Sometimes they Close Roads for a Reason

Sometimes they close roads for a reason. Usually they don't. All of my life I've read the "Road Closed" sign as "No Traffic Adventure Course." Never had I stumbled upon a closed road that was impassible.

There's a first time for everything.

Friday after work, I checked the weather and saw that it was 79 degrees in Ontonagon, Michigan. I swiftly jumped in my car and headed north -- surely this heat wave would get the Steelhead running.

Saturday, my dad and I awoke to temperatures in the mid 30's and mist. We decided to wait for evening and warmer temperatures to head to the Presque Isle River to fish.

In the late afternoon we headed out planning to take South Boundary Road through the Porcupine Mountains to get to the river. This road acts as a snowmobile trail in the winter, but is a paved road when the snow melts, running the interior boundary of Michigan's largest wilderness area.

When we entered the park, a large barrier read "Road Closed to Thru Traffic." The road looked dry as a bone, so we decided to slip around the barrier and head into the hills. To our surprise 3 miles up we began to encounter a bit of snow on the roadside.

"How did that snow survive the 80 degree temperatures?" we pondered.

Five miles in it began to get a bit deeper.

"Are you sure we're not going to get stuck up here?" I asked

"Yeah, this is nothing for this car to take," Dad responded.

Thirty seconds later all four tires began to spin.

Dad and I both got out and stared at the car perplexed. We jammed pine boughs under the tires hoping these would get sucked under and give us traction. They did not. We dug out the tires and threw everything we had under them -- cardboard, rocks, newspaper, dirt dug up in the woods -- but all to no avail.

After about 40 minutes, four college-aged kids in a Subaru pulled up behind us -- they too had disregarded the road closed sign and the barrier. They stopped before the deep snow and helped us rock the car until we were pushed out of the ruts that had been dug -- sometimes you just get lucky.

We caught no fish, but had a terrific weekend nonetheless. On Earth Day I must admit that I feel a bit of guilt for having my second 700 mile weekend in two weeks, but it is my passion for the outdoors that drives me to try so hard to protect it.

It is Earth Day, so do me a favor and after you read this do one thing to make your home more energy efficient or reduce your carbon footprint. Change one light bulb from an old-school one to a compact fluorescent, bike or walk to work one day this week, or put your computer on a surge protector and turn it off at night. Want more ideas to save some money and the environment, check out this press release written by your's truly.

All right, enough infomercial. Tomorrow will find me back in the clinic for some methotrexate, vincristine and a spinal tap with chemo, the precise doses of which will be determined by my blood counts. Then we get a ten day break followed by another round of methotrexate and vincristine which will complete the treatment of round 3. Round 4, an intensified stage will then begin in Mid-May (after the opening of fishing season which is something I am eternally grateful for.)

Comment Question of the Day:

Tell me about a sticky situation you once found yourself in on a road trip -or- post one thing you did to make your home/office/life more energy efficient. Winners of both categories will recieve a shout out.

Happy Earth Day,

Sam

Escape to the Gitche Gummi and a Colon Cleanse Recipe

It was time to get the hell out of Dodge. I was born a traveler, an adventurer. I simply wasn't meant to stay in one place for any length of time. I hadn't traveled outside south-central Wisconsin in over 4 months, and last week I decided it was time to get out.

On Wednesday I decided I was going to head north with Katie over the weekend to see "The Big Lake," Lake Superior. Lake Superior holds a special place in my heart. It is where I would travel with my grandparents every summer when I was young. We would walk along the beach looking for agates and stare out into the beautiful cool vastness.

Superior is where I've had some of my best fishing adventures. Life rarely gets better than kicking back a few beers on a warm summer night while trolling for lake trout and salmon and watching the sunset over calm water at 10:00pm. Except perhaps when you get back to the cabin and fry up the day's catch with potatoes to be immediately followed by a driftwood campfire on the beach and many more beers for good measure. Retiring by 2:00am I'd sleep happily in anticipation of doing it all over the next day.

I've driven north to Lake Superior after a ten hour day at the bike shop, leaving at 9:00pm and arriving at 3:00 in the morning. Last April, I drove 8 hours alone through a blizzard to get to the big lake just for the opportunity to spend a day and a half trying to catch a steelhead. The snow was up to the bumper of my truck, and I only saw one car in a 150 mile stretch of the Upper Peninsula. I caught no fish, but didn't regret making the trip for a second.

