Severance Travels: Lake Benton, MN

We left Paullina on Monday, 6/10 and drove to Lake Benton, MN to spend a couple of weeks with family up in this neck of the woods.

Very nice lake here with a lot of good fish/fishing.

Our campground site is in the Hole in the Mountain Campground, an real nice County Park.

My cousin, Gary and his wife Shirl, are camped next to us.

They live in Lake Benton and ran a NAPA, hardware, and general store for many years before retiring last year.

We've spent a lot of time outdoors just talking, reminiscing, etc. Friends we met last year (Chuck and Coleen) also brought their trailer out here for a few days so we sat out by the campfire several nights after having supper outdoors.

Couldn't ask for a better time together (except that Shirl kept getting bitten by the "buffalo gnats"). Small flies with clear wings that bite. Shirl was the only one who was getting bitten????

Because it was flag day (6/14) (and Karen's birthday!!), Gary and several other Legionaires put up flags at the cemetary.

This past weekend was the 73rd annual Saddle Horse Holiday here in town. The county has a special campground for those RV'ers with horses. This was there view down to our campground (which you can't see because of the trees!!!). The small house you see on the left is just up the hill from our site.

There was a lot going on including fireworks. (We didn't get to see much because we went up to Minnetonka for the weekend and came back on Monday).

We've been together with my cousin, Claudia, who lives a on farm a few miles out from Pipestone (my home town - 18 miles south of here). Had dinner with her at Langes Cafe, that has been open for 65 years and was open 24 hours a day (owner buried the keys in the cement when they opened), but now have had to shut down the overnight shift due to lack of customers.

We (Claudia, Gary and Shirl, and Judy and me) also drove over to Flandreau, SD (about 25 miles West of Pipestone) for supper another night at a nice restaurant over there.

A high school graduate of mine and her husband, Marlene and Larry, live in Pipestone and we try to get together with them as well. Larry is into woodworking and has a nice supply of things that he has made for sale. Over the years Judy has bought several things. And we have been out to eat with them as well. (Are you getting some sort of drift about what we do with family and friends????).

This one depicts Jesus life (kind of hard to see so if you want to see it in person, you will have to visit us!).

We did drive down to Pipestone and went to the National Monument. We only walked about half the trail due water from the falls still flowing over the walkway.