Are We Vagabonders or Park Rapiders?

Apparently vagabonds are people who wander without a home.  We have a home and we don't wander too far when we are in Park Rapids so, no, we aren't vagabonds.  However, when we get to Vagabond Village the owners, the Nelsons, welcome us anyway.  Thank goodness as we've never loved a campground as much as we love this one.

The bad news is that it's been a rainy, rainy day.  Rather than hoisting our tents in one of the numerous downpours, we got a hotel room.

Before that we hung out at the campground hearing a year's worth of news.  Who knew people cheat in ice fishing tournaments and who knew you can win big prizes like quads for catching a fish?

This is our happy place rain or shine.

Unfortunately for us today it was rain.  Notice Rob told Nathan to put on his best sad face, but Nathan couldn't do it.  He can't be sad here.

It was a good morning for a nap.

Our hotel has a pool, but we hope to be at the campground pool and lake tomorrow.  Pray for sunshine.

We went to The Chicken Coop in Dorset for supper ...

 and decided against the appetizer.

I love aqua; I love screen doors and I particularly love screen doors which lead into book stores. 

The door handle is an old thread spool.

The neighboring antique/vintage shop also has a screen door and it's another color I love.

We dug for treasures and Nathan is going to make some jewelry out of what we found. 

We have our cell phones turned off here as we are cheap people so I really feel we've reverted back to the time when telephones were like this.  And this phone actually predates any I am familiar with.

Surely they don't haul in the outdoor display each night.  How do they secure it?  If people here cheat in ice fishing tournaments, you would think they would also steal from displays such as this, but perhaps not.

Back at the hotel, I found these in my bed.  Do I dare sleep?

One of our two rooms is designated the craft and reading room.  Thank you Salvation Army for all the twenty-five cent books I bought. 

Bob & Rob have deserted to the other room called the Saskatchewan Roughrider room.  Who comes to Minnesota to watch the Riders?

It's time for all of you, my friends, to log off this blog and to pray for a sunny tomorrow in Minnesota.

Dumb & Stupid Take to the Road

See these lovely keys and this lovely unlocked truck?  And see how the photo was taken from inside the truck?  

That's not quite our story.  We stopped for gas in Minot.  Bob never leaves his keys in the ignition, but he did.  I never get out of the vehicle without taking my keys, but I did.  Oops!  Our car won't lock with keys in the ignition, but our truck isn't that caring.  We were locked out; our keys were locked in.

Thank heaven we have belonged to CAA forever.  A fellow was with us within ten minutes and he had the truck unlocked in another three minutes.  No charge!  Have a nice day!  And our journey continued.

We drove in rain for a few hours and that was exciting for me as I haven't seen rain this year.  Perhaps home got some today too.

We're in Fargo for the night and went to a movie.

I won't recommend it and I won't not recommend it as we all have different ideas of what constitutes a good movie - right, Barb & Garnet?  I will say the acting is phenomenal.

One More Sleep

Finally, finally, Bob and I get to head out on a holiday.  It's the best kind of adventure of all as Rob, Crystal, Nathan and Riley will be along for the fun.

We're only going as far as Fargo tomorrow, but the next morning we will be on beautiful Potato Lake in Minnesota.  Here's a preview picture.

This was an early morning photo from Vagabond Village Campground last year.  The water will be much less smooth as Nathan and Riley churn it up as they fly off the bottom of the slide.

Really? A Blog Entry from Home??

Talk about strange.  The Kings have been home all of this summer.  First I was waiting for a minor surgery, then I was having it, and finally I was recovering from it.

There have been advantages.  One is that Bob has done the bulk of the yard work.  Another is that we have a deck on the front of our house so I just sit out there and, before long, someone will spot me and join me so I've done lots of visiting.  

A final benefit is the beauty of our yard.  I said to a neighbor "our yard has never looked so good."  Her response was "your yard always looks this good.  You're never home to see it."  

Let me share some yard photos with you.  You'll notice that they are in totally random order, but mainly from most recent and then backwards in time.

Thank you one inch johnny-jump-up for growing in a crack in our driveway.

Since we haven't had rain this year, you can assume the droplets on this iris are from watering.  Bob has been the water boy and I am happy to give him job references.

Some of you are old enough to remember when LBJ showed the press a surgery scar.

Has that inspired me to show mine?  Uh, definitely not.

Bob & I are going to use the last weeks on August to travel.  On Saturday we are off to Park Rapids, Minnesota for our 31st year. We'll be there with four of our five favorite people.

After that we are off to Montana.  Stay tuned.