Back to Wisconsin, My Boyhood Home

Welcome back friends. Our last chapter concluded on Tuesday, July 7^th, with our arrival in Osseo, Wisconsin, a small town just south of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and our first stop in Wisconsin in over seven years. We are staying in a very nice RV resort called Stoney Creek. After we got set up we spent the rest of the day with the coach. On Wednesday we went out for lunch at a local Norwegian cafe called The Norsk Nook. It was in downtown Osseo, a very small downtown since the town only has 1,700 residents. Nonetheless, the place was packed for lunch, clearly the most popular place in town for lunch. It also had very good Yelp reviews. We had to wait a few minutes for a table, but we thought it worth the wait.

Jackie had a steak and egg breakfast lefse, which is basically a Norwegian burrito. It was steak, eggs, hash browns and cheese all wrapped in what looked like a tortilla, but was actually what they call a “lefse round” made with three parts mashed potatoes and one part flour. It was quite tasty. I had a more traditional hot roast beef sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy. The food was excellent. I also had a bowl of chicken noodle soup that was great and we split a piece of apple pie. We had to have the pie since the place's claim to fame was their pies. We left very satisfied.

After lunch we drove the 20 miles back north to Eau Claire for some exploring and geocaching. Eau Claire was founded in the mid 1800's as a center for the logging industry. This part of Wisconsin was the center of the lumber economy at the time. It was built on the confluence of the Chippawa and Eau Claire rivers for the convenience of transporting logs to the mills. The name is French for “clear water” and was given to the area by the early French trappers who were the first whites in the area. The population today is about 66,000, but the metro area, which includes Chippawa Falls and several other communities, is about 115,000. The economy today, since the demise of lumbering in the area, is driven by high tech industries involved in electronics and data processing.

We spent about three hours driving around Eau Claire, caching and sight seeing. We had a good caching day, getting fourteen new finds without any DNFs. After our tour of town and caching we stopped at the Eau Claire Elks Lodge. This is Lodge 402, which makes it one of the older Elks Lodges, probably chartered in 1890's. They are now in a nice newer building in the suburbs. We had drink and picked up a lodge pin for our banner, another new lodge for our collection. We chatted with the bartender and a couple of patrons for a half hour or so before leaving and heading back down south to the RV park. We got back to the coach and stayed in the rest of the evening.

Thursday, July 9^th, we left the coach after lunch to do some geocaching. We did a bunch of rural geocaches in a big, 50 mile or so loop, from the RV park east, then south, west and north back to the RV park. We were able to get eleven new finds, and three DNFs for the afternoon. We also spent most of the time driving on small, country roads so we saw a lot of farms and back country. It was a fun afternoon. We got back to the coach around six and spent the rest of the night watching TV.

Friday, July 10^th, a travel day. We were originally planning on staying in Osseo for five days, but I waited too long to get reservations and they were not able to accommodate us for Friday and Saturday. Therefore, we have to move on down the road to Oakdale, Wisconsin. We left the park about 10:30 and headed south about 65 miles to a KOA campground in a little, tiny town called Oakdale. Oakdale only has about 600 population, but it has two truck stops and a KOA. We got fuel and then checked into the RV park for a two day stay.

After we got setup I helped Jackie with coloring her hair. She had gotten into doing highlighting, and she can't do that herself, so I have to help. I tell her that it is my alter ego, “Ronnie” who does the hairdressing. After we got her hair finished we took a drive to the town of Tomah, about eight miles north of Oakdale. We needed some stuff at Walmart, and that was the closest one. We did some caching when we got there, getting two new finds and two new DNFs. We then drove around town for a bit just to look before heading to Walmart. After Walmart we went back to the RV park and put away our stuff. We had a cocktail and then drove to the Hardie's hamburger place up by the freeway for a burger. We then spent the rest of the evening in.

Saturday, July 11^th, we left the coach after lunch to do some caching and exploring. Our first destination was the little town of Mauston, about 20 miles south of Oakdale. I was born in Milwaukee and lived there until late 1960 when we moved to Arizona. My mother was part of a family of 13 brothers and sisters, so my early life was full of aunts, uncles and cousins. Aunt Betty was my mom's sister and she and her husband Paul bought an old farm about six miles south of Mauston, just as a place to live, not to farm. I remember visiting their house back in the late 50's and early 60's. Last year the last surviving daughter, my cousin Arleen, and I connected on Facebook. She told me that after my aunt and uncle died they bought the house, not to live in but just to keep for future use.

