A photo diary.
So Dad bought himself a new-used ATV since Mom passed, and wanted to take it to Cousin Nick’s cabin in Wisconsin. Now Dad deserves some fun. He was the sole caregiver of my Mom for about 5 years now, when she was a total invalid, until 2/20 of this year, and it was tough. Not only watching your loved one fade, but being a virtual prisoner, because, while she only had a touch of dementia, you still had to watch her 24/7 to make sure she didn’t fall down and hurt herself. So this was awesome.
I told him I wanted to go along, if he’d go on a weekend when I’m not working, and he latched right on to that idea. (For those of you who don’t know us, I’m almost 65 — my Dad is 86).
So. ahem. We set out yesterday morning and drove WAY WAY out into the country. I’m kind of a city girl, although I do all right roughing it. At least my cousin Nick seemed impressed with me. When we finally got out to Nick’s cabin, I’m going “ok if he has a heart attack here, we’re doomed — it would take HELICOPTERS a couple hours to fly in here.”
The perfect weekend for such stuff. The weather has been so extremely perfect here in Minnesota and Wisconsin this weekend it would bring tears to your eyes.
Driving an ATV requires muscles I didn’t know I had. I drove Dad’s around this big open field, made my arthritic hands and thumbs sing, gripping those handlebars and working that throttle.
A little scary moment when we drove up a creekbed, me riding shotgun in back, and gripping the BACK handlebars — we almost tipped over, the front of the ATV came up, and I almost got dumped in the creek — like trying to do a situp against gravity — Nick says “you ok?” I says
yeah no worries. He worries about Dad — he says, I want him to have fun, but not HURT himself, you know? Yeah I do know honey.
We stayed overnight at my cousin Nick’s cabin (Nick is pretty wealthy — he was a medical device engineer until he retired — and he always has been pretty savvy about money, even as a kid — he had two or three paper routes at a time — and took me to the movies when I was 12 and tried to sneak me in on a kid’s ticket — age limit 10 — he’s like — well, she’s really big for her age — haha — nice try Mr Entrepreneur)
We had a swell time — with Nick’s two dogs and Dad’s dog Herbie. Herbie was very patient with Nick’s younger and more rambunctious dogs, but eventually he did get a LITTLE of a buttfull with them taking shameless liberties with his person (ie trying to hump his leg) and growled a bit — but basically Herbie was a model of patience.
And, since it was so far out in the country, and I am a city girl, I NEVER get to see the stars, so I just sat out on that teeny upstairs balcony on that cabin, late at night (and it has to be REALLY late at night, even this early in the spring, for it to get dark enough for the stars to really come out) and just marveled at the beautiful jewel-like stars. Three weeks from now you won’t be able to see that, the tree leaf canopy will be too thick.
Dad and Nick are sort-of Republicans — I mean they kind of are, but they’re not IDIOT Republicans — they both think Donald Trump is a stupid lunatic and neither of them voted for him — but I tell you what — that part of Wisconsin is kinda Deliverance in nature, and I can definitely see why they are Trump voters there.
It was a wonderful weekend and I drank wayyyyy too much coffee — I don’t know how those guys can drink coffee all day and sleep at night. I snuck a couple of little wine coolers in my overnight case and drank out on the balcony looking at the stars — not that those guys would care, they are not judgmental that way — but I want to drink whatever they drink haha. Which in this case means too much cholesterol for me (scrambled eggs and bacon in the morning) and way too much coffee.
It was a swell time. Pics.
Now a lot of this could be a little offensive maybe, but what the hell — Nick did earn all his money honestly, he’s just really good at his job, and while all that ostentatious stuff is not MY cup of tea, boy I do like the chance to go there and get out to the country. It’s a whole different world.