Wisco Bound

It has been some time since the last post and much, to say the least, has transpired. Despite the overwhelming number of pictures from Jamie and I's family visits in our last weeks as Oregonians, I am going to publish some pics of our present time in the heartland. However, I will revisit the pictures of those last Oregon visits soon.

After a long and uneventful ride back over the great divide, filled with rest-stop sleeping and the usual motel in a town that can't be recalled, we arrived in Onalaska, WI with a restless dog and a stacked agenda. Riley quickly adapted to a new aquaintence, and a despite a benign scuffle he and Chuck put up with one another as long as attention was divided equally. I let Jamie take the lead in those affairs.

After a lot of lounging, laid back dinners with the Pogatshnik's, and meeting with a few of Jamie's high school friends, we decided Duluth needed to be tackled. We took pleasure in once again unloading the vehicles and headed north. We arrived in Duluth on foggy, rainy day that was reminiscent of November in Portland. The house we stayed in was one of the most authentic and well built log cabins I've ever seen. The logs had been cut with an axe, showing wedged ends. There was a sauna, an outdoor shower where Herbal Essences will be shooting their next commercial, a small garden house that stored us and our belongings and of course Lake Superior a hundred yards away.

Despite the location it was a frustrating few days full of coffee house visits facilitating our addiction to Craigslist. We called numbers with strange area codes, talked with obnoxious housing managers and fought the "no pets please" blues. Then out of the blue, in response to an email we had forgot about the moment we sent it, a woman called us back and promptly asked us to visit our new house.

Jamie wasn't the only one relieved. We had gone from a two room box with cramped kitchen and scant outdoor access to a an actual house with a multitude of porches, a yard, and a normal sized stove. We don't know how we got lucky. But we did. It took no more than twenty minutes for the deal to be finalized. No finalists, no credit checks, no throngs of hip young urbanites fighting to get through the door. Just a lady who needed some people to watch over her place. She thanked us.

We now had a week to kill so we headed south once again toward Jamie's grandmother's town of Black River Falls where we had a delicious steaming dinner coming hot off the stove as we walked through the door. It was a fine pit-stop in what seemed like a classic Wisconsin small town.

Back in Onalaska Jamie and I watched a lot of olympics and took care of some of the moving across country chores. That weekend we helped out at an estate sale for Jamie's late grandmother Esther.

After helping with the garage/yard/tag sale (depending on what part of the country) we spent the night in a Viroqua motel that may or may not have been named the Hidden Tall Majestic Whispering Pines Inn. We basked in all that is Wisconsin while in Viroqua. Jeff and Karen took us to a supper club for a down home dinner and then to the firehouse bar to watch the Packers on one screen and Favre on the other.

Everywhere we went reminders of the regions Norske heritage were evident. Whether it was the Norske Nook gift shop, the viking statue on Viroqua's main street or Lefsa bread in the coop. All those from WI can only nod their head at these realities, but I found it interesting.

On our way to the farm, which Jamie's father grew up on, we passed this barn, yet another reminder of where we were. To those who don't get it, I've gathered that this Norwegion saying can be spoken as a sigh of a relief or an exclamation. As far as I was concerned it sounded as if you could say it with any tone and still have it make sense.

The farm was a picturesque vision of Wisconsin. Corn and soybeans all around, old barns, and hunting stands at the tree lines.

I don't know if it was the Uff-Da, the idyllic main streets, camo boats and trucks, wildlife prints on sale outside strip malls or the giant piece of corn trailered outside of town, but I saw Portland for the bubble it really is.


A couple of days before we departed again for Duluth we caught this sunset over Lake Onalaska. To everyone that helped Jamie and I in our move, played tour guide to my questions, who cooked us dinners, gave us a place to sleep and put up with our dog, we thank you.