To conclude the adventure…
Offering a wealth of views and scenic opportunities, Duluth holds a veneer of splendor giving way to an edge of almost danger. In the sense of nature being the dangerous element in its cold and unforgiving ways. There is an old world feel of brick and industry with a beauty in the extremes of frozen tundra, and arctic landscape.
Temperatures began dropping below zero, while locals relished in the opportunity to cross country ski unplowed roads and fresh powder. Fantastic shifting silhouettes walked the streets at night, daring the cold and the dark. I watched from our third floor window later that evening as a couple stumbled through the parking lot, 1:30am pulling at each other's jackets, holding each other up on rubbery drunken legs, laughing in the negative five below. Not a care in the world, happy. Hahalalaha!
Day break with room cleaning yelling over walkie talkies and guests shouting at their children to hurry along. I'm not a morning person. I made the hotel room coffee knowing the coffee makers are seldom if ever cleaned and one of the dirtiest thing in the room. With the first sip of the warm dirty water, I spit it in the sink. I need good coffee in my life. I can’t start the day otherwise. But damn it! I missed continental breakfast. Maybe that was alright. I try to avoid crowds.
Upon reaching the lobby I found the cafeteria section, bread crumbs still on recently vacated table tops. A nice hotel staff lady popped out of a room seeing me lost and searching. She informed me yes, the buffet was over, but she could bring me out a few left over items: heated up sausages, a couple muffins, and an orange. Then directed me to the all day - all you can drink brewed coffee. Coffee is a meal right? I filled a cup and watched the misty tendrils rise from the Great Lake Superior. Twisting steam like fingers lifted in a dance swirling from the unmoving massive body of water. Impossible to imagine that the icy lake was warmer than the air. A slush of deep blue death. Large chunks of ice the size of cars broke off from the shoreline and drifted out of the bay into the vast expanse to meet the sky.
@Kommienezuspadt and I returned to our path to Nowhere…
Pine trees weeping like mothers holding infants, held pillows of snow in branches for arms. They guided our path deeper into the quiet empty forest. A stillness after a night of rapture. I watched the battery of @Kommienezuspadt’s Tesla slowly deplete the further we traveled into isolation and leaving the security of civilization behind.
A crow flew overhead and a grey fox scurried across the plowed road to hide in tall grass and thick branches. We reached our destination with nothing and everything around. This journey to snow covered landscapes like white deserts that blanketed open spaces between groves of silent trees, thick and knotted. Nothing stirred and nothing made a noise. Except us trampling into the quiet. Is this what we struggled to find? A blank canvas of wilderness.
We gathered chopped wood to warm up the log cabin. Temperatures began to drop.
We welcome ourselves to Nowhere…
Quiet is the night of the Northern sky,
before wolves and coyotes howl their hungry cry.
Fire crackles in safe passage we hide,
And silence I search to find inside.
A vast pit of emptiness will sink,
As moments of time begin to link.
Who are we ever but the person we've become,
A refection of what we want and what we've done.
Time washes over the stillness of night,
with no heed of sympathy in its eternal sight.
Lamenting thoughts,
A heart in knots,
Finding beauty in sorrow,
For fleeting is tomorrow.
The End