The Big Lake holds all of these memories and more. It is the embodiment of my youth, the location of my greatest adventures.

So, this was all on my mind Wednesday as I daydreamed about heading up. I decided we were to leave on Thursday night, but wouldn't tell anyone as I've learned never to make plans lest we pull another "let's go to lazy jane's in the morning!" only to end up Blagojeviching all night. I was giddy with anticipation.

Wednesday night, I packed up all of my trout fishing gear. Going through my backpack and fly fishing gear brought back memories of so many great adventures -- the half eaten flies bitten off by wild bluefish in Florida, the giant hole in my backpack and frayed straps chewed through by a pesky pine martin in the adirondacks. It also brought excitement as I thought of the many adventures to come.

Thursday after work Katie and I packed up all of my meds -- a full basketful -- and the rolling pharmacy (Katie's Blue 1987 Buick Lesabre) headed north. After spending a great night at Katie's parents, we headed up into the upper peninsula on hwy 45 stopping at my favorite roadside food stand "Big Honkin' Sandwiches" in Watersmeet, MI -- home of the Nimrod Nation -- no kidding, it's their mascot.

We arrived at the cabin next to the lake with enough time to take a quick nap -- all right it was two hours -- and to watch the sunset over the ice dunes on the lake. It is impossible to describe or capture the beauty of the sun setting over ice dunes and a sea of ice. If you've never seen it, it's really worth a trip.



I spent Saturday fishing the Presque Isle river below the falls. It was about a week too early and I didn't catch anything, but then again, I didn't really care. I was happy to be out at one of my favorite hideouts. The sound of the falls, the smell of the fire we stoked on the beach, and the freshness of the air made for an extremely pleasant day. Especially so because there were so many days during the last stage when I would lie on the couch not wanting to move, but then get on my bike and ride for 15 excruciatingly painful minutes -- the only thing giving me the motivation to spin the pedals was telling myself over and over again "I need to keep the leg strength so that I can climb the stairs at Presque Isle Falls this Spring... I will get there."

It was a terrific trip.

I have to thank everyone for posting/sending me their favorite recipes. Many of them sound delicious and I look forward to cooking them. As those of you who have been reading my blog from the beginning will remember, I often like to read the advertisements on the sidebar of gmail that are created by scanning the content of the message. These often are incredibly humorous as many of you may recall from the "Uncle Jimmy's Hangin' Balls" post. Well, another great one jumped up when someone who shall remain nameless sent me a recipe recently. The recipe looks delicious, but the first content-guided advertisement read "Colon Cleanse Recipe." On second thought, maybe i'll avoid that recipe...

I hope this week and Spring find you all well.

Comment Question of the Day:

What is your favorite season -- and why?

Shout Outs:
SO to Stuart -- good luck in round six.
SO to Grandpa Weis -- Thanks for Easter dinner, it was great.
SO to GG Giles -- Have a safe trip home and stay out of those nasty storms
SO to the 90-year-old in Pat's grocery store in Ontonagon wearing a black Stormy Kromer w/ a rainbow gay rights pin (how awesome is that?)
SO to Julie -- Thanks for sending me the great photos of your trip

Shop Whole Foods this Thursday!

Just a quick post... I'm feeling very well and have been dedicating most of my time and energy to getting back to work for this stage and getting back into public. This explains the most recent blogout -- no worries, it's a good blogout. I actually have some white blood cells for the time being!

I'm extraordinarily excited to get back into the office, even if it's only for 4-5 hours a day. On that note, anyone reading in Madison should shop Whole Foods on University Avenue on Thursday (4/09), as 5% of that day's total sales will go to Clean Wisconsin, the state's largest-- and world's best -- environmental advocacy organization.

Get some tasty, healthy food and support a great cause. Shop yourself and send your friends.

All right comment question of the day:

Post or send me your all time favorite recipe.

Shout Outs:
-SO to Vitse for missing the shout outs
-SO to Dennis -- Lunch was great, thanks for introducing me to Buraka
-SO to Philly -- I'd stick to less than two pots of coffee a day -- unless you balance it out w/ a fishbowl-sized margarita.
-SO to Schryver -- Congrats on the half-month hero award.

Later,

Sam

"The only problem with bacon is that it makes you thirsty... For more bacon."