Leaving Minnesota

I’m writing from Omaha, NE where we are waiting an extra day so that we can see Don’s Cousin Dave who will be coming through here later today on his way to Wisconsin. We left Minnesota. It seemed like in a hurry because once we got a few miles south of the Twin Cities, there wasn’t much to hold us in Minnesota and we kind of fell out of the state into Iowa. We need to get to Missouri before October. From here it looks like we will barely make it since we tend to stay an extra day everywhere we stop.

A strange thing has happened. I stopped taking pictures. It could be that I haven’t seen Edie since September 6 and there isn’t much worth taking. Once when we were riding our bikes over by Des Moines I wanted to take a picture but my phone battery was dead so that didn’t work. So I don’t have many pictures to post.

Grandpa and Edie taking a break while Mom and Dad play.

The last couple of weeks in Minnesota were busy. We ate a lot of good family meals and there was the State Fair day with Kay and then again to see Garrison Keillor’s last state fair gig. Elaine, Kay and I visited our beautiful Cousin Nancy at her house in St. Paul. It was good to see her. She is fighting cancer and I wish she didn’t have to do that. Sister Elaine hosted a family meal when I got to see most of my family. We got to have Edie overnight on September 3 while Greg and Peggie went to see Lynard Skynyrd at the State Fair Grandstand. It was a nice warm day so we were able to spend time in the swimming pool and play until the end of the day. She missed her mommy but eventually we all were able to get to sleep. Now I miss her and her parents, too. I’m afraid I won’t get back to see her until I go back for her 4^th birthday in January. Our last night in Elk River we met Niece Aleatha at Cowboy Jacks for a $2.00 burger and some bingo. Aleatha went home about $30 up.

Garrison Keillor at the State Fair

Kelly was able to arrange her schedule so she could be in Minnesota for Labor Day so we got to see her again before we left. She came to the big family gathering at Elaine’s house and we went in to Greg’s the next day so we could see them all again. So I got to sit in the circle with the 5 of us and Edie in the center which seems to be how our family is structured now. It feels good to be there.

Frisbee

Elaine came with us up to the Jug Band Boogie on September 13 that marked the end of our stay in Minnesota. We left the camper at Brother Dick’s in Brainerd and drove the car up to Camp Deer where we stayed in a cabin. 

Deer Lake Sunset

Deer Lake Charlie’s is a bar that sits at the corner of Highway 1 and East Deer Lake Road about 20 miles east of Effie, Minnesota. It is where the annual Jug Band Boogie is held on the Sunday after Labor Day. About a mile down East Deer Lake Road is where you can find Camp Deer which is the place where my cousins run a resort that seems to be frozen in time. It looks much like it did 60 years ago when my Aunt Ivy and her husband Harold Dunlap ran the place. What’s not frozen in time is me, my siblings and our cousins who bear little resemblance to ourselves 60 years ago. There have been a few changes. The wood stoves in the cabins have been replaced with gas and this year the electric lines were buried between the cabins.

Relaxing by Deer Lake

I have so many pictures of the sunset over Deer Lake that this year I didn’t bother though my sister Elaine did and I will borrow some of those pictures. Every morning my Cousin Norman comes down to the the “office” and starts a couple of urns of coffee and slowly people from the resort and the neighborhood show up to have coffee and tell stories. Cousin Jim and his wife Em come down from the house they built up on the hill for their retirement. It was really good to see them. I even got to see Cousin Kathy who came down from Brainerd for a few hours. She is slowly cleaning out the cabin which my grandparents built for themselves and in which her mother lived until she wasn’t able to stay by herself.

We rented one of the “big cabins” with Dick and Ludwig along with Elaine. Ludwig’s band, The Fat Chance Jug Band played in the Boogie. Ludwig also played the wash tub base for another of the contestants. The Jug Band Boogie is an event like none other. The pool table is covered with a sheet of plywood and slowly is filled with food… really good food from people’s gardens and crock pots with really good Louisiana red beans and rice, meat balls. Four judges selected from the crowd and wearing bright colored tee-shirts with the message “Never underestimate the power of a judge.” On the front and something to the effect that judges can be bribed on the back. A large deck in the back of the building is set up with beer being sold as fast as possible both at the bar and on the deck. They also sell “set-ups” for people who drink something other than beer. Needless to say it is not a sober affair. This year, like last year, was a beautiful warm sunny late summer day, the kind that is treasured this far up north this time of year.

We left Effie and drove to Brainerd where we picked up the camper, hooked up the car and headed south. It seemed like a big hurry. We had to pick up the other Aqua Hot part at the UPS in Maple Grove and weren’t sure where we should stay though some of the folks we met at the Boogie had suggested a campground in Owatonna. It seems crazy but we couldn’t find a place where we knew we could easily get off the interstate in Minneapolis where we could stop and have a chance to see Greg’s family again and we just kept on going all the way to Owatonna where we stayed at River View Campground for one night. That was a very nice place with pull through sites and full hookups.

So we headed South on 35. Near Des Moines we stayed in Jester Park. This was probably the best campground that we have seen in our travels. The only drawback was that they only had electric hookup. That was fine as we were only there a couple of days. We had a beautiful site next to the Des Moines River with large level pads. Don’s friend from his days selling spark plugs, Jim and his wife Faye live nearby. They invited us for dinner along with  Jim’s friend Brad who lives in Minneapolis and Jim took us on a bike ride on a rails to trail that crossed the river on a trestle bridge. That was where I would have taken a picture if I could. We stayed an extra day so we could enjoy the park some more and I had a chance to make a batch of granola.

We came over to Omaha on the 18^th and are staying at Walnut Creek Recreation Area just south in the city in Papillion. This is a very nice RV Park with nice big concrete pads though many of them are not very level. We just have electric hookups. Don’s cousin Steve and his wife Dana live in Omaha. They invited us over to their house for Elk Burger and the Nebraska football game. After we came home, we watched the exciting conclusion of the football game and decided to go for a walk. We started our walk about 6:30 or so and thought we would just go around a little lake. Well, there was another lake behind that one and when we were about into the walk for ½ hour or so, a sign said that the entire loop was about 1 hour. We kept on walking and seemed to be going for a very long time. A horse trail went off in what we thought was the direction of the campground. The trails are all surrounded by 4 foot prairie grass so it was hard to tell where we were. Well, the horse trails looped back and forth and it got dark out. We were beginning to wonder where we might end up as we could only see far enough to know that we were still on the trail. Eventually we saw cars going on a road so we went cross country through some sumac bushes to the road and were only about a ½ a mile from the campground. We got back to the camper at about 9:30, ate some leftovers and went to bed. We figure that we walked about 6 miles that night and took no water or food with us. Fortunately I took a sweatshirt with as it did get cool. Today we are meeting up with Ray and Cindy, our Palmdale friends. This is where they live. Tonight, Don’s Cousin Dave and his wife Carol will be in Omaha for the night so we will go back to Steve’s so we can visit them. They are on their way to Wisconsin to see their daughter and her family.

From here, we are heading for Missouri where we get to see Kay and Max again and stay on their property for a while. I think they have some work for us. We are also hoping to fix the Aqua Hot while we are there. Nights are getting cooler and we will be needing it.