The Summer 2015 RV Rally Circuit

Hi there, welcome back to our story. Our last episode ended on Sunday, July 19^th, when we moved from the Wisconsin Dells area east to the city of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, for the Monaco International Chapter rally, the first of three rallies this summer in Wisconsin. We traveled to to Manitowoc with our friends Gary and Ramona Wilson, who surprised us by showing up in Wisconsin for the rallies. We thought they were still work camping in Colorado, but they decided they had had enough and headed out to enjoy their new, to them anyway, motor home. After we got setup at the Monaco rally on the fairgrounds in Manitowoc, we went to a volunteer dinner and then home to relax.

Monday, July 20^th, we were, believe it or not, up at 5:30, yes a.m., and out the door by 7:30, heading for the shore of Lake Michigan to go on a five hour sport fishing trip. We both enjoy fishing, but don't do much of it because of the requirement to always get out of state licenses wherever we travel. We rarely stay in a state long enough to make it worth while to pay the fees. This trip had been setup by the wagon masters for the Monaco Rally and there were six of us from the rally that showed up to go out for the trip.

We were on a 28 foot sport fisher called the “Willie Bee” with the captain and his mate. They provided everything but the license, and Wisconsin is very reasonable with a two day license for just $14. The captain told us that other charter operators had said the fishing was good just off shore, so we never went more than a half mile or so off shore, and we just went back and forth across the mouth of one of the rivers flowing into Lake Michigan. We were fishing for trout and salmon and we were fortunate to be able to catch six big rainbow trout, each in the 12 to 14 pound range, one brown trout of about 12 pounds, and a big, 16 pound king salmon. The weather was OK, although by the time we came in at 1:30 there was a storm brewing and the waves were getting rough.  

Each of the six of us manged to land at least one fish, and there were several that got away. I lost two before I was able to get one into the boat. The captain said it was one of the better days he has had in the last couple months and we were very happy too. After they cleaned and filleted the fish for us, we walked away with about 10 or 12 pounds of very good looking fish to eat. After fishing we went back to the coach to rest for a while. We went out to dinner with the Wilson's about 6:00, but were too tired to visit with anyone. We were in bed by 9:30. The Mexican restaurant we went to was OK, but not the best. It had all Mexican staff, but the food was what I called a Wisconsin resident's idea of what Mexican food should be, Taco Bell lite. I guess being 2,000 miles from Mexico it shouldn't surprise us to find the food not quite up to our expectations.

Tuesday, July 21^st, we had a free day. Some parts of the rally started today, but there were no seminars or other obligations during the day. We had lunch at the coach and then went out with the Wilson's to do some geocaching. We ended up with eleven new finds and one DNF for a couple hours of caching. After caching we stopped at Walmart for some supplies before heading back to the fairgrounds. At 5:30 they had a beer and BBQ dinner at the pavilion, sponsored by one of the coach dealerships that brought some of their new coaches for display. They had hamburgers and brats, along with the fixings, all made by the same catering company, Festival, as we had for the volunteer dinner. Everything was great. About 7:00 the festivities were done and we went back to the coach and watched TV for the rest of the evening.

Wednesday, July 22^nd, the first full day of the Monaco International Chapter rally. We were up and out early for an 8:30 meeting, in fact, we were early enough to surprise our friends and show up for breakfast at 8:00. At the Monaco rallies they provide breakfast and dinner for the four days when there is rally activity. We rarely make breakfast, but this morning we did enjoy our eggs and sausage. After breakfast we went to a meeting of the volunteer mentors. One of the features of Monaco International is that they arrange for volunteer members to serve as mentors to first time rally attendees. We were mentored at our first rally in Ashville, North Carolina back in 2006 and thought it a great idea. We have served as mentors for almost every Monaco rally since.

