Here we are, on the road: We’re in Prior Lake, MN.

Hello once again from Mystic Lake, Shakopee Sioux RV Campground. Yes, we are still back here in Minneapolis, MN. My foot wasn't healing up and the Doctor said I needed to stay around here for another week or so. That was on Monday, so I scheduled another appointment for Monday, July 15th. Well, the next day my foot started to heal right away, and on Thursday, I knew it was time to have the stitches taken out. I called the doctor's office and the following day, the nurse took the stitches out-that was on Friday. While my foot is okay, it is still sore; the top where I had the ganglion cyst is still pretty raw, and the side of my foot where the doctor wrapped my foot too tight is still sore too. I will be glad this will be over here soon. But, I am on the mend. So we decided to stay on here until Tuesday this week. So far nothing is had gone wrong with my foot. Thank Goodness!!

So this week has been a week of rest for me. Chuck worked on a couple of things on the rig. We saw Dave and Sandy, after she returned from her trip to see her dad. We went to dinner with them to Cracker Barrel. And of course we've played 10, 000, the dice game we like to play. Sandy found my hair moisturizer I use, Thanks Sandy, I appreciate you getting it for me. We also went to dinner with them to Champs with John and Pat, two of their good friends from here went with us and we enjoyed their company, too. We taught them to play 10,000 the dice game we like. A fun night for all, thank you guys.

We went over to the casino for their Friday night evening Big Car Event. Every half hour the casino has a drawing for their "I want Candy"; they drew four people's names out of their computer and those people got to go on stage and punch a hole in the "candy dish." The people then pulled out the card inside the hole and found out what they won. The casino gave away between $250.00 to $800.00. At 11 pm, they had a drawing for a "muscle car", This week it was a new Camaro. It was fun to see, but we don't play enough and didn't get our name drawn.

Saturday we went over to see Chuck's Aunt Lila. We needed to take her and Karla to lunch, but Karla wasn't there. We went to Dehn's for lunch. What a good place to eat. I had the fried chicken, and it was yummy. Lila then took us over to see Chuck's Uncle Keith and Uncle David. Uncle Keith showed us inside his beautiful home and is it ever a living "museum". Keith has all these beautiful collections of cars and things his wife and he used to collect. Just to see it all was incredible. I thank you Uncle Keith for showing us your prized possessions!!! I will not forget them. Many thanks to Lila for all you did for us.

So that has been our week. This week we will leave here and continue our trip north. So until next week. We'll see you down the road...

Happy Birthday to Joey who will turn 18 in a week or so.

Hugs to all,

Lorraine

7/14/13 Chuck’s report

Yes, we are still here at Mystic Lake. It is starting to feel like home but we are both getting “hitch itch”, wanting to get back on the road and see new things and places.

We didn’t have a lot going on this past week, still taking it easy so Lorraine’s foot heals. She had an appointment to get the stiches removed on Monday but after the doctor looked at the surgery area, he said it wasn’t healed enough to remove the stiches yet. So that meant we had to revert to plan “B”, everyone has a plan “B”, don’t they?

We made an appointment to see the doctor tomorrow to have the stiches removed, that would have been 17 days after her surgery, it for sure should have been healed up by then. He said otherwise, everything was looking ok, just wasn’t healed enough to remove the stiches yet.

But Tuesday morning, it looked much better to us, it had started to heal better overnight we thought. But it was still causing pain for her, especially on the side where the big blister had developed. She has not been wearing a shoe on that foot, just a slipper when we went out.

By Wednesday morning, the surgery area looked much better, in fact, the stiches looked like they were looser. Lorraine called the doctor to see if she could get the stiches removed this week vs. Monday and they told her she could come in on Friday.

When we got there on Friday, it took about 5 minutes for the nurse to check it our and remove the stiches. She said it appeared to be healing nicely and to continue doing the same as she had been. We are both glad to have that behind us, and best of all, no sign of the cyst coming back either.

Last Sunday Sandy was due to return from her trip to her parents’ home in South Dakota. She called Dave and suggested we get together for dinner after she got back. They came over and we we headed over to the casino for dinner. We had another great visit with these fine folks, in fact, nobody even ventured into the slot area.

Monday we went to the doctor as above and then made a stop at Costco in town. We picked up one of their 14” deep dish apple pie, last time we were here we bought one and Dave really liked it so we sort of bought it for him, ha. We went by Dave and Sandy’s house for awhile before we left for Cracker Barrel for dinner. We stopped by their house after where we played dice and had apple pie. I don’t remember if Dave came back to win at the end but with Sandy there to distract us, he may have cheated some. Just kidding, Dave doesn’t cheat but he has been known to pull out a victory with his very last roll.

Tuesday we didn’t have a big day planned but I had noticed the front tires on our car were a little lower on air pressure than I like so I was going to fill them using our on-board air compressor. That meant I had to shut off the shore power and start the engine, not a problem, it would only take a few minutes. But when I got the air hose out of it’s storage area, I couldn’t find the air fitting I needed to connect to the air system on the rig, shoot. That meant a trip to the parts store.

