eventually

We took a vacation on the North Shore of Lake Superior, in a rental cabin (actually one of a group of really lovely pine log structures, a place called Stonegate) right on a private stretch of granite shore.  On the morning of the last day I looked out the window to find some mysterious and frankly sketchy looking couple; a guy was standing by their car right in front of our cabin, and the woman was leaning way out at the edge of the water doing... something.  Honestly I thought she was quite possibly throwing up.  Nobody else was up yet; and we had the place basically to ourselves at the time.  So I went out to tell these people that, you know, this was not public access to the water.

The guy was slumped against the car smoking a cigarette and something in his demeanor slowed me down.  I couldn't see the woman any more from where I was (the cabin was up some stairs).  And so I asked the guy what was up and he said, in a kind of voice that communicates that he has been going through some stressful times, probably for a while - "she's got her brother's ashes, she's taking them to the lake" but I was already in full retreat at that point, I was like "yeah you take it easy man" over my shoulder on my way back inside.  I took my coffee to a chair where I couldn't see out the window for a while and when I looked out again they were gone.

I think I wrote this song about that (but was it at the time or when reminded on a different vacation?); in retrospect I suspect I wrote it in an embarrassing assumption that there was a some relatively direct connection from Lake Superior to the Mississippi, surely the St. Croix valley thing connects somehow?  I think you actually have to go by way of Lake Michigan...

Apparently at one point they were contemplating digging a canal!