Cox Family Bi-Annual Fishing Trip (Part 1)

A photo the the living room area taken from the loft above.

Our family summer vacation was lovely, and relaxing. Although it was meant to, be a fishing trip, very little fishing actually occurred and very few fish were caught mainly due to the fact it rained most of that week, yet we still had lots of fun. The Cox family stayed at Maplewood Resort near Eagle River, WI (http://maplewood-resort.com/index.html) where the cabins were beautiful, spacious and homey, and there were even fireplaces in each of the cabins. Our family stayed in the Prairewood cabin, which had 3 levels: an upstairs loft, the main floor, and a basement. It was sweet.

Giovonnie and Cameron sitting on the window bench
looking out the gigantic picture window.

Gannon sitting on the window bench.

The Travel Game

Saturday was the arrival day to the resort. Our family spilt up the 8-hour drive by driving from our home to Grandma Cathy's home in Bloomington, MN and then headed out from after a delicious breakfast at Baker's Square. The plan was to arrive at the resort by 3:00pm Saturday afternoon. The trip went great, the boys didn't even fight 'til the very last few minutes of the ride, and Gannon didn't cry at all until the last 10mins of the trip. Giovonnie came up with this great game called Guess Which Animal I Am that we played most of the way there. The rules one person says, "I am an animal that...." and then gives a clue to what animal you are. Everyone takes turns giving out there guess, and then if no one gets it another clue is given. This is repeated up to 3 clues. However, if someone guessed right then it would be his or her turn to pick the animals and give a clue. The game worked well to keep the peace, most of the way. Finally, we were close to the resort, and the game ended so that dad could pay better attention to the road, and mom the road map/directions printed from MapQuest. (Yep, were still a family of the dark ages, and don't have a gadget in our vehicle to tell us which way to go.) Joe was driving faster then and the road were a bit more rollercosteresque in that area. This was a bit of a mistake because Giovonnie gets car sick, and by the time we were turning into the drive of the resort Giovonnie blurted out, "I don't feel so well. I'm going to puke." As Joe was pulling over the side of the drive, Giovonnie let it out on his lap, and the floor of the backseat of the truck. He jumped out and finished up, as I wiped down the seat, floor, and door with his blanket, which was all that I had on hand for cleaning up the mess. We checked in, and I finished the cleaning of the truck as Joe unloaded our belongings. The rest of the day was spent touring the place, and relaxing until dinner, which was kindly prepared and served up by Grandma Cathy. After dinner, almost everyone loaded up on the rental pontoon for a boat ride across the lake. Then we sent the children off to bed, and some of the adults stayed up talking around fire pit.

Rt to Lt: Randy, Mandy, Jamie, Kevin, and Joe Cox
hanging around the fire pit.

Our second day there we all got settled in and then did some grocery shopping and then after lunch Joe and I went diving around with Jamie (Joe's brother) and Mandy (Jamie's wife) to the town of Eagle River. We were going to go to a flea market, but we were late and the tents were being pulled down, so instead we went Mini-Golfing, and then looked around at Wave Runners to rent before heading back to the resort for the group family dinner. While we were out our boys went down to the beach with Grandma Cathy. She even went into the water with Gannon, who loved the beach. When we returned we had the boys clean up quickly, and then headed to Jamie and Mandy's cabin for dinner, and to hangout for the evening with the rest of the Cox family.

The Wave Runner

Rt to Lt: Grandma Cathy, Kelly, Kevin, and Mindy at the meal
Joe and I hosted.

The next day Joe and I rented the Wave Runner offered by the resort as an early anniversary gift to ourselves, although it was a bit more costly than some other places in town we opted for the convenience of the location and the flexibility of our 8-hour time span. After a quick lesson on how to operate the machine, and some basic rules we were off and it was great! I had never rode one before, and I actually drove it myself, and gave Royce and Giovonnie each a ride. It was exhilarating to be on one of those machines to fly over the water and have the water spray back on to me. I couldn't get enough, even though I was dumped off a total of three times, all while riding with Joe. (Not that it should reflect his operating skills of the watercraft.) Jamie and Mandy each rented a Wave Runner as well, so we took a tour of the 5 lakes, Mandy and Jamie each on their own rental, and Joe and me on our rental. We were cruising across the water and messing around; having lots of fun. We were on our way back jetting through a boat wide clearing of a real weedy area that connected one lake to another when Jamie flew up behind us, and took to the weeds in order not to crash us. Laughing I yelled , "You're not supposed to go in the weeds." Joe kept driving then we turned around to go back because we realized Jamie was stuck, and Mandy had stopped to help him. She then also floated into the weeds, so Joe and I said we’d go get a rope or something, and headed out to find help. We quickly came upon a boat, and the couple kindly lent us a rope to pull out our stranded parties. I turned around riding the Wave Runner backwards, and I tossed Mandy the rope with little warning, and she missed it, so we passed her to Jamie, a loop was made in the rope, and I tossed it to Jamie and he held on to it, and was on his cell calling the rental place. Joe asked, "Did ya get it? (Or something to that tune) and I replied, "Yep." before I tied it to the back of the Wave Runner Joe took off. Jamie not paying attention 'cause he was on the phone held on. As it tightened I held on to the rope too, knowing that if I let it go the lose rope could wrap up underneath, and cause problems (one of the basic rules we were told before using the watercraft, so I didn't let go), and off I went into the weedy water. I bobbed up laughing, and Joe hauled me back onto the Wave Runner. We finally got Jamie out of the weeds and to a dock where he could clear out the weeds from underneath the machine so that it would run properly again. Then we went back for Mandy, thinking I know what I'm doing this time I tossed Mandy the rope, and again it was missed, so I pulled the rope back in and Joe made a very sharp U-turn, as to stay out of the weeds, and off I went again; back into the weedy water. I laughed so hard I got a good drink of it too, which tasted just like it looked; swampish. So I swam the rope to Mandy and tied it onto the frontend of her machine, then swam back to ours where Joe again helped haul me out of the water, and back onto the Wave Runner. I then rode backward watching the Wave Runner shoot a streaming blast of water that rained directly over Mandy's head the whole way to the docks. Jamie caught Mandy and pulled her to shore, to clean out her machine too as Joe and I headed back to return the barrowed rope. We headed back to the resort, and I told Joe that I would like to drive it some more before it had to be returned, but it was our night to cook and host dinner, and that I needed to get it started. Joe offered to start the cooking, and let me ride and give the boys rides once we got back (it was so nice of him). I agreed and he stated that instead of pulling all the way into docking area he would just jump off, and I could keep going. We got close and Joe took the wristband safety switch off of him, and then hopped off. The Wave Runner tipped, and I yelled, "Joe, Joe, Joooeeee!" as I was leaning to counter the tipping (although some said I didn't, I did.) then bailed because if I didn't I knew it would have flipped anyway. Without the wristband on the safety switch did not shut off, and I ended up swimming after that darn thing as it was on autopilot, yelling, "Jo-seph!" I caught the wristband and gave it a tug and the thing shut off. I wriggled back up on it with Joe trying to give me a boost. I'm sure the whole story sounds like it was something out of a comedy. I had so much fun, I’m putting Wave Runner on my Birthday/Christmas list; this is definitely a toy for me!

to be continued...