Do You Feel the Same, Am I Only Dreaming, or is This Burning, an Eternal Butt?

Drive back to Minneapolis: relatively uneventful, Hippo found a comfy spot under Katie's seat, we got slowed down in Chicago but made it to Janesville in about 10 1/2 hours, at which point Katie took over and filled out the remainder of the drive. We were home by about 2 am and besides getting a little antsy from the Dells onwards, the kitty was remarkably calm. She had access to food and water and her litter box, not to mention a comfy spot on the backseat. She desperately wanted to be sitting on Katie's lap a good amount of the time, but generally she just speculated about the history of the land she saw around the car. If you've got a couple spare hours you should ask the Hippopotameow her thoughts about the Indiana landsacape.

Not many events in the first couple days at home. We saw my dad, Dave and Amy and Natalie and Matt and Katie's rents, and so on. I hung out with the homies at Andy J's place and eventually went up to see my madre. Father's day was the first notable situation: since I got two incredible meals and partied with the assorted paternal figures. We picked up Karly, then Tom and Carole, before making our way to Rudolph's in Minneapolis for the BBQ brunch, which I haven't attended in quite a while. They have both quality breakfast food and their more traditional BBQ, which was on the nuts. Garlic mashed potatoes, brisket, ham, ribs, and really good cornbread were the focus of my plates. Katie, unfortunately, had to bow out after that meal, and head o'er to Hamline for the inagural debate camp experience. I, on the other hand, joined up with my sister and dad at his place to enjoy a big steak, some quality early season sweet corn, and the like. I've actually gotten to have a nice meal with my dad on each of the last two father's days, which before that prolly hadn't happened in 5 years. Debate camps and wedding ceremonies set us up, I guess.

Hippo and I were alone with my dad for the next couple days, since Katie had to be sleeping in the dorms at Hamline during some hot-ass days in the Twin Cities. I believe the high point was Thursday afternoon, when the digital display on the strip club near St. Cloud indicated the temperature was 99 farenheit. I was in St. Cloud in the first place for a visit to my Grandparents' place North of Brainerd. My sister and I rode up with m mother in the convertible, which was actually a pretty relaxing way to spend the morning. We left at like 8, got there around 11, hung around, went out for lunch, hung some more and came home by 7 or so, even including the stop at the rural-ass DQ-Brazier for a tasty blizzard treat. My grandma's back is really not doing too well, even though she had this crazy ass hippy new age pain treatment that is all the rage in fringe medical circles these days. We had lunch at this ridiculous little cafe, since their usual restaurant, The Chaparal, burned down the week before. My mother put peanut butter on her BLT, which was truly fucked up. My cousin Robin was up there, which in my mind satisfies my "extended family outside the grandparents" requirement for the next 3-5 years.

My grandparents refer to their place up there as "the lake" which is an accurate depiction, insofar as there is, in fact, a lake. They have some land, which has a driveway and a clearing, a big ass garage which stores some motorcycles, a boat, and a motorhome which I think my grandfather purchased from the estate of Otto Von Bismark. They have had this land since my mother was young, she remembers cutting down the trees which produced the clearing and even building the original bridge and dock that lead from that clearing to the lake. We went up to the lake all the time when we were kids, staying in a camper, in the motorhome, etc. at various times. I was there really really briefly my junior or senior year in college, but besides that prolly haven't been to the Brainerd area since high school. It was somewhere in there that my grandparents built their "cabin" which is more accurately two pre-fab houses next to each other. If you're gonna do a cabin, this is the way I would suggest it, with heat, gas, electricity, a two-car garage, air conditioning, high speed internet, full kitchen, two bathrooms, a couple tvs. and so on. Its by no means huge, but a comfortable suburban home. Here's my grandma and my sisters enjoying the recliners, and the kitchen in the backdrop:



A boring outdoor shot, but it emphasizes the comfort of the area:



From the back window through the woods, to the lake:



Finally, a cute one of my sister and me with the g-rents:



The ride home was uneventful. We had to keep the top up cuz it was just too damn hot without containing the ac, see for instance, the strip club which informed us of the 99 degree situation. Afterwards I went to the como area to pick up something for Katie and saw what I think pretty clearly sums up St. Paul hippies in all of their glory:



Its not a great picture, but I'm gonna leave it at that. Hippo's ready for bed anyways.

Peace,

MB-K