Northern Oasis
Everyone has a place they escape to, a peaceful sanctuary. You go there to relax, unwind, and recharge your batteries. It is that place that brings you to a state of near nirvana. Nestled in northern
A quick reach into the glove box of my Alero reveals a pile of maps and directions rivaled only by that of an associate professor of geography. In this tangled clump of well used and worn maps is what outwardly appears to be just another scribbled set of directions. As the paper is unfolded, it begins to reveal a hand drawn map (of remarkable accuracy) that follows a snake-like squiggly path from Kaukauna up highway 55 and into the town of
With a quick left, then right, you come upon a tree that doesn’t really belong and an aluminum gate. This is the entry to my
Buildings may conjure up memories, however people make the memories. Our cast and crew is a tight knit group of young men that all met as employees at the same retail outlet. The stars of the show are what we have affectionately begun to call the Three Amigos, Jaren, Chris, and myself. All three of us would outwardly seem to be complete opposites, and actually disliked each other for the most part when we met each other. I am the classic type A personality. Hard driving and always in a hurry, I was cut out for a life in business and am sure to die of a heart attack at a premature age. Jaren is a certain type B personality. Laid back and calm, if you ever want to be put back into a good mood, hang out with Jaren for 5 minutes. His laid back approach to life and friendly personality attracts everyone to him like kids to an ice cream truck on a hot summer day. Chris is a hybrid of Jaren & I. His personality 100% correctly matches his career choice, an officer of the law. Honest to a near flaw, he is laid back, yet extremely passionate about his interests. The three of us get along in ways not many people understand. Our affection for each other is manifested through roasting each other. A sarcastic comment is always on the tip of each one of our tongues. Although odd, this dynamic trio always combines to experience off the wall crazy and incredibly unique fun times.
The summer of 2004 was the first time I had ever made the trip up to Jaren’s cabin. A group of our friends converged on the site to celebrate Jaren’s birthday over a four day period in mid July. The heat was sweltering, however the times were even hotter. After days of consuming cold beverages, our last evening was unfortunately upon us. We wanted to leave in style and began making preparations to construct the largest fire any one of us had ever seen. Dragging anything out of the woods that would burn, we began forming a mountain of material upon a felled tree in the fire pit. After several hours of collecting material for the fire, it was now time to ignite our glorious creation. By this time, none of us were in any position to be standing, much less igniting mountains of flammable material. Jaren and I stepped up to the plate to light the fire as Chris and others stood back to avoid the soon to be inferno. As Jaren poured a five gallon container of gasoline on the fire, we all looked on in awe and amazement at our creation. He pulled back the gas can as if the French in retreat as I launched a flaming bottle on the fire. It turns out he was merely cocking his arm back for another dousing of gasoline and we were soon sent flying through the air by a fiery explosion of gasoline and burning debris (I have decided to leave this incident off my professional resume.).
Karma was on our side as we both survived the blast and were left laughing uncontrollably after regaining what was left of our senses and getting back on our feet. As the fire raged, a ring of cloth folding chairs began to encircle the stone edged pit. Never being the types to just sit and enjoy a perfectly good camp fire, we decided to experiment with more dangerous and highly explosive materials. First into the fire was an air horn Jaren used to wake everyone up at 4 in the morning (Good riddens.). It launched into the sky like a space shuttle off to the vastness of space, finally landing a few 100 feet behind us in a field. The circle of occupied chairs became a ghost town as we came up with more and more explosive ideas. Previously unthinkable mixtures were set, thrown, and launched into the pit, each the catalyst for oos, awes, and shrieks of delight. The grand finale was a can of Off! bug spray that rained a napalm like swath of burning liquid on 15 foot radius.
Slowly each one of us succumbed to our liquid fun and dropped in the grass like lawn ornaments in an eccentric old man’s yard. Waking up in the morning, with splitting headaches and a definite wobble to our gaits, a damage assessment was done. The large amount of bottles everywhere would be no problem to clean up, as would the now smoldering pile of ash in the pit. The swath of burned lawn was quickly seeded and would soon be back to its precariously dangerous guard of the fire pit. The ring of lawn chairs surrounding the fire wasn’t so lucky. It seems as though the fiery explosion following the placement of bug spray in the fire had seared holes in every cloth chair surrounding the pits. We perpetrators were all relieved when everyone had a good laugh about it.
The effects of this little cabin up north and the memories created there are priceless. The simple mention of J’s Cabin brings an ear to ear smile on each participant’s face. Nearly every time the three of us are together, the four days we spent up north that week in July are mentioned. We have since followed that trip up with other memorable visits, but the memory of the first time never really fades. The experience has left an indelible mark on the collective group of us.
Currently Playing…
Mezmerize
By SOAD
“Violent Pornography”
