We drove up to Minocqua on Friday- taking our time on the way up there. It was nice to make a trip up north on a weekend where the weather warmed up a little. We played at Minocqua Brewing Company- it really is a joy to play there! I always feel very welcomed by the staff- it seems as though we're all part of a bigger family! I'm thankful they take such good care of us. We stretched our legs out during the set and had a good time hanging out with everyone!
Saturday we drove up farther to Duluth. I love Northern Wisconsin and Minnesota! And the UP! We went through towns like Ashland and Butternut. I read a lot, looked at the trees, tried to look at every little town we passed through. Always wondering what it's like for people there. The differences in perspectives of others never ceases to really stretch my mind.
Driving through these towns, it's easy to feel their shoes on my feet. I can see where they live, where they go. There's the grocery store, there's the laundromat, there's the Catholic Church and there's the Protestant. There's the diner, the school, and there's the two or three or four downtown bars. Unless they're going out of town... there it is.
And I think a lot of people find it appealing, maybe the simplicity of it. It could even seem romantic.
We went through Ashland where we stopped at a coffee shop which was in an very large old house. There was a man playing harp. Across the street was Lake Superior. There was a room for rent upstairs.
And then we arrived in Duluth.
Duluth, it's like a giant small town.
It's got creativity dripping down it's dirty old downtown buildings.
It's got some of the most welcoming people you'll ever find.
A history so rich it's as if the people of the past are walking down the street next to you. Every so often they cast a glance your way- you look-...
Duluth has long, long winters,
Duluth has water and big beautiful bridges that light up at night. As we rolled in I saw an enormous boat in the water- "American Integrity."
Duluth attracts me, it inspires me. I don't know how to describe the vibe there for me other than that it is strong! There's a sexual energy. A young appetite for art and a respect for social activism.
We played at a place called The Red Herring Lounge. Huge paintings of horses hung on all the walls. They were a little abstract, very colorful.
Across the street is Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial. In 1920, there was a lynching involving three men who were in a traveling circus. The men were abducted by a large mob of people (between five and ten thousand, according to their website), beaten and hung on a lamppost right near the memorial.
The event, and the men who died were nearly forgotten, and in the second part of the century- a grass roots effort sprang up and the memorial was built.
I walked across the street and stood before the memorial, reading some of the quotes that are engraved on the cement in large letters.
"We are the mirror as well as the face in it.
We are tasting the taste this minute of eternity.
We are pain and what cures pain.
We are sweet, cold water and the jar that pours."
-Rumi
Other quotes by Thich Nhat Hanh, Martin Luther King Junior, Anne Lamott, Oscar Wilde, Euripides, Elie Wiesel, George Bernard Shaw, and others. Thirteen quotes in all.
I spent some time with the quotes, spent some time with some Duluth friends- old and new, listened to the Lowland Lakers, Matt Ray and his fiddler, and Nick Foytik.
We piled into the van early Sunday morning, and drove back down south, back for the Packer game, back to our lovers and our own beds.
Winter keeps passing, and everyone around me seems pretty optimistic that we're all going to make it! And I think we are.
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