Driving Mr. Anders

On Thursday, I drove to Durand to spend the night.  My mission was to drive Anders to Grantsburg on Friday so he could hang out with his Ebersold grandparents, 

while his Mom & Dad packed and moved into their new home in Alma.

Anders is 3 1/2 and very fun to be with.

Friday morning we loaded up the car and headed North.

For the first hour and 1/2, he did not say one word.

Any questions I asked were answered with a nod or shake of his head.

So, he sat quietly in his car seat, looking a little bored.

Anders as we drove North.

When we left Baldwin, the weather changed.  I am not sure if you call it fog, or frozen air, or what!

But I could only see about 20 yards in front of the car and when I looked out the side windows, there was no distinction between land and sky, very disorienting.

So, while Anders sat quietly, I was white knuckled.  

Here is gets a little better as we got closer to Amery.

TTT

As we got close to St. Croix Falls I asked Anders if he had to go potty, and he said no.

But then he told me he was thirsty.

So, I pulled into the McD's to get him a chocolate milk.

I think that must have loosened his vocal cords, as he chatted for the whole rest of the trip.

"My Mom has a Mom" Anders said with authority. "That is Grandma Lulu.  My Mom has a Dad."

"And is that Grandpa Larry?" I asked

Anders replied "Yep.  My Dad has a Mom and Dad too."

With a little prompting from me, he told me "Grandma Lolo and Grandpa Gus."

Once we got the family tree stuff straight, he asked how far to Grantsburg.  I told him 28 miles.

So, he decided to try to count to 28.  For the rest of the trip, he counted up to how many more miles it was.  

When we got to 5 miles left in our ride, I said, let's count backwards from 5.

There was a pause in the backseat and then "Why would you count backwards?" Anders asked.

I didn't really have a good answer.

TTT

Once on the right block, I was impressed that Anders picked out the house, I had never been there, but of course he has been there many times.

I got him delivered and headed off towards Rice Lake.

TTT

On the way home, I made a stop at Memory Lake in Grantsburg to look for swans.

I did see two, they were pretty far away, but I got a photo that will do.

Trumpeter Swans at Memory Lake in Grantsburg, WI

T

From there I headed East, stopping in Siren to visit with a furniture restoration / repair fellow.

He was interesting and I plan to have 3 antique chairs redone there.

I have 3 chairs like this, they originally belonged to my friend Betty Rosenow's Mother or Grandmother.
I got them when Paul was redoing the home place.
Each is missing at least one rung but otherwise just need to be stripped and refinished.

TTT

Then I did some shopping at a fun shop, The Siren General Store.

I have been wanting to add a little something to the wall in the guest room.

This ribbon of glass jars turned out to the just the thing once I added some color.

Now my photos have a little company

TTT

In Siren, I checked out the boat landing at the park.

I was looking for open water, which there wasn't any of, but check out these tracks out onto the lake.

This driver was much braver than I am.
Um...there's water under there...

When I left Siren, I decided to make another detour on my trip home.

I had been wanting to check out The Hunt Hill Wildlife Sanctuary in Sarona, WI.

I didn't drive into the welcome center, as the road looked iffy, but I marked it on my GPS and I will definitely go back once the snow is gone.

It was located farther East that what I thought, but no matter, 

I was able to follow county roads to get back to Rice Lake.

This last big snow really did make for some pretty winter scenery.

Check out the Wisconsin Canoe Heritage Museum in Spooner, WI

It is good that the museum is closed for the winter as it is sporting quite the snow cap.

TTT

I enjoyed my circle drive, ~280 miles in about 24 hours, it was enough.