I woke up and took the only shower I would get all week. I had a decision
to make: The weather forecast called for a severe snowstorm that would sweep
across the entire state. I had called the Wolf Center and they didn’t open
until Tuesday. If I stayed even a few hours, the storm would hit. If I went
to Ely, I would have to wait until the next day for the center to open.

I decided to go it.

I headed north, driving along Lake Superior. It was a huge patch of cold
blue which turned into white ice near the shore. At one point I saw several
big ships, tankers, that were frozen on the ice.

The road then wound through Superior National Forest which was just beautiful.
I had never been in a forest that big. I saw perhaps three other vehicles
on my journey through the forest. The road was winding and treacherous with
snow. I expected a storm to hit me at any moment and then I would be screwed.
I stopped along the way by this abandoned log cabin to make a sandwich —
that was my staple food: peanut butter sandwiches. They taste different
when you make them yourself out in the middle of the wilderness. Before I
started along again, I took a Twin Peaks-like picture of the road. You gotta
see it.

Ely was two hours north of Duluth, within 100 miles of the Canadian border.
It turns out that the weathermen were completely mistaken. No storm. Not
even any snow. They joked about it on the radio for the next day.

Ely is a lot like Greencastle in that it is very small and in the middle of
nowhere. It is also a lot like Twin Peaks because of the trees, the atmosphere,
the logging business and because I found a dead body washed up on shore there.
Just kidding! It did remind me a lot of Twin Peaks, though. The main strip of
the town was all about canoe, camping and wilderness outfitters. These places
were punctuated by saloons and gift shops.

I wandered about for a while, looking in the shops and such. There wasn’t
much to see and I realized that this place could easily bore me out of my
mind. I had a whole day which I pretty much had to spend there, though.
I drove to a larger neighboring city, Virginia, which was pretty much like
driving to Bloomington, but it wasn’t as fun when I got there.

So I went back to Ely and hung out in the library where I read for a few
hours. As it got later, I decided to go to a bar and check out the night life.
I entered “Dee’s Bar and Lounge” to find the place deserted except for an old wo
man and two guys talking to the bartender. I bought a rum and coke, a pack
of Marlboros and sat down in a booth.

The Rockford Files was on the television and I pretended to watch. But I
was really listening to the stories these guys were telling. Most of them
had to do with young girls, how long it take to drive to Minneapolis, and the
police using inflatable sex dolls to entrap speeders. I’ll go into more
detail for those of you who really want to know.

I stayed there until I felt uncomfortable and then returned to my car.

I went back to the library and read until it closed. Hoo rah.
It was late, so I decided to look for a place to sleep. I cruised the
back streets of the town, looking for someplace out of the way. At each
likely spot, my mind played a worst case scenario about what would happen if
someone found me. These thoughts ranged from some psycho breaking in to the
car to a little old woman thinking I was the casualty of a drug deal gone
bad, so she calls the cops.

I finally found a hospital parking lot with cars in it all the time. I
took a spot in the back row, climbed into the back seat and curled up
under my blankets.

I forgot that it was still winter there. More in the morning…