Since it was close, I wanted to go to see if I could find the house. After my mother died I was able to get all of the family photo albums, going back to the late 20's, and I scanned all of the pictures and stored them digitally. I have a bunch of pictures from June 1960 of the wedding of my cousin Claudia, the middle daughter of Betty and Paul, and the reception was at the Mauston farmhouse. A couple of the pictures showed parts of the house and barn in the background, and I thought that between the pictures and my memories, I would be able to find the house. Fortunately, being in touch with Arleen, she was able to tell me that the house was on County Road G, otherwise I would not have known which country road to explore. I was only 13 at the time and not driving, so I had no memories regarding which road to take out of town.

We got on Route G and started south checking out the farms along the way. We got to one farm that looked somewhat familiar, but when we stopped and really looked, it was not the right place. We went another mile or so and I told Jackie, that's it, that's the place. The barn is gone now, but the house still looks the same. Arleen's husband Bob happened to be at the farm mowing the grass, so we got to talk to him for a bit. I had never met him, but now I know I have a cousin Bob. We took some photos of the property and headed back into town. June of 1960 was the last time I was at that house, but I did come back to Mauston in the late 70's when I worked for the Sheriff's Office in Phoenix. I was a detective in the Warrants and Fugitives Division and part of our duties was going out and picking up people who had been arrested in other places around the country and were being extradited back to Arizona to face charges. I learned that we had a prisoner being held at the Juneau County Jail in Mauson, Wisconsin, so I volunteered for the trip. I flew into Milwaukee, rented a car and drove to Mauston to get the prisoner. My aunt and uncle, and cousin Arleen, met me at the courthouse and we had lunch before I picked up the prisoner and headed back to Milwaukee.

The two black and white snapshots are of the wedding in 1960.  I am the older kid in the picture with the bride, along with my mom and brother Dennis.  The other picture shows the house in the background.  After our trip down Roy's Memory Lane, we drove around Mauston and did some caching. We then drove north to the town of New Lisbon and cached. We had a decent afternoon, getting eleven new finds and one DNF. We then headed back to the RV park and relaxed in the coach the rest of the night.

Sunday, July 12^th, we packed up and headed out about 10:30 again. Because our plans to stay in Osseo for five days got muddled, we had a very short trip, less than 50 miles, this morning to our next stop, Baraboo, Wisconsin. We arrived at the Fox Hill RV Resort about 11:30 and were on our site getting setup by noon. We were all setup for our week long stay here by 2:00, so we decided to go out and do some exploring of the town of Baraboo.

Baraboo is a small city of about 12,000 located on the Baraboo River, just upstream from it's confluence with the Wisconsin River. It is most well known as the “Circus City” since it was where the five brothers Ringling grew up and started the famous Ringling Brothers Circus in the late 1800's. They later bought the Barnum and Bailey Circus and the company still tours the country as an operating circus. Baraboo served as the headquarters and winter home for the Ringling Brothers Circus until 1919 when the newly merged company relocated to Bridgeport, Connecticut, home of the Barnum and Bailey Circus. Today the company operates year around and no longer has a true winter home. Baraboo has the Circus World Museum which operates on the old winter grounds and maintains many of the original buildings. We spent a couple of hours driving around town, just looking at stuff and getting a few geocaches. We got three caches for the afternoon. After our touring we headed back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the evening.

Monday, July 13^th, we awoke after a bit of a rough night. There were thunderstorms rolling through the area most of the night and the weather radio was going off every 20 minutes. We had some rain, but no storms passed directly over us. We went out after lunch to drive around Wisconsin Dells and kind of get the lay of the land. Wisconsin Dells was originally founded in 1857 as Kilbourn City and was a lumbering town. The town is built along a section of the Wisconsin River that was called the Dalles, French for rapids or narrows. The river runs through a gorge cut into the native sandstone by glaciers during the ice age. As more people came to the upper Midwest the area became well known for it's interesting geography. In the late 1800's local entrepreneurs began to offer boat tours of what was now known as the Dells. In 1931 the town changed it's name to Wisconsin Dells to further promote the area. The town is not very large, less than 3,000 population, but it is a tourist mecca for the entire northern Midwest area.

In the central part of town there are scores of motels and resorts, many featuring water parks. There are dozens of water parks, and the town calls itself the water park capital of the country. There are also dozens of cheesy tourist and entertainment venues, like theme parks, laser tag, miniature golf, and haunted houses. In one stretch of a few blocks there is a huge replica of the white house, but turned upside down after some unknown calamity, a temple of doom similar to that in Raiders of the Lost Ark, a Trojan Hours, and a haunted mansion. The place was crawling with people, so I guess they are doing the right things. The only thing we did today was drive around and look, and get a couple of geocaches. We found two and had two DNFs. We also stopped and bought tickets for the Dells boat rides. The Dells are split by a hydroelectric dam into the upper and lower Dells. We are going to take a tour boat ride of the upper dells, and a duck ride on the lower dells. The ducks, old WW-II amphibious trucks, were first brought to the Dells after the war and used for tours. Today there are dozens of the old trucks all over town. After our tour we went back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the night.

