Martin has a cottage on a lake in Wisconsin, the state to the north of Illinois, so we drove up highways 294 and 94 in his Miata (which is and MX5 in the USA). When I last drove in the States in 2003, everyone drove at 55. Now they all go at 70 or 80 mph, and it feels a bit intimidating when a massive Mack truck goes past when you are sat in a little sportscar!
On the way, we stopped at Bass Pro Sports to see how men spend their recreation time in the Mid West. It is a huge shop, a shed the size of a big Tesco or Asda, that sells huntin’, shootin’ and fishin’ gear. The walls are liberally covered with dead animals, either their skins or heads, and there is an aquarium in the middle full of native fish. The shop has a vast selection of fishing rods, guns, bows, ammo, clothes and lots of stuff I didn’t know existed.
It even had a big selection of fishing boats with huge engines costing up to $50,000. Most had two engines, one to tear off across the lake to get to the fishing spot, and then a “trolling” engine (often electric) to chug around slowly. I wasn’t in need of any deadly weapons or overpriced clothes, so didn’t get anything. I did have fun trying on daft hats, especially the Cheese Head, worn by fans of the Green Bay Packers football team.
We arrived at the cottage on Eagle Spring Lake in the early afternoon. The weather was warm and sunny so we headed out onto the lake on the pontoon boat. It is a platform on two aluminium tubes with couches on it, basically a party boat. Eagle Spring Lake is actually a mill pond since it is dammed at one end and once powered a saw mill. It is quite shallow, only about six feet deep and quite weedy and muddy. It is connected by a channel to Lake Lulu, which is a proper lake and up to forty feet deep and much better for swimming in. Martin anchored us in the middle and we spent the afternoon eating snacks and drinking G&T and beer. If one finds the right sort of music on Spotify, once can also boogie on down on one’s pontoon boat. Coldplay’s Adventure of a Lifetime was a perfect tune for dancing in the middle of a lake.
timharnesstravels 