Family and Friends in the Midwest

It's been quite awhile since my last post and I have a bit of catching up to do! After all the sight-seeing in the Anasazi / Four-Corners region I've been primarily busy with friends and family: not the kind of stuff I thought would be interesting for a broad audience. More specifically, reconnecting with family and friends has been cause for reflection and soul-searching that (at times) I'm not entirely comfortable posting to a broad audience. Nonetheless, here's a recap of some of my recent adventures -- so that I don't forget, and just in case anyone out there is interested. For anyone who was concerned about my lack of Twitter/Facebook posts... I apologize. But I'll admit it was nice to just turn off the phone for awhile.

(UPDATE: Slideshow added at the end.)

Milwaukee
Max and I had great visit with my mom Vicki and her husband at their home in Milwaukee, even though they were tied up the first two days of our stay working at the Bastille Days Festival, where they sell sunglasses at a trade booth. My brother and his girlfriend Donna were in Milwaukee at the same time so we managed to explore a bit together. It was bad timing on our parts, but seemed to work out in the end. Paul and Donna visited the Harley-Davidson museum and explored in town, and I was able to simply relax, take care of some basic van maintenance, and read a little. We also made it to the festival, had some great meals, and toured the Lakefront Brewery (well worth it!)

Toward Minneapolis
By mid-week we all said good-bye to Vicki and packed into the van for our trip to Minneapolis. We made it a two-day trip and stopped along the way to check out the Cave of the Mounds (sparkly) and Frank Lloyd Wright's compound near Spring Green called Taliesin. I'd been to Taliesin before and really enjoyed going back to see some of the new restoration work on the site. It was also an interesting comparison to Arcosanti from earlier in this road trip. Two very different idealistic architects with commune-style compounds... but Taliesin feels like a functional, beautiful well-considered place while Arcosanti (as I said in a previous post) felt like an out-dated moderately-good idea that should have been shut down years ago. The visit to Taliesin reinforced my impressions of Arcosanti.

Our late departure from Milwaukee and tourist stops along the way necessitated an overnight stay in La Crosse WI, and I was very pleased to catch up with my friend Wess Roberts (whom I met in Honduras), who was visiting his dad in the area. (More about Wess later.)

Minneapolis
As I may have mentioned in an earlier post, the only fixed date in my entire road trip was the Dressel Family Reunion on July 19 near Minneapolis. As has become tradition, I stayed with my sister April and her family (husband Bo, kids Philip and Timothy) for a few days surrounding the reunion. This time my Dad and stepmom were also staying at the house, and with my brother in town nearby we had our own little reunion for the immediate family a few days before the grand gathering with extended relatives. On the 19th we caravan-ed up to Maple Grove for the big reunion; rather smallish this year with only 40(?) people. The guest list is generally my great-great-grandfather's offspring, which has been over 100 in attendance at times. This year it seemed that all of the oldest generation, with the most senior attendee a sprightly septuagenarian. It was great to reconnect once again with all the second-cousins and see how all the children have grown in the two years since I last attended. And we'll all be back again next year in mid-July for another one!

UP Michigan and Southwest Wisconsin
After the reunion I drove up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and met up again with Wess, this time with his family at THEIR annual reunion. Instead of a BBQ in someones suburban backyard (like my family), they all meet at the Hiawatha Traditional Music Festival in Marquette MI. I pulled in near the end of the festival and popped open my camper van, where Max and I were welcomed into a great hippy music scene. Over the next several days we went to a nearly beach and jumped off cliffs into an icy Lake Superior, hiked up a nearby mountain (and got lost on the way back to the parking lot), climbed some great sand dunes, hiked to Chapel Rock and Chapel Beach in the Pictured Rocks National Lake Shore, found several waterfalls, visited Naubinway for some local live music, found my namesake Borgstrom Road, ate pasties, and generally had a grand time. Heading southwest from the UP, we stopped with Wess' uncle Paul and fiance Rachel in Green Bay WI for more swimming, then continued down to La Crosse WI for more summertime fun: camping at Goose Island, two days at the Kickapoo Country Fair with folk music, food and a visit to an organic permaculture farm; a few stops at grocery co-ops, and visits to some great bars and restaurants in La Crosse. And of course dinner and game night with Willy, Penny, Emma and Wess at their house in Stoddard WI. I'm grateful for being included in such a great week of vacation with Wess and his family.

This morning Wess left on a train back to his home in North Carolina. From there, he'll be relocating to Central America in early September. I wish my friend the very best as he journeys back down to the troubled nation of Honduras. To Wess: thanks for sharing your friends and family and traditions with me. I'm glad we were able to reconnect however briefly before you leave the country. Be well, my friend, and keep in touch!


(Link to slides)

RECAP

8-9 July
- Transit across the prairies; flat tire near York NE
11-14 July
- Milwaukee, WI (at my Mom's house)
- Bastille Days festival
- Lakefront brewery tour
15 July
- Cave of the Mounds
- Taliesin / Frank Lloyd Wright compound
- La Crosse, WI (Guest House Inn w/ Paul and Donna)
16-18 July
- Lakeville, MN (at my sister's house)
- Dressel annual family reunion (my Dad's side of the family)
19 July
- Marquette, MI (camping)
- Hiawatha Traditional Music Festival
20-22 July
- exploring Upper Peninsula MI
23 July
- Green Bay WI
24-26 July
- exploring around La Crosse, WI
- Kickapoo Country Festival


NEXT UP (subject to change)
- Denver area
- Return to Seattle