November is our annual fall sabbatical. (In some circles this is known as deer hunting even though Genie doesn’t hunt.) To be legal, one must purchase a license in Minnesota. I purchased a license at Hy-Vee in Albert Lea.
You must designate where you will be on your sabbatical. As soon as I said, “Cass Lake, MN,” the license application printed out an addition to the license.
The addition stated that I was part of a special survey, as I would be more than 300 miles from my residence. The survey stated that if I didn’t return the survey by December 10, 2011, my license for the sabbatical time period of Saturday, Nov. 5 - Sunday Nov. 20 would be null and void.
There were two conditions to be considered legal. One was to find and attend a friendly church all three Sundays. The other was to give 30 first names of every third employee with more than one year of employment, who also made us feel welcome where we stayed. A third optional condition: to hunt deer, shoot and miss said same.
We attended Trinity Lutheran Church on Highway 2 by Cass Lake all three Sundays. The first Sunday Pastor Peter Rosenkvist announced he had been gone three weeks, the congregation broke out in a round of applause. Pastor Peter thanked the congregation for showing their appreciation of his being back. Charlie, a member of the church, said he thought they clapped because pastor had been gone! ‘Twas then I knew Genie and I had found a friendly church; the first condition of my application was satisfied. (18 new members were welcomed the second Sunday.)
The second condition was very easy to satisfy. For example: Carol, Vernae, Brad, William, Rodney, Becky, Kim, Mike, Jason, Dorene, Deana, Joe, Stephm Maggie, Audrey, Heidi, Nakasha, Robert, Chris, Brennon, Melvina, Lorena, Brian, Tinona, Janie, Betsy, Laura, Peter, Amy, Jonie and Joy are 30 first names of the more than 90 qualifying friendly employees of the Palace Casino-Hotel where we stayed November 4 through November 20 by Cass Lake.
The third optional condition was satisfied by a miracle deer. (I shot one as he was standing still and he walked away.) Question, “What is buck fever?”
I checked with the DNR to see the reason behind the survey. They are creating a web site for certain areas of the state of where to attend church and where to stay, as per people like me giving a good response. (Cass Lake was my area.)
I hunted two to three hours 10 mornings of the 16 mornings of the deer hunting season. From this, you can see we had time for other things.
Genie and I attended the Veteran’s Day recognition dinner at the American Legion in Cass Lake. Genie attended the Saturday “Does Only” champagne brunch at Patrick’s in Longville along with Sandy Roscoe, (formerly of Albert Lea.)
We visited the Heidi Dubois (nee Morriem) family in Moorhead for lunch. Heidi confessed she had baked an apple pie as our dessert for lunch, but Grandpa Philip Morriem was there the previous day and really enjoyed all the apple pie.
We drove to Baudette to attend the Holiday Craft and Vendor Extravaganza at Lake of the Woods School with Carol Edstrom and her neighbor Shirley of Lake of the Woods. Carol is a teacher there and has taught with us through Lutheran Association of Missionairies and Pilots at First Nation Villages in Canada. Once again, many thanks to the Palace employees for the great friendly service.
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Bob is a retired AAL (Aid Association for Lutherans) agent. His wife, Genie, is a retired RN, currently working on her doctor’s degree in volunteering. They have two children, Deb in North Carolina, and Dan in Vermont. This is the Hanson’s 36th summer at Beaver Lake. They leave the lake in mid-October to go south — to Albert Lea — and return in April. Bob says if you enjoy his article, let him know. If you don’t enjoy it, keep on reading, it can get worse. Words of Wisdom: There is always room for God.