(posted Sunday, but written last Friday)

We are back at the cabin after 2 weeks on the road.  The first week (or almost) was the trip to Winnipeg that was mentioned in the prior posting.  After returning from Canada, we parked the motorhome at the cabin, got a night’s sleep, and left for the Twin Cities, stopping for lunch with Joyce in Duluth on Friday, the 14^th.  Once we got Valentina home, we headed for our home-away-from-home, Brett’s place in Elk River.  With all of the road repair going on, that 34 mile drive took more than an hour.

The next morning, we stopped at Denny and Dianne’s place on the way to Don and Peggy’s wedding near Pemberton that afternoon.  The wedding turned into quite a family reunion with all of Bob’s siblings, plus a few cousins and an aunt and uncle. 

 A good time was had by all.  Congratulations Don, and welcome to the Riewes Peggy!

Then it was back to Brett’s place the same day.  At this point we’ve put on about 850 miles in 3 days.  Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were filled with appointments and meetings (Drs, Dentists, and advisors, plus Ron’s birthday at Pam's place).  We also spectated at a hockey tournament and one hockey practice.  We didn’t keep track of those miles!  Thursday was another 200 miles or so, back to the cabin, so on Friday we didn’t leave the peninsula.  We just had a walk around the point.

Just thinking about it brought the title to this posting.

Summer came when we were in Canada, and it lasted through the weekend.  Then the showers and cooler air came in.  We ran the fireplace yesterday and the baseboard heaters today, so it is beginning to feel like fall already.  Hopefully we will have a couple more summer-like days before we leave in a month.

Back from an International Vacation

With two of our major summer projects complete, and a good start on the third, it was time to take a break.  Valentina came from Minneapolis late last Thursday. 

We had a quiet Friday and tornado-threatened Saturday before loading up the motorhome and heading north on Sunday.  We were on our way to Winnipeg’s 46^th annual multicultural festival, called Folklorama (not to be confused with their Folk Music Festival).  Paige had been to one about 16 years ago; Bob had not been to one before; and this was Valentina’s first trip to Canada.  With a mid-day start on Sunday we took two days to get to Winnipeg, stopping for the night on the shores of Lake of the Woods at Arnessen’s Rocky Point access.  We had a great site with a wonderful sunset across Buffalo Bay.

We had a quick and easy border crossing Monday morning and stopped at the first of numerous Tim Hortons in Steinbach for mid-morning coffee and donuts.  The festival is a 2 week celebration of ethnic diversity where half of the 43 groups stage their own performances during the first week, and the rest do the same during the second week.  We missed the first week, but visited 4 different pavilions during our stay: the Russians’ and Italians’ on Monday, the Serbs’ on Tuesday, and the Romanians’ on Wednesday. 

All of these were evening presentations, filled with singing and dancing while we sampled their authentic cooking.  During the days, we visited the French district, “the Forks” historic/shopping area, the WAG (Winnipeg Art Gallery) and Winnipeg’s newest tourist attraction, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. 

We certainly saw a lot in our short visit.

 

Our return to the cabin was a single day of driving on Thursday.  It will be only a short rest, because we have to get Valentina home on Friday, and get to a wedding on Saturday in southern Minnesota.

Not Sitting Still

We have been busy up here in the Northland: the same week our new carpeting was installed, we also got the pickup back from the body shop (they did a great job).  Then we had overnight company for a couple of nights.  Paige’s former co-workers, KJ and Rob, came to spend some of their hard-earned vacation time here with us.  Later we decided to call this time “training for them as how to live like retired folks”.  During their visit, we took a day trip to Ely.  It is not at the end of the world, just the end of the highways in northern Minnesota.  North of here is canoe country.

After their return to the work-a-day world, we added another labor saving device: a powered door opener on our garage/storage building.  Bob has put in many of these in the past but this was the hardest to complete because of some binding in the tracks that had to be adjusted out.

Last weekend summer finally got here to Makinen.  It was so hot and humid (compared to normal) that we actually turned our A/C in the motorhome on for about an hour one evening.  Paige’s mom came for an overnight visit and stayed two nights to enjoy the hot weather.  The forecast was for continuing humidity into Monday, so we took another road trip, this time along Lake Superior’s north shore to Naniboujou Lodge, near Grand Marais, and Grand Portage National Monument near the Canadian border. 

 

Both were historical and quite interesting (especially the dessert at the lodge).  For more details see            http://naniboujou.com/     and

                 http://www.nps.gov/grpo/planyourvisit/basicinfo.htm

The return trip along the shore was cool, where the fog was rolling in, and hot away from the big lake. 

We are planning another touristy trip in early August when we plan to take Valentina to Winnipeg for a few days.

Getting There

Things are happening up here, slowly.  This is being written on Tuesday morning and our new carpeting should be delivered and installed later today.  We have spent weeks slowly cutting out pieces of the old stuff and sanding the subfloor to get it acceptably clean.  Yesterday all furniture was removed and we re-touched some of the early sanding.

It has been quite a bit of work, but should be worth it.

Meanwhile, the auto body shop still has our truck.  They had first tried to repair one of the doors, but later decided to replace it instead.  This means more time will be needed to have the replacement delivered.  We should learn soon when they expect to finish.

While all this has been going on, we have had some visitors.  All of our granddaughters and Dave’s blended family were here for the long 4^th of July weekend, with Brett’s girls spending an extra day before going home on the 6^th.  While they were here, Olivia and Anna participated in the local Cabin Circle Run/Walk with Anna taking First Place in the Youth Runner category.  Our neighbors took Sophie and Anna water skiing for the first time.  Sophie almost got up and Anna got up and took one spin around the lake. 

