Holy Cow! Saturday was one of those memorable days. It all really started on Friday when we (my wife Sue and I) decided to wait until cooler evening temps to mow our lawn. We were headed to the lake on Saturday to celebrate my LXX birthday. If you are a roman numeral expert, you already got it. I turned 70. (Catch the joke at the end of the article).

Long story short, we never experienced any of those cooler temperatures on Friday evening, and we awoke to almost 70 degree temperatures on Saturday morning. Still, it was my birthday, and I had told Sue that sailing for the weekend was what I wanted to do, so we packed up and headed for Lake Sakakawea and our sailboat. If you love hot weather with high dew points, Saturday was your day. We enjoyed a picnic lunch under one of the shelters at Ft. Stevenson State Park. The wind blowing off the lake kept us somewhat cool, but once we stepped out into the August sun, it was hot, darn hot.

Now is when the story really kind of begins. We decided that the air conditioning in my car felt really good. So good that it was going to be impossible to leave the car and head down to the boat. Quickly we took a vote. 2-0 to stay in the car and do a tour of the east end of the lake. Hadn’t seen Garrison Dam in a while from the road, so it seemed like a great destination. How much time did we need to kill? About 3 hours we figured. But that was not a good estimate. The temperature kept climbing, and pretty soon it was well over 80 degrees, and headed for 90.

So, what do you do? It was an Ah Ha moment. We had friends with a camper and air conditioning in the Riverdale, ND campground. Perfect time to pay they a visit. Not sure Mike and Sherry were hoping to have company, but they welcomed us into their camper and offered a couple of cold drinks.

As good as the air conditioning felt, we were getting close to supper. There is kind of an unwritten rule (take note Amy Allender) that you don’t stay for dinner if you didn’t bring anything. Time to go, I guess.

The next 2 hours would consist of driving to the marina, carrying all of our food for the weekend down the dock, and wiping the sweat from our foreheads. Yep, it was hot. Kind of like Friday night, there didn’t seem to be a let up in the hot temps in site. May as well have dinner…hot dogs, salads, and watermelon. Great dinner! Simple enough to cook and certainly enough to eat on this warm evening.

Did I mention flies? Yah, there were flies. A friend of mine said it perfectly. We had 2 fly swatters going. Knocking down 100 flies each an hour, and we still couldn’t keep up. For everyone we killed, 2 showed up to bug you a little more.
Finally, the sun would begin to set across Garrison Bay from the marina, and it was spectacular! Yep, all of those negative experiences were now replaced with one of “those” sunsets. The Canadian smoke gave the sunset a blaze orange color. Eventually the sun disappeared behind the trees, but only for a short time. The sun would not only turn the entire sky orange, but it would shoot a ray of orange into the sky.

So, where’s my pictures you say? Well, what I have also learned is that photos of sunsets on a cell phone do not have the brilliance of seeing the sunset, so I just don’t take a lot of photos. I guess I’ll try to remember how beautiful the sunset was. And now, even after this hot, uncomfortable day, North Dakota made us forget all that stuff, and gave us something truly awesome to remember…I guess it was a great birthday present.

Best Kept Secrets- The Downtown Fall Festival is only a couple of weeks away, on September 14th from 10 AM to 5 PM in downtown Minot. It will be the 30th Anniversary of the Dakota Cruises car club. It’s also the grand opening of the Magic City Lion’s Kid Zone. Great new games, bounce houses and fun.

Today’s Chuckle:
After celebrating my birthday with the grandkids, there were a lot of questions about “how old are you, BePa?” We played guess BePa’s age for a couple of minutes, and finally little Addely guessed that BePa was 70 years old. “And what does being 70 mean Addely?” was my question. Her quizzical look was soon replaced with a big smile. “It means you won’t be 60 anymore.” Good answer, I guess. I even had to laugh- or cry.