A Day of Reminisce

Stayed at the Holiday Inn last night in St. Croix Falls, the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi River. The room was soooo comfortable, not to mention the Sealy Ultra-Plush mattress on the king-size bed! No…I didn’t get that name off the side of the mattress; but I do admit…I did look and there was no label to be found! (isn’t there jail time to those who remove those labels? J) Remembering that our mattress is about 6 years and “they” keep telling us that a mattress should be replace somewhere around 7 years…I should find out the name of this mattress -“made in heaven”. So I brought myself to stop at the desk, as we were leaving, and ask the name of the mattress and who made it. They were happy to provide me with the information and if we replace our mattress….that will be the one. Now I’m also wondering if the ‘king-size” had anything to do with the comfort level….ummmm, another variable to deal with. Sorry…no picture of the “no need to count sheep mattress"; but I do have a beautiful view of the Mississippi as we crossed over into Minnesota country again.

A good-nights sleep, a breath-taking view and now a rainbow? Oh…life is good.

Did a little reminiscing today. Wildcat Mountain is a water park outside of Taylor Falls where the kids enjoyed going on our Minnesota camping trips. Down the road is St. Croix State Park where we spent many family vacations camping, canoeing, biking, hiking, and sometimes just sitting around the fire… burning marshmallows. Happy Memories.

As we drove down the road that leads to the campground and St. Croix River, we began to notice damage to the trees on both sides of the road.  Many of the trees were broken in half, uprooted and pushed over.  We couldn’t believe our eyes at the amount of destruction over such a wide area.  Everywhere we went in the park looked so different from the heavily wooded area we remembered.

We left the park and drove further east and continued to see the evidence of the horrific storm.  It wasn’t until we reached the little town of Danbury,WI that we found out more details.

The information we received for a local said that a windstorm and tornado happened at the worse time. It was Friday, July 1 at 7 P.M. on the weekend of the 4th of July when so many people we out and about when it struck. He said it was amazing that more people were not killed. Unfortunately, an 8 year old girl died when a tree fell on her and an elderly man died of a heart attack while working on his fallen trees

We were told that the tornado covered an area 30 miles wide and 70 miles long.  We had told him that we had seen the destruction out at St. Croix State Park.  He said that the park covers an area of 10,000 acres and 7,000 acres have down trees.   We asked him if there were many injuries at the campground at St. Croix.  He said luckily the park was closed due to the state budget problem and no one was there.  The park only opened two days ago because there was so many down trees that needed to be cleared away.  Now the locals are very concerned over the enormous amount of dry wood and brush and the fact there has been so little rain.  They are trying to lumber as much of the wood as they can; but the fear of a fire is always on their mind.

My last reminisce of the day.  My dad use to go deer hunting, for as long as I can remember, to a place called Webb Lake, WI.  He use to send me post cards of what the lake and cabin looked like with a note written on the back..."help your mom and don’t fight with your sister."  I still have those post cards and a few years back Bill and I set out to find that cabin and lake pictured on those cards.  We found them and thought we would revisit the place today again.  I always will remember Dad coming home from hunting and us kids running out to see if he returned with a deer and a Christmas tree on the top of the Chevy station wagon. Truthfully, the Christmas tree was the real source of our excitement.

Spending the night in Hinckley, MN tonight.  Staying at the Grand Northern Inn…not a Holiday Inn; but very nice for the price.  Comfortable room, clean, a pool and the cost is $29. a night!  Can you believe that?  The reason is that it is owned by the Grand Casino here in Hinckley and that’s the mid-week rate.  Guess they want you to have more money in your pocket to gamble with.  We had the pool all to ourselves….everyone else must be at the casino.