and plenty of room to park the car in the shade. It's a two bedroom with a big living room that holds a wood burning stove and a kitchen that's just great but you have to take turns opening the ‘frig door. It has a cathedral ceiling with a skylight, but partition walls are only 8 feet high. No big sweat. It's perfect.
I set up the hibachi and we make plans for our assault on the island. The CD player is on and we listen to The Guess Who as we talk. This is one of TBH's favourite bands and I'm getting tired of hearing it, but what the hell, It's vacation and the livin' should come easy. We decide that tomorrow we'll go out to try to find some deals on cigarettes. Last year, the cheapest price we could find was $22.00 a carton. Quite a deal when you think we pay $70.00 per in the city. Sure , they're ‘Indian' cigarettes, but what the hell? A deal's a deal. So with tomorrow's mission settled, we settled in to play Triominos.
It's incredible that after having been married for a while, you don't just grunt at each other. Sure, you do sometimes, but for the larger part of it, TBH and I talk to each other and keep discovering things about one another. We may have had the CD player going in the background, spewing out some Righteous Brothers or Gary Puckett, but we sure don't need a TV. We are still able to make our own fun. I lit the stove as it was going cool and sat down to play.
Let me tell you about wood burning stoves. They are not as romantic as a fireplace in that you can't see the flames, but they sure heat up in a hurry. I can't tell one log from another and might have overdone it a bit when I threw one a couple of big ‘uns. Pretty soon we were sweating and so headed out to cool off. Wow!
We sat on the porch in the pitch black dark. There are no annoying street lamps to spoil the view and you could see the moonlight shimmering off the lake. We lit a couple of small mosquito candles to give us some light, but when you looked up, you could actually see stars. There is something almost magical in being able to do this when you've spent the last year in the confines of the smog laden, concrete city. The air is fresh and you can't help but breathe it in deeply, savouring it, hoping this idyll will never end. A loon calls from afar, the occasional fish breaks the surface of the water and over there, an owl hoots. And it's so black you can't see more than 10 feet in front of you. Eerie, spooky, yet wonderful and awesome all at the same time. We sat there for over an hour, not caring what time it was, not worrying about what's for dinner tomorrow, not thinking about having to get up in the morning to head back to the salt mines to earn a paycheck. Yessir, I am going to love retirement.
We slept like logs that night and got up more refreshed than we had been in a long time. After a quick shower, we jumped in the car and headed out. This is when I began to do my part in keeping the insect population of the island to a minimum. There are no roads on the island with a speed limit of over 80 kph. This is ridiculous and in order to murder more bugs, I decided 100 kph was closer to the truth. TBH didn't care. She still thought she could get out and walk faster than I was driving. We drove to the east end of the island and TBH directed me to a trailer she had noticed last year that advertised cheap smokes. We stopped in and talked to the woman but she didn't have as many together as we wanted to buy. She was willing to deal, but said the final decision rested with her husband. To show good faith, we bought a carton for $15.00 and said we'd be back. A bit further down the road we came upon the place we'd bought from last year. Again, cigarettes were selling for $15 a carton. We stopped and placed an order and the girl said she'd have them together in two days. She might also want to deal. We bought two more cartons and off we went.
There is a spot on the island that holds a museum (an old grist mill), a marina, a book exchange, and a large boat that used to ply the lakes in days gone by. The boat wasn't yet open for tours, but the book exchange was. We went in with our two boxes of books, donated them to the cause, and cruised the aisles looking for new material. At the end of it, I think we brought home more books than we got rid of. We ended up with 20 books and paid $10.00 for the lot, so neither one of us was bitching. We'll take the non-keepers back next year and load up again.
We got a bit peckish at that point, so we headed into Little Current for a bite. We found a nice cafe on the side of the road and went in. It had an outdoor patio so we could sit and smoke and this suited us. The waitress came to take our orders and wished me a Happy Father's Day. In truth, I had forgotten all about it, but I was a bit stunned at how friendly she was. But like I said before, the further you get from the city, the friendlier people seem to become. We had a light lunch, a couple of drinks and it was time to head home.
I tried to take it easy, but I set the cruise to 100 again and continued my war on the bugs. I could just see the front of the car when this trip was over. Fourteen trips through the car wash coming up. Did I care? Not on your life.
(To be cont'd)
Locked the front door, oh boy,
Got to sit down, take a rest on the porch..........."
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Okay, so I've never been to Illinois, go ahead, sue me. We had unpacked and set up house keeping and looked forward to 2 weeks of bliss. The cottage is clad in red cedar logs and has a front porch running the length of the place. It's surrounded by cedar trees and a walk of about 25 feet will get you to the lake. It reminds me of the Ponderosa. There's a picnic table in the sunny spot and plenty of room to park the car in the shade. It's a two bedroom with a big living room that holds a wood burning stove and a kitchen that's just great but you have to take turns opening the ‘frig door. It has a cathedral ceiling with a skylight, but partition walls are only 8 feet high. No big sweat. It's perfect.
