Saturday, July 13, 2019.  Packed our bags, settled our accounts at the front office and were on the road by 9 AM.  Thanked Rosemary for being our guide on our memory trip and wished her luck on her second week at Smith Camps.  We made it through customs without a hitch (even with 6 frozen fish) and stopped at the Chocolate Moose for lunch in International Fall, Minnesota.  We even had an opportunity to talk to Lenora Mary before we dropped off LeAnn and Mitch at the airport for their return flight home.  The IN Hayes’ stopped at Tomah, WI for the night and Mitch and LeAnn landed in Portland at 11:15 PM.  The IN Hayes’ all made it safely home the next day.  What a memorable trip with the opportunity to share old memories while making new ones.

Friday, July 12, 2019.     Everyone was up and ready to fish by 6:30 at Mud Bay.  Rosemary’s boat brought back 6 walleye (LeAnn -3, Mitch 2, and Rosemary 1 big one).  Mark’s boat brought back 6 too (5 Pike and 1 Walleye (Robin 2, Jane 4).  After soup, sandwich, salad, s’mores, we boated out to the harbor to catch one last sunset.  It was beautiful!!!  Al Smith invited us to his daughter’s rehearsal dinner bonfire which lit up the whole camp.  We returned to cabin 5 for our final game night of Farkle.  Robin advanced from being the biggest loser to the winner with a significant strategy change.

Thursday, July 11, 2019.     Mark, Mitch, Jane, and Dee Ann took off early in the morning to fish in Moore Bay and caught 5 fish and  brought back 2  ( 1 Northern Pike and 1 Walleye).  While they were fishing they saw all kinds of wildlife but one was a first.  They saw a bald eagle in the water.  We all met up at Scotty Island for a noon picnic and a swim.  We took pictures of the girls in the boat similar to a picture at Scotty Island in 1971.  We ended the day with a pork chop dinner. 

Wednesday, July 10, 2019.  We woke up to rain this morning after thunderstorms all night so we got a later start today.   Mark, Mitch and Jane fished in Moore Bay and caught 10 fish but brought back 4 fish ( 2 Nothern Pikes over 20” and 2 Walleyes).  They had so much fun they didn’t get back until around 5:30.  The rest of the girls went back to Kenora to shop at the Farmer’s market and visit Husky the musky ( a fiberglass fish on the Kenora Bay).  We joined Smith Camps potluck fish fry.  Mitch made his famous chili and Dee Ann made Grandpa Charlie’s chocolate sheet cake and broccoli casserole while Rosemary made a jello salad.  The dinner was delicious.  The dinner cannot start until a cannon is lit, and Rosemary was given the honors to light the cannon.   The cousins also took a picture on the dock with our Hoosier roots shirts.  After dinner we played Farkle and Mark and Leann tied for first place.

Tuesday, 7/9/2019.  Today was all about fish.  We got out on the lake just after breakfast and caught over a dozen fish by noon.  We ended up taking home 6 Northern Pikes, 2 walleye, and 2 small mouth bass.  Everyone caught fish but Elaine and Rosemary.  Dee Ann caught a Northern Pike that was 4-5 pounds and 29 inches.   After lunch the girls went into Kenora to get more groceries and souvenirs.  Mark and Mitch went back out fishing in the rain but just caught and released a few.  We ate a large mess of fried fish using Indiana Spring Mill State Park corn meal and all of the fixings.  We ended our evening playing more card games with Mitch being crowned the golf game winner. 

Monday, 7/8/2019.  We got up and packed our picnic lunches including Dee Ann’s fresh baked Texas Ranger cookies and headed for a spot none of us had ever seen except Rosemary.  We motored through the choppy water to Blindfold lake.  We docked our boats on a railcar and hand cranked our boat from Lake of the Woods to Blindfold lake across a road.    This lake has many treasures – ancient Ojibway Indian rock cliff paintings,  a very friendly loon, bald eagles, and lily pads.  We tied off on a rock island and swam before our picnic lunch.  We headed back to Lake of the Woods over to Eagle Pass and found Byron and Izzy’s home on Hay Island after they sold Minnesabic island and trolled for awhile but hardly got any bites but flies.  Mitch brought in a walleye all the way up to the boat and to the net and watched it spit the lure  out.   We got back to Smith Camps just before a thunderstorm rolled in.  We ended our day with an upside down supper (egg casserole and blueberry muffins) and played a card game called six card golf.  Mitch is leading after five holes. 

Sunday, 7/7/2019.  Started our morning by getting acquainted with the boat and Lake of Woods again.  We motored down to Copper Island and put our lines in the water and didn’t get a single bite.  Both boats headed over to Minnesabic Island to begin our memory tour and we tied up to the dock to find the Fowler stamped boat cleats (made by Byron himself).  We were met by the current residents who now individually own their cabins and share the dock and beach.  Rosemary introduced herself or in many cases reintroduced herself to them and all were so friendly and we even got to see the inside of some of the cabins. We explored almost every inch of the island and found the spot where we erected the cross back in 1972.  Of course, it hasn’t been there for years and now there is a lot of brush and even trees around it and one boulder has split into two boulders.  We found the concrete slab where the old Witte generator was located and the foundation of the water tower which had Rosemary’s footprint captured in the concrete.  We also saw the hoist on the dock that Byron made. Many great memories.  The Smith Camps staff gave us some fishing spots and bait tips (leaches).  Elaine caught the first fish of the trip and her first recorded catch based on Granny’s travel logs and Jane and Dee Ann also caught a fish.  We released them all but Dee Ann got a walleye and the other two were Northern Pike.  We capped the day off with a lasagna dinner and banana pudding.  

Saturday, July 6, 2019 – Car #2 drove to International Falls airport to pick up LeAnn and Mitch Teixeira who flew in from Portland, OR. All enjoyed a great supper at the Old Pilots Pub at Smith Camps.

The first car(Dee Ann, Mark, Jane and Rosemary crossed over the border into Canada T 11:30 a.m.. Dee Ann just discovered she has km/h on her speedometer. 😂🤣

We finished our 12 hour travel day at Duluth. Leaving from Rosemary’s place at 7:30 a.m. we reached Beloit, Wisconsin around noon for a lunch stop at a Culver’s (how appropriate being we’re in the state where Culver’s was established). After more hours of driving we just crossed the Minnesota border into Duluth. We spotted a bald eagle perched in a tall tree while driving through Wisconsin. We can’t wait for Mitch and LeAnn to join us tomorrow and finally arrive at our destination at Smith Camps in Ontario Canada.