Tuesday, July 14^th, we left the coach about 11:30 and drove into Baraboo to have lunch at a restaurant that we had seen on Sunday and that looked interesting and had good reviews. It was called the Driftless Glen Distillery, but when we got there it turns out they are closed on Monday and Tuesday. We were also meeting our friends Jim and Pat Goetzinger there for lunch. Jim and Pat arrived late yesterday afternoon at the same campground we are in and are parked just a few spots down from us. Jim and Pat are also full timers and we cross paths several times a year. We last saw them a couple months ago in Colorado Springs. They are also in Wisconsin for the big FMCA rally in Madison in a couple of weeks, however, they are going to a different pre-rally. They are going to the Full Timers Chapter rally and we are going to the Monaco International Rally. We normally would go to Full Timers too, but this year the scheduling had them overlapping, so we chose Monaco.

After consultation with the Goetzingers, we settled on another local cafe with good reviews, the Little Village Cafe, which was located on the downtown square in Baraboo. Although they had great reviews, I would only classify them as fair. Jackie had a jerk chicken burrito that she said was good, but no outstanding, and I had a cheesesteak with good filling, but the bread was stale and hard. We probably would not go back. After lunch the Goetzingers went off to do some shopping and we drove back up to Wisconsin Dells to walk around downtown for a bit. It didn't take as long as we thought as most of the stores were cheesy souvenir places with the same crap. After an hour we were done and did a few geocaches in the area. We were able to get four new finds before we decided to head back to the coach. We had happy hour outside with the Goetzingers and talked until about 6:30 when we all went back inside for the rest of the night.

Wednesday, July 15^th, we left the coach a little after 10:00 and went up into Wisconsin Dells for a day of cruising. We got the car parked and went to the docks for the Upper Dells Boat Tour and were fortunate enough to catch a boat that was just getting ready to leave. The Upper Dells Boat Tour boats are your basic 40 foot diesel boats with cabin seating as well as seats on the roof of the cabin. They hold about a hundred people. This trip is a two hour tour that takes you a couple of miles up the Wisconsin River, through the narrow gorges and twists and turns of the river. It makes two stops, one at Witches Gulch, a very narrow canyon through which a creek runs into the river. You get off the boat and work your way up this narrow canyon, which is very pretty, to....wait for it..... a snack bar and concession stand!

You then go back to the boat and cross over a wide bay to another landing where you see some rock formations and climb up a mild grade to a bluff that overlooks the river. There too is a concession stand. This is where the famous “stand rock” is found. Stand rock was first made famous in the late 1800's by nature photographer H. H. Bennett. Bennett's year's of photography in the Dells area was greatly responsible for the area becoming famous and a tourist destination. Bennett also invented the first practical fast shutter for the camera, eliminating the need for subjects to be absolutely still for some period of time when having their picture taken. He proved the concept of his invention by having his 15 year old son jump back and forth between stand rock and the adjacent bluff and taking the first “action” pictures.

After we got back on the boat they cruised back down the river to the docks and the trip was over. We went to a place right in downtown Wisconsin Dells for lunch. It was called Monk's Bar and Grill and we had some really great hamburgers, some of the best I have had in a while. After lunch we went for our second boat ride of the day, a ride on the Wisconsin Dells Ducks. The ducks are WW-II amphibious trucks that have six wheels for driving on land, as well as a large propeller in the back for use on the water. The ducks used in the Dells were all built in the early 1940's for the military and were first brought to the Dells in 1946. They are still using and maintaining these 70 plus year old vehicles on a daily basis. The duck tour is an hour long and takes you to the lower dells, south of dam. You go on the river for a ways, then climb out and drive over to Lake Delton and cruise the lake for a bit. Most of the trip is on land, driving on what they call “duck trails” in the forest around the Dells area.

After we got off the duck tour we headed back to the coach. We had been very surprised to get a phone call from our good friends Gary and Ramona Wilson telling us that they were staying at a campground only a mile or so from ours and asking if they could come over to visit. We met Gary and Ramona in 2007 when we went to our first Full Timers Chapter rally in Joshua Tree, California. That was the same rally where we first met Ray and Suzie Babcock. At that time Gary and Ramona were not full timers, but they did have a Monaco coach, so we became very good friends and went to a lot of rallies together. They did go full time for about five or six years, but about two years ago they decided to sell their coach and move back into their house. After less than two years they decided that was a mistake, they bought another coach very similar to their old one, and hit the road again as full timers. We had last seen them earlier in the year when we went to the FMCA rally in Pomona. At that time they were still shopping for a coach, which they bought a month later. The last we heard from them they were work-camping at a campground in the mountains of Colorado.

