For several days we have been “off the grid”… Internet and cell phone connectivity has been more than a challenge here on the shore of Lake Superior – it has been virtually non-existent. There is cell phone service in Bayfield, pop. 493 in summer (maybe 23 in winter?), about 12 miles away. Our AT&T cell phone only works within the town itself, which is about 1 square mile area. There are only two coffee shops with Internet, and they close at 1700. But Bayfield is a neat little town, with a short 3 blocks of shops and restaurants, not too busy now the week after Labor Day, but the locals say the best time to visit is in February, when you can cross Lake Superior on an ice bridge to Madeline Island, a couple of miles offshore. (Let’s see, I should leave the sunshine and 75 degree temps in The Villages in February to walk across an ice bridge in northern Wisconsin??? The Chamber of Commerce really needs to do some creative advertising on this one…)
We decided to cross over to Madeline Island on a ferry instead of waiting for Lake Superior to freeze (hey, that might happen next week, but we have a schedule to meet). We left our campground in 75 degree, sunny weather, and drove into Bayfield, parked the Toad, and prepared to load our mountain bikes on the ferry. There was only one itsy, bitsy problem; in the hour since we left the campground, Fall had displaced Summer with a vengeance. The wind shifted 90 degrees, and the temperature dropped 20 degrees. Suzanne had a jacket in the car, but I had to buy an Apostle Islands turista tee-shirt to avoid hypothermia. 
We departed the Apostles and headed for Duluth, Minnesota, where we met Pat and Jim Suchan at their beautiful waterfront home on Lake Superior. Pat had found Suzanne’s sailing book, Living a Dream, in a local bookstore, and subsequently ordered ALL of her books! Bedside being a discriminating reader, Pat is a fabulous painter, and Jim retired from his auto body shop business in central Minnesota. They gutted a 1930s cottage and completely redid it to its like-new condition. 
Pat has an art studio as well as a reading room (in a separate building), while Jim keeps his immaculately restored vintage 1929 Ford truck in the garage.
Here is My Lovely Bride dressed up in a tight, basic black number, ready to head for the Apostle Islands a few miles offshore… doesn’t she look stylish?
2 Comments
S/V Magnolia
What is bungied to the stern of the kayaks? Emergency pump?
Ty and Suzanne Giesemann
A2, exactly that, a manual bilge pump for when you capsize or don't complete a roll and have to wet exit.