Yesterday, we drove up to Chippewa Falls to meet up with my dad before going off to Stanley (city not person) to visit my brother. It was our first day not doing anything to unpack or improve our living conditions.
We left after 8:30am and took Highway 53 straight to Chippewa Falls. We drove some unfamiliar country in cloudy conditions. It was a pleasant drive with winding roads, hilly scenery, and patches of light fog. In 2.5 hours, we reached our destination:
Higher Grounds Coffee House & Eatery in downtown Chippewa Falls as pictured.
Just as we left our car to walk to the coffee shop, Dad pulled up with impeccable timing. For two hours, we sat and had brunch. Major topics included Dad's project of transforming a church into a house and the topic of this blog, moving in. It was almost a year to the day since I saw him last in Washington, DC. We were just about to move to Russia while he just moved back from Kiribati, a large group of small islands in the center of the Pacific Ocean. So Russia and Kiribati were also discussed.
Then we spent the next hour exploring Chippewa Falls--downtown, Irvine Park and its zoo, and a antique store. Downtown we met a woman with similar interests as us. She shared us a story of a local artist who she admired, an intellectual who left Chippewa Falls for New York City and returned in the 1970s to paint for himself, but attracted a lot of admirers who loved his work.
In Irvine Park we took a walk around a loop road that started out buggy and ended up muggy with drizzling rain. We were disappointed to see no bears where the map had indicated, but were happy to later find them in a much more accommodating facility. Also we explored a cave that involved a couple of steps inside to see darkness. In the zoo section, we saw those bears, deer, chickens, sheep, donkeys, a red-tailed hawk, a peacock, a pot-bellied pig, cougars, bobcats, owls, monkeys, and doves. By the time we got to the doves, the drizzle turned to rain. Fortunately, our cars were nearby.
It was time to visit Josh in his new "home" in Stanley. It was only a 20 minute drive along Highway 29, the road that divides Northern Wisconsin from the rest of the state. It was our first time to visit the medium security correctional institution. On a pamphlet of the city, the prison was Stanley's major source of income. I wonder how thankful the residents are.
After passing through the many gates inside and out, we finally got to our table. This was one of the improvements from his previous maximum security place. Now we could actually sit around a table instead of sit along a row of chairs. We sat around for about 20 minutes before Joshua showed up.
Well, his hair was much longer than it was the last time we saw him. It was definitely a year's length of growth, although he didn't have a year of facial hair. He seemed to be much more relaxed and less anxious than his previous self. There could be many factors that play into this--age, experience, perspective, job, etc.
We talked for about 90 minutes before starting to play a lopsided game of pinochle. What did we talk about? Dad's project, Josh's new environment, our new environment, politics, family, new friends, Kiribati, Russia, and computers. I'll spare details for non-blogging conversation. There were no awkward pauses or silence, but that's nearly impossible with Dad around anyway. In summary, it was one of the better visits with Josh as he seems very hopeful of a release in year or so.
Before departing Stanley, we had dinner at the new family restaurant at the interchange called Lumberjacks. We ate our satisfactory meals while continuing on the same topics. The Packers game was a little distracting as it was on a TV above my dad's head. By 8:00pm we had finished our meals and conversations and parted ways with more insight to current family situations.
Above: Mom and Pam are listening to someone out of picture while Patrick is looking through our Korean scrapbook.
Jenevieve with Kyle and Nicole.
