This weekend was the start of the annual Fur Rendezvous, a celebration of the miners and trappers that colonized this area. Back in the day, this was when they all gathered together to sell their furs and socialize a bit. Nowadays they have such events as The Running of the Caribou, the Out House Races, Dog Sled Races, Snowshoe Softball, Ice Sculpture Contests, and various Arts & Crafts shows throughout the two-week event.
Pretty much every single Fur Rondy (as the locals call it) in the past 40+ years has been bitter cold, with temperatures well below freezing – and this year was no exception. Although, I must say, it was actually one of the warmest ones in my memory banks: I do believe the temps only got as low as perhaps 10 below, although I did not have a thermometer with me so am only guessing.
Saturday was spent with Rob’s Snowshoe Softball games, so we didn’t get to do much else. We were both quite exhausted by the end of the day so just went home and slept it off. I honestly don’t know why I was so tired: I didn’t do a thing but sit there and watch. Perhaps it was the cold weather – that does seem to take it out of a person.
Sunday, after a breakfast of pancakes down at the IHOP, we finally got to see some of the sights around town.
Our first stop was at the University Mall. They had a coin collector’s show set up, along with the CanStruction competition. Both were not quite as impressive as I’d hoped for, but the coin show did spark my interest in my own collection again. I’m going to have to go thru and take inventory to see what I have. Who knows – maybe I have that ONE coin that’s going to ease all my financial woes?
Hey… It could happen!
From there we headed over to the Antique Car Show. Rob is really in to restoring old cars and happily fell into a nice long conversation with one of the guys there; talking about all the cars they'd ever restored and comparing experiences. I was content to sit in the corner and watch all the people since I really have no interest at all in cars other than to say “Ooo, a red one!”
We did eventually move on, heading downtown to view the ice sculptures. The wind had picked up again by then so we didn’t linger very long – but they did have some very impressive entries. It always amazes me that someone can do such intricate work with a chainsaw and a hunk of ice/snow.
By this time we were hungry again, so on our way to view the Native Arts & Crafts exhibit we stopped off at a little café and had some really good sandwiches. The crafts were very impressive; I think we even got some ideas for summer projects even – not that we’d be half as good as these artists are. Still, it will be fun to try our hand at a few things.
The crowd downtown finally got to us so we opted to head to the Northway Mall on the outskirts of town to see the woodworkers show. Wow… what incredible work!
The first thing we saw was the most beautiful hand-made wooden canoe that was being raffled off: one ticket for $5, or 5 tickets for $20 – proceeds to go to the local woodworkers club. There just happened to be an ATM conveniently located just around the corner, so Rob went ahead and purchased 5 tickets.
Boy that would really be something if he won! It really is a beautiful piece of work.
All the other entries in the show were equally impressive, ranging in skill levels from the beginners to the experts. Interestingly, the chain that kept the crowds back from the tables holding all the entries was made of wood. It was one continuous chain all carved out of one piece of wood. I have no idea how long that took to create, nor how long the original piece of wood was.
It doesn’t seem like much when you read thru all this, but honestly we were exhausted by then so again just went home and crashed into bed.
But it was fun! We just might do it again next weekend…
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