They came over for cocktails and happy hour and we had a chance to talk to them. It turns out that the campground changed management and they didn't like some of the changes they put into place, so they quit and decided to come back to Wisconsin for the Monaco rally and the FMCA rally. This means we will get to travel with them for a couple of weeks. Yea! We talked for a couple of hours before they left to go back to their coach down the road. We watched TV the rest of the night.

Thursday, July 16^th, we left the coach after lunch to take care of some chores. We went into Baraboo and did our laundry first, after almost three weeks. Once the big batch of laundry was done we drove to Walmart for some supplies. After our Walmart run we stopped at a nail salon so Jackie could get a pedi. We then headed back to the coach, getting there about 4:30. A little after 5:00 Gary and Ramona Wilson came over again for cocktails. We sat and talked with them until about 7:00 when they left and went back to their RV park. We then relaxed with the TV the rest of the evening.

Friday, July 17^th, we left the coach about 11:30 and drove into town to take another shot at having lunch at the Driftless Glen Distillery restaurant. We had wanted to go there on Tuesday, only to find that it was closed Mondays and Tuesdays. When we went on Tuesday Jim and Pat Goetzinger were with us, but they were moving today from Fox Hill up to Lake Delton for the FMCA Tri-Chapter rally, for the Elks International, Military Veterans and Full Timers Chapters. We would have been going to this rally too, except that the timing was wrong and it conflicted with the Monaco International Chapter Rally that we are going to. We did meet Gary and Ramona at the restaurant and we had a great lunch.

This is a new place, less than a year old, and it has a very pretty, contemporary look inside. It has a nice patio overlooking the Baraboo River, but we sat inside since it was hot and humid today. They have a smallish menu but it has some very unique items. I had a steak sandwich that was outstanding. It was a modern take on the Philly Cheese, with brie, steak, and grilled onions on a french roll. Jackie, Gary and Ramona all had the brie and duck paninni, which they said was outstanding as well. After lunch we all went on the tour of the distillery and got to sample some of their spirits. We had two gins, which Jackie and I don't care for, and their versions didn't change those feelings. They had two vodkas, neither of which I thought were especially good. They gave us some brandy that I didn't like. The only thing they had that was really good was a 100 proof s'mores flavored drink they called moonshine. I wanted to buy some of it, but they hadn't started bottling it yet. All in all, I give the restaurant high marks for food, not so much for spirits.

After our lunch and tour we went down the street to visit the Circus World Museum. As I said early in this chapter, Baraboo was home to the five Ringling brothers who started their circus right here in this town, and also used Baraboo as the winter home for the circus until 1919. Even after the move to Connecticut, they kept the Baraboo property and used it various purposes. The original property was over 100 acres on both sides of the Baraboo River, and in 1959 the corporation deeded 64 acres and the eight of the remaining ten buildings from what was known locally as “Ringlingville,” to the Wisconsin State Historical Society
, which now operates the museum. Over the years they have built several new buildings, the main headquarters building which holds exhibits about the Ringling Brothers and the history of the circus, a showroom which is used for various seasonal acts, and a huge warehouse full of restored circus wagons. The showroom currently has a magic show, which we caught the last couple minutes of. The wagon barn has over 50 huge, beautifully restored circus wagons from dozens of different circuses that have played around the U.S. The rest of the grounds are brimming with old hardware, train cars, circus wagons, cages and the like. They maintain a couple of retired performing elephants and camels and offer rides on both to kids. They also have a small tent with a one ring, one hour circus performance including aerial acts, jugglers, clowns, camels, elephants and dogs. The circus was the most fun of the whole adventure. It was a good stop, not one I would need to repeat, but fun.

We spent about three hours at the museum before leaving and heading over to Baraboo Elks Lodge for cocktails and to meet some friends. About 20 of the people who were going to the Tri Chapter rally in Lake Delton had come over to the lodge for dinner. We knew all except one couple from our time on the road. Among those there were the Neighbours', the Bates', the Goetzinger's, the Cantarinni's, the Matthews', the Sweeny's, the Lee's, the Wilson's, and us. They were all ordering dinner when we and the Wilson's came in, and we didn't want to eat early, so we just had cocktails. We did end up getting a light dinner before we left and had a great time visiting with all our old acquaintances. We also got a lodge pin since this was a new lodge to us.

