Nomad Life - Day 163

This morning, I woke up at 0515 (before alarm) and spent time reading, doing puzzles and working on Duolingo exercises.  At 0600, I started teleworking, with only a short break for breakfast (0745).  Once I was back in my room again, I went back to teleworking and continued online until just after noon.  I took another break for lunch (which I made in my room) and then worked until 1530.  Leaving my hotel as soon as I could, I got on Business US-31 (later, IN-933 and MI-51) and drove north.  Once I was in Niles, I began looking for the Madeline Bertrand County Park, which I'd heard had some cross country ski trails, and finally arrived there at 1550.  Next, it took me about 10 minutes to get my ski equipment out of the car top carrier.  Feeling hopeful, I donned my boots and my (old) Salomon skis and was ready to start some fun on the trails at 1605.  Unfortunately, the man selling passes at the entrance to the trail system told me "we lock the gates promptly at 1700".  At that point, with less than 50 minutes, I realized it wasn't worth the cost ($8) for such a short adventure.  Reluctantly, I left the park drove to a nearby field I'd earlier seen (it turned out to be the property of an Evangelical Free Church) and parked in the plowed lot there (1620).  I'm sure almost everyone who saw me during the next hour probably laughed but I managed to get nearly two miles of skiing in that location.  Fortunately, there were already some snowmobile tracks that made this easier - when I tried to break some new trail, I found it very difficult because of the heavy eight inches of snow.  Next (1720), I drove north (suing unplowed back streets) from the "ski field" towards downtown Niles.  I was searching for a Brewery that had signs posted everywhere but it turned out to be a significant distance away and I had trouble getting on US-12 (which I'd need to use to reach it).  Instead, I gave up and drove to the nearby Iron Shoe Distillery, where I was able to sample a flight of delicious drinks (bourbon, rye, single malt, whisky barrel aged rum, limoncello and "orangecello").  Along the way, I ordered some dinner ("the special", which was a good chicken sandwich and fries).  It was a pleasant ambiance - lots of '80s music.  I finally departed at 1845 and, from downtown Niles, I drove (more unplowed surface streets) back to MI-51 and went in search of a Walmart which was holding a new ink cartridge for me (unfortunately, the one I just bought last week leaked out all over the place). I finally arrived there and picked up my ink cartridge at 1905.  Before departing, I tried to recycle bottles and cans but had no luck because the machines couldn't ID them.  Also, there were some ominous warning signs on the machines about not bringing recyclables from other states.  Once I gave up on this project, I decided to try to get the rest of my daily step goal by walking around inside the Walmart building.  Between 1915 and 1955, I logged 1.8 miles (reached 10K steps).  Leaving the store, I carefully made my way out of the parking lot - I couldn't find a traffic light to access MI-51 until I had already gotten on that road...  From Niles, I made my way south and back into Indiana - I arrived at my hotel just after 2010.  The rest of the evening was consumed with eBird, Duolingo, reading and movies and I finally went to sleep at 2230.  Very glad to have gotten some time on skis today!