You Can See Russia, Or At Least Canada

Our next stop after leaving Jon and Ruthie's was International Falls to visit our friends Bruce and Donna.  They actually live outside of International Falls on Dove Island.  Between International Falls and Dove Island is Ranier.  Lot's of political action around Ranier which recently incorporated a bunch of unincorporated whatever they ares and have thereby more than doubled their population.  International Falls is bent out of shape because, apparently, they wanted to incorporate these same whatevers.  Dove Island remains whatever it is.  And who knows what this all means for anybody.  International Falls has a population of a bit over 2000 people and it is dropping while Ranier had a population of a bit over 200 before the incorporation of the whatevers.  We are not talking huge populations here, by any means.

Normally I wouldn't know about this stuff, but you can't get a major newspaper up here.  They don't even deliver the Minneapolis paper this far north.  So you can either read about Mildred's aunt coming for a visit, the local highschool that had to play eight-man football for their homecoming because so many of the players on the opposing team went moose hunting that they couldn't field a full team, or local politics.  Believe me, I read everything.

Oh, and you don't even want to hear about the proposed sewer line out to Dove Island.  People actually want to be billed based upon the amount of waste they produce.  I want to see how this works out.

To escape the insanity we all headed over to Fort Frances across the Pigeon River and in Canada to take in some curling.

Senior Curling League In Action


I kind of think of curling as Canadian bowling.  The one big difference is that you can't actually have beer down where you curl.  Oh, okay, there are some other big differences, I will grant you that.  Kind of fun to watch, though.  And they had a nice little viewing area upstairs where you could buy food and beer.

Beer And Curling, Does It Get Any Better?


They didn't have a real extensive menu and it was kind of like snack food.  But it was much better than snack food and the portions were quite large.  Sadly, I cannot remember what we ate.

One other place that we went was Thunderbird Lodge.  We go there at least once whenever we visit Bruce and Donna.  It is very close and has excellent food.

Thunderbird Lodge


And the views are magnificent.  You would almost think this is a painted background, but it isn't.

Donna And Mysterious Chinese Woman, With A View


Bruce had a most excellent rib-eye steak while the rest of us had walleye.  My walleye was deep-fried with just the lightest of a crust and delicious flaky meat inside.  You can't go wrong with walleye.

Now, being a city boy, living on Dove Island isn't my cup of tea.  I expect to be able to walk to fifty differnent bars and restaurants, but I do like to visit.  And in Brooklyn you will never wake up to views like these, right from Bruce and Donna's deck.





And you can shoot a deer with a bow right from that same deck, not something you could do in Brooklyn, even if you had a deck.  Bruce shot one from this deck last year.  Yes, country living does have its benefits.  I would just have to figure out how to minimize my waste production.

And, in the Did You Know portion of this post, did you know that the hockey mask used in the first Halloween movie was a modified Halloween mask of Captain Kirk?  That's right kids, you are actually being frightened by William Shatner.