Escape to Wisconsin

Guest Contributor: John Hoftiezer

It has been rather a few too many years since a posting was made to this blog, Zero Degrees South.  There must be something worthy of note to relate from the intervening years.  Let’s see where we are lead.

After Kili I was ready to retire.  No, not because of the climb!  Because I was old enough, qualified in all the required ways, and more than ready mentally.

Sally and I would sit in our front porch hiding a bottle of wine from public view, and watch the world go by.  One evening she said, “You know what?  I don’t want to be sitting here ten years from now, watching the same people walk a new dog down this same street.  Too right.

Well, what should we do and where else would we go?  The world was before us.  Too bad the world is so big.  The whole world was just too much.  Digging through our past, there were a number of places to consider.  But in the end home is home even if there are places of a grander nature, where the  weather is better, and there is more culture.

For us fate took a hand.  While vacationing at a place close to our hearts, the “cottage”, a for sale sign appeared.  I had said before that there were only about three houses on the lake I would care to live in.  Otherwise we would have to build, which had a host of other issues.  Behold, one of those few house was for sale.  So in the moments before starting the long drive home, we sort of pushed our way in for a quick showing.  Carolyn wasn’t ready. We didn’t care.  It was affordable.  She wanted at least 60 days to close, even if the usual was 30.  Well, we didn’t want for a year anyway.  She was thrilled; (“You mean I could live here the rest of the summer!?  Well yes).  We talked it over for about half the way home, and decided to immediately call the agent to say we would be making an offer.  We certainly didn’t want somebody else to swoop in and buy the house.  And thus we picked Stratton Lake in Wisconsin for a retirement home.

But this blog is about Africa.  Kilimanjaro, the most fun I ever had that I never want to do again, was still in my thoughts.  I have celebrated “Summit Day” with an anniversary hike every year since.  February 28 is during winter in Wisconsin.  Kili has snow on top.  What better place to commemorate than the nearby Ice Age Trail.  That I have done over again.

Now, I am NOT bored in retirement.  In fact I am so busy I could use a hired man to help with my many projects.  If you need something to do, give me a call for some ideas.  Better yet, let’s do something together.  We could swim the lake.  We could bike the fearsome fifty.  We could hike another segment of the Ice Age Trail.  The list goes on.

I have heard of a scale for adventure to be used by common folks.  It starts at one being something like a walk in a park.  It ends at ten, climb Kilimanjaro.  I can go with that!  So now I am looking (waiting) for something on the level of six or seven.  When I do it I will blog again.