Lynn and Bill Overland are coming to dinner tonight – we had joined them for dinner at their cabin a couple of days ago and we want to get together again before they have to leave.
At Bill & Lynn' cabin on Wednesday - much more luxurious than ours!
We have plenty of time before they arrive, so we head into Tower to check out the Farmer’s Market at the old railroad depot and to do some more of our inevitable hardware shopping. We begin at the market, which is small, just four or five stalls offering hydroponic lettuces (they’re really nice and we get one), bread (Jan’s been baking so we’re not buying much bread), a maple syrup stand complete with maple syrup caramel corn (YUM!), and a raffle to support the local food pantry. It’ll be a few more weeks before the farmers’ markets will be selling local corn, fruit and berries.
Since it’s right next door we check out the Tower History and Train Museum, lots of photographs and artifacts related to the fascinating history of the area. We pick some interesting trivia, like that the name “doughboys” originated during the civil war because the Union Army’s brass buttons resembled popular dumplings known as “doughboys”. The displays include ones describing or donated by many of the old-time residents of the area, including miners, farmers, trappers, merchants, doctors and veterinarians.
Some old veterinary instruments..........................and a request for help.
The museum tells some tragic stories too, like those of the local Chippewa children who were forcibly removed from their families in an effort to assimilate them into American society, but given little by way of education to make it possible.
After our hardware errands we stop at “Sulu’s”, a small coffee place (there are no Starbucks here). In addition to the usual variety of lattes and cappucinos, their list of brewed coffees includes “regular” and “Lutheran”. “What’s ‘Lutheran’?”, we ask the barista. She explains that when they first opened a nice lady tasted the coffee and said, “That’s awfully strong, can you make me one like they serve at church?” Despite Jan’s Lutheran upbringing we ordered the “regular”, which was really quite good.
We make it home across the lake in time for Lynn and Bill’s arrival for dinner, we offer them brats, kraut and potato salad, a great time was had by all.
Heavy cloud cover, no sunset…