We finally left about 7:00 and went outside with the Wilson's to give Peggy Bullock a call. Regular readers of this blog will remember that in July 2013 the Bullock's had a party at their house in Mineral, California, for their 50^th wedding anniversary. We, along with a half dozen of our other RVing friends, were at the party, which went on all week. In 2014 they did it again, and again we were there for the week long party. This year they are doing it for a third time, but, of course, we are not there since we decided to go east this summer. The Wilson's had been there the first year too, so we decided we needed to call and say hi, since tonight was the first day of this year's party. We talked to Peggy for a bit and then we and the Wilson's went back to our RV parks and stayed in the rest of the evening.

Saturday, July 18^th, we had a stay at home day and did some chores. I also got things ready for our travel day tomorrow. About 4:30 we drove up to Lake Delton to the Country Roads RV park to visit with the rally group from the tri-chapter rally, most of the same people we saw at the Elks yesterday. We spent about an hour with the group before they started eating supper. They had invited us, but I didn't feel right about eating their food when we hadn't paid for the rally, so we left and went back to our park. We stayed in for the rest of the night.

Sunday, July 19^th, another travel day. We got an early start today, leaving the park about 9:30. We are heading to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, north and east of Baraboo, on the shores of Lake Michigan. We are going there for the Monaco International Chapter rally. The trip is only about 135 miles, but it is all on state and county roads, no interstate, so we knew it would take longer because you have to slow down for all the little towns. We met up with the Wilson's, who are also going to the rally, at the casino down the road from our RV park. We then had a mini caravan across central Wisconsin, arriving at the rally about 12:30. We were quickly parked, and even though the Wilson's are in handicap parking and we aren't, they are right in front of us, across the street. Very convenient.

About 4:00 we went over to the events center for a meeting with the bartender committee. This year Jackie and I volunteered to help with the bar. In most Monaco rallies, there is an open bar every night before dinner, using volunteer bartenders. The last two rallies, the one in Coos Bay, Oregon, and the one in Pahrump, Nevada, were at casinos, so the casinos had to handle the bars and there were no Monaco bartenders. We were also going to have a volunteer appreciation dinner tonight at 5:30 and we were going to set up the bar for that and have a sort of “trial run” for the new bartenders. The cocktail hour went well and everyone worked great together.

The volunteer dinner was a catered event and was very nice. There are about 100 volunteers, including parking, bartenders, security, trams, and others. The dinner went on until about 7:30 when everyone headed back to their own coaches. We stopped briefly to visit with the Wilson's and see the inside of their new coach. It is new to them, an 05 model, the same us ours, but one step up in the model lineup. They have a Diplomat. The inside is very similar to ours, same wood color and carpet, but they still have the original old TVs and there are a few other little upgrades. All in all, a very nice used coach. After our brief visit we went back to our place for the rest of the night.

Our arrival here in Manitowoc for the first of several summer motor coach rallies makes a good place to close out this chapter and get it published. We will be week at this rally, then another week in Madison for the big FMCA rally, and then a final short, two day rally, back at Lake Delton. We will publish again after the rallies are over. Until next time, remember to love. I love everyone. I love to be around some people, I love to stay away from others, and some I'd just love to punch right in the face! See ya soon.

From Fargo to the Mall of America

Hello again. Our last episode concluded on Sunday, June 21st, when we arrived at the Red River Valley Fairgrounds RV Park in West Fargo, North Dakota. According to my research, we arrived in Fargo within minutes of the Official beginning of Summer, the Summer Solstice. This year it occurred at 12:38 p.m., just about the time we got to Fargo. Welcome Summer! We settled in and stayed at home for the rest of our first day here.

On Monday we were up and out of the coach after lunch to do some exploring. It had rained a lot overnight, most of the night in fact, but the morning was quite nice. We did some drive-around tourism and a few geocaches, at least those we didn't have to go throu

gh mud and muck for. We are actually parked in West Fargo, a town of it's own, so we explored West Fargo, the City of Fargo, and the City of Moorhead, Minnesota, Fargo's “sister” city to the east across the Red River.

Fargo is the largest city in North Dakota and has a population of about 116,000. The entire metro area, including Moorhead, West Fargo and a couple other nearby communities, is over 228,000. Fargo was founded in 1871, first as a steamboat stop on the Red River and a few years later as a major railroad town. The economy of the Fargo area has historically been dependent on agriculture. That dominance has decreased substantially in recent decades. Now, the city of Fargo has a growing economy based on food processing, manufacturing, technology, retail trade, higher education, and healthcare. In a study published by Forbes, Fargo was ranked the best small city in the nation to start a business or a career.

We were able to get six new geocache finds for the afternoon, including a couple in Minnesota, our first in that state since 2008, our first year of geocaching. After our tour of the city we headed back to the RV park for the rest of the afternoon.

