Pierre's Duluth Trip          May 12, 2000

     Late in the evening before Easter Sunday, Pierre
and I drove my boat to Young's Bay and headed for
Duluth with Pierre's 1974 GMC pick up. It was the
first time he had driven the truck any distance since
the front end went through the ice and hit bottom.
The motor seemed to work well enough and all the
lights went on so there was a good chance we would at
least get to Warroad. The steering was a little
loose, but the tires were not rubbing against what was
left of the fenders so the truck was up to Pierre's
code for the road.

     Although I had been trying to get Pierre to leave
earlier in the day, he stalled around with lots of
little tasks. He had to get his pink bathrobe out of
storage and dry. At one time he used to have
problems with mice and red squirrels getting into his
summer wardrobe during the winter. A few years ago he
came up with a cold storage plan. When the weather
got cold, Pierre would fill up some of the plastic
buckets that were lying around his front yard and
would fill them with water. Then he was stuff his
summer clothes into the water filled pails and let
them freeze for the winter. No mice or squirrels
would get into the clothes and they would be
relatively fresh in the spring when the ice melted. At
least the clothes were fresher than being part of a
mouse nest all winter. All things are relative.
     

     Anyway shortly before sunset, we left Young's
Bay and made it to Warroad and then Baudette. When we
got to Shooks, Pierre got a little confused and we
ended up on a side street. That is difficult to do in
Shooks. Finally we found our way out of Shooks and
made it to Northome. Who knows where we went after
that. I slept and Pierre drove.

     When I awoke, the truck was parked in a cemetery
in Grand Rapids. When I looked around for Pierre, he
was standing under a tree listening to some wind
chimes. It was a little after midnight on Easter. He
was by the grave of his young friend Jennifer.
Jennifer had gone on some canoe trips with Pierre when
she was in junior high and high school. The two of
them had gone to the recyle center a few times when
Jennifer guided at Laketrails as a young adult. Pierre
considers those trips to the recyle center as dates.
Jennifer had died in a car accident near Northome in
1997 after leaving Lake of the Woods earlier in the
day. She was only 27 at the time.

     Pierre had wanted to spend part on Easter morning
with Jennifer. After Pierre came back to the truck,
we drove in silence to Duluth and got there around
three in the morning.

     Pierre always likes to get to town pretty well
exhausted. It is easier for him to cope with the
traffic and all the people coming and going. There
are not a lot of people on the roads at 3:00 on Easter
Sunday morning so Pierre was able to adjust to his
first day in town.

     The two of us went to Mass with Pierre's mother.
She didn't even mention Pierre's long hair and
unshaven face. Maybe she figured Jesus had a good
life and he had long hair and a beard. Pierre was
blessed to have a mother like he does.

     In the morning Pierre went to breakfast with his
mother and his sister's family. In the evening he
went to his older brother's family gathering. It was
an excellent day even though we didn't see any eagles
that day. I guess there are other joys in life
besides watching eagles.