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Momma Beaver
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Rohlands, sans Pat
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us in canoe today
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Todds new braces
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Todd after lunch
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The Doctors in Redwood Falls are really nice (Entry by Scott and Todd)
(May 28th, 2005) We are writing you from a landing at what the locals call ‘Big Eddy’ or ‘Deep Eddy’, depending on who you ask. We are about halfway between Redwood Falls and Granite Falls, across from a beautiful granite outcropping.

Three nights ago Todd wrote our last journal entry from a beautiful campsite on the other side of Redwood Falls and things were looking good. That day we’d actually got to camp a little early (3:30 instead of 5 or 6) and we gave our canoe named Squeerel a bath because Squeerel was very, very muddy. The spray skirt we put on the canoe got a bath too, and even our mascot Monty. We were feeling good.

Except that Todd’s wrists had been giving him some trouble, as in lots of pain. And the next morning they were bad. Really bad. We paddled past the Redwood River (the 3rd of 7 main tributaries we pass on the Minnesota River) and pulled into the Redwood Falls boat access landing where we’d planned to get water any way. Todd announced that he could not go on as his wrists were in great pain, and he thought he needed to see a Doctor. Scott assumed the ‘panic completely inside, act calm and supportive on the outside’ mode and certainly did not immediately start worrying about doomsday scenarios involving the end of the trip and/or the second coming.

In fact Scott remembered that Pat and Cathleen Rohland, former fellow staff members at Many Point Scout Camp, had told them of their happy move to Redwood Falls. So we called Todd’s wife and had her look up their number on-line, all to no avail since we were spelling their last name incorrectly (forgetting the ‘h’). But we are very good at being creative and asking for help, both skills which we employed by having Molly look up the number for the Redwood County Prosecutor’s Office as Scott remembered that Pat worked in some capacity as a lawyer and for the county. Indeed within seconds Pat was on the phone and in a few more seconds the entire family was at the landing. Proving a few things: 1) life in small towns really is slower-paced and often more flexible when it comes to jobs and 2) the Rohlands are absolutely amazing.

We volunteered to watch their three kids, Gabe, Ben and Anna while they went to retrieve a trailer for our gear. Gabe, Ben and Anna had countless questions and threw lots of rocks into the river. At no point did they violate Scott’s orders not to go too far down a walking path and at no point did Scott panic and go running off after them, so don’t worry at all when you read this Pat and Cathleen. Just as Gabe was starting to fashion a home-made sling shot, the parents returned.

We loaded up and within minutes found ourselves meeting with a reporter from the Redwood Gazette in the Rohlands beautiful home. Minutes after that Cathleen was driving us to a doctor’s appointment for Todd. Amazing.

Steven Medrud was Todd’s doctor and he quickly identified the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome. He suggested rest, naproxen (a prescription drug) and some soft cast/splint like things to keep Todd’s wrists from bending. And so we left the office feeling somewhat optimistic about the situation, and decided we’d ding around town for the rest of the day and the next day before trying our luck with the river again.

We set off on a scenic walking tour of Redwood Falls. We were dirty and wearing strange clothes, so we felt like fugitives. We got some lunch at the Country Kitchen and ducked into an auto parts store and made small talk while a rain storm passed by. That night we did some chores and hung out with Pat and Cathleen. It was great and we felt so warmly welcomed into their home…just awesome.

The next day the Rohland family was off to visit Grandma and Grandpa for Memorial Day weekend. They let us stay in their house. SO NICE!!!! We checked our e-mails and then hit the town. We got some Glaciers at the Dari King, which is celebrating it’s 40th anniversary. May the Dari King live another 40 years and continue to thrive despite competition from another Dairy establishment in town!! Todd and I sang a re-worked version of John Cougar Mellencamp’s ‘Jack and Diane’ as we sat outside…..’Suckin on Glaciers, outside the Dari King….’.

Walter Port and Eric Sevareid did this trip in 1930…Walt’s son Michael is rapidly becoming a friend of ours. He had a ‘feeling’ that Friday was the day to try and find us, so he went to Madison, MN on some other business and then thought he’d try and find us by contacting the newspaper in Granite Falls, Granite Falls being where we were supposed to be. Fortunately for us the publisher/manager of the newspaper is also the mayor of the town and he’d been in touch with us and gave Mr. Port our phone number. Next thing we know we are in a nice restaurant eating really great food that Mr. Port treated us too. Our faith in humanity grows daily on this trip, I must say.

Finally we staggered back into the Rohlands, determined to make the most of our free time, even though it was now getting late. We nearly broke our brains trying to make the DVD player play, but Pat had to stop by the house before heading up to join the rest of the family and he showed us how. We squeezed in ‘Catch Me if You Can’ and then nestled into our bags for bed.

That’s when the Rohland’s dog Emma took over. She started crying, whining, pleading and barking not to be alone upstairs. So Scott let her downstairs where she proceeded to forcibly lick both of our faces, prance with her nails out all over our inflatable mattresses, and put her paws on parts of our bodies where paws don’t belong. She’s full of love and she shows it. Over the next two hours Scott experimented with her being upstairs and downstairs, often within the same five minutes.

In the morning the Rohland’s neighbor, Doug, drove us back to the landing. Yet another amazing family and person. We launched our canoe, got in and prayed that Todd’s wrists would not break into pieces and his hands float away down the river. Fortunately they did not and we managed to paddle some 12 miles. So we are now back on schedule, except that we are two days behind our itinerary, which isn’t really a problem.

Our paddle today took us past the animal rendering plant in Redwood Falls. It smells, um, uh, really, um, nice. Er something like that. We wended our way past beautiful granite outrcroppings, rustled up an entire family of beavers from their nap, got a great picture of Momma beaver looking at us.

Todd’s wrists seem to be OK for now….and soon we will be done with this river and going downstream!!!!!!

Good night everyone