Tuesday, June 23rd, we awoke to the promise of another great day, partly cloudy skies, little chance of storms and temps in the low 80's. We left the coach after lunch and headed out to do some geocaching first. We had a slew of caches right near the RV park and we were able to get 14 new finds, and one DNF, in about two and a half hours. We stopped and caching and decided to head to the Fargo-Moorhead Elks Lodge. The lodge is currently located in a building on the far north side of Fargo, out near the airport. The building looks like an old restaurant is a bit run down. This is a very old Lodge, Lodge #260, chartered in 1896. According to a friend of ours, who grew up in Fargo, the lodge used to be in downtown. We got there just after it opened and there were only a couple of people there besides the Club Manager.

He told us that at one time the lodge had 5,000 members, but now was at about 350 or so. Although their current building is nothing to look at, they did have a huge stained gla

ss window from their old building mounted as a lit back bar, and it was very pretty. We had one cocktail, got a lodge pin for our banner, and then left to go shopping. This was our first visit to this lodge. We stopped at Walmart and Hobby Lobby for some things, and then headed back to the RV park. We cooked some steaks on the BBQ for dinner, the first time we have had the BBQ out in a couple months. They were yummy. After dinner we relaxed with the TV the rest of the night.

Wednesday, June 24th, we left the RV park around noon and headed into Fargo for lunch. I had been “Jonesing” for some Chinese for a while, so we selected a downtown Chinese Buffet called King's Chinese. It is right in the middle of downtown on a busy street corner. The outside of the building is very plain, but the interior decor was very pretty and very reminiscent of old Chinese restaurants. Lunch was less than $9 each and they had a good selection of foods. Both Jackie and I would give the place a solid 3 out of 5 rating. They had a couple of things I really liked, the beef and onion and the sweet and sour chicken. A couple of things not so much, the egg flower soup especially. We ate way too much, as is usually the case, but enjoyed the meal nonetheless.

After lunch we walked around downtown a little bit, to help walk off the big lunch. Then we went out to do some geocaching. We had a great afternoon, getting 19 new finds with only one DNF. Most of the caches we found were on the east side of the river, in Moorhead, Minnesota. After caching we headed home where we had a couple of hours of rain. Tonight there were no real storms going over, just some on and off moderate rain showers. We stayed in the rest of the night.

Thursday, June 25th, we headed out after lunch to take in a movie. We went to see San Andreas, the latest big disaster movie. Both Jackie and I are fans of hokey disaster flicks, we watch the cheesy made for TV SyFi channel movies all the time. Of course, this was a big budget movie, so all the computer graphics were top notch. The plot and story line were typical for this type of movie, family breaking up, family getting back together in the face of total chaos. None of the science was even close, but to enjoy these kinds of movies you have to suspend belief and just go with the flow. It was very suspenseful, lots of scary moments, outstanding special effects and CG work, and all the heroes lived. Can't ask for more than that in a disaster movie.

I was more than impressed with the theater. We went to one of the Marcus Theater chain's locations here in Fargo. They have 56 theaters around the Midwest and have great amenities. The seating is stadium style, with leather power recliners that are huge, for big boned fellows like me. The theater is mostly tandem recliners, with a few individual seats near the ends. Great digital projection and sound and all for only about a buck or two more for admission. We paid $7 for the senior matinee, which is usually around $5.50 or $6 at other chains. Well worth the extra money. A large popcorn and drink cost as nearly much as the movie, but that is standard at all the theaters. The lady in front of us was getting popcorn and drinks for two adults and four kids and her bill was almost $32! After the movie we did a few caches, getting three new finds, before heading home for the rest of the night.

Friday, June 26th, we went out after lunch to do our laundry. After laundry we went to a couple of pawn shops. We like to look around in pawn shops because you never know what you might find. At one we picked up the first two seasons of Breaking Bad on DVD for $12. We have been wanting to see this series and missed it on TV. At the second one we found a 7 inch photo frame for $8 and it was brand new. Our last frame quit working a year ago and we have been watching for an inexpensive replacement. We then got one geocache on the way home and then stayed in the rest of the night.

Saturday, June 27th, we left the coach around noon and went out to lunch. We decided on a Mexican place that was fairly highly rated on Yelp. It was called Mango's, and it was actually pretty good. It was very typical Sonoran Mexican cooking and the best praise I could give it would be that it would be competitive in Arizona or Southern California. We had a great meal and then did some geocaching. We had another good afternoon, with 14 new finds and 2 DNFs. After caching we stopped at a couple of craft stores because Jackie was looking for some cord to use for her lanyards that she is making with the pop tabs she has.

