An Improbable Day
We woke up after another good night’s sleep in the motorhome at Chuck’s cabin on West Twin Lake. Near sunrise, while Janice worked on completing her blog from Saturday, Tad and I headed out for a long walk to another nearby lake, Lake Edna.
It was a typical cool, crisp Minnesota fall morning, but the bright blue sky and rising sun promised a warmer day ahead. Tad thoroughly enjoyed the walk, exploring all the smells and sights along the way, and I enjoyed simply being outside with my buddy as another beautiful Minnesota morning came to life.
When we returned, my cousin Al was outside sweeping pine needles from the sidewalk. Before long, Janice and I joined Al and Linda for a morning game of Mexican Train.
Linda and Al love playing games as much as I do, and Mexican Train is one of my favorites because it is fast-paced but can last quite a while. More than the game itself, I love the banter, the laughter, and watching everyone as they contemplate their next move. We had such a good time together.
After our game, Janice and I took Tad for another walk to Lake Edna, just north of West Twin Lake.
Minnesota is famous as the “Land of 10,000 Lakes,” but that is actually an understatement. There are 11,842 lakes of 10 acres or larger, and if you include lakes of 2.5 acres or more, the number soars to 21,871!
Our second trip to Lake Edna proved considerably more dramatic than my peaceful morning walk with Tad.
Tad, naturally, decided to go swimming. Afterward, he wandered onto the shoreline into what looked innocent enough but turned out to be a boggy area. Before we knew it, he had sunk into thick, gooey mud nearly to his shoulders!
We called and encouraged him toward shore, and Tad would try to bolt free, only to struggle again in the muck. I began seriously contemplating stripping off all my clothes and wading into the bog to rescue him. Janice, displaying considerably better judgment, suggested that if just let him rest, kept encouraging him toward shore, heroics, and nudity probably wouldn’t be necessary.
Finally, Tad managed to free himself!
I waded into the clear water with him near the boat launch and thoroughly washed the mud from his coat. I was enormously relieved that I wouldn’t have to walk back to Chuck’s cabin naked and covered in mud, looking like the Creature from the Black Lagoon!
Here is a rendering of what that might have looked like had I not heeded Janice's advice.
When we returned to the cabin, Chuck and his partner, Barb, had arrived. We all gathered in the living room for another Minnesota tradition: watching the Vikings play the Packers in the first game of the season.
We contributed to a wonderful pregame charcuterie tray that Linda prepared to help us cheer on the Vikings to victory.
While waiting for kickoff, we advised Chuck on how to can the bushels of tomatoes he had grown in his garden and encouraged him to bring them to the cabin so Linda and Al could help with the process.
I chuckled at the thought that a few decades earlier, a project involving that many tomatoes and the Huff brothers might easily have ended with a playful tomato fight.
Soon it was game time.
Linda and I were the only true fans committed enough to don our Vikings jerseys, although Al did wear his lucky T-shirt.
For the first two and a half quarters, things looked bleak. The Packers completely dominated the Vikings. Then came the moment that changed everything.
Green Bay faced fourth down with only about six inches to go near the Vikings’ 20-yard line, and Minnesota stopped them.
Suddenly, the entire game changed.
From that moment on, we cheered, whooped, hollered, and probably frightened Tad in motorhome a few times as the Vikings came roaring back, scoring 29 straight points and winning 39–22!
Over the years, I have accumulated so many memories of watching Vikings games with my dad, my kids, and my cousins. Football games come and go, and eventually the scores fade from memory. But the people sitting beside you, the laughter, yelling, teasing, celebrating, and simply being together remain.
This was one more very special Vikings memory to add to that collection.
After the game, Linda and Al prepared a spaghetti feast for us, along with a wonderful salad featuring some of Chuck’s freshly grown tomatoes. It was the perfect ending to an already memorable visit.
Then it was time for Janice and me to climb back into our rolling cabin and continue the Grand Adventure.
We had about a three-hour drive ahead of us to Lebanon Hills Regional Park in Apple Valley, where we would camp near my daughter Ashley’s home.
It was difficult saying goodbye to my cousins. We had laughed, played games, shared meals, watched an improbable Vikings comeback, and simply enjoyed being together.
And perhaps that was the theme of the entire day.
Our time together had not been carefully planned. In many ways, it was improbable. But we made it happen.
Life is filled with schedules, distances, responsibilities, and reasons why something might not work. Yet every once in a while, circumstances align and sometimes we help them align and we find ourselves sitting around a table playing dominoes, laughing with cousins, rescuing a muddy dog, cheering wildly for a football team, and sharing spaghetti before saying goodbye.
Those are the moments worth making room for.
As we headed toward Apple Valley, the sadness of leaving was mixed with excitement for what waited just down the road.
Ashley. Her fiance, Orion. My grandkids.
More family.
More memories.
And another chapter of our Grand Adventure waiting to be written.
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