Friday, December 26, 2014

A Month in Minneapolis ... Twin Cities Time!

Dakotah Meadows Campground in Prior Lake, MN
   
      We stayed at Dakotah Meadows RV Park at the Mystic Lake Casino on the southern edge of the Twin Cities in Prior Lake, Minnesota from July 7 until August 12.  George lived here for many years and had lots of business to attend to as well as lots of family to visit.

George's two beautiful daughters, Patti and Kathy, are happy to see us!

      The casino has lots of activities and concerts going on.  We missed most of the events, with the exception of the Rib Fest, as we were quite busy working, getting further settled into the Camelot, attending to some maintenance issues, and spending time with family.

Fun evening including dinner at Mystic Lake Steak House with the Lukeharts, Lee and Janet

      They say that Minnesota has two seasons -- winter and road construction!  With family in every direction, we found detours on top of detours and we were apologetically calling in late for several occasions.

Remembering Mary Lou, George's wife of forty years, at the tree planted in her memory in French Regional Park
Spencer found this teeny-tiny frog

      Friends and full-timers, Lee and Janet Lukehart, were also in the park, and we greatly enjoyed spending time together.  Lee has assisted the RV Driving School so much with improvements to our database.  We enjoyed a fantastic dinner at the steak house inside casino (after learning it would be an hour and a half to two hours' wait for the seafood buffet) before their departure.

     George's former classmate, Greg Walsh, and his wife, Kathleen came out for a visit, and we met George's sisters and brother-in-law for dinner as well.

      Tom's Mobile RV Service technicians came out to the park and assisted with some of our issues -- rewiring the driver's seat chair so we could turn it around, reattached a loose air intake tube in the engine compartment, and made some observations for further needed repairs.  George replaced two chassis batteries to get our engine started and will probably replace more later.


Dinner hosted by George's in-laws, John and Judy Rys, with Jim and Joanne Spevacek

George treated by Lindsay at ModernPoint Acupuncture 


      We contacted a couple of mattress companies to help us decide how to rectify the excess length which prohibits us from pulling in the rear slides without raising the storage compartment door beneath it first.  Valerie never was able to find a satisfactory number on the Select Comfort, so we continue to look for a good permanent remedy to this annoying obstacle.

      Fleetwood RV in Decatur, Indiana has us scheduled for the larger service items following the RV Dreams Educational Rally in Goshen, which we are eagerly anticipating http://www.rv-dreams.com/rally2.html.  Valerie is currently scheduling appointments for private lessons in the area for early to late September.

      We will post some photos of our month-long stay here with captions, but will not bore you with the details, especially since we have lots of catching up to do on this and Valerie's other blog.  Our next stop is Des Moines, where George agreed to meet a newbie (novice RVer) at the dealership, where the timing just happened to be right, as we planned to drop south into Kansas City.

Grandson, Max, entertained us in his role as Danny Zuko at the Ames Center in a production of Grease

We enjoyed Grease so much we returned for a second night to the Play's the Thing Productions' performance
Dinner with the family
Rainy day walk across the bridge to the Polish Festival
The pedal pub looks like fun


Kathy and Patti looking for Uncle John

Kids performing 'the Chicken Dance'

St. Mark's Catholic Church in Shakopee
Rib Fest 2014
Rainbow over the Camelot
Family Camping Weekend
Grand-dogs Tucker and Sailor are loving it!
Tucker and Pippa have an occasional friendly dispute
Birthday boy all smiles after the McCartney concert

Sunset at Mystic Lake and the Dakotah Meadows Campground

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Longmont and Across the Great Prairie...

St. Vrain State Park just outside Longmont, Colorado
   
      While in Longmont, we enjoyed a pull through site with electric at nearby St. Vrain State Park.  There were beautiful views of the front range mountains and some nice walking trails.  Our site was right on a lake with a covered picnic table.

The Camelot lakeside at St. Vrain State Park
It's a little hazy, but you can see the Front Range if you look closely.
Pretty wildflowers along the trail...
Lucile's Creole Cafe
We didn't notice until it was too late -- "No Cruising" in Longmont
      Although we did not spend much time in Longmont, we found some nice restaurants and an interesting downtown area.

Colorful downtown Longmont
Interesting sculpture on the way into Longmont 
      We took off Sunday afternoon, July 6, with Valerie's daughter, Lindsay, on board for Minneapolis, where George needed to recruit an instructor and had some lessons to teach.

Mile after mile after mile of prairie!
      We put on a lot of miles, stopping for the night at the Ogalalla rest area in Nebraska.  We got a good night's sleep and an early start on a second long day, hoping to make our destination in the Twin Cities by Monday night.

Valerie captured a couple of barns.


      The trip was long and uneventful.  Lindsay got behind the wheel and drove around a rest area but was not comfortable driving on the highway.  We arrived safely at Dakotah Meadows RV Park at the Mystic Lake Casino, where we had reservations for the next month!  We said good-byes to Lindsay, until we had an opportunity to visit her Twin Cities office before she left to return to Boulder.

Yes, Lindsay drove the Camelot!


     

Monday, July 21, 2014

Beautiful Boulder...

The Flatiron Mountains at Chautauqua Park in Boulder, Colorado
       When we found ourselves without reservations for the Fourth of July Weekend, the Elks Club in Boulder was most welcoming, telling us they had seven 30 amp electric sites with water and a dump station and that if they were full we were welcome to dry camp.

Beautiful wildflowers beside miles of walking and biking trails
      We arrived on July 1 and departed for St. Vrain State Park about twenty minutes away where we had made a reservation for July 2 and 3, knowing we would probably return on July 4 and 5.

Great happy hours at Boulder ChopHouse & Tavern

Prime Rib!
      Boulder is a beautiful city along the Front Range of the Rockies north of Denver, an eclectic college town with the Flatiron Mountains as a backdrop.  It is commonly referred to as "Twenty-five square miles surrounded by reality."

      Valerie's daughter, Lindsay, who had established a busy practice in Minneapolis, was invited to assume the practice of a leading expert in her chosen field of acupuncture and sports medicine http://www.modernpointacupuncture.com/meet-lindsay-long.

Lindsay's Boulder office

      Lindsay showed us some tourist sights and we did some discovering on our own as we continued arranging the excess items in the Camelot and catching up on laundry, etc. without full hook-ups following our big move.

      We will let the pictures tell the story, and we will no doubt return for another visit to Boulder where we hope to meet with Asher Haun, a professional driving instructor for the RV Driving School in nearby Fort Collins.

Boulder has boulders!

We walked along the downtown area known as "Pearl Street"

Street performers and interesting shops line the Pearl Street area

Beautiful sculptures on Pearl Street -- "Broken Heart Swing"

Colorful flowers!

Street vendors show their wares

Kids playing in the fountains

Kid-sized sculptures
The Ramsey house -- location of Boulder's notorious, unsolved child murder in 1996

TV series "Mork and Mindy" exterior shots filmed at this Boulder home

Elks Club has seven RV sites in the rear of thee building
Valerie followed the nearby walking trail to this neighborhood park

Wildflowers along the walking trail
Thanks, we'll just pick it up!

Waiting for fireworks to begin at Folsom Field

Happy birthday, America!