I see ice on Lake Monona.
An Icee is a sweet-treat I haven't enjoyed in many years.
Middle of January and there is still some open water on Lake Monona, although that hasn't dissuaded some ice fishermen and women (ok, I'd be willing to bet in this case it is just fisherMEN) from edging their ice shacks and shanties near the fringes of ice where they think the fish might still be lurking.
Just treading onto the ice a couple feet off shore brought back memories for me. From 1986 to 1989, I was a reporter/photographer for KELO-TV (Sioux Falls) as their reporter based in Pierre. In the midst of one typically frigid winters, I was assigned to do a story on ice fishing for walleye up the Missouri River near Mobridge.
It was a beautiful day. The sun was out. It was above zero (close to 50, as I recall). I drove the station GMC Jimmy down the muddy road toward the shore and drive out with four other guys onto a wide spot of the river where they are sure they'll find fish. We parked our five SUVs together in a make-shift lot and I assembled my camera gear as they drilled holes and got the gear together.
Later, after they had their tip-ups and fish finders probing the depths for the big ones - they started to strike. It was good video. Fish so big they barely scraped through the holes - pulled up through a foot or more of ice and onto the flow to flip and thrash a while as the hooks were re-set and cast out again. I did my interviews and thought that the Mobridge Chamber of Commerce couldn't have arranged a better day.
Yet, as a newbie on the ice - the first time I heard a loud, reverberating CRACK across the water - it made my hair stand up and stepped up my pulse rate a bit. I asked the anglers what caused the sound. "Oh, just the ice cracking." Great.
I understood the ice wasn't going to go all 'Red Sea' and open beneath my feet, but it was very unsettling. The company vehicle, the camera gear, not to mention the four other vehicles represented more than $100,000 worth of stuff - and I was sure the station would be talking to my widow about their portion of the proceeds if I fell in. Plus the knowledge that the river was deep enough and cold enough to give us popsicle funeral in short order - reinforced my idea that since the video was shot and the interviews concluded - it was a good time to say thank you and good-bye.
As it turned out, my biggest problem that day was getting back up the muddy road. I needed all four wheels in drive as the sun thawed up the road and just added to my adventure.
All in a day's work for a one man band reporter - I think if there had been one nearby that day - I would have enjoyed a large ICEE to go.
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