We fought a pitched battle against the mosquitoes last night, For probably about an hour, we were slapping at the little suckers, trying to purge the interior of the RV of them before going to bed. It was a hard-fought battle, and we were way outnumbered, but we reduced the population to a number that would allow us to sleep.
We took our time getting breakfast and taking showers, and we also packed a whole bunch of food and clothing to take on the houseboat. We were just getting ready to leave and one of the last things to do was to dash out and empty the trash. As I was coming back from this, our host came out with her two Newfoundland dogs. So we talked for a bit while the dogs, named Chunky and \{name] frolicked in the grass and drooled and slobbered on my shoes. They both had clouds of mosquitoes swirling around them, but it didn’t seem to bother them.
We bade goodbye to hour hosts and headed north, connecting with US-53 towards Voyageurs. The day was already getting hot, and the air conditioning had trouble keeping up. We stopped in a tiny grocery store in Orr, the last bit of civilization before the national park.
When we reached the National Park, we stopped at a parking lot claiming to have an overlook. A half-mile trail led into the woods from the parking lot. We never made it to the overlook. We soon attracted huge clouds of mosquitoes which dive-bombed us despite our flailing arms and shaking heads. After about ten minutes of this, we turned around and high-tailed it back to the RV.
The park ranger told us that the reason for the lack of mosquitoes here was the presence of dragonflies, and there were a lot of them. Thank you, dragonflies, for making this area more pleasant than the last one.
Then it was on to Ebel’s Houseboats, where we loaded a surprising amount of stuff into the houseboat. Their crew helped us move the mountains of stuff, so it went rather quickly. After a bunch of orientation, we were on our way.
Orientation inside the cabin was difficult because of the heat. This boat’s glass front end makes for a decent greenhouse, and on a bright sunny hot day, the greenhouse effect was making itself felt, big time. It felt much better when we got underway as there was now air moving through the cabin, but the heat gave me a headache. I have already been feeling rather rotten because I came down with Deb’s cold, and my head felt like it was about to explode, and the heat just magnified that.
The guy from Ebels showed us a few suggested stopping points on the map and told us which were the good ones. After we reached the end of the narrow channel on Sullivan Bay, he hopped in the small boat that was being towed behind us and was gone. We were now on our own.
It took us about two hours to reach our first day’s destination on the north side of Namakan Island. Here was an exposed rock with a small sign designating it as a houseboat site. We expertly beached the boat on the rock and tied it to a couple of trees.
Randy and Janine made a great dinner of brats and baked beans which we enjoyed on the top deck. Then it was swimming and kayaking for a while.
I’m feeling rather miserable right now. I’m not sure how a cold figures in to the stress of the last few days, but, here it is. Deb is on the upswing, so hopefully I will be also. Soon. The bedrooms on this houseboat are small with only tiny operable windows, so the air is deathly still. And hot. Should be an interesting night for sleeping.
More pictures from today...
No comments:
Post a Comment