June 2014

Roaming Through Retirement

June--The end of one adventure and on to another

Roaming through Retirement took on an entirely new meaning for us this past year as we completed our yearlong North American tour. Here are a few of the highlights:

The tour began and ended in Minnesota, May 2013 through June 2014 and included three countries, 27 states and six Canadian provinces.

We put 12,000 miles on the RV and 30,000 on our tow vehicle.

We flew to Ajijic, Mexico and spent four weeks there over the Christmas holidays and Minnesota and California twice each to celebrate the birthdays of our five grandkids.

With few exceptions, every Wednesday was “moving day.” We would drive 150 to 300 miles from campground A to campground B, set up the RV and used the car or bikes to take in the sights and sounds of our new "home." In all, we camped at 44 RV Parks and spent several overnighters--mostly in Wal-Mart parking lots.

One major exception was Newfoundland, where we stored the RV at the tip of Nova Scotia, took a ferry to the island and spent 12 days touring some of the most beautiful spots on earth and enjoyed our evenings at B&Bs.

Along the way, we met up with over 50 family and friends. It was wonderful seeing a part of their world from their perspective. Some put us up for the night and many joined us in our RV, spending one to 12 nights sharing in our adventure.

We found these experiences quite exciting with nature and history the major highlights. Sharing these experiences with family and friends made the adventure even more exciting.


After a three day road trip from Green River State Park in Kentucky, we bedded the RV down at Eugene Mahoney State Park by Larry's brother's place near Omaha, Nebraska.	Bob and Francie spent a couple of days experiencing life in an RV. All and all, they approved. We spent our first night in Bob's basement weathering a major thunderstorm that rolled through the area.

It was great to see nephews Al and Rob who stopped at the park a couple of times during our stay. Al is still trucking and Rob is a budding song writer. Cindy (not pictured) and her family also joined us. They still enjoy Geocaching.	Jackie and her husband Wooly joined us for the pot luck also. We enjoyed hearing about their vacation in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico and Belize.

Back to Minnesota to meet up with Denise and family at Hidden Bluffs RV Park. It was a cozy park with swimming, miniature golf and lots of hiking and biking. Here we are at an overlook still trying to find the hidden bluffs.	After getting a load of fire wood for the evenings SMORES, Grandpa gave Chase and Clara a ride to the Club House. Note the miniature golf course in the background. Clara beat us all!

We drove to Bismarck to attend the wedding of Glorine's grandniece Cammi Kraft. She spent a week with us in Ajijic, Mexico. It was a traditional German Catholic wedding with church service, reception, dinner and dancing. No Polkas!	Weddings and family reunions go hand and hand. Maureen flew in from Mexico and Alvina flew in from Chicago. Along with brother Ray, we all joined in with Marlene to celebrate her first grand daughter's wedding.

Both Chase and Clara are great swimmers and we are amazed at how good they are at tennis. Chase has been in wrestling, ice skating, down hill skiing and golfing. If pushed, he would say his favorite sport is hockey.	Clara's birthday is on the longest day of the year, June 21 and she woke up early to open her presents. Here she is sporting her new set of water skies, unfortunately the lake was flooded and boats were not allowed to make a wake.

For her birthday outing, Clara decided on Hyland Lake Park with an unbelievable playground and this great nature center where Clara and Chase played with wildlife puppets in all four seasons.	While Clara turned eight this year, this will be the seventh birthday party at their lake home. And Denise made it another fun and memorable event--keeping the kids active with crafts. Note the new bracelet!

Here the kids are sporting their new individual designer "Duck Tape" hand bags. They all started with an oversize Zip Lock baggie and each ended up with their own cool purse.	Each year, the kids get to pick a theme for their birthday party and with the great Disney movie FROZEN, there was no competition. Clara knows all the words to every song in the movie.

Papa Al and Grandma Cheri looked on while Clara was reading their birthday card out load. It is always fun to reconnect with them at the kids' birthdays.	This is what the lake looked like during the birthday party. Craig roped the flooded area off and the kids were OK with it. The water consumed nearly one-third of their back yard.

Here we are overlooking the St. Croix River in Stillwater, MN with Glorine's nephew Tim, Nancy and Harrison. After a delicious meal and a great visit, we all met up at Browns Ice Cream for the largest scoop of ice cream ever.	We took the kids to The Landing, a living history museum near Shakopee that depicts life in the Lower Minnesota River Valley from the 1840s–1890s. They got a kick out of this old hand crank cash register.

One morning, Chase and Clara wanted a Happy Meal from McDonalds and after driving past a dozen McDonalds, Grandpa surprised them by taking them to the one at the Mall of America.	While at the Mall of America, the kids enjoyed the rides in the Nickelodeon Theme Park. Here they are entering the spooky Ghost Busters ride and are ready to destroy them with their special ghost guns.

Thanks to Denise, we found another "over the top" RV park called Kamp Dells RV Park, about one hour south of their home in Prior Lake. It has twice the activities that most parks have plus it is on a lake, with boat slips.	Nearly every day while we were at Kamp Dells, we either rode our bikes or walked over to the petting zoo to feed the animals. This goat got himself into a predicament--jumping up on this roof and found it hard to get off!

Beautiful chickens of all colors, baby fawns, donkeys, and these llamas were just a few of the many animals that kept the kids (and us occupied) over the weekend.	We snapped this picture shortly before we left Minnesota for our next destination--North Dakota. We reconnected up the road a bit and had lunch together to say good bye one more time.

June's web page includes June 1 through June 30.