After the brief mentors meeting we got to meet our “mentees” at the First Timers meeting which followed. Ours is a couple somewhat younger than us that are from San Jose, California. They only travel for a few months at a time as they still have a teenager at home. They are a very nice couple, very outgoing and talkative, which we enjoy. We talked to them for a while before the meeting broke up and Jackie had to go to her Board meeting. Jackie is one of the Regional Directors for Monaco International. She is one of the two Regional Directors for Region 2, which is California, Nevada and Arizona. Her job is to contact new members of Monaco International whose home base in the region and welcome them to the club, and also serve as their point of contact to the Executive Board of MI. While Jackie was in that meeting I went back to the coach for a while.

When I got back to the coach I noticed that there were several people gathered around the large industrial generator that is posted next to our coach. For most of these motorhome rallies electric power is provided by generators rented by the rally and setup to provide 30 amp electric to the coaches. In this case our generator was acting up, the voltage going up and down and the engine surging. This kind of activity is not good for the electrical systems of our coaches, so most people, including me, chose to unplug from this “shore” power source and turn on our own generators until they could get it fixed.

Jackie finished her meeting and came back to the coach for a while and about 12:30 we headed back over to the building to attend a presentation by Mike Snell, the President of the Monaco Division of Allied Specialty Vehicles, the company that now owns Monaco. Mike has been with Monaco for over 20 years, surviving good times, bad times, the bankruptcy, and two changes of ownership, always bouncing back as the guy in charge. Mike talked for a half hour or 45 minutes about what was going on with Monaco, the problems with the company in the past and their plans for the near future and beyond. It was interesting, but not anything we didn't know at least a little about.

After Mike's presentation Jackie went to another presentation by Mike that he puts on for women only. The idea is to get the woman's perspective on coach design and appointment. He does the same with men only tomorrow. After that we had some down time, so we picked up our mail, which we had sent to the rally, and then spent a couple hours at the coach relaxing and doing a few chores. About 3:30 they had fixed the generator, so I switched back over to their power. It seemed to be working OK and we went over to the Keg party at the pavilion where the new coach display was. We chatted and visited with people until about 4:00 when we walked over to the dining hall to help setup the bar. Once they let people in at 4:30, Jackie went to our table to talk to the people we are mentoring and I worked behind the bar. The mentors always sit with their people on the first night's dinner and entertainment.

After the bar closed I got my salad and went over to the table, only to have to leave for a bit because the word was passed that the bad generator was acting up again. I went back to the coach, disconnected again and started our generator. I then went back to dinner. They started the evening by introducing all the dignitaries and officers of MI, then they had a very nice Military Tribute, honoring all the branches of service. Then dinner was served. Tonight was pulled pork and chicken with a raspberry sauce. Both were very good. They also had scalloped potatoes and corn on the cob. This caterer is outstanding and has really good food. After dinner they started the entertainment, which was a local country and western band. They were OK, but not outstanding and we got tired of it pretty quickly. We left after about a half hour and headed back to the coach where we relaxed until bedtime. They finally got the generator fixed again about bedtime, so I switched back to shore power again.

Thursday, July 23^rd, I went down to the events center about 10:30 for a seminar put on for men only by Mike Snell of Monaco. There wasn't anything new or surprising presented. After Mike's presentation we had the rest of the afternoon off, so we had some lunch and then went out in the car for some more exploring. We drove downtown and looked around some, then decided that we would go see if we could find the Elks Lodge. There was some conflicting information online about the lodge. The State Association web site indicated that there was a lodge here in Manitowoc, but some other websites talked about it as closed. We went to the address listed and found an old, abandoned golf club. The clubhouse was there, and you could see where the golf course had been, but it was all grown over and full of weeds. There was nothing on the building to indicate it was an Elks Lodge and it looked empty, but the picture on the State Association website showed that same building. We finally came to the conclusion that this had been the Elks, but it was now closed.

We did some more exploring, found one geocache just for fun, and then went to a couple of stores looking for coffee and a couple of other things that we couldn't find at Walmart the other day. Once we were done with our running around we went back to the coach and relaxed for a bit. About 4:30 we went over to the dining hall and helped get the bar set up. We worked the bar for happy hour and then sat down for dinner. 

