10/11/10 Day 8

     After a good night's rest on my part, and a fitful night spent fearing for her life by Virginia, we crawled out of the tent to see what damage the mystery animal had done to our camp.  After a brief survey, everything seemed to be intact, everything that is except our bag of trail mix.  We had set it in the fork of a tree the night before, to prevent whatever was loose from approaching our tent as we slept.  This tactic worked, but at the expense of our snack, as I found a small hole chewed in one corner.  It was probably the work of a squirrel, but Virginia said that if it had been Sasquatch, it was awful rude of him to tear into our bag when he has perfectly good thumbs that could be used to unzip it. 

     Following that, we packed up quickly and took our first load to the car, since we had left all the breakfast food there.  Virginia stayed behind to prepare the morning meal, while I headed back down the trail for the second load.  Virginia thought I would need to make another trip after this one to get everything, but I proved her wrong by lugging everything back on that return.  It was heavy and uncomfortable, but I was rewarded with a big bowl of oatmeal with cinnamon and peaches upon my return.  It was time to say goodbye to Deer Lake once again, but I know we will be back. 

       Once we got back into town, we resumed our westward travels on highway two.  Virginia got out one of her travel books and began to read about the destinations that lay ahead.  When she got to Bemidji, I told her we had to stop there to see the giant statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.  And so it was.  After a few silly pictures and a look around the visitors’ center, which house oversized items once used by the behemoth logger, we ventured uptown to find a drug store so Virginia could fill a prescription. 

mmmm Big Blue Boogers!

     We ended up at the Thrifty White Drug Store, where they told her they would have her prescription filled in twenty minutes.  To kill time, we went to the parking lot and made lunch.  We sat on the tailgate of the station wagon eating freshly made egg salad sandwiches.  When we were done, Virginia went inside to check on the pharmacists’ progress.  She soon came back out empty handed and looking angry.  Apparently there were issues with the insurance agency, which would take at least another 20 minutes to straighten out.  Virginia had found a coupon for Cold Stone Creamery and decided that ice cream would work, at least temporarily, as a cure for her flared temper. 

     She got a cookie dough and cake batter flavored concoction called “All Lovin’ No Oven” while I opted for the chocolate-y “Peanut Butter Cup Perfection.”

     When we were finished with our treats we returned to the Thrifty White and were able to leave from there with Virginia’s medicine this time.  A little while later, we were crossing the Minnesota border into Grand Forks, North Dakota, just outside of which lay our destination for the night; Turtle River State Park. 

     Even After the work of setting up camp, Virginia and I were still full of ice cream, so we had a light dinner of tuna and crackers and called it a night. 

 - Eric