Door County Wisconsin

My retirement on January 21 was rapidly followed by a trip to Door County Wisconsin with my friend Jill, Penny (Jill's sister-in-law) and Maggie (the cat).

I have created another trip video. This one is here...Door County video

Jill, Maggie and I drove to Door County on Saturday, January 22. Door County is all the way across Wisconsin. It borders Lake Michigan and is a peninsula that creates the east coast of Green Bay. If you hold your hand in front of your face palm out, your thumb is Door County.

The trip was a chance for Jill to experience Door County in the winter. Her family has spent summer-time visits here for years. Our accommodations were the same home that the Rendalls have stayed in. It is perfectly located on the peninsula right on the Lake Michigan shore.

We were able to relax, eat out, shop and hike without issue as most establishments and parks were open at least part of the day. We even ate at a supper club that Jill and Penny had never been to!

The winter weather was what you would expect....very cold. There was only one snowy day.

Maggie was a great traveler. She enjoyed exploring new surroundings and even caught a critter in the house! Her favorite spot was on Penny's legs.

This was the first of a series of post-retirement travels. More to come.

Sometimes it is the little things (home decor)

 Not big changes but two little decor updates.

Swapped out the incandescent under microwave bulbs with LED bulbs. Brighter. Match under cabinet lighting. Saves energy.

Swapped the round coffee table for a round storage ottoman. I really like the color and having some pattern in the living room. I'm thinking the growing number of Maggie's toys have a new home when guests come over.

What I did this summer

I'll cut to the chase. Over the summer, the flooring in my new condo was flooded. The condo I purchased at the end of March came with an engineered wood flooring that was only 2 years old.

By August what I thought was a "feature" of the flooring, was actually something going wrong. It was definitively discovered when I had to hire an electrician to fix a GFI outlet that wasn't working. Turns out it was working exactly as it was supposed to. The floor outlets in the GFI's line were FULL of water. The water was shorting out the outlets. The GFI saved the place from completing shorting out and who knows what else.

From that discovery it was weeks of various contractors trying to figure out what and where the water was coming from.

Minneapolis and Minnesota for that matter had a very hot and humid summer. A top 10 for heat. I won't bore you with the 5 or 6 visits by 4 different companies, the trying to convince the building managers to take it seriously, and the final determination that there was a blockage in the building condensation line below my unit.

My unit is the bottom of a 27 story building. The HVAC condensation lines all converge and take a 90 degree turn to travel across the lobby below me. Somewhere between my and the final outlet, a clog was backing up everyone's condensation into my unit.

My wood flooring absorbed all that water over the summer when we had these hot, humid days and everyone's air conditioning was running above me.

I had a mold test done. The results came back as non-toxic everyday mold. When the damaged floor was removed, they did not find mold. Thank goodness. They also disinfected the floor and ran a high-powered dehumidifier.

The building is paying for the investigation and remediation including removing the damaged flooring and all the wet underlayment.

State Farm, my insurance, has denied my claim for the replacement flooring. The claim adjuster is saying it is seepage over time and therefore not covered. It is certainly not seepage. The time element is the time it took to figure out what was going on. If anyone knows a lawyer that handles insurance or condo coverage, please get in touch. I am serious.

I could not wait for the insurance to get resolved and proceeded to get new flooring. I hated the bare concrete and it was very cold to walk on.

The following photos are in reverse chronological order. I would rather remember the outcome (except the insurance part) than what I have dealt with all summer and fall.

The new flooring and furniture back in with Maggie supervising.

Cleaning the new flooring before bringing back all the furniture.

The new flooring. It is not this golden. The color matches the cabinets more. The flooring is oak and the cabinets are maple.

The new flooring going in. Those radiators along the window wall were very tricky.

After the existing flooring was removed, an industrial dehumidifier was used (that large stainless steel thing near the cabinets). It was loud.

The previous flooring was all removed from the main room. The wet is the disinfectant that was applied and allowed to dry.

So many different companies and people came through trying to figure out the issue.

For mine and Maggie's safety, the main room was sealed off during the remediation.

The previous flooring and the corner where the flooding came from.

I recorded this inch of water in the electrical outlet. This occurred in less than 24 hours on our last hot and humid day in late September. 

The water collected in two of the floor outlets causing the GFI to stay tripped.

Root River State Trail

The Root River State Trail in southeastern Minnesota has been on my list for quite some time. My friend Bud and I got to ride (bike) the trail this past Friday and Saturday.

An easy drive from the Twin Cities down along the Mississippi River is a Fall adventure in itself. We stopped at Hanisch Bakery in Red Wing for breakfast and donuts for the road.

