It has been 3 days since my last post. I finally added the windmill pictures to it. I am becoming Bob’s relief driver. I got the rush hour through Dayton shift on the 8th and then rush hour/construction through Chicago the next day. We hadn’t planned on going through the city, but I let a driver win at chicken and missed the exit to take us around. Chicago has an interesting skyline, I am sure I saw Bob Newhart’s old apartment building.
The campground in New Lisbon looked like we were it’s first non-resident guests in a long time. Most of the grassy area was mowed,
but trash bags were left in large piles around the office which was under renovation. It looked like that project had been put on hold for a long while. It was quiet, convenient and had water and power so it sufficed, but I don’t expect to visit again.
The next le
g was to Prairie Cove Campground in Ashby, MN. The state motto “Land of 10,000 Lakes” is spot on. Everywhere you look there is water in a low spot. We’ve met several people who “live on the lake”. It took me awhile to realize how easy that is to do here. “The Lake” is everywhere you turn.
The Prairie Cove overlooked two lakes. Here is a picture of one of them.
Perhaps it was the beautiful view or maybe the friendly folks we met the night before that set the tone, but when the long slide on the RV failed to retract on Friday morning we didn’t panic. Here is picture of the problem. You can see that the top and bottom of the slide are not moving at the same rate. This ain’t a good thing.
Bob put on his engineer hat and set off with the “team” to get the slide closed, I set out to find some place to get it fixed. Foolishly I thought that would not be too hard considering all of the RV dealers and service centers we passed on the way here. After 7 calls all saying they were booked through late July I was ready to wrap the RV in duct tape to secure the slide and head home. I was losing hope until I called Pine Plaza RV Service Center just 20 miles away in the right direction. Brad could look at as long as we were there by 5:30. The campground owner gave us his number saying he had helped out another one of their campers several years ago. I was a little reluctant to call him as our slide track style is not typical. I wanted a THOR dealer but that was not a viable option so we cautiously left the campground making sure to go very slowly especially around right curves in case the 2 2 x 12’s wedged between the interior body of the cabin and the lip of the slide slipped allowing the slide to do just that right out of the vehicle. Bob drove the RV and I followed in the car. Those were a long 20 miles.
The directions Pine Plaza were to take the highway west until we saw the big signs for Arby’s and Wal-Mart in Fergus Falls, follow that road just a bit until we saw Fleet’s and Pine Plaza would be across the road. I misjudged his idea of just a bit and inverted right and left, but we found the parking lot. That wasn’t hard. It was full of RV’s. The real challenge was finding the door to the RV Center. We walked in what appeared to be the entry to be greeted by an appliance store, we wandered around looking for some guidance and came upon a quilter’s supply store, the woman there introduced me to Brad who was in the midst of helping two other customers so Bob looked at appliances and I looked at quilt fabric. I was tempted by all the great colors and patterns, but remembered the quilt squares I made in high school that were still hiding in some storage box. Brad buzzed by saying he needed to pick up something and would meet us at the RV. Even with a few minute head start he managed to beat us. “This guy wants to buy this RV. Let me open it for him and I will be right back.” He was having a busy Friday afternoon. It did not take him long to review the situation, place an order for the parts and help us find a place to camp. He expects the parts to be in on Tuesday and it to take 5 or so hours to fix. With any luck we will be back on the road Wednesday morning. After closing up shop, Brad led us to the town lake which offers tent, dry and water/power hook- camping. It is a lovely place with friendly neighbors. This weekend is Fergus Falls annual summer fair so the town and campground are busy. Some of the campers are participating in a men’s softball tournament that is taking place in the many fields that are part of the park.
I met one of the player’s son this morning down by the boat launch. The 10ish year old boy was casting a twin treble barbed hula popper lure fishing for bass. We chatted, watched a big snapping turtle come up for air a few times then saw some fish movement, he launched two nice casts and boom, a hard strike and he was reeling in a large mouth bass!
With that mean lure he needed some help releasing the fish, so while he held the top hook out of the way, I held the fish and wiggled the second one lose. Just minutes later he landed a second; this one flipped himself off the hook, saving us the trouble. The boy added the second fish to his stringer. His mother reminded him to make sure he did not lose the fish this time. Last week he lost 9 keepers because he had not secured the stringer. With that I sinched his stringer to a cleat on the dock and headed back to the RV. When I left him he was casting for a third. My guess is he and his family are having bass for dinner tonight. His granddad was on the way and would help him clean and filet them.
That’s about all I have to say for now. I love and miss my family and appreciate the calls, texts and emails.
Until the next time!
Love, Cora