Jet Skiing and Geocaching

Alivia greatly enjoyed her time on the jet ski – probably logging more time on the machine than either Nikolai or myself. If it has a motor, she wants to drive it.

By Allan Olson

Why can’t we flip the work week with the weekend? It really doesn’t seem fair to have only two days of fun and five days of work.

There was not enough time for everything I had planned last weekend – but in the end, I guess it worked out. My wife had a family reunion in the big city of Warroad, and the kids and I stayed away – far away. I dropped her off at about 8 p.m. on Friday. The kids and I planned to eat at a fast food joint, but due to some less-than-ideal behavior by the younger ones, that cool treat was cancelled when I exited the building, embarrassed by their behavior. Instead, they had to settle for a couple pieces of gas station pizza and we hit the road to do what I wanted.

I had two geocaches in mind for the evening, and dark was approaching fast – thankfully daylight lasted long enough and I was able to find and navigate to both with little issue. After that, we pointed our vehicle eastward to my parents’ place. We arrived just before 10 p.m., unloaded the vehicle and greeted my mom, who had waited up for us. 

Then the kids and I spent about two hours outside waiting for a predicted meteor shower. I took photos and the kids got in the way, bumping the tripod and the photographer more than once. They did get to see a few meteors shooting across the sky, and Nikolai and I took turns taking shots of the night sky and the evening moon, but we failed to get the meteors. I enjoyed trying to teach him some of the manual settings of the camera, and both of us tried to learn night sky photography – something I struggle with. We finally called it quits after midnight, and I finally hit the hay about 1 a.m.

The next morning I heard my dad get up, so opposite of my teenage years when I would burrow further into my blanket, I got up to visit with him before he headed off to the farmers market.

I also loaded some items into my mother’s vehicle so she could follow him into town.

Since my wife took my computer with her so she could have her ancestry information for the reunion, I borrowed my son’s computer so I could download the photos from the previous night. Unfortunately, now I’ll have to transfer them from his computer to mine and my backup devices (which I need to backup).

The twins and I took a trip to town and hit a few rummage sales with my mother. I found a nearly new duffel bag for $3, which my oldest has already laid claim to, so I guess I’ll have to find another one.

Our afternoon plan was water recreation. I met my younger brother and his family at the lake, and he brought a jet ski. I’ve always been leery of them because of my “not so great” back, so I’ve never even taken a ride. I had just changed into my swimming gear when my oldest took off on the machine, so I guess he beat his old man at riding one. On his second turn he managed to flip it, and it took him several minutes to turn it back over. I was next, and found it to be quite enjoyable and not too rough on the back. Alivia also took her turn, and grinned from ear to ear the whole time. Abigail took a much abbreviated ride, but wasn’t comfortable on the machine, so quickly passed it on to the next rider.

The kids stayed with my parents that evening while I attended the main evening meal for the reunion with my wife. She let me escape after about three hours, and I headed back, hoping to catch more meteor showers, but clouds rolled in and blocked the view.

We left early on Sunday to pick up my wife from the hotel. After she introduced the kids to some members of her family, we helped load her stuff and headed out – geocaching, that is. I planned our route home with finding some caches in mind. 

We found a few in Roseau, and stopped at my aunt’s for a quick visit – I think it ended up being close to three hours – and then continued our way home, stopping occasionally for a geocache. We finally landed on our doorstep at about 7:30. Two hours later, I was asleep. 

I now have what I thought was allergies, but it might be a summer cold. It was making me miserable, and as of Monday (which marked 11 years for me working at the paper) it still has my head in a cloud.

This weekend’s plans include attending the annual NorthStar Geoseeking Weekend. This year’s bash will be held in Bagley. It looks like I will be camping starting Friday night, and it will involve at least one canoe trip for a cache on an island. It’s sure to be a great time.

Please remember to watch out for the buses that are carrying our most precious cargo. Also, snap a photo or two to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! Feel free to drop me a line at cltimes1@arvig.net or stop by the office for a visit.