Well, it was the third place we stopped at before I found the air connector I needed, it isn’t the typical fitting. But at least I found one without having to got to a RV place or order it on-line. So after we got back to our site, I once again turned off the shore power and started the engine to use the air compressor. It only took a few minutes and the tires were filled to a normal pressure once again. I still haven’t found the old fitting, must have fallen out or something.

After I finished with that, we took off to find a place for lunch. The casino we are staying at is their new one, the old one is just up the road and we had never stopped there to check it our. Dave told us he heard they had good food there so we decided to stop off there to check out their lunch. We found a nice restaurant inside and had a very good meal. Dave was right, they do have good food there. We played the slots there for a while, I won a bit but Lorraine didn’t have any luck.

After the doctor informed us we needed to stay over for at least another week, I stopped by the office to make arrangements for that. It was not a problem to stay over except the site we were in was not available, we had to move. I told them we would stay where we were until Wednesday morning, then we would head over to the RV wash site, wash the rig, then move over to our new site.

Wednesday morning it took a couple of hours to wash the rig, in fact, that’s the about the only time I wish we had a smaller rig, when I wash it and when we have to buy diesel, ha. But they have good water hoses, nozzles and such inside, that makes it easier than just using a water hose at our site or where ever.

And the rig looks good after it’s bath. I got a call from Dave while I was washing it and made an offer for him to come over and help but he missed the invite, he didn’t come over, darn it. We got set up in our new site with no problems, this is a better site with a larger patio area, more shade trees and we’re on the hill overlooking the pond. Plus we are on the end of a row so only have neighbors on one side. All this for the same price as before, what a deal.

Thursday we met Dave and Sandy and two of their friends, John and Pat, for dinner at a sports bar called Champs. They have known each other for over 40 years and try to get together almost every week with other friends to keep in touch. But they were the only two couples this week so we got to meet them again and got to know them a bit better. After dinner we stopped by Dave and Sandy’s house where we taught John and Pat the dice game we’ve been playing called 10,000. They were quick learners plus it’s an easy game so we had a good visit with them too.

Friday we headed out to the doctors office and got the stiches removed and the last doctor visit out of the way. After we moved the rig on Wednesday, I noticed the driver’s side front wheel lube oil was still milky, I must not have gotten all the water out out when I change oil a few days before. So after we got back, I got the tools out and changed oil in that wheel once again. This time I made sure I got all the oil out of the hub before I refilled it. Sure hope that is the last I have to mess with that for awhile.

Later Lorraine and I went over to the casino for their Friday night give away, they pull 4 names every half hour for free slot play and at 11:00 they pull three names for cash and the car give away. Once again, we didn’t have our names pulled but at least this time we both left without loosing any money, ha.

Saturday we headed out to visit with my Aunt Lila once again before we leave this area. After we got there she drove us over to a very nice diner for lunch then we went over to my Uncle Keith’s place for a visit with him. My Uncle Dave and Aunt Jo happened to be there too so we got to say HI to them too. Uncle Keith was kind enough to show around his place, he has lots of collections inside the house that his past wife and he had collected over the years. My, it was almost like a museum inside his house, I can’t begin to name all the different types of items they collected.

He also show us his “trophy” room in his huge barn. He had lots of cars and had won lots of trophys and such with his cars. Uncle Keith bought all parts and pieces from all the dealers across the US when Keiser had gone out of business. He was the “go-to guy in the whole US for Keiser parts plus had over 40 restored cars that he had acquired over the years. But he had a huge auction a few years ago and got rid of them all, cars and parts. People from all across the nation and even one gal from Australia on the phone was there for the auction. Even Jay Leno purchased at least one of the cars he sold at the auction. And Uncle Keith started and ran each and every one of those cars at the auction. He still has a few old cars but nothing like he used to have.

But what he had left was still worth seeing, about 10 cars, all in good, running shape. He removed the coverings so we could see at least part of each car. There were a couple I really like, especially the ‘52 Studebaker convertible, what a nice car that was.

But all too soon, we had to leave, said our byes to Uncles Keith and Dave and my Aunt Jo. We stopped at Aunt Lila’s house for strawberries and shortcake. She had just picked over 30 pounds of strawberries the day before and wanted to share some with us. We have really enjoying spending time with my mother’s side of the family who are in this area, from the reunion last month to the couple visits at Aunt Lila’s and yesterdays visit to Uncle Keith’s place too. Thanks for all the good times!!

The weather has been nice this week, I think we only hit 90F on two days. We had a good rain storm on Tuesday and a big thunderstorm on Friday night that gave us over 3” of rain in just over three hours. I guess there were lots of flooded streets and such after that storm. But we didn’t have any problems, just lots of thunder and rain with a bit of wind during the night.

I’ve been working on our travel schedule, looks like we are planning on leaving here on Tuesday, heading for a couple more stops in Minnesota before heading further East. At least, that’s the plan but we hardly every follow our plans as laid out anyway. But I’ve always figured you have to at least have a plan in place before you can change it.

Ok, guess I’ll review the pictures Lorraine has taken this week and figure out which ones to add here then get this posted.

My Aunt Lila and her backyard/garden.