Yesterday there had been talk of doing either a kayak outing or a waterfall hike. So I wondered what the weather would be like because that would determine what we would be doing. So I turned on the computer only to find we had no internet again. No weather.com, no on-line chatting, no Wi-Fi. Yikes. I called and left a message at our local internet provider and told him it was off-line again. He had been at our resort just the day before to try to fix the problem. Apparently it didn't work.
After breakfast some people came into the lodge and we talked about all the options. Mostly they were just content to stick around the resort today. After yesterday's storms, the sunshine was a welcome sight and they wanted to take advantage of it by hanging out on the beach or kayaking right from our shore. I can't blame them.
Yesterday we ran out of ice cream for root beer floats. So job one was to go to the store. My nephew, Tommy, who is staying with us this week, hadn't been to the Wampum shop yet this year. We make that stop a tradition every time he visits. So I asked if he wanted to go to the Wampum shop and he said yes. It's a tourist shop with a lot of nice and/or fun things for sale. He can always find something. Usually I will buy something too. So we went.
I drove to the Senior Center first to drop off their curtains. We send laundry out bulk every other week. Bulk meaning over 100 lbs. of it. So the Lioness Club asked if we would send the Senior Center's curtains along and that they would pay for them later. Now that they are done, I had to drop them off and did. Then we went to the Wampum. We take other people there too so they recognized me. That's part of the small town feeling - when people know you by sight but not necessarily by name.
We think we have the largest resort in Mercer now since so many of them have been sold off as condos. We have 9 cabins and our resort was established in 1938. In a way that makes me feel special but at the same time it is a little scary. We don't want to see the other resorts closing, even though that means less competition. Fewer resorts also means fewer tourists in town, which is detrimental to the downtown. In the long run, if something isn't done to help the resorts, like tax breaks, etc., we might all be gone. Then what will happen to our small towns? We often wonder.
We picked up the ice cream, drove home, put it away and then headed down to the beach. There were quite a few people down there and it is important to visit with customers as much as I can. So if I have to sit down at the beach and talk, oh my, I guess I will. I spoke with some customers for awhile and then John, my husband, drove our ATV over to the campfire area. He was doing a recycling run. He emptied out the garbage bins while he was at it too. Somehow that job has become exclusively his. But before he left, he saw me on the beach and came over to visit too. We watched some kids throw a ball out in the water for their golden retriever. Then the 3 kids all took to one of our white sail boards and the oldest paddled them around the swimming area with a kayak paddle. It was really cute how the smallest boy kept saying good-bye to his mommy on each pass.
Eventually people started leaving for one reason or another and we headed up too.
Earlier some of our customers took out kayaks so I helped them get launched from the beach. They were going to go down stream. About one and a half hours later they called from their cell phone and asked that I pick them up. So I started up the old, 1983, Toyota LandCruiser, which pulls an old, rusted kayak trailer. It is a standard transmission with a pull choke and it reminds me of the truck I learned to drive when I was 16. I drove the rattle trap down our road, found our customers about a mile away, loaded up two kayaks with straps and bungies, and drove them back to the resort, rattling all the way. They had enjoyed their kayak outing and I was glad. They even said the bugs weren't bad at all - a big plus.
A little while after we got back, Kendrick, a young customer, caught a 32 and 1/2 inch muskie. His first big musky. He even got a puncture in his thumb from the thing's huge teeth. His grin was about a mile wide as he put on the band-aid I gave him. Hopefully I'll have a copy of their digital picture sent to me via e-mail so I can post it on our resort's web site. We have a cork board by the entrance that has a lot of pictures of big fish that were caught here. We'll put a copy of Kendrick and his muskie up there too. I made the board out of an old picture frame and acoustic ceiling tile. It was cheaper than buying a cork board.
Another couple kayaked up stream from our resort and they had to turn around when they encountered a new beaver dam. They tried to portage over it but couldn't do it. So they turned around. On the way, an eagle flew right over them and disappeared behind some trees. They said it was magnificent.
After I made dinner I went to the Town Board meeting. Its good to keep up with what's going on in town, and maybe I'll even submit an article to a local newspaper, "FYI Northwoods" about what went on at the meeting. They said they needed someone in Mercer to write articles so maybe it'll be me. I love writing... Can you tell?
After I got back around 8:15 p.m., the internet wasn't working again until 10:40 p.m. So I'm sorry this blog is so late but I couldn't help it. Tomorrow they will solve our internet problem or else.
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