Headed West

We had a slow, easy morning at camp. We all had showers and Pat talked the boys through vital motorhome systems in the daylight, while everyone was rested, and full of homemade egg Mc Muffins. The mini blowtorch we brought along was, in theory, supposed to be a super toast maker. Not so much. Now it's only purpose is to rattle when we cross over bumps in the road. We all showered and the boys burned off some steam on an old-school playground merry-go-round. I hadn't seem one of those in years and was glad they got the chance to play on something that's no longer considered 'safe.'

 EVERYWHERE in Southern Minnesota we saw these giant wind turbines. These big white pinwheels planted by a slightly OCD child are EVERYWHERE in Minnesota. (Yes, there are even some there, too.)   It's hard to get an sense of scale driving down the road, but these things are somewhere in the range of crazy-big to gianormous.

Pat drove us through the town where his dad grew up, pointing out where aunts and uncles used to live and we headed north to Pipestone. We are driving along when Pat and I had, at the same time, one of those "Stop the car!' realizations. We turned down a little road a behind an industrial building and parked the camper -- in the middle of a storage yard for the HUGE wind turbine blades we had been seeing everywhere! We climbed on old damaged generator housings. We looked down some open hollow blades. We knocked on one end chased echoes going down the blades. We took comparative photos. We had a blast!

 

 

The Pipestone National Monument is situated around the Native American pipestone quarries. The bright red stone that is quarried here is carved into the bowls of the pipe (think Peace Pipe from bad western movies) that is the central to Native American religion. The pipe is to native people like a Bible or cross is to Christians. And this holy stone is only found here, at this one spot in Minnesota. All the stone is quarried by hand by Native permit holders. We watched the video in the visitors center before we headed out to the 3/4 mile trail that weaves through the exposed rocks and quarries. The boys became official Junior Rangers.

We headed to Mitchell, South Dakota, home of the Corn Palace. It was getting late, so we checked in at the campground and then drove downtown to the Corn Palace. Yadda, yadda, yadda. We ate dinner at Culver's.

Wait! Wait! Wait a minute, you skipped over the best part! No, I mentioned Culver's. Alright already, the great Corn Palace is decorated inside and out with murals made out of corn, 12 different colors of corn. Every year they change the murals as the grasses and corn are harvested. It also houses a basketball arena, one of the ten best places in the country to play high school basketball. Oh, and as we were walking back to our parking spot, we saw a pigeon perched on a mural, eating corn straight off the cob. That was pretty cool.

Fixin' to and (finally) leaving home

The boys had their final swim lesson and we ran a couple of quick, errands, most importantly dropping the garage door opener with our dog and house sitting friend, Darcie. Once home we all got to work on the final prparations for the trip. We even managed another visit from Dominic, the heating and cooling guy, to replace the AC fan that broke right after he left earlier this week.

Pat thought we'd leave midday. I thought we'd leave mid-afternoon. So when Darcie arrived between 6 and 7 PM, she was surprised to see us all at home -- showered and ready to hit the road. We were finally ready to leave so we did. In the station wagon. The five of us went to dinner.at Smashburger. Seems we had forgotten all about lunch. Grumpy, tired and hungry is no way to start a trip.

After a quick gas tank top off at Costco, we left Bloomfield at 8:20 PM - the perfect compromise between midday and mid-afternoon. donchathnk?

We stopped just before 10PM to get custard at a Culvers and tucked the boys in the bed over the cab.  Liam and Gray looked out of the forward window in the cab bed until they fell alseep. Pat and I drove and stopped for gas and paid tolls until we were both exhausted. At an oasis NW of Chicago, we parked,closed the curtains and took a nap.

Pat's nap was shorter than mine so when I woke up, we were on the road. Northern Illinois is beautiful on cool summer mornings -- so quiet and peaceful at 5 o'clock. We pulled into Galena a little after 7AM. We had to wake Liam up to see the U.S. Grant home and took pictures. Down the hill from the Grant home is a newish restaurant - Otto's, named for the ghost of a man who had attemped to open a restaurant on the same spot generations earlier. Liam got cinnamon swirl french toast, Gray had the egg special, I had a bacon broccoli cheddar omlet and Pat had egg tacos- green onion, goat cheese and just a touch of 'chicken sauce' (Siracha). The food was amazing and we were hungry and tired - all resulting in the perfect storm of foodness. I actually caught Gray licking his plate.

