We’re in Prior Lake, MN.

 

July 7, 2013                                                                                                                         Lorraine’s report

Hello once again from Prior Lake, MN, Mystic Lake Casino RV Park.  Well, the 4th of July came and went.  It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed the time we shared with Susy, Kaitlyn, and Yami.  I was lonely after they left, having them around, loving each and every minute of it.  It will be a long time before we see them in late October again. 

What a whirlwind time we had with them.  Chuck picked them up on June 27.  Susy and Kaitlyn stayed in Eden Prairie, MN with Yami, Susy's friend from Florida.   We had the family reunion and enjoyed all of that.   Thanks once again to Aunt Lila and Karla for the great family get together.  It took a lot of planning, etc. to bring it all together.

Two days after I had the ganglion removed from my foot, the foot did a number on me.  I got a big, hard, angry red blister.  It kept filling and on Saturday evening we went into the emergency room, after the family reunion.  They doctor popped it, gave me an antibiotic and sent me on my way.  It still is very raw, hurts a lot, the I'm having a hard time walking.  This has been one heck of recovery from that surgery.  You can bet I will be happy to have it completely healed and normal again.   I am wearing slippers full time, and even then, I usually take a pain pill so I can walk.  This surgery is right up there with my shoulder surgery, my rotator cuff, where I couldn't lay down for a while after that surgery. 

So anyhow, Susy and Yami had to go to the Mall of America.  They took off a bunch of time, enjoyed shopping, visiting, eating, enjoying all of it.  Susy and I went over to the Mall of America on Tuesday.  Daddy took Kaitlyn to the amusement park there and rode a bunch of rides. Kaitlyn liked the one that went upside down, straight up then straight down.  I don't know how many times she did that, but a bunch.

Yami had to work, so Susy and I rented a cart for me, and we went into the shopping part of the big mall.  We loved it!  Susy and I found all kinds of stuff.  I must say, Kaitlyn has a bunch of school clothes for next year.  And, we both found some nice things for us too. 

The 4th of July found me making up our usual eats for the holiday.  We had hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken and natural hot dogs from Yami, potato salad, deviled eggs, watermelon and dessert.  We had Dave, our friend who lives here over since Sandy had to go to see her Dad for his birthday the 5th of July.  Yami, Susy, Kaitlyn, and Chuck and I were all there, too. 

The fireworks were spectacular, about a half hour of them.  Daddy helped Kaitlyn learn how to do sparklers.  At first, she was afraid of them, but by the time she finished, she was loving them and was dancing around with them. 

All in all, we enjoyed our visit with Susy, Kaitlyn and Yami.  Thank you all for coming out to see us here, we appreciated it so much. 

Guess that's it for me.  We hope everyone is well.

Hugs to all,

Lorraine

 

7/7/13                                                                                                                                   Chuck’s report

We are still here in Minnesota, having a good time and letting Lorraine’s foot get better after her surgery.  We had sort of a quiet week, therefore this should be short, compared to last week that is. 

Monday we sort of just hung out around the rig, Susy came over and did some laundry, it’s easier to do it here and she is with us too.  Later She went to the Mall of America with Yuma and Katie, we met Dave and Sandy at the casino for dinner and tried our luck on the slots of course. 

I decided today was the day to change out the air filter on our motor home.  I had ordered it and it was waiting at the office when we checked in.  This isn’t a small job like on a car plus I had a couple of other jobs that I needed to do while the filter was out.  I had to change a tail light bulb and wanted to increase the drain line for the rear air conditioner, both of these are inaccessible with the filter in place.  Of course, that also meant a trip to the parts store, seems that is always the case.  And as usual, when someone is working on their rig, it isn’t long before other guys come over to see/help.  But it wasn’t too bad of a job, I was done and cleaned up within a couple of hours, including the trip to the parts store.  

Tuesday was our day for the big Mall, even I had to go.  We got there and rented one of those motorized carts for Lorraine so she wouldn’t have to walk too much.  I took Katie over to the indoor amusement park they have there and watched her ride and I even went on a couple of them with her.  Lorraine and Susy had a good time shopping, we met them for lunch and later we had dinner there at Famous Dave’s BBQ.  It was a long day but they were happy and had a good time.

Next morning I went by and picked up Susy and Katie from their hotel room, Yami had to work part of the day.  She lives in Florida and works from home but her home office is here in MN.  She flies up here a couple times a month but mostly she is on her own.  When she does get into town, someone is always wanting to take her to lunch and/or dinner and that’s what happened today. 

We made the decision to head to the movies, Lorraine wanted to see that new one, Monster’s U, with Katie before they left town.  I don’t like going to the movie house but was talked into going along anyway.  We got there just as the movie started, good timing on our part.  The movie was so-so, even Katie thought the others were better although there were a couple of “laugh out loud” moments. 

After we got back to the rig, I volunteered to watch Katie while Lorraine and Susy tried out their luck on the slots.  Katie and I played a few games, watched some kids shows on TV then I got her ready for bed where she watched a kids movie.  Yami came over, she happened to be at the casino too but didn’t happen to meet up with Lorraine and Susy. It wasn’t too long before they came back, they all headed back to their place and we called it a day. 

Thursday, the 4th, we got things ready for the BBQ.  Yami, Susy and Katie came over to help Lorraine finish up too.  We invited Dave over, Sandy had left on Wednesday to see her father on his 89th birthday in South Dakota so Dave was playing bachelor for a few days.  We had a good day, good food and great visit with everyone.  After dinner, Yami wanted to go to the casino while Lorraine, Susy, Dave and I played a dice game called 10,000.  Dave usually has very good luck on this game, he has been known to come from behind in the last roll to pull out a victory.  But without Sandy around, his luck didn’t hold and he didn’t pull out a victory from the jaws of defeat this time, ha.  And Sandy, your name came up a couple of times in the conversation too, of course in a good way!

