Marion, Donna and Chris

I stopped at a cozy coffee shop in Crandon, Wisconsin this afternoon. They had WiFi, free snacks of chips and dips they sold and the girls who made the coffee would periodically walk to the tables and offer to bring out beverages, even ice water.


Marion and I first started talking. Turns out her son lives in Encinitas and then she invited me to join her two friends at a table for lunch.


Donna (left) and Marion (right) . . . they were interested in my drive and soon we were talking about all sorts of travel - Marion has been to Australia, New Zealand, through Canada by train, Hudson Bay to see the polar bears, Banff, the Columbia Glacier . . . Donna used to live in Florida by Tampa, on an island not too far from Cedar Key and has travelled through Scotland.


Chris (left) and Donna (right) . . . both are from MA originally - all three (Wisconsin residents now) were passing through on a trip to help Marion move some things from her rebuilt cabin in Green Bay - a cabin that had been in Marion's family for decades, was full of her mother's collection of valuable Indian artifacts when it caught fire (a rodent had chewed electrical wires) and nearly destroyed everything.


They asked me if I'd heard of the tragedy that nearly destroyed Crandon almost a year ago today - a group of high school kids meeting at a house, a jilted boyfriend confronting his ex-girlfriend . . . and using a shot gun killed all 8 kids including himself. Only one boy survived by playing dead. The small town was devastated.


This memorial now exists on the corner lot where the house once stood. The town residents couldn't bear to see the house and tore it down shortly after the senseless slaughter.