Dr. Dog's House

That distance (1,732 kilometers for those of you who are into metrics) is how far I drove during my extended Fourth of July weekend trip. If you plot it out on a map, my course looks sort of like a backwards “7,” as I drove mostly west to Minneapolis-St. Paul, then southeast to the neopagan gathering … and then retraced my tire tracks a couple days later. My wife and I left home on Wednesday around noon and got back home the following Monday at about mid-afternoon.

I did this so I could have my first visit with B, my friend from Alaska. We met at the MSP Airport on Thursday just after noon and parted on Sunday, late in the afternoon. That gave us most of four days and three nights together. Without getting into a lot of words, we both had a great time, and the days passed very quickly. Way too quickly. We had packed a lot of activities into those four days, so we were very busy, and we both slept well each night–even I, who often wake up in the middle of the night and can’t settle down again.

Thanks to our cell phones and texting, we kept in touch with each other as we neared our rendezvous (the baggage pickup area at the MSP airport). I had parked at the nearby Mall of America and took the light rail train to the terminal. She texted me when her plane landed. By the time she phoned me a little later after exiting the plane, she had already spotted me. It was a 10-second phone call. Happy hugs and kisses ensued.

We rode back to the mall, where we did some shopping, got lunch (Arby’s), then hit the road for the three-hour drive to our motel. Supper was at Pizza Hut. The next morning, we finished the drive to the gathering, passing through some very scenic, hilly country that thrilled her, including a brief drive up narrow roads to a top-of-the-mountain park. Lovely place, but we didn’t stay there long; we had places to go.

We got to the gathering site, where she started meeting some of my friends. All went very well there–she said she had a great time at the events we went to, meeting many new friends along the way. She had never been to an event like that, and it was exotic, to put it mildly.

We missed many of the events–B wanted to see sarong-tying workshop, and I wanted the drumming and dancing circle; we arrived a day late for that. But we made it to a discussion of the group, a potluck dinner and a “henna play party,” with people decorating each other with henna. B really wanted to see that, and she did. We took part–I drew a little butterfly on her …

And she drew a moon with some stars on me …

They only exist in these photos now; the henna has already faded away completely.

A symposium was held in the evening, and I hoped for a starry night, because you can really see the stars and Milky Way from this hilltop location–no light pollution at all. But it was mostly cloudy. We went back to my tent and slept well. I just brought one sleeping bag for the two of us. When it got cool overnight, we put the thermal blanket under us on the air mattress and the sleeping bag over us. Problem solved.

The next day, we stumbled through a “mirror dance,” then enjoyed the sensual pleasures of taste at a “naked lunch,” where a poem of that name was read. “Clothing is definitely optional,” said the program, and so it was. One important rule: When someone feeds you something by hand, you have to happily moan with pleasure. Strawberries (a few with chocolate on top), grapes, melon, date bars. Mmmmmmmmmmm!!!

After that, we took part in a very serious discussion of polyamory that went two hours and could have gone for two more. The people there are very committed to the lifestyle they lead and their lovers–all of them. After it ended, B and I went back to our campsite, took down the tent and moved things back to the car. We stayed long enough to take part in the main ritual was that evening, and we left right after that, with more hugs for the people there.

We drove back north, and she was delighted to come upon a big fireworks show in one of the towns.  B has lived in Alaska for years, and they don’t have fireworks that far north on the Fourth of July. Just after the start of summer, the sun is up 22 hours a day, and the sky never gets dark. They have fireworks for New Year’s, but people have to bundle up for subzero weather to see it.

We got to our motel at 11:30 p.m. and were pleased to find the hot tub and whirlpool still open. We relaxed and let the rushing warm water sooth away our tense muscles from the drive before going to bed. During our final morning, as we were getting ready, I remembered that we still had to do a tick check on each other. Lucky that I remembered–I spotted one on B’s tummy. We had to get out her tweezers to carefully pull the little bugger out. She said I was tick-free.

She had gifts, both for me and my wife. She gave her a book on Alaskan wildflowers, a cutting board and an ulu (an all-purpose cutting knife with a rocking handle, like those used by the Inuit). She gave me a black Alaska T-shirt with a multi-colored moose on it.

I only took a few pictures, and there was just one of the two of us together. We stopped at a gas station near the motel on that final morning and saw a big orange moose on the motel grounds nearby. A woman saw me taking a picture of B and took a picture of the two of us together …

Then, back in the car. A few hours later we were back at the Mall of America. A visit to Taco Bell, an ice cream at Dairy Queen, and then back into the light rail train, heading back to the airport. She got her boarding pass. The security checkpoint lines nearby were very long–but one of the officers told us to walk down to the other end of the terminal, where the lines were a lot shorter. Indeed they were–B just had one person in front of her. Within minutes she was through, and we waved good-bye for the final time.

The next morning, I got an e-mail from her, saying she was back in Alaska, safe and sound, ready to go to bed and dream of ticks.

****
Now … I bet you’re wondering what my wife was doing while I was gone.

She was having a great time with her sisters. All three of them live in the same area, and I drove her to one of their homes that first day (leaving for the Twin Cities by myself the next morning). On her first solo day, she and the sister drove up to Duluth, took in two Imax movies, visited a big flower display at a local park and ate dinner at a revolving restaurant, 18 stories above the ground. That’s pretty big for Duluth. When they told me about it, I was impressed.

On day two, she stayed in town with the family, they had a big cookout and went to the circus that night, seeing fireworks afterward. On day three, she and the sister went down to Eau Claire to visit some parks, a mini-zoo, visit some nephews and have a nice supper. I guess they had a good time–they got home an hour after I got back from the Twin Cities. We stayed there that night and left for home the next morning.

While she and I were separated, we kept in touch the best we could–but she doesn’t have her own cell phone (not interested), and I didn’t have the sister’s cell number, so I kept calling her house. They weren’t home that much, but I did talk to her a few times from the road (or the tent or restaurant or motel).

It all worked out, and I’m very happy with how everything went. B and I knew we didn’t have a lot of time, and many things we had talked about doing fell by the wayside. Even so, we did a lot, we had very busy days, and I don’t think we could have packed much more into our time together. She loved the gathering and wants to go back next year.

Meanwhile, my wife said she really enjoyed having a long holiday weekend with her sisters, so this whole story could very well be repeated next summer. Why not? It sounds like it worked for everybody.

****

B and I talked for the first time since the trip (besides e-mails) on Saturday night. It went well, and my wife was part of it too–I put my cell phone on speaker. Since we said good-bye two weeks earlier, both of us have been trying to catch up on our sleep–she, especially, was fatigued when the visit was over. She also had to deal with a few health problems (nothing major), exacerbated by an unusual Alaskan heat wave that sent temperatures shooting up into the 80s and low 90s, along with wildfires and smoke.

All that is past now. We had hoped to meet again in August, but those plans didn’t work out. So our next time will be … whenever. When the time is right. As it was two weeks ago.