After caching we headed home. Normally I would say we stayed in the rest of the night, or we just watched TV until bed. Tonight it was three hours of pins and needles. There was a long line of huge thunderstorms that was east of Fargo moving through North Dakota. We had the local news on and were watching the radar on the weather. The weather radio was going off every ten minutes with a new tornado warning or thunderstorm warning somewhere in the area. Fortunately, after there hours we had never had a tornado watch over our exact location, but it was just ten miles east, the closest we have come to having a severe storm on top of us. About 8:00 everything settled down and we had a quiet night.

Sunday, June 28th, another travel day. We were packed up and on the road about 10:30 and headed southeast to Alexandria, Minnesota, about 113 miles away. It was an uneventful trip with mostly clear skies, although it was a little windy. We arrived at the Alexandria RV park about 1:00, after a quick fuel stop, and got settled in. We aren't expecting any storms tonight and we decided to just stay in for the rest of the day. We get our “off” days on travel days.

Monday we woke up to overcast skies, but no forecast of storms. We headed out after lunch to explore Alexandria. The town was incorporated in 1877 and has a population of about 13,000. The town is located in the middle of what is known locally as “Lake Country” with dozens of glacial lakes scattered around the area. The town's primary economic engine is tourism, with some light industry. We first did a few geocaches, getting six new finds, along with two DNFs for our efforts. After caching we visited a place called Ron's Warehouse, a store we saw in one of the local tourist magazines. Ron's store is 34,000 square feet and they sell reclaimed merchandise, stuff they buy from companies and stores going out of business or closing. It reminded both Jackie and I of some of the places in Quartzsite or Yuma. We spent well over an hour going through the store. They have everything, food, canned goods, clothing, furniture, electronics, just about anything you can think of. We ended up with three bags of things and only spent $53. Great place to stop and shop.

After Ron's we went to the Alexandria Elks Lodge. The lodge is near downtown in a pretty good sized building. The bar is open every day for happy hour and there were quite a few people in the place. The bartender was kind of grumpy and unfriendly, but the guys at the bar were very nice and talked to us. We had a couple of drinks and got our lodge pin for the banner. This was a new lodge for us. After the Elks we headed to Walmart for some supplies and then headed back to the coach for the rest of the night.

Tuesday, June 30th, another travel day. Today we were packed up and headed out of Alexandria about 10:30, moving southeast to Eagan, Minnesota, about 150 miles away. Eagan is a suburb of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, on the southeast side of the Twin Cities. We are staying at the Lebanon Hills County Park campground, one of the Dakota County parks. We have a very nice, full hookup, 50 amp site in a nice, green wooded area. We arrived at the park around 2:00 and got settled in and setup by 3:30 or so. We are going to be here in the Twin Cities for a week, over the 4th of July Holiday Weekend. We were last in this area back in 2008 when we came to an FMCA rally here. We didn't get to see much of the area on that trip, so we are looking forward to having a week to explore.

Wednesday, July 1st, Happy Canada Day and say goodbye to half of 2015. We left the coach after lunch for a day of exploring the Twin Cities area. Our first destination was downtown St. Paul. St. Paul was incorporated in 1854, shortly after the creation of the Minnesota Territory and the naming of the small city on the Mississippi River as the capitol. In 1858 Minnesota became a State and St. Paul was again designated as the capitol. The current population is just under 300,000 and it is the second largest city in the State. Along with Minneapolis, the largest city in the State, it is part of the Twin Cities region. The metro area of the two large cities and their contiguous neighbors, is about 3.5 million.

We wanted to tour the capitol building, as we have in the last couple states we have been through, but the building is undergoing a major renovation. There is so much scaffolding and plastic sheeting surrounding the building you can barely see it at all. We spent an hour or so driving around St. Paul and also got a geocache there. We then drove west through town to Minneapolis. Minneapolis was incorporated in 1867 and has a population of just over 400,000. We again spent some time driving around, looking at downtown and some of the neighborhoods, stopping to get one geocache.

After our quick tours of the two big cities, we went back down south to the suburbs and stopped at the new Twin Cities Outlet Mall. It is a huge mall and we spent a couple of hours walking around. Jackie got a new watch and we got a few other little things. After the outlet mall we stopped at a farmer's market in Eagan, the town in which the park we are in is located. It wasn't as big as we thought it would be and we were only there about a hour. By the time we got finished it was getting close to 6:30, so we stopped at a local Mexican restaurant for dinner. The place was called La Fonda de los Lobos, the Inn of the Wolves. Didn't see any wolves about and we weren't impressed with the inn part either. The food was so so, the service not so good. The chips were stale, although the salsa was good. I had beef fajitas which were OK. Jackie had chicken enchiladas that had a lot of chicken, but they overcooked them and burned all the enchilada sauce off of them. The server finally brought some extra sauce, which helped. After dinner we headed back to the coach and relaxed the rest of the night.