We sat at a table with Gary and Ramona, as well as some first timers, one couple of which were also geocachers. The meal was wonderful again, with roast beef and baked cod, along with potatoes and veggies. After dinner they had a group called the Riverside Swing Band and they were outstanding. The majority of the audience stayed until the end of the show at 9:00. They did 40's and 50's music with lots of horns. They had a drummer and an upright bass, and the guitarist was the lead singer. They also had three horn players, sax, trumpet and trombone. They played a mix of early rock and roll and swing music and everyone really enjoyed them. After the show we went back to the coach and watched TV until bed.

Friday, July 24^th, we left the coach about 10:00 and went over to the events center to set up the room for our geocaching seminar. We put on a caching seminar at the Monaco rally in Pahrump earlier this year and they asked us back. We had about twenty people in the room, although most of them were geocachers already, there were still a couple of people there who were just interested in learning about the hobby. We put on an hour long seminar and it went pretty well. After the seminar we went back to the coach and relaxed for a while. We had lunch and then about 1:00 the Monaco service tech arrived to attempt some repairs on the coach. One of the great things about the Monaco International Rallies is that Monaco almost always sends a few service techs and a support truck, and also a parts trailer, to the rally. You have to pay for any parts, but the service labor is free. I had the guy adjust the front door on our coach, which has been giving us issues for a while. He also gave me a pretty good idea of what the problem with one of our slides is. It hesitates coming in and he told me it was most likely just the actual switch on the wall, given the symptoms I described. He didn't have any switches with him, but I can order one from Monaco parts and put that in myself.

At 4:00 we went down to the dining hall and helped set up the bar for the evening. At 5:00 everyone came in for happy hour and we had good time at the bar serving everyone. The bar is one of the fun jobs to volunteer for because you are always dealing with happy people. Free booze will do that. Dinner tonight was Wellington beef, but there was no bread coating like you normally expect on a Wellington. It was still very good. They also had sliced pork roast, potatoes and veggies. The entertainment tonight was an Elvis tribute group, Art Kistler and the EP Boulevard Show band. Art was a bit of hookey looking Elvis impersonator, he didn't look anything like Elvis and the wig was a bit over the top. However, he was a great singer and if you just listened to the music and not his silly impersonation moves, it was a great show. He was very personable and came out in the audience and walked around, flirting with the women, while he sang. Jackie got one of the dozen little teddy bears when he walked around singing “I just want to be your teddy bear.” We will save that for my new great grandson Josiah when we see him in September. About two thirds of the audience, including us and the Wilson's, stayed until the end of the show at 9:30. That is a really good indicator of a good show at these rallies where a lot of the people have an early bedtime and are not afraid of just leaving if the music is bad, too loud, or not their style. We went back to the coach, relaxed for a bit and went to bed.

Saturday, July 25^th, the last full day of the Monaco Rally. We were out of the coach about 10:30 and in the dining hall for the business meeting of the Monaco International Chapter. That meeting went for about 90 minutes and then they had a short meeting for those planning to caravan together from Manitowoc to Madison for the FMCA rally on Sunday. We are going to go with the caravan, so I stayed for that meeting. Jackie then had a meeting of Regional Directors and I went back to the coach and began to take down decorations and the screens in preparation for travel tomorrow. We have to be ready to leave with the caravan by 8:00, so I wanted to get as much done as possible today.

We had lunch at the coach and didn't do much in the afternoon after we got most things put away for travel. At 4:00 we went to the dining hall to help set up the bar and at 5:00 we were bartenders again. Dinner tonight was very good, it was prime rib, baked potatoes and veggies. The prime rib was outstanding. I can't say enough about the good food we had at this rally. There was no entertainment tonight, they just had some closing remarks and a few door prizes, none of which were won by anyone at our table. We were back home by 7:30 and watched TV the rest of the evening.

