I had a great Fourth!

How about you?

We went to the Cloquet Rendezvous.

No time to flesh anything out, but here are some highlights:

Front row seats at the fireworks, which were launched right across the river from our campsite.

Listening in on all the blackpowder talk, firing a flintlock myself for the first time... Come to think of it, I don't think anybody was actually using blackpowder. That crap's dangerous!

But the guys across the path from us had several little cannons that they kept loading to the gills with powder and blasting 'em off. The one has a super thick barrel that allows them to load, they say, the equivalent of a stick or two (Kevin told me two; I heard him tell a tourist "one"... maybe he thought somebody with no experience with explosives wouldn't believe him) of dynamite. Sure sounds like it.

BOOOOOMMM!!!

You don't sleep in at Rendezvous.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to go to sleep early either. The bar across the highway just got an outdoor patio. We got to listen to the local bands every night until about 1:00 AM. Thank God we were in hicksville! They roll up the sidewalks early, even on holidays.

I got the usual amount of exercise for a Rendezvous, hauling 50 lb. loads of all kinds of assorted stuff - canvas, water, firewood, clothes - all over, everywhere. Of course, the real Voyageurs were hauling three and more times that. All day, every day until it killed them.

Saturday night Dave, who brain-tans hides (as his hobby - he teaches Orchestra for a living), brought his violin to the neighbor's tent and started fiddling to my daughter. Then Kenny, who leads a country band and has played in Nashville, brought over his guitar, and they jammed together, playing silly songs to entertain the kids and some country and folk songs for us older folks.

It was awesome!