I learned a lot of new things from our epic long weekend in the U.P. For example, I learned that while I may be an XL, maybe even an XXL in Chicago, I’m more like a Wisconsin large (Mars Cheese Shop T-shirt selection). But mostly I re-learned that nature is good and so are most people. Like there was this couple in the camper who saw Corey and I make coffee in the rain and insisted we finish doing so under their awning.  Or the other older couple who set us right on our hiking plans and also welcomed Corey inside their camper so that she could check out their kitchen (come to think of it, could they have really been trying to kidnap her?). No politics were discussed, but this was all in a part of the country where Trump flags outnumbered Harris signs 2 to 1. We like to think these folks were the exception, but sometimes their red MAGA hats gave away their point of view.

Really though, should we be surprised that nice people sometimes support bad politicians? My bet is that there were lots of nice people who  attended the Nazi rallies. I can imagine them packing up their families, stopping to have a lovely picnic at the banks of the Spree River then saluting the fuhrer as he drove by. Sorry if this offends you, but I think Vance got it right when he called Trump “America’s Hitler.” Don’t believe us? Just take one second to really listen to what the mad man has to say about immigrants. And what he plans on doing to cleanse America. It’s a scary thing our country is flirting with.

Maybe everything has actually already happened and we are all living through some Schroeder’s cat moment ahead of the election. If so then I like to think that everything came out OK. The right person won and we as a nation moved on. And if that isn’t how it turned out, well then Corey and I will always have the Northern Lights under a U.P. sky in October.