Sunday, July 26^th, we were up early and had the coach packed up and running by 8:00. We left our parking space and were directed to the caravan area by the parkers and lined up according to what kind of parking we had at FMCA. FMCA has electric, non-electric, volunteers, governing board, handicap and several other parking categories. The caravan pulled out of the fairgrounds right at 9:00 and had some assistance going through town from the Manitowoc Police Department. There were 31 coaches in the caravan, which makes an impressive line, but nothing like the 300 we had years back when the group went from Lancaster, California to Pomona. The caravan went pretty well, no accidents and not too much spreading out except at the very back where they had trouble matching speed. We were right in the middle of the group and it went OK. We had some help in a couple of the small towns and right angle turns from local police and sheriff's. The first half of the route was on two lane highway with lots of little towns and turns. Once we reached about half way the road turned into a limited access four lane divided road.

We arrived at the FMCA rally, being held at the Allient Energy Center grounds in Madison, Wisconsin, about noon. The parking people were supposed to have known we were coming, but they put us in a holding area where we sat for three hours before they finally figured out what to do with everyone. We finally got parked in our spot about 3:00. We seem to have a good spot, a paved parking lot quite near the activity areas. We have electric, but they won't run the generators until Tuesday morning, so we have to go with our own on-board generators today and Monday.

After we got the minimal stuff set up we drove into downtown to get something to eat. We had not had breakfast or lunch and we were starved. We found a nice bar and grill right across the street from the Capitol Building called D-Lux. We both had hamburgers and fries, but they were very much gourmet burgers. Mine was green chili, Jackie had one with wine sauteed onions. The food was very good, as was the service. After eating we went back to the coach and finished setting up. We had some new friends, Riley and Karen Caton, come over to chat, but they didn't stay too long. The Caton's were first timers at the Monaco Rally and they were geocachers, so we immediately had something in common. We sat together most meals and found them to be very nice people. After the Caton's left we watched TV and went to bed early because of our early start.

Monday, July 27^th, an early parking day at the FMCA Rally in Madison with no scheduled rally activities yet. About 11:30 we were visited by two of my cousins from Milwaukee. Bill and Barbara Benish drove in to visit us. One of my mother's sisters, whose nickname was Puss, and her husband Leo, had three kids, Bill, Richard, and Roger. Roger was the youngest and was the same age as me. When we still lived in Milwaukee, prior to 1960, Roger was my best friend and we spent a lot of time together. Roger was the youngest, Bill was seven years older and Rich was nine years older. Needless to say, we didn't spend much time with Bill and Rich at the time as they were teenagers when we were little grade school kids. Roger always had health issues and died 25 years ago. Rich died about a year and a half ago. Barbara was Rich's wife, in fact, Roger and I were ushers at their wedding in 1959. Bill's wife Karen died about a year ago. Barbara and Rich are the only members of the family still living.

I “rediscovered” Bill on Facebook a couple years ago, and other than my cousin Arleen I talked about earlier in this chapter, they are the only relatives from Milwaukee that I am in contact with. When Bill learned that we were going to be in Madison he told me that he would try to come to see us and bring his sister in law Barbara with him. The last time I saw Bill was back in the late 70's when my ex and I made a trip back to Wisconsin with my parents. Bill and Barbara sat and visited with us for a couple of hours before they decided they needed to get on the road to beat traffic. We talked a lot about family, some of whom I remembered, some names that sounded familiar, and some I didn't remember at all. It was a great visit and it was fun to see some old relatives again. Barbara has done a lot of ancestry work on the family and she is going to send me some of the family tree information.

After Bill and Barbara left we went out and got a late lunch at a Mexican restaurant called El Pastor. It had decent ratings on Yelp, but the food was mediocre at best and not very authentic. The service wasn't so hot either and I wouldn't recommend the place at all. We then stopped so Jackie could get a haircut and then we were off to Costco for a supply run. It has been a couple months since we were near a Costco, so we had a lot of stuff on the list. After we got back and put our frozen food away we drove over to the handicap parking lot and visited with Gary and Ramona for a while. We just stayed for a cocktail before heading back to our coach for the rest of the night.