As it started getting darker, Susy and Katie lit off their sparklers while we waited for the big fireworks display to start after 10.  Katie was getting pretty tired and actually fell asleep about 20 minutes before the fireworks started.  But she woke up when they started booming away.  They put on a nice show, it lasted about 1/2 hour or so and we only had to walk to the back of our site to watch it.  But as soon as it was over, Yami, Susy and Katie headed back to their hotel.  They did get caught in the big traffic jam at the casino as they had traffic directors out and they were unable to turn left but had to go the same way as all the others who were watching the fireworks. 

Friday Susy and Katie were flying home early in the morning so we had already said our good-byes on Thursday.  We talked to them a couple of times during the day, before they left, during their layover in Chicago and after they landed.  Yami was flying out later in the day too.  We sure had a good time with our daughter (s) and grand daughter while they were here.  We probably won’t see them again until we are back in California in the fall and when we get back to Florida whenever that maybe.   

Lorraine needed to pick up a package at Nordstrom at the Mall and I needed to stop at Wal-Mart for a tool I needed.  After running the errands, we stopped by to walk Misty then we headed over to the casino to play the slots for awhile.  They had a drawing ever 1/2 hour for 4 folks to pick a prize, ranging from $250 – $800 in free play then at 11 they drew three folks who were to win $2500 in free play, $5000 in real money and the grand winner would win a new car plus $7500.  And can you guess which one Lorraine had her name called for?  None of them, shoot.  But we had a good time even though it was pretty crowded with all the folks who were there for the drawing.  We didn’t even stay to see the final three. 

Yesterday Lorraine did a bunch of laundry while I changed out the lube oil in the front wheel hubs.  I had a problem before we got here when we stopped and I noticed oil had leaked out onto the passenger side wheel and tire.  I pulled the hub cap and found the rubber plug had came out and oil had leaked out while we were driving.  The hub cap had the driver’s side had fallen off a couple of weeks before so it was easy to see the oil levels.  I thought the oil was getting lighter, looked like maybe I had gotten some water in there.  Anyway, I figured I would change it out.

Once again, as I started working, a couple of guys came by to see what was going on but didn’t stay long.  There is a drain plug on the hub but I was unable to get it off so I tried using a hand pump I bought the day before.  It didn’t work, the oil was too thick I think.  But I was able to get a drain going using a small hose but that was very slow going.  So I used an empty mixed nut container, drilled a hole in the lid to insert the small hose and used the hand pump to pull a vacuum on the container.  This worked just fine, it took about five minutes per wheel.  After finishing with this job, Lorraine needed to head to Wal-Mart so she could pick up a few things, she didn’t feel like going in the day before when I was there.  Afterwards, we had a quiet evening in the rig until it was time for bed. 

Lorraine had surgery on her foot on the 27th and developed a large blister on the side of her foot on the 4th that required a trip to the emergency room on the 29th.  She was getting better, didn’t even take any pain pills until the 4th when she was on her feet too much.  But for the last two days she has been experiencing more pain, she describes it as “raw” in both the surgery and blistered area.  We will be seeing her surgeon tomorrow to get the stiches out and will have him check it out.  I doesn’t feel like it is getting hot and it doesn’t look like an infection either plus she is taking antibiotics prescribed by the emergency room doc.  NOTE:  I added three pictures of her foot in the last of the picture section of this blog, we wanted to have a record of it for us. 

We have had outstanding weather for most of the week.  The temperatures have been in the high 80s during the day but the humidity has not been high so no thunderstorms or rain.  The humidity started rising yesterday and today it’s supposed to get into the 90s so it may be time to move on further North.   I saw the forecast on this morning’s news show and they said there may be some scattered thunderstorms in the next couple of days. 

We also have done more planning on our summer travel plans.  Depending on the results of tomorrow’s doctor visit for Lorraine, we will leave here on Tuesday or Wednesday and head up to Bemidji (Dave calls BRRmidji) to see the headwaters of the Mississippi River.  Then across the state to Grand Rapids to see where I was born low those many years ago, we moved from there when I was 4 and I’ve never been back. 

Then we start our two to three week trip through the upper peninsula (UP) in Michigan.  I read about this area and it’s on our bucket list, no time like to present to complete this one.  I expect the temperatures to be a bit cooler, especially when we are one of the great lakes.  After that, we are still undecided on which way to head for our next trip, I’m sure we will have time to work on that in the next couple of weeks. 

Although Lorraine is dropping some serious “hints”, I don’t think we will be heading back to Washington state this year.  While we are in this area, I would prefer to see what’s here on this trip when we aren’t restricted to  a time schedule of any kind. 

I am thinking about going back to the motor home factory in Alabama late this summer, early fall, to get a couple of items fixed.  If we do that, we might just head back to Albuquerque in time to see the big balloon festival they have every year.  That one is on our bucket list too, might be a good time to get that one done. 

Ok, now to add some pictures and get this posted. 

 

Papa wearing Katie’s hat, she got a kick out of that.   

 

A bit of quiet time on the left, hair all done up for 4th of July on right. 

 

Susy on the left, Dave on the right. 

 

Playing around inside the rig on the 4th. 

 

Setting up for sparklers on the left, doing the sparklers. 

  

  

Downtown Minneapolis. 

  

Pictures of Lorraine’s foot, first one on 7/1, second on 7/4, third on 7/7. 

    

Ok, we had a good week and hope to have a better one this week. 

Thanks   Chuck

 

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