Flying Trip

July 11, 2007 (5:05am)
54º F, Clear, NNW wind, 10 mph.

Good morning,

After a flying trip to FISKLAND, we are back home at Guds Nordtre again. The trip to and fro was fairly uneventful other then some skillful driving and timing on my part. On the why home yesterday, there were a couple of serious storms brewing on the horizon in the west. There was a gap between them, so aimed the truck between them. It worked! We had actually about five minutes of rain in the form of some small short showers, but nothing serious. I done good! ;-) Well .... maybe I was lucky. Someone did get some serious weather though.

We were shocked by the price of gasoline. Green Bay had prices at $3.039/gallon and when we arrived in Kewaunee it was $3.249/gallon! Could not believe it. Nursed the truck back to Green Bay yesterday, to take advantage of the lower price. It had risen to $3.099/gallon by the time we filled up. In Crivitz and to the north the price was $3.449-3499/gallon until we got closer to the Michigan border, then it dropped to the $3.099/gallon range again. Don’t know what the reason for the spike is, as the price of crude has taken a bit of a tumble. Haven’t been to town here, so don’t know what the price is. I really don’t like the trend at all, especially with all of the traveling we need to do now.

As of 6:30 A.M. yesterday morning, our shortage unit is empty and cleaned out. I put the last of it on the truck and swept the unit out. It ended almost exactly 10 years of use. I took a picture of it empty. Was a pretty good feeling to see it finally empty too. I remember when I rented it, I thought it would never be filled totally - wrong. Over filled is really what happened. Now that it is empty, we can focus more on the rest of the stuff that needs to move. Before Bible study, I started to fill the truck with some of the "outside" stuff at FISKLAND. After Bible study we continued to load it and then headed north about 2:00 P.M. I was a pretty tired puppy when we arrived.

Bible study went pretty well. We didn’t get to all of the material I had prepared as we got into some pretty good discussions. That’s OK, since we really covered the material, but in a different way, there was a meeting in the Fellowship Hall, so we ended up in one of the Sunday School classrooms. A bit crowded - or should I say more intimate. The smaller room did really make for a better study time I think.

When I pulled on my pants getting ready to go, I got a wasp sting on the inside of my left thigh. Apparently it had gotten in them during the night and objected to my putting my leg where it was. Haven’t been nailed by one of them in a long time and hope it is a longer time before it happens again if ever. I don’t have a serious reaction to them, but it lets me know it is there for a couple of days. After Bible study we went uptown to get the mail, stop at the bank, and to fill up the truck with gas. We arrived in town when the post office was closed for lunch and the price of gasoline was off the page. So we decided to have lunch and by then the post office would be open again and Margriet could do her banking.

We made it to Green Bay with about 2½ gallons of gas in the tank. Didn’t think there was that much! The weather was extremely humid (and the mosquitoes were in black clouds around us it seemed) and again I was happy to have the AC in the truck, at least while in town. Would have survived very nicely without it on the open road, but ..... There was a very strong SW wind as we headed to Green Bay, but after making the corner and driving between the rain storms, it switched to the west, still very strong. We really noticed the wind as we went over the high bridge over the Fox River! I had hoped to have a tail wind heading north, but no such luck.

We did stop in Crivitz to pick-up an ice-cream cone. Ultimately to become our supper. A small gas station has been converted into a walk-up ice-cream store, much like the Dairy Queens started out to be. I got a cherry malt and Margriet a cone. It was a rather large cone and she could not finish it. Too bad we were driving and eating or I would have had to finish it for her. Guess her eyes are bigger than her stomach. She sure did enjoy it though. I haven’t had a malt in a long time. It too was very good. After reading Mom’s diary and their getting ice-cream all of the time, I wondered if we were following in their footsteps. They sure enjoyed ice-cream a lot - too.

I literally staggered taking the ice chest into the truck and then again out to bring it in here. It weighed a lot! We had picked up some meat to fill the freezer with. The ice chest was full and now the freezer is. This freezer is bigger than we have had in the past and it is filled to capacity! The meat that we bought was more expensive than we would have liked (what’s new?), but it is a whole bunch cheaper than in this area. At least we have found the price to be very high. We need to find places to buy our food. Those we have found are very pricey. Not only for meat. Sure will be nice when hunting season comes, maybe I can supplement the larder a bit. Been looking at those rabbits pretty closely too.

So we are here again and it seems we will have some nice weather, but with possible storms. We got some rain overnight, but nothing like the tornado warning that were up when we arrived and through most of the night. We really appreciate the 10-15º F here as apposed to what it was at FISKLAND. After every trip back, we know why we are here. While the area around FISKLAND has a fairly low population density, it is crowded compared to here. We certainly don’t like the crowdedness of Green Bay and the surrounding area. It really is nice to call Guds Nordtre home!

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris ><>