2019 Bear Hunt Day 1 - A Full Day Driving North

I wanted to wait to leave until after the gratis hotel breakfast, but after a reasonably good night's sleep, I was up and ready to go too early to dither.  So after a shower and some absolutely horrid hotel coffee, I hit the road around 5:00 local time.
As is usually the case, I had the road to myself so early on a weekend morning.  As I headed north on the interstate, the blinking lights of the wind farm turbines pointed the way for me.  Temperatures were cool, in the low 50's and stayed that way for much of the morning.

While heading south to hunt hogs, I've seen many sunrises near the Kentucky/Tennessee border.  On this day, I saw the sunrise on the Illinois/Wisconsin border.  The area may not be quite as picturesque, but it was still pretty.

Traffic remained tolerable - even around Madison as I made my way north.  When I exited the interstate at Eau Claire, I stopped at Walmart.  I wasn't terribly thrilled with the strap I was using to secure my coolers in the bed of the truck, but the options that Wally World that had looked good online were far too ricky once I looked at them in the store; I decided that what I had was a better option.

Back on the road, I was getting fantastic gas mileage.  It rose up and trailed down through the day, but many times I got near or reached and indicated 29MPG.  Granted the actual is usually a little lower, but for an AWD truck, that is fantastic.  At my second gas stop for the day I averaged just under this level.

The scenery got better as I headed north and cars began to peel off in other directions, lightening traffic.  I had made great time and since the distance was lessened from the previous day's drive after work, I enjoyed the drive without any time pressures.  The view from some of the higher elevations was pretty.

I finished listening to All But My Life by Gerda Weissmann Klein.  The end of the book was riveting; the senseless waste, violence and death shortly before and after the end of the war is absolutely tragic.  The epilogue may have given a glimpse of what it was like for my mom's family to come to Canada after the war.
I wanted to start another book, but didn't want to leave it unfinished before getting to camp, so I listened to podcasts the rest of the day.  Some were good, a few not so much.  Although I did really enjoy hearing the origins of the Teddy Bear:
Apparently Theodore Roosevelt was bear hunting and not having much luck, headed back to camp for lunch.  Meanwhile his guide and dogs cornered a bear - his guide wacking the thing over the head with his gun.  Then the guide tied it to a tree to give TR the "honor" of shooting it.  When TR got there, he looked at the small bear which was malnourished and in a very sad state, and refused to shoot it (the world of 1902 was a different place - but it would be hard to call that sporting at any time).  A political cartoonist (Clifford Berryman) made a cartoon of this event which sparked the idea to create the "Teddy Bear."
This story would be cute and cuddly if the bear was released, but apparently the guide killed the bear and it was eaten that night.  So it goes.

Related, William Howard Taft was associated with "Billy Possums" for a short while, but that idea never took off the way the Teddy Bear has...

As I continued north, the scenery got really "northy" with granite and sandy-looking soil, birch and aspen trees.  Absolutely magical.

Soon enough, I was at International Falls.  I had been munching on junk food much of the day so I'm not sure why I felt compelled to walk down to a gas station for more after getting my hotel room, but that is just what I did.  Perhaps I just really wanted to walk after driving for much of the day.
I rested in the room for a bit, watching TV and looking at what the weather was forecast to be for a week of fishing and bear hunting.

I wasn't terribly hungry, but did want some real food so I headed down to the Chocolate Moose to eat.  The bacon cheeseburger was good and the wait staff could have come straight out of Lake Wobegon.

My GPS had been acting odd, and after searching a bit I realized it was affected by the GPS Week Number Rollover.  Thankfully, it looked like Garmin had (perhaps surprisingly, given Garmin's unusual support model combined with the unit's age) created an update for this.  A quick download and install fixed the unit - at least I think.  I'll see for sure on the drive in the morning.

2019 Bear Hunt Day -1 - Work and Drive Day

It has been a difficult year.  Perhaps not rationally, but when I have to remind myself, all too often, that things are pretty good, that points to some of the mental challenges that are the mid-life.  The sense of ennui and malaise that is late-40's has been difficult to shake.
The early part of the year was dominated by the roof.  It wasn't that I didn't know this was coming; the roof bore scars from years of my own good-enough repairs.  A winter windstorm mandated something more permanent be done - and it was.  But after that and getting through all the annual chores that were, rightly or stupidly, on hold until the roof was done, there seemed to be little time to plan much else, let alone do it.
But I was also a victim of my own self-created inaction.  Much as I choose to complain about it, the year pretty much went the way my decisions mandated.  The default seemed to be the routine.  Work-eat-sleep-repeat.  My winter blubber, which usually vaporizes by early summer has been frustratingly stubborn.  Life is a series of contradictions:  I can walk my dog around the block on a beautiful Sunday morning and think I'm one of the luckiest people on earth, while at the same time be struck with s sense of vermoeidheid, that all is not as it should be.  I can only hope this isn't a sign of what is to come as I get painfully nearer the half-century mark.

"We spend our time searching for security and hate it when we get it." -John Steinbeck

SO has gone on her Alaska train adventure and cruise.  The original plan was to wave to each other as she walked in and I walked out.  But the transmission on her car went belly up on her way home - thank you Ford and your horrible PowerShit transmission!  It is one of the truisms of life that we know if we make a wrong decision if things end up catastrophic.  But making the right decision (if there is a right decision) is tough to do and even tougher to realize.  This vehicular situation doesn't appear to have any great options, and all are not inexpensive...
So I'm still rationalizing that it has been at least a tolerable year.  I'm not alone in this; a few others at work have been lamenting the amount of vacation that needs to be used before year's end.  First world problems.  And certainly a bear hunt will help - at least for me.

August ended with heat and humidity reminding me that summer is still here, combined with those first oddly cool days foreshadowing the inevitable change.
I had quite a few loose ends to tie up at work and a couple new strands started to fray, but I got to a good stopping point and activated my Out-of-Office Autoreplies before shutting down email.  My boss' boss stopped over on his way out for a brief chat, and shortly after that I decided I was within rounding of the time I was planning to leave.  I jumped on the Triumph and headed home.

Once at home I finished packing, told the dogs they were awesome and headed out.  Temperatures were near 80 with moderate humidity.  I had tons of time, so I had to remind myself there was no reason to drive like it was a race; this can be more difficult than it may seem.
Traffic wasn't terrible, but wasn't great either.  Indianapolis is always a zoo, but it was well before rush hour so it wasn't too bad.  I-74 was busier than it usually is between Indy and Champaign, at which time it lightened considerably.  Temperatures started to noticeably cool and I saw lots of people on motorcycles.  I was quite envious of those who were obviously touring.
The Ridgeline's indicated fuel mileage was outstanding at first, showing well above 28mpg.  But this decreased through Illinois as the wind started to pick up.

Given my mood, I listened to some podcasts about midlife ennui, but I didn't hear anything new.  Then I started to listen to All but My Life by Gerda Weissmann Klein - a book written by a Polish Jew about her life in WWII.  Perhaps not a pick-me-up to start vacation with, but my mom's family lived in occupied Netherlands during WWII, and I've been wondering lately what that was really like...

I made it to Mendota for the night in about the time I expected.  After a gas stop, I got my room and walked back over to the gas station which had a restaurant.  Normally I just grab something to eat in the room, but a burger sounded really good - and it was.

I went to sleep knowing that the adventure will soon really get going.