We left Galena and headed to Dyersville, Iowa to the movie set of The Field Of Dreams. After driving down lots of gravel roads through lots of farmland we saw the familiar farmhouse and field complete with lights. The boys and Pat grabbed gloves and a ball and we headed for left field to play catch and walk in the corn field. Neither of the boys has seen the movie yet but perhaps one day they will see pictures of them playing catch with each other and Pat and get as choked up as I did photographing them. After all, this is the purpose of this trip - to build a lifetime of memories for them.

 Gray jumped in the pick up game that inevitably takes place here and scored twice while the entire population of the stand cheered him on. It was the best pickup game ever.

Austin, Minnesota was our next stop. Hormel has their Spam museum there. It was awesome - kitchy, informative and fun. We'd go back in a heartbeat. Not surprisingly a uniformed worker walks around the museum with chucks of fried spam speared with pretzel sticks. We tried hickory smoked and bacon. The gift shop is as good as it gets. Spam logo-ed everything.

Our final stop of the day was Blue Earth, Minnesota to take pictures with the Jolly Green Giant statue. Ho, ho, ho Green Giant orginally was at the rest area where I-90 had it's 'golden spike' --connecting Boston and Seattle.

We checked into the nearby Welcome campground in Welcome, Minnesota for the night. We had Hickory Smoked SPAM sandwiches donchaknow and I went to bed. Pat and the boys stayed up and built a campfire then crashed.

We slept late and had homemade egg mcmuffins for breakfast, took showers and got ready for the day.

Deep breaths

Nothing is more calming and relaxing than large bodies of water -- oceans, rivers, lakes, ponds, hot tubs in the Poconos. So naturally the boys jumped at the chance to spend the afternoon and evening with Lil' Kraig's family on Walnut Lake yesterday. After all, yesterday I was forcing those poor children to pick out their own clothes for the summer. And try on those clothes to make sure that sleeves and pants were long enough. Such injustice! Such drama! Such stress! And roughly 72 hours before departure.

After some deep water swimming and pizza, Liam and Gray were much happier. So was I.

I learned several things yesterday - 1) Jet's makes a decent Greek salad. 2) Lakes can have undertows. *I have not independently verified this information, but I have faith in the source and will believe this to be true until I have time to Google* 3) One can get a sunburn after 4 PM in Michigan - who knew?

Right now, roughly 48 hours until departure, things are starting to seem 'real.' The boys are packed and have fresh haircuts (Thank you Lola and Mae!) Pat and I still need to pack, but since the heating and cooling guy fixed the AC for our bedroom this afternoon, we can pack in comfort later tonight.

The list of things to do is getting shorter and shorter.

The Lifestyle

One of the things that really disturbs Pat is that RVers talk about "the Lifestyle." These folks love the way they travel and many don't ever want to travel any other way. For them it is a way of life. These people have done this, we have not. A few weekends glamping camping close to home doesn't make a Lifestyle, it makes me happier than in a tent with no bed and no AC do.

Fear not! We have spent the last year getting both the Dolphin and ourselves ready. We've thoroughly researched RV travel -- we watched RV , Vacation, and Christmas Vacation (Clark Griswald: So, when did you get the tenement on wheels? Cousin Eddie: Oh, that uh, that there's an RV.) Stripes was on our list, but we've now run out of time for anything but last-minute tweaks to the Dolphin.

Our last week at home is full of swimming lessons and doctors' appointments and stockpiling snuggles and kisses from our puppies.

Six days to go.

Manworld Mobile (MM) taking a back seat

Manworld Mobile returned to storage for several days so we could do other things -- a Boy Scout Court of Honor with rank advancement for Liam.

Court of Honor

And a Cub Scout campout for Gray.

New Webelo II

Pat really got involved.  Smooth and Creamy Skit

11 days until departure.

See? Saw!

Several years ago at B&W I bought a saw. Everyone thought I had lost my mind. Finally, Pat found the wisdom in that late-night saw purchase. He pulled it out, made some adjustments, I drove to Flint for a part and viola...

We have a door!

A new, reinforced door with two working locks and a new interior panel. Pat did a great job making his first from-scratch door. It should be another 25 years before any dampness creeps in this super-sealed creation. And another 25 years before I can convince him to build another one. Coincidence?

In roughly two weeks we should be pulling out of the driveway. However, we still have a big list of to-dos: installing our new LP tank, finishing the upholstery, and modifying and installing the cargo carrier. The camper doesn't worry me. It's fitting it all in the crazy schedule we have -- field day, a final video project, a weekend famliy camping trip, swimming lessons, orthodontist appointments, end of year parties and field trips, doctors' appointments.... This trip might feel like a vacation after these next couple of weeks.