I set up the hibachi and we make plans for our assault on the island. The CD player is on and we listen to The Guess Who as we talk. This is one of TBH's favourite bands and I'm getting tired of hearing it, but what the hell, It's vacation and the livin' should come easy. We decide that tomorrow we'll go out to try to find some deals on cigarettes. Last year, the cheapest price we could find was $22.00 a carton. Quite a deal when you think we pay $70.00 per in the city. Sure , they're ‘Indian' cigarettes, but what the hell? A deal's a deal. So with tomorrow's mission settled, we settled in to play Triominos.
It's incredible that after having been married for a while, you don't just grunt at each other. Sure, you do sometimes, but for the larger part of it, TBH and I talk to each other and keep discovering things about one another. We may have had the CD player going in the background, spewing out some Righteous Brothers or Gary Puckett, but we sure don't need a TV. We are still able to make our own fun. I lit the stove as it was going cool and sat down to play.
Let me tell you about wood burning stoves. They are not as romantic as a fireplace in that you can't see the flames, but they sure heat up in a hurry. I can't tell one log from another and might have overdone it a bit when I threw one a couple of big ‘uns. Pretty soon we were sweating and so headed out to cool off. Wow!
We sat on the porch in the pitch black dark. There are no annoying street lamps to spoil the view and you could see the moonlight shimmering off the lake. We lit a couple of small mosquito candles to give us some light, but when you looked up, you could actually see stars. There is something almost magical in being able to do this when you've spent the last year in the confines of the smog laden, concrete city. The air is fresh and you can't help but breathe it in deeply, savouring it, hoping this idyll will never end. A loon calls from afar, the occasional fish breaks the surface of the water and over there, an owl hoots. And it's so black you can't see more than 10 feet in front of you. Eerie, spooky, yet wonderful and awesome all at the same time. We sat there for over an hour, not caring what time it was, not worrying about what's for dinner tomorrow, not thinking about having to get up in the morning to head back to the salt mines to earn a paycheck. Yessir, I am going to love retirement.
We slept like logs that night and got up more refreshed than we had been in a long time. After a quick shower, we jumped in the car and headed out. This is when I began to do my part in keeping the insect population of the island to a minimum. There are no roads on the island with a speed limit of over 80 kph. This is ridiculous and in order to murder more bugs, I decided 100 kph was closer to the truth. TBH didn't care. She still thought she could get out and walk faster than I was driving. We drove to the east end of the island and TBH directed me to a trailer she had noticed last year that advertised cheap smokes. We stopped in and talked to the woman but she didn't have as many together as we wanted to buy. She was willing to deal, but said the final decision rested with her husband. To show good faith, we bought a carton for $15.00 and said we'd be back. A bit further down the road we came upon the place we'd bought from last year. Again, cigarettes were selling for $15 a carton. We stopped and placed an order and the girl said she'd have them together in two days. She might also want to deal. We bought two more cartons and off we went.
There is a spot on the island that holds a museum (an old grist mill), a marina, a book exchange, and a large boat that used to ply the lakes in days gone by. The boat wasn't yet open for tours, but the book exchange was. We went in with our two boxes of books, donated them to the cause, and cruised the aisles looking for new material. At the end of it, I think we brought home more books than we got rid of. We ended up with 20 books and paid $10.00 for the lot, so neither one of us was bitching. We'll take the non-keepers back next year and load up again.
We got a bit peckish at that point, so we headed into Little Current for a bite. We found a nice cafe on the side of the road and went in. It had an outdoor patio so we could sit and smoke and this suited us. The waitress came to take our orders and wished me a Happy Father's Day. In truth, I had forgotten all about it, but I was a bit stunned at how friendly she was. But like I said before, the further you get from the city, the friendlier people seem to become. We had a light lunch, a couple of drinks and it was time to head home.
I tried to take it easy, but I set the cruise to 100 again and continued my war on the bugs. I could just see the front of the car when this trip was over. Fourteen trips through the car wash coming up. Did I care? Not on your life.
(To be cont'd)
some good stuff right there buddy and I don't care who ya are!
LOL
Just love reading about your vacation with you and YBH...sounds like a really good trip and a fun adventure!
Can't wait for the next installment!
Great read bud...
Take care,
Nick
Small Thoughts on Big Questions
I can't wait to retire either, but that's still 2 or 3 decades away. There's always the lottery I suppose.
Your trip keeps sounding better and better!
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The Florida Keys and Everglades
The Black Sheep Chronicles
What constitutes bad manners?
The male mystique
Debate Fan
L.A.M.P.
If you haven't checked out Jean Shepard yet, I am going to personally send you a copy of one of his books.
I'm as sure as I'm sitting here that you will love the stories. Ever read Patrick F. McManus?
It's going to get better.
S/L We're not all ancient, have you heard the saying 'you're as old as you feel and a little bit younger than ----------' ? lmao.
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