Tuesday, July 28^th, the power from the outside generator came online just after 8:00, so now we should be able to run off of the external power for the rest of the rally. Before lunch we walked up to the events area just to look around. This is still considered an early parking day, so the only thing open was the information booth and after a few minutes we went back to the coach and ate lunch. After lunch we went out to do some exploring and geocaching. We drove around, looking at neighborhoods, downtown, and the University of Wisconsin campus. The campus here is huge, running for miles along a lake shore. We were able to get six new finds, and one DNF. We finally quit caching because the heat was in the 80's and the humidity was about 100 percent. We went to Walmart for some supplies and then headed back to the coach for the rest of the evening.

Wednesday, July 29^th, the first “official” day of the FMCA rally here in Madison. We went down to the events center about 11:00 or so to pick up our rally pins and let Jackie check out the crafts to see if she wanted to participate in any of them this year. She decided she didn't, so we walked back to the coach and had lunch. We went back to the events area again for our first seminar at 1:30. It was on beginning genealogy. I had done a little bit of genealogy on my family a few years back, but ran into some roadblocks and kind of dropped the project. Reconnecting with my cousins spurred my interest again, so we went to this seminar. It was very interesting and very helpful and I think that I am going to give it another try. The seminar sort of reinvigorated my interest and curiosity about “where I come from” again. After that seminar we came back to the coach and hung around until about 5:00 when we left to go to the Elks Lodge. We were planning on meeting the Wilson's and the Baron's there for cocktails and dinner.

The Madison Elks Lodge is nothing short of spectacular. It is a few blocks from the Capitol in downtown, right on the shore of Lake Monona, only about ten minutes from the fairgrounds. The building has a large bar and restaurant upstairs, with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the lake. Downstairs they have a big ballroom, also with windows overlooking the lake and going out onto a large, lakeside lawn. One of the trusties of the lodge came over and greeted us and took a few of us on a little tour. He said that they had a wedding booked almost every weekend because of the great location and views.

The Lodge, #410, was chartered in 1898 and up until the mid 60's had a big building downtown. The City of Madison approached them and traded the downtown land for the lake front land,which they had just acquired, and in 1965 the lodge moved into their current building. The trustee told us it is one of the most valuable non-governmental pieces of property in town. We had a couple of cocktails and were joined by a few other people from the rally before the six of us headed in for dinner. The lodge had a dinner special of a half rack of ribs, potato and soup or salad for $10 and that is what five of the six of us ordered. The ribs were wonderful, very meaty and tender. It was quite a deal and very good. We all left and headed back to the fairgrounds about 8:00 and we stayed in and watched TV the rest of the night.

Thursday, July 30^th, we got out of the coach and up to the events area by 9:45 for the Full Timers Seminar, which is always put on by the Full Timers Chapter. This was the first time in a couple of years that I was able to be in the audience and not on the panel. I finished my two one-year terms of office as President of the Chapter this spring and the new president had to put the seminar together. The seminar went well and afterward we moved to another room for a business meeting of the Chapter. That meeting was well attended and we visited with several Chapter members we had not seen in a while.

After the business meeting we went down to the cafeteria they had set up downstairs and had lunch. The food was very good, although a little pricey, but we didn't have to go all the way back to our coach for lunch. After lunch we spent some time in the vendor area, which just opened this morning. We didn't buy much today, but did see a couple of things that I want to think about. After touring the vendors for the first time we went to a meeting of the Military Veteran's Chapter. That meeting lasted an hour or so and then we went back to the coach.

We made some cocktails and took our lawn chairs over to the Baron's coach where we had a small group of Full Timers Chapter friends gather for cocktails. We ended up across the street under a tree so we would have shade. We spent an hour or so with the group before getting in the car and heading back to the downtown area for an off-site event. Everyone who had registered for the FMCA rally got an email invite to an evening of food, drink and entertainment put on by the Entegra Coach company. Entegra is a new brand of luxury coach that emerged a few years back during the tough years of RV companies going out of business and merging.