We arrived at the eastern end of the Root River Trail in Houston. The trail is a paved bike and walking path that is about 40 miles total from Houston to Fountain. It is primarily a rails-to-trails route and is very well maintained. The path crossed the Root River several times and has views of farms, crops and the driftless geology.

Friday was a bit drizzly and overcast but that didn't dampen (HA!) the ride too much. We were pretty much the only ones out on the trail. We road from Houston to Rushford and ate lunch in Rushford before returning to the vehicle.

From Houston to Lanesboro we drove along the same route we just biked. Are accommodations, The Guest Hus, were spot on. There was bike storage and an easy walk to the main downtown.

There was to be a bike event on Saturday so Lanesboro was busy. We ate pizza at a local bar because there wasn't any room anywhere else. We got to mix with some locals including a very friendly dog.

Saturday was sunny but not hot. The ride from Lanesboro to Peterson is very easy. There were many more other cyclers on this section. It is more popular and the weather was fantastic.

We passed a giant eagle's nest on the way out and on the way back two adult eagles were perched right near it. I can never get enough eagle sightings.

It was a great trip. Easy to do over a couple of days. We did end up with almost 60 miles of cycling but split over the two days made it enjoyable.

Click here is a short video of the two days.

Home Décor - condo style

 

#1 You may recognize this piece from 3112. It hung in front of the window at the bottom of the stairs. It was given to me by the realtor that handled my purchase of the house. He didn't know where it came from but it was perfect for the house.

I decided to take it with me as a remembrance of 3112 and of 30 years in that house.

I wanted it to be in front of the wall of windows in the condo but not to hang from the ceiling.

So JT the Amazing made a stand for the stained glass frame to sit in. And the frame straddles the radiator. In addition to being at the perfect height, it allows me to position it along the window wall pretty much where ever I want.

#2 - I bought a real chest of drawers...some assembly required.

This isn't nearly as big a deal. But I now have a real piece of furniture to put my jeans and shorts in.

You can't see from these photos but I chose this piece because the legs/feet match my metal bedframe perfectly, I like the darker wood look.

Above on the wall is a Boundary Waters and Quetico Provencial Park map that I had framed. It complements the BWCA tree wall decal backdrop to the bed.

Cozumel, Whale Sharks and Hurricane Grace

 

I won't write too much here as the video will describe most of what happened on this trip.

In an attempt to miss one hurricane, Fred, heading to Florida, we changed flights to go through Dallas only to be delayed by severe weather in DFW. We did make it to Cozumel in one day but it was a long day.

And then we got to experience another hurricane, Grace, head on. Originally forecast to follow Fred, Grace decided to make a straight line to Cozumel. It did eventually move to just south of the island but you'll see that we had to shelter in the hotel and take precautions nonetheless.

The main purpose of the trip was to swim with whale sharks! Whale sharks are the largest fish in the ocean. Are members of the shark family but feed on plankton so are filter feeders.

They congregate off the coasts of Mexico and Belize in the Caribbean Sea in the months May - September. Dave did all the work finding a tour company and making arrangements It turned out to be fantastic. Highly recommend Blue H2O Cozumel. Cozumel Scuba and Whale Shark Tour Experts - Blue H2o Cozumel

The video is about 12 minutes long. There are lots of video clips included. Click here for the video of the trip. 

BWCA 2021 Edition

 Well we did it again. The foursome of Brian, Jenny, Julie and Jeff ventured into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, BWCA, Wilderness.

This was the 20th anniversary edition. I think Jenny is the only one that has made them all.

I created a video for this year's trip. The link will be below. But a short recap...

The plan was to paddle Hog Creek from Entry #36 to Perent Lake and find an island campsite on the lake. That would be no portages. Side note - portages are where the team carries the gear and canoes from one body of water to another.

We had been warned that because of the drought our planned all paddle / no portage trip would be twice as long with several places where you had to get out of canoes and transport gear. Well, fortunately it did not turn out that way.

There were a few places we had to do just that but mostly the slow downs were caused by three large beaver dams that we would have had to negotiate anyway. Beavers are amazing architects and construction workers.

We did make it to Perent Lake and landed a very primo campsite. Nice layout on a private island.

We had an unbelievable encounter with a bald eagle. Saw a darling trumpeter swan family. Also, more loon action than we had seen in a long time. And a pesky red squirrel who we are pretty sure is now the proud owner of an orange spork.

Click here for the video. I suggest watching in landscape mode. It is 6 minutes long.