While still camped at Baker Park Reserve we watched people arriving across the road from us. The first car arrived and started setting up a HUGE tent which intruded on the site next to them. Then a car arrived pulling a boat and parked in the second site’s driveway. The first group set up an awning over the second site’s picnic table. A third vehicle carrying four people arrived and parked in the site with the first vehicle. The one with the boat moved to nearby overflow parking and a pickup truck with a truck camper in its bed and a boat pulled behind it backed into the second site. They later moved the boat to the overflow parking and re-parked their camper. In the meantime, a second HUGE tent appeared. By the time they were done they had 4 vehicles, 2 boats, 2 tents, 1 camper, 2 covered picnic tables, and least 10 people. We never heard them, though. Nice quiet neighbors. That’s the kind we like.
While staying in the Twin Cities I uploaded my Minnesota Public Park Camping database to this blog. It’s the largest one yet; it has 297 records. If you are interested in it look at the bottom of the right hand column of this blog.
REI is our primary source of freeze dried food. We shopped at two of their stores in the Twin Cities so now our food cupboard is full again. We also bought some other things there to make our lives more comfortable. Such as a couple of these seat cushions which let us sit on the daybed without falling over backwards.
We also shopped at Micro Center which bills itself as a computer department store. I should say Dave shopped there. I stayed in the RV to keep from buying a new computer. Dave needed a USB port to serial port adapter for a project he and a friend are working on. We know from experience that Micro Center is a good place to get this kind of thing. If you can keep from buying a new computer while you are there.
I saw a NAPA Auto Parts car that was dead on the side of the road. I wonder which parts he needed?
Baker Park fills up on the weekends so we needed to move back to our friend’s driveway for a couple of nights.
They are willing to have us there using their electricity because Dave is helping Tom solve a model railroad operating computer challenge. Plus, Dave rides with Tom to operating sessions; Tom prefers having company for those drives. So it’s a win-win situation. We take turns buying the pizza. That’s a win-win, too, because the guys can share their lots-of-meat pizza and Nancy and I can get all the ingredients the guys refuse to eat.
On the way there we did a bunch more errands. We finally found some Coffee Rich at Lund’s so I can continue having cereal for breakfast–for awhile, at least. We went to our rented storeroom and put more stuff in than we took out so our RV weighs a couple pounds less–like me it’s not enough of a loss but we’ll take any we can get. We went to another batteries Plus and got a second new battery for my camera so I can, once again, swap them in the middle of a museum. And we went to Walgreen’s to get my favorite type of pocket notebook in which I write the notes for these blogs.
Along the way I saw several “interesting” signs:
1. Morries.com “Voted the #1 car site by Morrie himself.” I should hope so. My Dad once told me when I was running for some office that if I didn’t vote for myself why should I expect anyone else to do so? I do wonder about Morrie though since he’s been selling cars as long as I can remember; do you suppose it’s Morrie Jr. doing the voting now?
2. McDonald’s is advertising sweet tea saying, “Get it for only $1 on any day that ends in Y.” That means you can only get it seven days in any one week. They make you feel like you need to hurry to take advantage of this deal that is available all the time. Good advertising psychology.
3. A golf advertising sign said, “1 birdie, 3 pheasants. I am legendary.” Are they saying pheasants aren’t birds? Are they saying you can kill pheasants with golf balls? What is the message here?
4. Target Free Thursdays. The Walker Art Center has free admission every Thursday from 5-9 p.m. There’s nothing funny about this one; it’s just a good deal if you like art museums.
We keep getting messages from friends and family saying things like “So, when are you coming to see us?” to which we say, “Not yet.” I guess I’d better explain. Dave gets homesick. Minneapolis was home his whole life until we hit the road last year. I’m afraid if we stay here too long we will never leave again. So we made a deal we would come here for most of the summer but we would take trips away from The Cities regularly during that time so we wouldn’t get too strongly attached again. So my next posts will come from our trip up the Great River Road to the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Then we’ll be back in The Cities for a little over a week visiting more friends and letting Dave get in a couple more model railroad operating sessions. Then we go to Winnebago’s big annual together in Iowa. Then we go back to The Cities to visit some more and do all our medical appointments. So we’ll be in and out of “home” until at least the middle of August. By then we should have managed to see everyone who still wants to see us. So, if you are one of them, be patient, please; your turn is coming.
TTYL,
Linda