The event was held at a place called Monona Terrace, which is a city owned conference and event center which was designed and built by Frank Loyd Wright back in the 50's Wright, who was a Wisconsin native, had been trying to get the city to build this place for twenty years before it was finally finished. There were about 250 or 300 people at the event, including the Wilson's, Baron's and several other couples we know. They had an open wine and beer bar and some very nice appetizer type foods like fried chicken, meatballs, egg rolls and other items. The food was excellent and we ate our fill and visited with some folks for an hour or so. They were also offering tours of the facility and there were a number of docents located at several places in this very large building to talk about the facility and Wright. After the tour we were shepherded back to the ballroom where Entegra put on a half hour presentation about their company and products. They then brought out a comic who put on an hour long show for the group. The comic, John DeVoer, was very funny and had everyone in the room laughing. I had seen him once on the TV show Last Comic Standing and remembered the name. The event ended about 9:00 and by 9:30 we were back in the coach to watch a little TV, ironically an episode of this season's Last Comic Standing, before going off to bed.

Friday, July 31^st, we didn't have any early seminar commitments, so we were able to relax with our coffee. About 11:30 we went down to the events area and attended the second genealogy session, put on by the same guy. Again, we picked up a lot of hints and ideas and are getting excited about restarting my genealogy project. After that session we went to another building to help with the ice cream social. The Full Timer's Chapter is always tasked with staffing the ice cream social at FMCA rallies, and for the last two rallies Jackie and I have been in charge. It was nice today to just go over, help out where needed and not have to make decisions or worry about setting things up.

After the ice cream, where we gave 3,000 people an ice cream sandwich in about 15 minutes, Jackie went to a woman's social and I went back to the coach, picked up my guitar, and came back to the arena for a jam session. It was kind of small, just four other performers, but it was a lot of fun. After a bit of practice playing with each other we had sessions where each of us got up and did two songs. If the other players were familiar, or could follow along, they would play too. We did this twice, so I got four songs in. There was an audience of about a hundred people and they were very nice and gracious, despite the fact that none of us were exceptional musicians.

After the jam session I went back to the coach, as did Jackie, and we relaxed for a bit. About 5:30 Gary and Ramona came over for cocktails. Gary and I went out and picked up a pizza from a local joint and we had cocktails and pizza for dinner. We chatted for a while and a little before 7:00 we went over to the arena for the evening entertainment. Tonight was a group called New Odyssey, which I know has played at a number of other FMCA events, but I don't think we ever went to see them. It is just three guys who have 30 different instruments on stage, and at one time or another each of them plays all of them. They have a wide variety of horns, including a tuba, banjos, guitars, a harmonica, even an accordion. They also throw in some comedy and they are an outstanding group, great music and great fun. We finally got back to the coach about 9:30, watched and little TV and then went to bed.

Saturday, August 1^st, another month in the record books. Today is the last full day of the FMCA Rally here in Madison. I got up and out early for the 9:45 Annual Membership Meeting of FMCA. Jackie didn't want to go. The meeting lasted about an hour, after which I went to vendors and bought some LED replacements for some of our kitchen fluorescent lights. I made one more pass through the vendors, but wasn't able to come up with anything more to buy.

We had lunch at the events center and then went to an afternoon meeting of the INTO Area of FMCA. Most of the chapters we belong to are part of the International Area, or INTO, so that is the Area meeting we try to attend. After the INTO meeting we went back to the coach and relaxed for a while. I took down the screens and outside decorations, getting ready to leave tomorrow. We had an early dinner and about 7:00 went over to the coliseum for the entertainment. Tonight was William Florian, a guitar player who used to be with the New Christy Minstrels and who is now out on his own with a drummer and bass player. We saw him last summer in Redmond at the FMCA Rally and he put on a good show. The show tonight was very much the same, but we still enjoyed it. We were done and back at the coach by 9:00 and watched TV until bedtime.

Sunday, August 2^nd, we noticed the coaches started leaving about 7:00 a.m. We were not in a big hurry because we were only going about 60 miles north, back up to the Wisconsin Dells for the last rally of this cycle, the two day 3T's rally. By the time we were packed up and ready to leave at 10:30 the parking lot was nearly empty. We arrived at the Country Roads RV park in Lake Delton at noon. Lake Delton is right next door to Wisconsin Dells, and not far from Baraboo, where we were two weeks ago. We got checked in and set up pretty quickly, but it was really hot. We decided to just stay home and try to stay cool. This 3T's rally is held after every FMCA Rally and gives the members two days to calm down after a busy rally. The 3T's are for To dump, To rest, and To do laundry.

