We set up our summer home (Casa de Verano) at Fish Lake Acres, a campground about five mile south of our daughter, Denise's, place in the Twin Cities area from the middle of June through the middle of July. Nice and quite and a great place to start full time RVing. Keep us informed by clicking on the email link Larry and Glorine.
	Being so close to our daughter, meant lots of time with the grand kids. Here, Cool Hand Chase was dancing to the music at a local community sponsored concert.	The Teddy Bear Band provided the music, a lot of humor and games for the kids to partake in.
	This project started in June and Grandpa Larry worked on it until the final moments. Clara and Grandma picked out the theme and the design from the Internet and Grandpa followed it to the tee.	It was a Princess Castle pontoon float for the 4th of July boat parade on Prior Lake. The weather was threatening, but in the end, it was another perfect day.
	Princess Clara was in seventh heaven and the star of the show. Here she is with Prince Chase, Queen Denise and King Craig.	Of course Clara picked out a card board castle that was very intricate, but Grandpa prevailed and got it done to her liking. And the hard work paid off--we took first place in the pontoon division.
	About 50 boats, pontoons and jet skis participated in the parade. And each division winner took home a prize. Clara won a huge tube to pull behind the pontoon, although it works better behind Craig's speed boat.	The Fourth of July is a big event, especially on the lakes of Minnesota. Denise's next door neighbor has an annual party for neighbors, family and friends. They had lots of toys for the kids to play with including a giant water slide.
	Between settling into our new home and spending time with the kids, we took time to visit family in the area and friends we have made over the years. Here we are entertaining Kay and Gary Thompson, friends from the Twin Cities that we met in Ajijic. Nice catching up and reliving the fun times of wintering in Mexico.	We flew out to California to spend time with the other half of the Barnhardt clan. Here is a picture of Carmen, Mike, Dakota, Sierra and Hunter on an RV trip we took in Ol Blue along the coast between LA and San Diego, near Camp Pendleton.   The Pacific Ocean is in the background.
	The terrain is pretty rugged, which is such a stark contrast to life in the big city. It is also so remarkable that this view is only an hour south of Carmen's place.	And what would be camping without a campfire. A must do when "SMORES" are on the the menu. Dakota and Sierra are enjoying them.
	From the bluffs overlooking the ocean, to an "over the top" RV park along Mission Bay in San Diego, Nana enjoyed her alone time with baby Hunter. We don't think he knows what to make of the RVing experience. But then again, he is only five months old!!   We were in California when he was born and helped out for a couple of weeks while Carmen and Mike were getting adjusted to a family of three.  At the rate Baby Hunter is growing, he won't be a baby for long.	When we knew that we were spending time in San Diego, we called up family and friends in the area. Here we are with Chris Bently (and his wife Angela), who we once babysat for back in North Dakota. Chris's grandma, Doris was a friend of Glorine's oldest brother Leo and was very helpful to him when he was going through his cancer treatments. It was great to catch up and see how good he is doing.
	Both Carmen and Mike once lived in the San Diego area and invited over some of their friends from the past. The weather could not have been nicer--maybe that is one of the reasons why San Diego is dubbed as one of the "best" climates in the world. Ajijic happens to be another city on the best climate list.	Being in "an over the top RV park" they had everything from boat rentals, to live bands each night to a four (in this case seven) seat bike. It was nice to be at sea level and having four peddlers. It made the tour of the RV park that much more enjoyable.
	The weekend flew by just as fast as we knew it would. The big change that occurred when we got back to Fullerton is it was Sierra's first day in preschool. Hmmm! Wonder what is going through her mind?  Sierra is 2-1/2 years old and the next time we get to see her will be when she turns three, which will be in October.  By that time Dakota will have started kindergarten!	After our world wind tour to California and back, we took our first big road trip in Verano to the big RV rally held in Louisville, Kentucky. It happen to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the very first recreational vehicle to come off the assembly line in 1910. Here is just one of many vintage RVs that were on display at the Rally.
	Along with vintage RVs and a thousand new RVs for sale, the Rally hosted hundreds of exhibitors and had about 20 seminars to chose from each of the five days we were there.  Lastly, they had lots of entertainment.  Here is Bob Newhart, stammering out joke after joke for over an hour.  The next night we attended a concert featuring Tanya Tucker.  The rally was more than we could every have expected.  And as full time RVers, it could not have come at a better time.	We are no strangers to Kentucky, having spent the first ten years of our married life and raising our daughters there.  We also made lifetime friends.  Scott and Larry attended graduate school together back in the early 1970s.  Scott spent several nights with us in our RV--he fished while we attended the Rally.  We also got to spend an evening at Scott and Joy's home in Frankfort, playing cards and reminiscing about all the great times we shared together over the years.
	From Frankfort, we went to Richmond, which was our home for three years.  That is where Glorine and Diane Bolton met while working together for City Hall, exactly 40 years ago.  We went RVing together at one of the world's best fishing lake (Dale Hallow State Park) where David won several bass  tournaments.  Here we are checking out a 100', three decker, house boat with air conditioning and a hot tub.  WHY, we don't know--it costs $10,000 per week to rent.	Dale Hallow Lake is on the border of Kentucky and Tennessee and along with hiking and swimming, we took lots of road trips seeing the sights and sounds of the rural south.  Here we are with David and Diane at an arts and crafts show in one small town in Tennessee.   It does not look like it, but it was very hot and humid.  The heat index reach over 100 degrees--but fun none the less.
	Larry could not resist taking a picture of this "BARN" with a "HARDT" shape quilt painted on the side.  It was one of many different designs called barn quilts we saw as we went sight seeing, through this neck of the woods.	Leaving the state park, we drove to Nashville through the rolling and winding hills of Kentucky and ran across this scene,  which is what we think of when we think of Kentucky.  One of many lovely pictures etched  in our minds as being "Kentucky."

July's web page includes July 1 through July 31.