Better Gas Mileage on Flat ground

I know that it doesn't seem like a big thing, but in an RV flat roads are better than mountain driving.  It was a relief to get better gas mileage!  We left MN this morning.

We saw the sun come up on a clear morning.

We tip toed out of the camp by 8am.

We drove past the huge Mille Lacs Lake.  It's 207 sq miles.  It was cloudy part of the way today and it rained on us a couple of times, but the traffic wasn't too bad for a Sat and we had a good trip.

We navigated around the "Twin Cities" = Minneapolis/St Paul

We are watching the sunset after another down pour of rain in Tomah, WI.  This is the first time that we have parked for the night in a  Walmart Super center.  You just have to check with the manager and most of them are glad to have you stay.  So far, there are three of us camping here.  We have to run the generator for some power until we are ready to use battery power and go to sleep.

Our brotherhood of RVers

We have a very lovely garden view in our camp spot.  Thinking of you Jayme!!

Tomorrow, Illinois and Indiana.  Hopefully, the cool temps will remain, but the rains will stop.

Blessings to you all!

Our Youngest Grandson, Cooper turned 9 today!!

Cooper David Stevenson

Born June 28, 2004

Happy Birthday!!!!!

Cooper is a fun loving boy who is great at just about anything he tries to do.  His smile will make one break out on your face, too.  He finally has his two front teeth again.  He lost one when he was pretty young when he and a friend learned from Indiana Jones how to swing from a rope.... by your teeth.  His tooth stuck into the rope.

I guess that's why we say, "Boys will be boys".

We miss our grand kids   We'll get to see 3 of them in Indiana.  We start out on our trip there tomorrow.  It will probably take three days.  We hope to stay most of July and into August.  We have thoroughly enjoyed the two weeks we have spent here at Little Boy Resort.  The weather has been pretty good and so has the fishing.  What more could you ask for.  It's the longest the Whale has been parked in one place since we moved into it on April 21st.

On the road again.... in the morning... but first, we sleep.

Wind Blows, Eagles Fly

We Fished Musky Point today.

It was a windy morning trying to fish.  We caught a few Pike and Rock Bass and Craig caught a small mouth Bass, but I was fascinated by an Eagle that we saw.  I took some great photos, but accidentally deleted one.  I'm waiting for some help to see if I can recover it from an SD Card.

We were bobbing and blowing and I was looking into the sun, but I took this video of it sitting in a tree. It was huge and I hoped to get a better picture.  I did, but that's the one I am trying to un-delete.

It was so pretty out on the lake and I tried to capture some of it.

Eagle in lower left corner sitting in a tree.


I took a screen shot of the video and cropped it to get this blurry photo of the eagle.

Hard to beat a view like this

Tomorrow is our last day to fish here.  Sad.

They shall run and not be weary and walk and not faint.

A Fish Story

There is a sign over the coffee pot in the campground office that reads, "A cup of Coffee for your fish story".

Bob and Pam came over for a visit today and Bob told us a tale about a huge Musky that was mounted on the wall in Little Boy Resort that died with a Northern Pike stuck through it's gill.

We went into the office and this was hanging on the wall.

The Plaque on the wall is titled, "The Last Supper".  Here's highlights from the article.

It tells about how nature is full of gruesome realities of large predators eating smaller prey only to become prey themselves.  Randy had been Musky fishing on Little Boy Lake and had a huge Musky on the line, but the line broke and he lost the fish. He had a friend named Mike who also had a cabin on the lake.  Mike brought a new Musky lure up to Randy, but forgot to bring it to Randy when he came to visit.  Mike drove his boat back home to get the lure and on the way back to Randy's he decided to fish "Musky Point" for awhile.  Mike didn't fish for long when he went back to Randy's cabin and said he wouldn't believe what he was about to see.  Randy thought Mike had caught the Musky and it had his fishing lure in it's mouth.  Instead he saw this 38 pound Musky with a 5 pound Northern Pike hanging out of it's mouth floating in the water. Both fish were dead when he found them.

The Musky was 38 pounds and 52 1/2 inches long and a girth of 25 inches and probably about 15 years old.  The Northern Pike was 29 inches long.  You can only imagine the struggle that took place.  Large fish will often bite their prey and then turn the fish around to eat it head first by biting, chewing and swallowing until it eats the whole thing.  The fish were mounted just as they had been found.  The Northern was bitten nearly in two with just the backbone intact.  It's not uncommon for Musky to go after large fish like this.  After the fish were mounted, they were given to the then owners of the Little Boy Resort to display.

