By the shore

of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
The weather there got cold and gloomy,
We desired somewhere hotter,

Got our compass found true north,
Turned the other way and ventured forth,
Now at the city with the IKEA,
It'll be a few more days before we see ya.

Do you know the way

to Grand Marais? Just follow scenic Highway 61 along the coast of Lake Superior until you are about 40 miles from the Canadian border. That's where we are, living on the bank of Lake Superior and on the edge of the 3 million acre Superior National Forest. People around here say they have had a cool and rainy summer but, as luck would have it, we are enjoying sunny 70 degree days while taking driving and hiking trips through the official north woods. I would add some pictures but apparently I left our camera in the car. We'll be here a couple more days before starting to work our way back south. You Texans need to turn off the heat before we get there.

Why are we in Duluth, MN?

Because we have never been here before and even though it rained the first three days it is now sunny with highs in the 70's and lows in the 50's. We have done just a little sightseeing so far. I had to repair a slideout problem during which I pulled a calf muscle and can barely walk so hiking through the woods is out for a while. I can still sit around, watch TV and run the computer so everything is good. Plenty of trash so Tonya has lots to do. Meanwhile we're home every night.

Minneapolis, MN

This is very disturbing. Ever since we got to Minnesota Tonya has been shrinking until now she can fit under Momance. I don't know if we can stay much longer.

On the other hand, Mall of America is big as advertised. It doesn't have an IKEA store in it like I had heard (IKEA is across the road) but it does have an amusement park in the middle, an aquarium with the largest shark tank in the world in the basement and 5 floors of stores. We went to a "Human Body" exhibit that is also showing at the mall. This is one of those with the real "plasticized" bodies and body parts, skeletons, circulatory systems, muscles, internal organs etc., very interesting. There were also various shows from Branson playing over the weekend.

Did some more sightseeing today. Ate lunch at the Mystic Lake Casino buffet but didn't gamble, so not only did we not lose our ass, we added to it.

Heading north tomorrow, should be at the north pole soon.

Made it to MinnaSOOOODA

We left Des Moines on Tuesday after we couldn't get the brakes to quit working again or find the problem. When we got about 150 miles north they temporarily shorted out again. We found our way to Ken's RV Repair, a one man shop in Forest City, IA, and stayed in town a couple of days until he could take a look. Forest City is a small midwestern town in the middle of Iowa cornfields that also just happens to be where Winnebago motor homes are made. If it hadn't been for our problem we would have never come down this road or taken the very interesting tour of the huge Winnebago plant. They are still building RV's but operating with about 1300 employees, down from around 2600 a year ago. Ken diagnosed the brake problem on Friday as worn and cracked magnets. He came in on Saturday and replaced all of them so we could get on our merry way to Minneapolis, Minnesota where we are this morning. We will be going to the Mall of America in a little while. Tonya will probably want to shop and I will probably do the Clark Griswald; "Wow that's big, lets cross it off our list and hit the road".

Balloon Classic Indianola IA

We are still in Des Moines, IA. Thursday evening we went to the 40th annual Balloon Classic in Indianola, IA., a week long event with around 100 hot air balloons participating. Here are some pictures of the balloons being blown up, in the air and the night glow show.







For the RVers reading this the park we are staying in is called Cutty's. You have to belong to Passport or Coast to Coast to get in but if you belong and need a spot in Des Moines sometime I would recommend it.

There is a maintenance guy at the park we are staying named Dick that works for the park and also does RV repair. I hired him to help me (read I helped him) pull a couple of hubs to check a wheel that was running a little hot on the way over here. We didn't find anything wrong but I got introduced to Dick.

