When Jon Ringen, friend since undergraduate days at the University of North Dakota, saw in our blog that we were returning to the States for a spell, he emailed an invitation to come visit him at his cabin in McFarland.\u00a0\u00a0 Searches of various computer maps revealed a \u201cMcFarland\u201d some two hours from Rochester, MN, where we would be seeing a doctor at Mayo Clinic for my arthritis.\u00a0\u00a0 This McFarland is in Wisconsin, just outside of Madison.\u00a0\u00a0 Easy peasy.<\/p>\n
I sent a note to Jon, mentioning that we would come \u201cdown\u201d when we finished at Mayo.\u00a0\u00a0 He responded that \u201cdown\u201d was a peculiar word to use, since McFarland was \u201cup\u201d from Duluth.\u00a0\u00a0 Several emails later we realized that we would not be driving an easy two-hours to the southeast, but a much longer eight hours north up along the western shore of Lake Superior to within three miles of the Canadian border and just east of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.<\/p>\n
It was great to visit with Jon and Cathie.\u00a0\u00a0 Jon and I spent some time reminiscing and some time solving some of the world\u2019s major philosophical problems, and Barb and I both enjoyed getting to know Cathie better.\u00a0\u00a0 The weather was not favorable for being outdoors, so we had to content ourselves with admiring from indoors the handsome McFarland Lake and its surroundings.<\/p>\n\n\t\t