Concert in the park, boat ride and other things

On Saturday nights in the park in Pequot Lakes they have an outdoor concert. Since we are park hosts on Saturday we had not been. One of the other hosts - his name is actually Tim - keeps telling us to go and he will take over for us. So on Saturday we went! People bring their lawn chairs and find a space on the lawn. The band was good and adults, kids, grandkids, young and old enjoyed the evening. The weather was nice, but as the evening got later it got cooler and the locals brought out their blankets… This was the middle of July.

We had a big group in the RV park this past weekend. The sites are long and wide and so sometimes  people double up to be able to get in. One group had 10 rigs on 5 sites. All of the other sites were booked as well, so it made for a very full park. But everyone had a good time.   

We also met a couple from Oklahoma. I will tell a story about them in the next blog.

 The Greater Area Lakes Arts Council presents plays in the summer at Pequot Lakes High School. This summer's production was "Legally Blonde the Musical." We got tickets and went to the play. I was interested to see how they made a musical out of the movie. The music written for the play was good and the play was presented well. Some of the actor/singers were excellent and some just good, but all in all, we enjoyed it. The lead was a young lady without much experience but she handled the role well. I would like to see a professional team perform the musical. Broadway?

Todd & Jill (our bosses)

Korine enjoying the beauty

One afternoon the RV park owner and his wife took the camp hosts in their boat for a ride on the lakes and dinner at a local pizza place that has docks on the lake. We were able to dock the boat, walk up the hill and enjoy the pizza.  The weather was perfect and we all enjoyed an evening out and      dinner. The lakes are beautiful!!

Stopping to dip our toes in the water

 

One day was unusually cold !

 

          A fire is the only solution. 

July

View of golf course from our rig

Things are busy busy here!  Lots of 4th of July festivities.

We had some excitement one day. Our site backs up to the golf course. I was sitting outside when a lady came running from there shouting, "There's been an accident on Hole 3!" It seems her husband got hit in the head with a golf club. She called the paramedics and they came right away. The golfer is fine; (although, his son is not as he was the one who swung the club....) but got checked over by the paramedics, and told to watch it for a few days. He actually wanted to finish his game! But he was told to watch for signs of a concussion. They are camped here in the park. I notified the owner, and as it turns out, he was in a meeting with the Chief of Police at Pequot Lakes when the call came in that there was a medical emergency at his golf course. He hurried back to oversee the situation. Never a dull moment!

 

We got some rhubarb and strawberries at the Nisswa farmer's market and our other host lady made a strawberry rhubarb crumble. Yummo!  Great recipe:  Barefoot Contessa. Rhubarb is very popular in this area.

Line behind us waiting for breakfast

July 4th we went into Pequot Lakes for the Fireman's Pancake Breakfast. There must have been hundreds there from around the area. Pequot's population is only about 2100 but in the summer and during festivals it swells to more than 25,000.  Although, we had to stand in line for a while the breakfast was very good! Then we went to the park in the city to the festival. Booths were set up everywhere and people were lining the streets with chairs for the parade. We were told that the parade is the best in the area. We did not stay for it, but enjoyed the time at the festival.

Entrance to mini golf course

That evening we cooked out with the other camp hosts

 and enjoyed the warmer weather.

We also played mini golf again in the park. Everything is green and the flowers are beautiful.

Wild raspberries in park. So sweet!

Well, one day Dennis took the truck into to Pequot to get the tires balanced. I was outside and when I opened the door to go in, there was smoke billowing out of the electric panel. I called our neighbor and camp host friend and he came right away. He unhooked the electricity and that stopped the smoking…. Dennis was stuck as the truck was still getting the work done. I called a mobile repairman and he came out quickly.  It seems a capacitor had failed and that caused the smoking. In the end, no one could find the source of what caused the problem to happen, but a new part was ordered. He checked the rig all over and the only thing that could have made this happen is that a bird's nest was found in the AC unit on top. It could have caused overheating.  From the materials the nest was made from it appeared to have been built in the Texas Hill Country when we were there in the spring.

  We must have hauled it all the way to Minnesota!  

I don't understand all of the ins and outs but we were able to hook back up to use electricity and a battery charger was added to make the lights and fridge work… Dennis said if we had not been here it is possible the whole rig would not have burned down, but just the capacitor burnt out. It was a scary day.

I told the mobile repair man that he is the favorite person at an RV Park! They do a lot of business and it is good that they have a whole business coming out to parks to repair RV's.

We said goodbye to the Russian family who had been staying in our lodge suite. They brought us a gift and told us how much they loved their visit here. It was nice for us to get to know a family from another country. We did not discuss politics or religion. We just enjoyed  them. Families are the same around the world. They all work, raise children and deal with life's situations. The same as us. They enjoyed discovering our country and look forward to coming back. I hope they make it to Texas someday!

We are about half way through our time in Minnesota this summer.  Time really goes by quickly!

We have a beautiful tomato plant with tomatoes if it ever gets warm enough for them to ripen....

tomatoes, basil, chives & thyme

End of June

Dragon fly by our rig

The Paul Bunyan hiking, biking trail goes close to our park. The trail is

level and wide with trees and wildflowers. We walked and enjoyed time in nature. The weather is still cool but nice to walk in.

Red Winged Black Bird

There is a nice coffee shop in Nisswa with an outdoor patio. On Friday late afternoons a couple of college students perform music. They were pretty good! Next door is a pizza place where you can sit on the patio and still enjoy the singers. The pizza was good as well!

We have a family from Russia staying in the two bedroom suite for a couple of weeks. They have two boys going to hockey camp and a younger girl. It seems the hockey camp here is popular through out the world. We have enjoyed getting to know them.They are fascinated with campers and their rigs. They asked to see inside ours and asked lots of questions. What seems normal to us is totally foreign to them.

 

On a day off from camp hosting, we were invited by the owner to go on a boat ride. He has a cabin on an island that needed to be cleaned for a reservation coming up. He told us we did not have to help but thought we would like to take out the boat while they were cleaning!

So Dennis was very happy to get out on a Minnesota lake and drive a boat.

There were boats everywhere as it was a nice sunny day. 

Our view at lunch

A house on the lake.
I could live there!

We rode to a restaurant on the water, The Wharf, parked the boat and ate lunch on an upper deck and watched the boats go by. Good food and nice atmosphere made for a great day!

10:00 p.m. Still light out!

It is fun to see the sights of Minnesota; but, sometimes you just need to hang around camp and enjoy that, too!  We went to the market in Nisswa and purchased some homemade sausage links from a farmer. The other camp host couple was going to be busy checking in people, so Dennis smoked the sausage and I made sides and we had dinner for them in between checkins. They have cooked for us on days like this. It is nice to have a good dinner on days like this. Also, one of the other campers was interested in our smoker/grill, so there may be another one in the park soon! They are here for the summer.

Office/motel room/2 bedroom suite end of June.