Months ago, Don and I had been invited to a reception for the son and daughter-in-law of our long time friends in Duluth. As it happened, Don's in the middle of a cluster headache session and he decided it was too risky to be that far away (3 hours drive) from his oxygen condenser so he stayed home. And it was good that he did. He managed to make his 5th and final batch of salsa and then came down with the headache. Good timing, my man!
But I digress. I was asked Thursday at the Festival committee meeting if I could get some advertising materials to a quilt shop in Bayfield which had requested them. Well, I thought I could take a simple detour on my journey to Duluth, drop off the materials and still make it to Duluth in time for the reception.
I've tried to copy the Mapquest map to this post so you can see the route I took, but no luck. Words will have to do. The first leg of the trip, Menomonie to Bayfield, is 176.5 miles to the North. Beautiful day for a drive. Fall foliage not quite at peak but still beautiful. I forgot that most of the trip is on highways with a 55 mph speed limit, and that really slowed me down.
I also decided as I journeyed along, that I should drop off the bookmarks at other quilt shops along the way so I made 2 additional stops along the way. And a good thing I did. They will be available next weekend when these shops participate in local quilting events.
The second leg of the trip is West from Bayfield to Duluth is 88 miles but the road was in such poor condition, and curvy and hilly that it seemed to take a lot longer than it should have. At any rate, I managed to arrive at the reception about 2 hours after it began, and as I had expected, it was an open-house kind of event--people coming and going. It was just beautiful too. Right on the shores of Lake Superior on a gorgeous sunny autumn day. The wedding couple looked extremely happy and pleased that all their parents' friends had gathered to wish them well. And I even got to spend a little time with my friend. Just enough time to plan a day to be together when things settle down for me after the Festival.
And the bonus was that I caught up with old friends that I hadn't seen since I left Duluth over 20 years ago! I only wish we could have spent more time together, but that doesn't happen at these kinds of events.
After a couple of hours at the reception, it was time for the 3rd leg of the journey, South 150 miles to get home. I left the house at 9 am and returned at 9 pm. So, yes, I was on the road the entire day!
I confess that I spent a bit of time at the shop in Bayfield and brought home half yard of this cute wordy fabric that I'll use as a neutral in my scrap quilts. And a blue Frixion pen--love these heat erasable pens!--so I can begin working on a blue-work embroidery piece for Christmas.
Today will be a bit of gardening--moving some hostas and getting things ready to plant bulbs--and sewing a couple more doll dresses. And tonight, I reward myself with an hour of Poldark--as my niece says, "Shirtless brooding on the moors." Everyone should have a little eye candy in their lives, right?
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