Monday August 15th, 2005
I will come back later and fill in some other days info but for our family and friends go to this link for a peak at our anniversary party. Peak!
Our friends Bill and Helen who came up to celebrate with us wrote this up and took pictures for us. It was a great time! We ate lots and shared some great times with our friends! Thanks guys.
Monday August 22nd, 2005 August Pictures
Time fly's and the days pass quickly. We will be leaving here in less than a month now. Probably on the 19th. We will be meeting lots of our new friends in a Illinois State Park (Rend Lake) prior to attending the week-long Escapades rally for full timers in DuQuoin Il. That will be a great time again as we had a lot of fun last year attending all the classes on living on the road and maintenance of the rv. One of our classmates will be giving a seminar on Balloon twisting for the fun of it. Lisa is from the Islands and has come to the main land to start her fulltiming adventure.
Since the last time I wrote we attended the Wood Carvers at Blackduck Mn and saw some incredible things carved from wood. The insight of people with this talent is incredible. Looking at some of the carvings it is hard to imagine that anyone actually carved it with their hands. The time invested in such a work of art is amazing and then to turn around and sell it. There were all sorts of things that were carved, from animals to people in a canoe. Christmas ornaments and just decorations for the wall.
We have 2 more pancake breakfast's to cook and to date we have raised over $2000 for the Care Camps. On Friday nights we have what they call Lumberjack stew which is cooked by another couple Bob & Jane, Lumberjack stew is nothing more than ground beef with vegetables thrown in to make a soup. The cost of the stew is one can of vegetables per person for all you can eat. We are greatly going to miss the stew when we leave as it is delicious. I don't know if it could be as easy to replicate on a small scale but am hoping it can be done. Would make a great gathering meal for everyone at our pre rally camp out. For a final dinner here on the Labor Day weekend we are having a steak fry complete with baked potato and cole slaw. That will certainly be a scrumptious replacement for the hot-dog roast on Saturday. The stew will be replaced with a chili cookout the last weekend.
While our friends were all here for our Anniversary rally we got a chance to take them to the Itasca State Park so they could walk across the Mississippi river at the beginnings of it as they certainly can't do it at the end of it. While at the park we took the scenic route around and got to stop at several places along the way. We got to see the Largest red pine tree in Minnesota and the oldest White pine tree. There are many beautiful places to stop and just enjoy the surrounding quiet of nature and look at the lake. On our way back from the Fire tower hike I got a picture of a white-tailed dear drinking in one of the lakes. The tower which is no longer used for fire prevention is 100 feet tall and gives an excellent view of the area from above all the trees. It is quite break taking to see and even Deanna climbed to the top even though she hates heights. I took several pictures while up there. There is just so many things to see here it is hard to get it all done. The forest floor was apparently ravaged by fire some time back as the the base of trees were scorched and some were burnt. We assumed it must have been a fast moving fire as it only burned the dead trees and scorched the live ones on the bottom of the trunks. Smokey made note that the road must have been enough of a fire break to prevent the fire from crossing the road as the trees on the other side were not affected. The tender new grass was green and growing and the floor was cleaned and cleared so to speak of underbrush. Nature has its way of cleaning up also I guess.
So to end this entry the weather is in the 60's and the sun is shinning with a nice breeze. Temps got down to 39 last night! Taint that far from freezing is it? Suppose to be low 70's this week so that will be just beautiful. Check out the pictures on the link above if you get a chance. Till next time..........................
