Busy, Busy, Busy

Having finished the northern part of the Great River Road we headed back to the Minneapolis/Saint Paul metro area.

US Hwy 10 was part of our route. This was a very bumpy road–Minnesota winters make all the expansion joints expand and contract until, by Spring, you feel like you are driving down a railroad track. So we were pleased to see some of the nation’s stimulus money being used to repave part of US Hwy 10. It made for a much more pleasant ride. I even got to nap on part of that section.

We stopped at Dower Lake Recreation Area. We had made tentative plans to meet new friends here but our schedules were not meshing well. Still, we stopped to check it out. The internet there was very slooow so we decided to move on to Lindbergh State Park again, back in Little Falls, Minnesota. We knew we’d get better better internet there, not the fastest still, but better. We only registered for one night; we are anxious to get back to the Twin Cities where we know what we will find where in most cases.

Like the Minneapolis Northwest KOA. This is not one of the cheaper campgrounds around but we’ve been going there off and on for many years so we knew we could do laundry there and I could exchange my paperback books.

Do you remember me mentioning a billboard for Morries.com where Morrie voted himself #1? I saw another Morrie’s billboard. This one said, “Don’t worry. Buy Happy,” and suggested we hum along.

I saw a car towing what looked like a large cage behind it. When we got closer to it, it turned out to be a giant shopping cart. I mean I’ve heard of shopaholic but really?!

One advantage of being back in our previous home territory is we know where to find a laundromat with a machine big enough to wash our comforters. We parked next to their dumpster which had this sign on it:

Of course, I looked up.  And saw this:

Yup, kids, throwing your tennis shoes over a power line can be dangerous. If you don’t believe me, ask your mother.

Another advantage of being in familiar territory is knowing a better route than the one suggested by the GPS. We saved ourselves some real traffic hassles by not taking the suggested route.

And knowing where to go to get a good haircut without having to make an appointment. At least, we used to know that. My hairdresser was not there and I got butchered. You win some and you loose some. In this case, I lost a lot. My mother would cry and say I look like a boy. Of course, I don’t help that a lot by wearing mostly gender-neutral clothing. Nowadays, comfort is more important to me than feminine.

Then we tried to go to a park new to us in an area new to us and our GPS tried to send us down a dead end road. We managed to fumble our way though that one, though and finally found Rice Creek Chain of Lakes Regional Park. This is an Anoka County Park which is very quiet weeknights but filled to capacity on weekends. So we stayed there Thursday night and paid to come back on Sunday night.

Friday I saw a sign that said this section of road is maintained by “The Daughters of Penelope.” I wonder who Penelope is? I keep thinking I’ll Google that but I don’t seem to have time to do so.

Also on Friday, we went to William O’Brien State Park to check it out. They’d had a cancellation for a site we could have had if we’d arrived about an hour earlier but they had nothing for us now. We drove around the campground anyway, picking out a site we want to reserve for next month.

Yes, I said reserve. I know. We never make reservations. Make that almost never. We are going to host a wiener roast for Dave’s family so we need a site close to guest parking with a big enough area around the fire rings for all the chairs we hope to need. So we reserved a site. We even got some internet signal there even though this park has a reputation for getting NO signals. I guess our antenna and booster occasionally pay off. My phone doesn’t work there, though, even with the boost.

So, Friday night we wound up back in our friend’s driveway again and Tom and Dave went off to another model railroad operating session.

Saturday we spent the afternoon visiting with more friends. This couple is about to move to New York City and we’d left a bunch of our model train stuff with them for them to sell on eBay. Neither of us particularly wanted them to move it to New York with them. So now all that is in our storeroom with other things we have yet to be able to part with. The storeroom is getting full.

We were invited to an ice cream social Saturday night but we spent too much time visiting instead of moving boxes of train stuff Saturday afternoon so we were going to get there too close to ending time for us to be comfortable going. Oh, well. I like ice cream even though it doesn’t like me and it was a fund raiser for a group we would have liked to support. I guess I’ve become so used to doing everything on a whim, it’s hard for me to remember some things have schedules that means I will miss out if I don’t pay attention to time. It’s been so long since we paid attention to time we even put both our watches in the storeroom. Of course, you already know that about me since I keep reporting we arrived somewhere at the wrong day or time to see the things we planned to see. I guess I can’t relearn to be time conscious. Or subconciously don’t want to do so.

According to banners hanging along the streets, Money Magazine voted Plymouth, Minnesota, as “America’s Best Place to Live.” I hope the people who bought our house there appreciate that. We liked it before the urge to roam hit me so strongly.

“For Lease: Office, Medical, Dental.” It’s a cornfield!  Someone must be feeling optimistic.

I saw a small motorhome with a system that appealed to me. Lots of RVers have carpets they put outside to help keep from tracking in so much dirt. But we don’t have any place to store a carpet. This one had rolled it up and fastened it between the ladder and the back of the RV so it rested on the bumper. We could do that. If we could find something to get rid of to offset the weight of the carpet.

Sunday we went to a party of some Dave’s former co-workers and their spouses.  Dave worked for the same company from 1970 until retirement so we’ve known a lot of these people a long time. Plus several of them are part-time RVers with the time spent traveling increasing as they’ve started retiring as well.

It was a lot of fun. The hosts live on a lake and took those who wanted to go out for a boat ride. One of the couples also brought a game I watched to learn how it is played. And we talked and talked and talked giving each other a lot of grief and laughing each time. The grief they gave me was mostly about how long it’s been since I’ve updated my blog, so this is for you George and Jeff.

Then we went back to Thursday night’s park which is close to George’s house where we did manage to get all hooked up before dark thanks to Denise getting us all moving out of George and Sharon’s place in a somewhat timely manner.

We are visiting several parks in the Twin Cities area to get a feel for what our options are for future visits. Today we moved down to Prior Lake, Minnesota, to the Dakotah Meadows RV Park at Mystic Lake Casino. We have a paved, pull-through, full hook-up site for $30. They also offer paved, pull-through, dry camping for $10. And they have gas/diesel pumps, laundry, and storm shelter on site. And a $5 a day rate at their fitness center. And, of course, a free shuttle to the casino. But the thing that really brought us here is a self-serve RV wash. Our home is much cleaner now. Outside anyway. I still need to do more cleaning inside.

Tomorrow we will spend getting the 20K mile check-up on our vehicle and another front-end alignment. It seems like our to do list is not getting any shorter even though we keep deleting items from it.

For instance, I need to get new straps to hold my Segway to its mount on the back of our RV. So I called the dealer Friday to check on availability of them. He just called back and said he can get two of the three I need at $49.95 each! So now I need to find a place I can get custom webbing straps.

And Dave ordered prescription refills on-line and I got a call saying two of them didn’t come through so they needed to know which ones I was trying to refill. So they should have those ready for pick-up Wednesday when we’ll move to another park to check it out.

Then Friday we need to do laundry and buy groceries because Saturday we head to Forest City, Iowa, for Winnebago’s Grand National Rally.

Then we come back here for doctor, dentist, audiologist, and optometrist appointments.

Am I making you tired yet? This retirement stuff can be hard work.

TTYL,

Linda