A true tale, at that!

We also went into town today to do some laundry.  We forgot that it was Longville Turtle Racing Capitol of the World Racing Day.  This used to just be a small thing.  Now, it was like a small scale carnival.

We did get out for a little fishing tonight.  We caught several Northern Pike and Rock Bass, but no Walleye tonight.  We came in to Tomato Soup and grilled cheese.  They were good.

 This brought back memories of when I used to sail at the Yacht Club in Cedar Lake, Indiana with my Uncle John.  There is a YMCA on the lake and they have lots of boats and kids and fun!!

Happy Sailing.

A Bass and Walleye Kind of Day

I'm not sure why we both like to fish so much.  We just do.  Then, you have a gorgeous day and catch some wonderful fish and you really love it even more.

I caught this nice Bass this morning while we fished with Bob and Pam around the lake.  This went close to 4 pounds

Craig had fun landing this 25" and 6+ pound Walleye.  These are still our favorite fish to eat.  I even made room in my little RV freezer to put some in there!!!

We came in after eating lunch out on the lake with Bob and Pam and took a nap, had showers and went in to Longville.  We bought some groceries and ate and a place called the Anchorage and had some chicken.  After putting away the food, we decided to go back out on the lake to fish.  It was nearly a perfect night.  I caught another Walleye and more rock bass than we could throw back in.  We had fun and so enjoyed the day again!!! 

Good Job, God!!!  We are thankful.

Whoa Wind

We woke up to a nice rain.  We slept like logs again.  Do logs sleep?  Anyway, we waited for the rain to stop and braved going out.  It was really WINDY!!!

We caught and lost several large Northern Pike.

Two fish broke our line. This was one of the larger ones we were able to land.  We didn't weigh it.

The wind was wearing us out, so we moved closer to a wind blocked shore but eventually came in.

We are hopeful that the weather will be good in the morning and Bob and Pam are bringing their boat over, too.

We made shrimp stir fry for dinner tonight.  Hmmmm good.

Friends, Fishing and Family

The last time we were in Minnesota was August of 2001.  We drove up with my parents and stayed on Little Boy Lake at the Rainbow Bay Resort.  We often fished in front of the same house and we actually developed a friendship as the home owner would come out to see if we were catching anything.  I emailed with Lorin for several years and then we lost touch.  On Friday we spent some time back in that spot and Lorin came into the dock in his boat.  He is now nearly 80, but after we chatted, he remembered us and we reconnected with emails and he sent me this photo that he took and still has on his screen saver.  My folks are on the left and Craig and I on the right.  It was very nice to visit with him and reconnect.

Thanks Lorin!

Aug 2001

It was a good day of fishing.  We caught several fish, but only kept these 5 walleye.  Yes, we ate half of them for dinner.

I mentioned before that I had caught a huge Dog Fish one other day. Well on Friday, I caught 2.  We weighed this one at 5+ pounds and the second one I caught was larger.  They are considered a pesky unwanted fish in the lakes here.

It has been raining off and on, but we haven't really minded.  I think it's supposed to clear off more on Monday.  We did miss seeing the Moon show that the Lord put on for us all last night.  Thanks for the pictures that were posted on Facebook.

Sat we went out to fish.  It was windy and then calm and then a huge wind shift.  We could see the front moving overhead and decided to head for shore.  We made it in just before it started to rain.  It was time to go in because we were getting ready to drive to Pine River to my brother's home.  We were invited for pizza and to see my Nephew, Ryan and meet his wife, Heather and our great nephew, Trystan.

I offered to bring dessert.  It's a bit of a challenge baking in what I call my, "Easy Bake Oven".  It's only large enough for a 9x13 cake pan.  I had an offer to pick rhubarb from the camp owners garden, so I did that  while Craig made a run to the store for me to get some fresh strawberries.  We made a mixed fruit cobbler and 2 strawberry/rhubarb pies, but I had to bake them one at a time.  We had a bit of a spill over, but it's cleaned up already.

We love Rhubbarb

I had to fight the mosquitoes for every cut of this stuff!

The baked goods finally were cooked just in time to head down the road to Bob and Pam's.  We had a wonderful meal and a great time with our new and old family members.

Meet Trystan Hoshaw, AKA Twisty Ty.  This kid never stopped moving all the while we were there.  Although he was pretty quiet while eating the Strawberry/Rhubarb Pie.  I thought that was unusual for young boy.

Ryan's wife is Heather and they are a very sweet couple and have both just completed their College Degrees.  Congrats to them both!!!

It was so wonderful to meet this family and spend some time with them!

