Summer Solstice, the longest day turns out to be another rainy day! We see white caps once again due to the strong ENE wind, very unusual for our quiet side of the island. We’re happy we’re not on Big Bay (on the south side) where they’ve been having six-foot swells. We brave the waves in the trusty Bayliner and are off to Ely for a visit to the library, hardware, laundry, groceries, liquor store, and we stop for a walleye sandwich at The Chocolate Moose. Across the street is a sign advertising a big event this week-end, a “Snowmobile Watercross” in Winton, a town a few miles east of here. Snowmobiles on water!? Just wait a doggone minute!
My sole experience on a snowmobile was this past February when I came up here for a week and stayed with Steve Keibler. I loved being here in the winter for the first time, and really liked the snowmobile, not for the speed or noise, but because it made it easy to explore places that would be much more difficult to get to by boat or on foot. And yes, it seems you can indeed take snowmobiles across water, so long as you maintain a high enough speed, you kind of skim across the surface. The machines have buoys attached so you can find them easily when they go to the bottom.
By the time we get back to Glenwood the lake’s not quite so choppy. And as Jan checks in with Billie, one of the visitors in the bar tells her of a recent conversation with his (as he described)“slightly dementia” Mom. It seems they were sitting on the lawn at Glenwood and the resort dog, Sheba, settled down next to Mom…she turned to her son and said very calmly and sweetly, “Please, son, tell me that is not a bear sitting next to me”.
Sheba the Black Bear.
Sheba is a very large, very black German Shepherd.
The rain forces us indoors for our late night cocktail tonight, clouds completely hide the western horizon. When Jan wished Billie a happy Summer Solstice back at Glenwood, he looked out the window and said, “If this is summer, we’re all screwed”. Spoken like a true resort owner.