We decided to leave the car here for the next few weeks and get it on the way back through, so Friday morning we put the car in storage, fueled up the truck and got rigged down. While I was preparing to hitch up Momance the serpentine belt on the truck started shredding and knocked the radiator hose off. As I was looking things over Dick came by and said "Looks like you need to go get a new belt". I agreed but said I had just put the car in storage. He said he had a car, gave me a ride to his RV, handed me the keys to his car and told me how to get to the auto parts store. I went and bought a belt, when I returned Dick happened by and helped me put it on. After installing we found the cause of the problem was a bad tensioner assembly. Dick said I needed to go back to the parts store and buy a new tensioner. I asked if he could install it. He said he could but would have to do it after he got off work. I took Dick's car again, bought the part and we installed it that evening. I asked Dick how much I owed him, he said "I figure it's worth $40. I paid him $60 and told him if he said anything I was going to give him more. I had just had a show stopping mechanical failure, not while pulling down the highway or even running around town, but while parked in our "front yard". I didn't have to move it, got to buy the parts myself for about half what a shop would charge, and the mechanic came to me. Pretty lucky I would say. Did I mention Dick is 75 years old and has retired three times. (I know Uncle Jim is saying "So" but not everyone his age is that active and still working everyday.)

When we left Saturday morning we didn't get a mile when the electric trailer brakes quit working. We immediately turned around and went back to the campground, it's not a good idea to pull this rig anywhere without its' brakes working. Couldn't find the problem right away so we got another spot until Monday. I have done some research and think the problem is a short so I will be looking more today. If I don't get it figured out Dick is back to work tomorrow. In the meantime we are not stranded on the highway but "Home Every Night".

From Terry: Last week we were in Ottawa IL visiting our friends Jim and Donna Skolek. While we were there we went out to Skydive Chicago (the skydiving airport just outside of town) where they were having their annual event that brings skydivers in from all over the world for 3 weeks. There were about 300 skydivers going up in 4 planes (with 20 in each plane) from morning until dark. It looked like it was raining parachutes all day long. The video above shows a few of them landing (there were often dozens landing in quick succession during the day). We talked to one of the participants who claimed to be fairly new to skydiving with only about 120 jumps. He was going to give a demonstration of how the backup chute worked by cutting away his main chute on the way down. Tonya told him "That's pretty stupid." He not only jumped out of a perfectly good airplane but cut off his perfectly good parachute on the way down. We were impressed when another said he had about 1800 skydives until he told us some here had 17,000 plus.

On Thursday night a few brave souls did a night jump with lighted suits and fire shooting out of their heels on the way down. There was plane flyby after which the whole runway seemed to explode with some kind of timed charges (about 8 fireballs), followed by a spectacular fireworks show. (We missed the Toga party the night before - damn the luck.)

On Friday a group was going to try to set a world record with 80 divers all touching in formation while head down vertical. The current record is 69; if they succeeded I think they were going to go for 100 next. Any group that is going to do a formation on the way down does a "Dirt Dive" or rehearsal on the ground just before going up. Funny name, I would think a dirt dive would be what you would call a jump when the chute failed. The pictures below show the choreographer going over the formation design with part of the group and the whole group doing the "Dirt Dive". I don't know why the picture is so dark, I guess I was wearing my sunglasses when I took it. Will try to figure out how to lighten and repost later.

We stayed long enough to watch the first attempt. They didn't all get together on that one so they were preparing for another attempt when we left. Don't know if they succeeded later or not. Amazingly while we were looking up trying to locate the divers we could actually hear them before we could see them, not because they were all screaming in fear like I would have been, but because the suits of 80 divers all falling at the speed of gravity makes a low roar.

For my oilfield friends that are reading this I also learned that Ottawa is the sand mining capital of the country. I suspect a lot of frac sand comes from here.

Later on Friday we took our circus to Des Moines IA. Starting on Friday night there was a challenge pool match between two top players, each putting up a $5,000 wager. The match was played on a 7' bar table with the winner being the first to win 150 games of 9-ball.

This is Scott "The Freezer" Frost originally from Des Moines now living in Phoenix AZ. Scott is well known as one of the best players in the country and the home town favorite.

And this is Shane "The Kid" Van Boening from Sioux Falls SD. Shane may now be the top player on the planet. There will be some argument about that, but he is certainly in the top 5. If you watch any professional pool on TV you have probably seen him. They played Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights with Shane winning by a convincing margin of 150 - 104. Great fun for a pool hall junkie like me to watch.

We are still in Des Moines. Planning on staying until Friday then heading north.