On the way back home we drove through our old Campground where we spent many vacations in years past.  I think it's only a private group of homes now and they even put a pool between Black Water and Mule lakes.  It all looked nice, but not at all what it was when we used to stay there. It's now called, Lake Haven Acres and it's a neighborhood.  

Just for family, I'll post a couple of pictures.

There are no longer any cabins on Black Water.  Here's the view from the docks.

This is the view from Cabin #1 that is for sale. These cabins run about $90,000.  Hopefully, they have been updated inside, too.  We stayed in this cabin many times.

Pool between the lakes.

No more Lake View Camp.

We woke up to gentle rain this morning that has now turned into a pretty windy rainy morning.  Time to catch up on email, blogs and phone calls!!!

I'm also on Skype and we are connected to the WiFi here.  I got to see and talk to my dear friend, Joyce yesterday.  Here's a shout out to you, girl!!!

Hope Haley gets back to California OK and that the rest of the family in Indiana is enjoying their time together.

Bless the Lord, O My Soul and ALL that is within me!!!

What to do on a Rainy Day in MN

Rainy Days Don't Get Me Down

It was a day off the lake today.  Showers with possible lightening and hail (we only got the showers) off and on most of the day. So, we packed up and went the 4 miles into Longville.  We took our laundry and it was like stepping back in time.  We used to spend a lot of time in here over the years.  There's a few new Dryers, but it really just looks the same.  I guess there's not a big call to remodel laundromats.

Longville Laundry

A woman came over and asked me if we were from Colorado.  I guess she saw the license plate.  It's hard to answer that question nowadays, but it opened the door for a very pleasant discussion about if the Lord heals people today.  She started it with telling us how she had hurt her back just coming there.  She was walking like it really hurt, too.  She and her husband live in the Twin Cities and have a cabin here that they are having remodeled getting ready for their retirement.  Her name was Jody and I pray that her back gets better very soon!!

Who would think you could be so happy just to do laundry?  We both needed a day out of the sun, too.  Oh, we cleaned up the RV today.  Wow, that took about 15 minutes.  I like that!

We came back and put laundry away and decided to head over to Hackensack to the Movie Theater.

We saw this cute family of geese on our way.

This is the Bear Pause Theater and we saw, "Man of Steel".  It was OK.  Lots of special effects.  We made a quick swing through the Hackensack grocery store and headed the 22 miles back to the RV.

We didn't catch any fish to clean today, but this is the nice fish cleaning house from the outside and inside



It was the first day that we didn't have fish to eat, but we did make that stop at the store, so Craig cooked up a little red meat. Yummy!

  

We decided that a day without fishing is like a day without sunshine, so we walked down with our poles to fish off the dock.  We each caught a Northern Pike.

They have some lake toys here and these look like they would be fun.

Looking forward to clean sheets and a cool sleeping night!!

Hello to all the family that is together in Indiana!!

Walleye Lunch, Ice Cream Supper

 Life is Tough... NOT

It was another very fine day.  Bob and Pam drove over and launched their boat and we fished close by each other all morning and into the early afternoon.

Pam and Bob and their boat.

We had scouts out looking for fish.  A Loon.

We all had fun catching fish.  Walleye, Bass, Northern Pike, Rock Bass
and Perch.

Here's a couple pictures of the catch.

Small Mouth Bass

21" Walleye

Another big bass and we caught several of these.
We had enough sun and it was getting to be early afternoon, so we came in and fried up the Walleye.  Then we decided to go into Longville for a few groceries, and ice cream treat and see if they had a part Craig needed for the TV Antenna.  They didn't have it, but sent us to the Radio Shack about 25 miles away in Walker.  It was a beautiful drive and we stopped at a Historical Marker on Leech Lake that told of a failed attempt of our Military to arrest an Indian Chief in 1898,

We found what we needed with some great help from a young man at the Hardware/Radio Shack Store and we headed back to Longville.  This is all very nostalgic for me since we vacationed up here almost every year of my youth and then again once our kids were born.

Longville's claim to fame is The Turtle Racing Capital of the World.  They rent turtles and have them race every Wed at 1pm.  We were too late for the race, but we did get some ice cream and groceries before heading back to the RV.

Longville Ice Cream

Aunt Rosie's favorite place... Gift Shop

Streets look the same.

The weather has been perfect, but the wind shifted out of the south and they are saying we could have afternoon storms through Sunday.

All 3 of our kids and 8 grandchildren are all together in Indiana.  It seems strange to be here when they are all there.

We'll be in Indiana in July.