 

Unfortunately, the weather didn’t allow another attempt over the weekend.  Then there was the epic water balloon flight with our 5 girls and the neighbor’s 25 year old son.  It was a very busy, fun time! 

 

They haven’t been our only visitors: the Hilmos, our Nomads friends, stopped for a one-day visit late last week, and former co-workers and friends KJ and Rob will be here next week.

 

When we arrived here with the motorhome back in May, we endured quite a bit of rain.  The last 2 miles were muddy and sandy, so the Journey looked pretty rough for quite awhile.  It took us 2 days to get it looking good again, with the pollen off the top and the mud off the bottom.

Although Brett’s dog, Stella, has returned home, we have kept up our 2-mile walks around the neighborhood.  It’s a good routine to get into!

On Thursday, Paige’s mom has her 86^th birthday.  Her sister, Pam (who is retiring August 7^th – yippee!), will be in Duluth, so we will be taking Mom out for lunch.  So happy to have these opportunities!

PS (Thursday): Here is the finished flooring:

 

Plugging Away

Our truck isn’t fixed yet, the body shops have been too busy.  But we have done all that was asked by the insurance company.  We have an appointment for its repair during the week after the 4^th of July weekend.

Meanwhile, one of our summer projects for the cabin is complete: the interior wall was rebuilt, re-painted, and three doorways were re-trimmed.  The job looks pretty good for a couple of amateur laborers. 

 

Our remaining project is more physical and time consuming.  We have bought new carpeting to replace what has been there since sometime in the ‘60’s.  The original carpeting doesn’t look too bad – it doesn’t show dirt or wear, but one seam has been slowing coming apart every time the vacuum cleaner gets a chance to pull up another thread.  The replacement carpet won’t have a seam there, so maybe it will last another 50 years too. 

What is taking our time is pulling up the old stuff.  The carpet, itself, comes out fairly quickly.  It is the glued down foam backing that takes time to scrape off.  This reminds us of a lot of our Nomad project work: we couldn’t do this for a living, but we will volunteer our own labor.  We will continue doing a couple of square yards at a time, since the installers can’t put the replacement carpet down until mid-July.

We haven’t been “all work and no play”, however.  Last weekend, Dave, LeJoy, Valentina, Brayden, and Kaelyn spent the weekend with us.  Brayden and Kaelyn had not been to the cabin before.  They had lots of “firsts” – sauna, paddle boat, golf cart rides, fireworks, and using the outhouse (yuck!).  We all had a great time and they are coming back over the Fourth weekend.

 

For the past 2+ weeks, we’ve been dog sitting Stella, Brett’s family dog.  Brett and family are enjoying a trip to Italy for 3 weeks.  Stella has adjusted well – enjoying her daily tennis ball retrieving in the lake, the 2 mile walk around the loop, and golf cart rides.  Brett’s family returns on 7/30 and the girls want to come up over the Fourth also so we’ll have Stella here for another week plus a couple days.

 

The weather is finally warming up and we’re enjoying the outdoors.  So it’s a good combination of work and fun now. 

 

Oh, Deer!

It has finally happened: Thursday we were attacked by Bambi.  She tried to imitate a linebacker and run us off the road, but she failed.  We stayed on the road and she bounced off the driver’s side.

We lost a mirror, the front fender was pushed in, and both doors are rippled.  Neither of us was injured, but we can’t say the same for the deer. The situation is just one more little “opportunity”.

Other than that incident, we have been busy dog-sitting.  Brett and Jen took the girls on vacation and left Stella, their 3 year old chocolate lab, with us for awhile.  We have had her swimming in the lake and going for walks around the cabin circle.  When Brett was up here last Saturday, he brought his chainsaw to take down a dead tree by our garage.  It went very smoothly and we now have more room to get in and out of the garage.

We have also stayed busy with our remodeling.  The old paneling had been glued to the drywall so both came down and were hauled to the landfill.  We have just finished hanging the new drywall, along with taping and mudding (our own little Nomad project).

The paint was bought earlier today so we will have something to do this weekend – final photos later.

The weather has finally gotten sunny and warm.  We’re sure enjoying that!  On Wednesday, Paige’s mom came up for the day and our friends, the Buerkle’s, took us for a long ride on their pontoon.  It was so relaxing and Joyce really enjoyed seeing other parts of the lake.

Back and Forth

We have been up at the cabin, down to the Twin Cities, and back again to the cabin, all in the last two weeks.  We’ve enjoyed spending time with the granddaughters, family, and friends!

Paige had some dental work done and we had the truck serviced in Duluth before Memorial Day.  Brett and his daughters brought Stella, their Chocolate Lab, up to the cabin for the long weekend.  It was her first visit here and she really enjoyed the lake.  That’s a good thing since we will be caring for her up here while Brett and Jen and girls are vacationing later this month. 

Our summer improvement project has begun, and has already grown.  We had planned to replace the carpeting that has been unraveling for a couple of years.  We have picked the replacement, but the installers are so busy that it will be over a month before we have it.  In the meantime, we started to remove some paneling from an interior wall and found that it had been both nailed and glued to the drywall.  Removing the paneling now means removing the drywall too.

       

This gives us a chance to change some lighting and move some switches before installing the new drywall.  We hope to have all that done before the new carpet comes. 

Last weekend we brought Paige’s mom down to the Twin Cities for a graduation party, and a get-together with Ty and his family.  It was a great time and we got to see lots of family that we hadn’t seen in a long time. 

 

Thursday we take the motorhome into Duluth for some work on one of the slides.  Soon after leaving the Winnebago factory in Forest City, Iowa, we developed a nasty noise when bringing the slide in.  Bummer!  Hopefully the fix won’t take much time.

Otherwise, we’ll be working on our projects at the cabin for a few weeks.  Looking forward to Dave, LeJoy and kids coming up later in June.