Grinders Island: Madeline Island 2

Couple things before I finish Madeline Island. Knowitall will like this (I try to please everybody)

I still have 2 more weeks in Facebook jailed for my hate speech

So I have not been able to comment on The Bucks and for anybody that knows me I have been a Giannis fan since the very beginning. Never ever a doubt he would be a super star.

Did you know that only one other player in NBA history has done this

Win the league MVP, Defensive Player of the year, Finals MVP AND All-Star Game MVP in one year.

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Yesterday after taking about a month off of golf I had my best round ever with a -9 for handicap and an 84 at Kestrel Ridge. I did not know I was doing so well as I never ever look at my cumulative score during a round. REALLY consistent with gold approach shots. But weirdly a guy I was golfing with

( he had an 81) said after yet another approach shot. "You have such an easy swing" WHAT? DUDE - I'm swinging as hard as I can LOL

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lastly - I'm reading Killing the Mob and now understand the whole Jimmy Hoffa thing and Bobby Kennedy and Frank Sinatra and when Castro took over in Cuba one of the very first things he did was basically evict the mob by burning down every casino. OH and Hoover never ever admitted there was such a thing as organized crime. It was all a myth.

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Madeline Island is known as Moningwauakauning (I did not just have a stroke) by the Ojibway tribe and it has an interesting history.

In 1693 a French soldier built a post there. In 1718 a Fort was erected which was France's main fur trading post on Lake Superior. In 1793 Michel Cadotte established a trading post and began a permanent settlement. When the daughter of Chief White Crane named Equaysayway, fell in love with Cadotte and married, she was given the Christian name "Madeleine". This pleased White Crane so much he decided to name the Island in her honor.

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The Island

SO! Day two. We awoke to strange sounding birds, made coffee and built a small fire. DJ sent a runner (me) to the other campsite to say I was making a big breakfast of pancakes and bacon and coffee and the gang showed up.

After that hmmmm what to do. The days all blurs together but since dogs are not really allowed to do anything in Big Bay State Park there is a amazing beach at Big Bay Town Park so we drove over there and stuck are feet in the sand and Gus went right to the water.

Needless to say sand was in our lives for the rest of the trip. Gus LOVES swimming with his little web feet and has zero fear of being over his head. When on land he has this game he plays with himself - he does this in snow also. It's like backwards soccer. With his front paws he will shove the ball under his belly behind him digging a trench for 5 yards backing up. This is fun to watch UNLESS you are facing his behind and then he kicks sand in our face.

Meanwhile Ralls and Stacy had an inflatable kayak and they went kayaking just behind the beach while we watched Gus and their two dogs (one blind AND deaf)

It was a hot day but as normal people lined up to pet Gus and throw the ball in the water for him. Once done DJ, Gus and I took off to find the airport (just a runway near their DPW) as it was the only place where there was a dump station for gray water.

We got back to La Point and stopped at the food truck for some hot dogs. The MAIN COURSE were gyros . . . in fact gyros is a big big thing in those parts. So many places advertise gyros. BUT - we did not trust food truck gyros so we had tasteless hot dogs instead.

this seems to be the main place locals get food and while we waited for our dogs I bet at least 10 gyros were sold. Note - Ralls had 2 gyros and loved them.

We also ate outside at Grampa Tony's but the flies were irritating outside on a hot day.

On day 3 we saw the Beach Club was open. It looks rather rundown and dirty. But I went inside and OMG - what a beautiful place. TOTALLY different then the outside. They had a lot of craft beer and good food and we sat outside looking at the harbor.

Note - EVERY establishment on the island has dog bowls of water. As we were drinking and relaxing (something we did a lot of) and beautiful Chris Craft came in.

I talked to the owner and told him I really appreciated his boat and mentioned I did posters for the Madison Antique and Wooden Boat Show for a few years.

The weather changed for the better and cooler and we ate supper at my brothers place. As we walked to our campsite a HUGE RV had come in with 4 SCREAMING kids - SCREAMING and yelling with glee and crying and so forth.

They settled down about 10:00PM.

That next morning instead of being awaken by strange birds we were woke up at 6:30 by screaming kids catching Monarch butterflies (there are a LOT of them) and their dad not yelling for them to be quiet but just yelling replies. One kid got stung by a bee (we laughed quietly) and it was pretty much chaos.

They all piled in to their truck to go swimming and they were all asleep my 6:00PM. NOTE - they are STILL there. 10 days. WOW - there is no way I would spend 10 days on that island with 4 kids and really very little to do but relax . . . . and drink.

Three days was perfect. We will go again but will budget for crossing the ferry to explore the NOT Island part of that area. Lot's of towns we wanted to see but $50 to cross the ferry you need to have one entire day to explore.