Meeting Across The River

Tuesday, November 12, 2024 Entry #125

I woke up in familiar (to me) Motley, Minnesota (see Entry #123), and headed even further north. The “Motley Shortcut” to Camp Thunderbird goes into the heart of the lakes and woods country this part of the world is rightfully known for.

I made an obligatory stop in the town of Akeley, home one of three statues of the folk-hero Paul Bunyan in this part of Minnesota.

By the way, a cursory Google search of “Bruce Springsteen and Paul Bunyan” (why not?) results in one article that compares E Street’s own “Big Man” Clarence Clemons with the legendary Minnesota lumberjack, while three other entries directly relate Bunyan to The Boss himself. High Times magazine, for example, writes: “Springsteen is as much a mythic figure as rock ‘n’ roll has ever produced-he’s an American hero with the stature of Paul Bunyan…”

The next notable marker on my trips to camp is the turn off to Itasca State Park, the site of the headwaters of the mighty Mississippi River. If you ever visit (and I have, many times), you can literally walk across the famed river, something unimaginable at my usual vantage point of the Big Muddy in St. Louis.

From here I was nearly within shouting distance of Camp Thunderbird. However, it was early and I knew I was going to spend the entire day at camp, so I drove 15 miles past my destination to nearby Bemidji, Minnesota for a cup of coffee. As a camp counselor, I spent many memorable days off in this town, the home of Bemidji State University, the Woolen Mills (where you can get a legit “Up North” flannel jacket), Mississippi River canoeing, and more. Oh yeah, there is a Paul Bunyan statue here too, the more recognizable one (among other appearances in the media, it was featured during the opening travelogue montage sequence of the 1983 film National Lampoon’s Vacation), where Paul is depicted alongside his sidekick, Babe the Blue Ox. This pair of statues are said by the Kodak Company to be the "second most photographed statues in the United States", behind Mount Rushmore in South Dakota (which I will visit-spoiler alert-on my trip home from Canada).

The Starbucks in town is relatively new, most definitely not around in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s when I was spending my summers on the camp staff. I got a kick out of it being here, and I smiled at the announcement flashing under the iconic logo on this cold late fall day that “winter is coming.” The sign was a reminder of my long-term desire to visit here this time of year, so off I went to camp, one of my all-time sacred places.

Day 2