St.Cloud, Minnesota

Well, we made it to St. Cloud. What a nice trip we had. The first two nights we were in Mercer, Pa. A friend of ours, Lori, and her son Justin, came to have dinner with us. He is our grandson's age. They brought the dessert. Of course, that was the best part of the meal. We tried to get to share some time with Linda and Ron, but they are work camping and were extremely busy getting ready for a special event coming up in a week or so. We stayed at a great campground. Plantation Park. We used our Coast to Coast card, and only had to pay for one night. Gee, $8.00 for 2 nights. Who can beat that. The only thing that went wrong was a incident with our dishes. Before we left, I took half of our kitchen dishes with us so that we could eat from real plates. Well, we had to turn around because the gas station we picked was not such a great in and out station. We found a huge spot. Even had a tractor trailor there. Much to our dismay, it also had very deep ruts that were camoflaged. We went bumpity bump and the dishes all came crashing out of the cupboard. And boy, do I mean crashing. We have only a few chipped pieces left. Hence, we are on a dishes quest. Connor would call it a mission.
Tuesday was really a do nothing day. We can do that. We are fulltimers!
Wednesday we were off to Pioneer, Ohio. Our destination was Love Berry's Funny Farm campground. It was a Passport America park. They had a great pool, and it was a good place for kids. The days travel went well, with not much construction.
Thursday we were off to Marseilles, Ill. We went via Michigan. The state border is right near the campground. Tom was determined to get into Michigan. So after a little detour, because of constuction, we went through Michigan, too. For about 3 miles. Then we were back on the highway. Two days of toll roads. Yuck!!We could have picked a better campground. I would not recommend Glenwood RV Resort. The place looks like it has seen better days. The roads were pretty bad. I held the cupboards shut this time. We were parked in an open field, which wasn't to bad until we shut off the motor. Then we heard them.......The Cicadas. Loud is putting it mildly. They did quiet down at night. We were on the western edge of the eastern time zone, so it stayed light out till almost 10:00. We were up and at it early the next day.
Friday we were on our way to Madison , Wisconsin. What a nice place. There are lots of beautiful parks. They have numerous biking and walking trails. Miles of them. They connected park to park. We stayed at a really nice little county park. We set up and took off to visit my Aunt Jean, who lives in an assisted living facility there. We haven't seen her in quite some time. She was so happy to see us. Traffic was terrible. Boy, do they drive fast.
Saturday morning we went to the farmers' market in Madison. They close the roads around the Capital Square, and it is lined with vendors. We picked up some fresh veggies, some fresh bread, and a really great meat pie. There was this little store that sold them just off the square. You had your choice of fillings. We picked mozzarella, ground beef, and sauce. Yummy!!! We took Aunt Jean some apple turnovers. My cousin Bonnie came and visited with us. It was so good to see her. I'm so glad we took the time to stop here to see them.
Sunday had us on the road again. We were headed to a Corp of Engineers campground near Eau Claire, Wisconsin. We only had electric hookup, but water was close by, and who needs sewer for one night? It reminded us of where we used to take the kids when we had the pop-up camper years ago. Out in the woods with birds singing, and peepers peeping. We just sat outside till we got tired. We were thinking of staying 2 nights.
Monday we decided to get up and get going. The bad weather they were predicting was suppose to come in late afternoon, so we thought we could get to St. Cloud before it hit. WRONG! We ran into the rain about a half hour before the campground. We had to pull off the exit, and find a place to wait it out. It only lasted a few minutes, and we were on our way again.
We finally got to the place we will call home for the next few months. What a nice place. Everything is clean and well kept. In the office we met Jeanne. What a nice greeting. The owner Chris, came after lunch, and showed us where to park for the next 2 weeks. Our permanent place is rented out for the month of June, because we couldn't give them an exact date of arrival. Any site here is nice. I think we will be very happy in St Cloud.
Yesterday we went to Wal-Mart to get some things for outside. A couple of flowers, bird seed, stuff like that. $100.00 later we went home. It looks more like home now that I have my chimes out, and my wind charms up. Today Tom washed Emily's face. She had bugs all over her. Even a cicada in the grill. She looks much better. I did some cleaning inside, and the laundry, because tomorrow we start work. We only have to work 4 hours a day, 3 days in a row, 2 days off. Not bad.
It has been very hot ever since we left home. Yesterday wasn't too bad, but today it was hot and muggy again. Just after supper we had a bad storm. Nickel sized hail. What a racket it made in the motorhome. We had some finches come after the storm, and a woodpecker at the suet. What could compare to this. A nice place to stay for doing what we would be doing at home. Birds singing chimpmunks scooting, and good people to call friends. Life is good.