There were fifteen rigs, 30 people, here for the rally and we met for cocktail hour at 4:00. A lot of our friends are in this chapter, including the Baron's and the Wilson's, both of whom came to the rally. About 5:30 we all got in our cars and went to a nearby restaurant for dinner. We went to Sprechers, which is a German style restaurant with locations in several Wisconsin cities. I had the wurst platter, which had three different kinds of wurst along with red cabbage and spetzel, a German pasta. It was excellent. Jackie had jambalaya, which doesn't seem German, but was one of their specialties. She said it was very good as well. With 30 people it was hard to visit with anyone except the people right on either side of you, but we had a great time anyway. After dinner we went back to the park and the Wilson's and Baron's stopped over for a drink before everyone headed to their own coaches. We relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Monday, August 3^rd, we actually got up to go have breakfast. Jackie had been charged with baking some of the biscuits for the biscuits and gravy, so we just stayed for breakfast with everyone after delivering the biscuits. After breakfast we had a business meeting for the Chapter, which included voting in new officers. After the meeting we had the rest of the day off. We thought about doing laundry, but decided to let it go for another day and relax.

I spent part of the day playing around with our refrigerator. Our motor home is ten years old and we
have had problems, on and off, with the refrigerator since we bought the coach. In the first year we were in the shop three times getting the thing fixed. Each time they had to replace the cooling unit on the back of the fridge. This meant having to take it out of the hole, laying it down on the floor and changing the guts in the back. The fridge weighs about 250 pounds, so it is not an easy task to take it out and then put it back. The last time it went out was in February of 2010. The refrigerator was out of warranty from the manufacturer, so our extended warranty paid for the repair, less the deductible. Since it was not a factory repair the service guy installed an after market cooling unit that he said was much better than the factory units. It did go five years, but it is on it's way out now. The fridge is barely cooling and I fear we are about to be fixing it again, or replacing it with a residential refrigerator. That is a direction that a lot of people have gone, for the reliability and the fact that the RV refrigerator pose a fire hazard from overheating. There have been a lot of RV fires over the years started by a malfunctioning refrigerator.

At 4:30 we met with the group for cocktails and at 6:00 we had a nice pot luck dinner in the pavilion at the RV park. The rally hosts cooked some chicken breasts and everyone else brought a dish to share. The meal was very good and everyone had a great time. After dinner we went back to our coach and relaxed in front of the TV for the rest of the night.

Tuesday, August 4^th, the rallies are over for this summer. We met everyone for coffee and breakfast at 8:00. They were making waffles too, but we don't eat breakfast and didn't have any waffles. After saying goodbye to everyone we went back to our coach and packed it up for travel. We left the RV park around 10:30, headed south to Rockford, Illinois, about 130 miles or so. We were traveling with the Wilson's and they were going to stay at the same park with us for three days.

We arrived at the Blackhawk Valley Campground around 1:00 or so and got set up in an hour or so. We are parked right next to the Wilson's. The phone service is terrible, but they have decent WiFi, so we will be able to stay in touch. We were lucky to get a spot with a hole in the tree cover just big enough for us to get a satellite feed. The Wilson's were not so lucky. As soon as we got set up we loaded the car with our laundry and headed to a laundromat. We also stopped for a burger at a local place called Beef-a-Roo. The food was pretty decent, way better than the chain stuff. We got our laundry done and were back at the campgrounds by 5:30, but we were whipped, so we had a cocktail and relaxed the rest of the evening. The refrigerator has officially died and I am working out some alternatives in my head.

This ends the two-plus weeks of rallies and marks a good spot to close this chapter. We are making every effort to deal with our dead refrigerator without panic or worry. Until the next time, remember the words of author and therapist, Virginia Satir. Life is not the way it's supposed to be. It's the way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference. As the English say, Keep Calm and Carry On. See ya soon.

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.