Thursday, July 2nd, we left the coach around 11:00 and went to spend the day at the Mall of America, which is only a few miles from the park we are in. We had wanted to go to this mall when we were here in 2008 for the FMCA rally, but we were so busy at the rally that we never got to go. In 2009 we were able to stop and spend the day at the West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, which is the largest mall in North America. The Mall of America is second to the King of Prussia Mall in Pennsylvania as the largest mall in the U.S. in terms of retail space. The mall here has about 2.5 million square feet of retail space and just over 500 stores. The Mall of America has a much more compact footprint than does the Edmonton Mall, which is spread out and has a lot more non-retail attractions, like the water park and skating rink. Nonetheless, the Mall of America is big, three floors of stores with a mile of corridor on each floor.

We had lunch first at the Ruby Tuesday's restaurant, one of fifty or so choices. We both had hamburgers and the lunch was great. We then spent the next three hours walking around each of the floors, as well as the big amusement park that takes up the center area of the mall. With all that, the only thing we ended up buying was one inexpensive pair of shoes. The amusement park is all themed after characters on various Nickelodeon Television network shows, Sponge Bob, Dora the Explorer, Rug Rats, etc. They have about five roller coasters and a log ride, as well as a dozen smaller, kiddie rides. After three hours of walking, we were pretty wore out, so when we finished we headed home and relaxed for the rest of the night.

Friday, July 3rd, we left the coach after lunch and drove back to the Mall of America to visit the Minnesota Sealife Aquarium, which is located in the basement of the mall. We had seen it yesterday and, since it has been a couple years since we visited an aquarium, we decided to go back today and visit it. It is not a huge aquarium, but most of the big tanks are the “tube” type, where you walk through and the tank is on the sides and curves above you. This gives you some pretty good views of the fish. We spent about an hour and a half walking through the aquarium. It was a little pricey considering it's small size, but we still had fun.

After the aquarium we spent about an hour walking through the Ikea store, which is located right next door to the mall. I have never been in an Ikea and thought it was pretty neat. Once we were done there we stopped so Jackie could get a hair cut and then went back to the RV park. The park is full tonight, mostly with families enjoying the holiday weekend, so we sat outside with our cocktails and enjoyed the nice weather and watched the people running about.

Saturday, July 4th, Happy Indepen- dence Day. We decided that we would have a nice stay at home day today. We got a few chores done around the coach and just enjoyed a down day f

or a change. We did some burgers on the BBQ for dinner and watched the kids run around the campground all day. Sunday we enjoyed the Sunday paper with our coffee and went out after lunch to do some geocaching. We had a great afternoon and in a couple of hours we were able to get a dozen new finds, with no DNFs. One of the finds was our number 7,200, another milestone. Yea! After caching we headed for Walmart for some supplies and then back to the coach for the rest of the night.

Monday, July 6th, our last full day in Minneapolis. We had a heck of a night. Rain moved in, which had been predicted, around midnight and we had torrential rain for about six hours. There was some thunder and lightning, but the storms were minor, it was the rain that was bad. We developed a leak around the vent in the bathroom which was pouring water in. I managed to get some towels down and a pan to catch the worst of it, so the laminate flooring stayed dry. Fortunately, nothing else in the coach leaked, but we really had rain. When I got up I checked the local news and the weather gal said we had about three inches in our area, but just to the east of us they had over seven inches and were under flash flood warning.

The heavy rain stopped about sunup, but rain showers continued on and off until almost 3:00. It was way too wet to cache and we really didn't have anything we needed to do, so we just stayed in the rest of the day. In the early evening things had dried enough that I spent an hour or so taking stuff down and putting everything away for travel tomorrow.

Tuesday, July 7th, a travel day. We left Eagan about 11:00 and found our way to the freeway and headed to Osseo, Wisconsin, about 120 miles southeast. Osseo is a very small town, about 1,700, that is about 20 miles south of Eau Claire, a pretty good sized town for rural Wisconsin. There were no RV parks in Eau Claire, so we had to go south a little. We arrived at the Stoney Creek RV Resort about 1:00 and pretty quickly got setup. This is a very nice park with lots of amenities and appears to be well taken care of.

As usual on travel days, we didn't go anywhere today. I did go up on the roof and did some caulking around the bathroom vent that leaked so bad the other night. I hope I have that problem taken care of now. The other leaks seem to be staying fixed. We will be here in Osseo for three days before continuing south and east. When we crossed the border today I arrived back in my birth state. I was born in Milwaukee, but my folks moved to Arizona in 1960 when I was 13.

Our arrival in Wisconsin marks an excellent place to end this chapter and get it online. I will have another episode published just before we start our rally series here in Wisconsin. Until next time, remember the words of philosopher Herm Albright, who said; “A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.” Get out there and annoy some people! See ya.