Minnesota and Beyond - August and September

 Our last trip of the year was to Minnesota, Michigan, and finally Nebraska!!

We left Plano on 8/2 and drove to Chanute, KS to have our electric jacks checked out - everything was OK.  From there we made it to Onawa, IA and stayed overnight at the ON-UR-Way RV Park.  Nice place for a stopover.  

The next morning we drove into town, found a great little local restaurant and had breakfast.

We got to Lake Benton the next day, 8/5 and parked at the Hole in the Mountain RV Park.  We've stayed here before and really like the site and the surroundings.

Lake Benton is home to many windmills;  the area is called Buffalo Ridge.

If you followed this 'wind farm,' it extends from South Dakota (which is about 25 miles NW of Lake Benton) all the way down into Iowa.

When you travel in 'farm country' you are bound to come upon one of these monsters?  It has arms that extend and is driven in crop fields and fertilizes them.

 A farmer outside of Lake Benton raises elk.

Anyway, we enjoy coming up here because I have relatives and friends that we visit.

We usually eat together and then sit outside and talk or even play cards.  In this picture are Chuck and Coleen, Gary and Shirl, and myself.  Judy took the picture.

And, what's a campout without a bonfire, of which we had many!

My 60h (should have been last year but got delayed) class reunion was held on Friday and Saturday.  Checking in was somewhat unusual - we made our name tags and then were given a list of all who have died - 48!!  But it was fun to see those that (haven't died)  that you haven't seen in a long time.  There were 23 of us present.

The second night we had dinner at the Hiawatha Lodge which is in Hiawatha Pageant Park.  Years ago the Song of Hiawatha play was presented here every summer, but was  discontinued on 2008 after 60 years.

It's a beautiful setting - pictures don't do it justice.

Met up with several relatives at Pizza Ranch in Pipestone.

My cousin, John, is in the yellow shirt; his wife, Gerri, is second from the left.  Back right is Edith, Harold's (deceased) wife; cousin Claudia, cousin Karen (Gene's wife) and Judy.

Karen had brought one other couple that Judy and I did not know.

Had a good time catching up...

Can't make a trip to town without visiting the Pipestone Fort.  If you ever get the chance, this is a place to visit.

We also made it over to Flandreau, SD for dinner one night with Claudia.  Good food.

Judy, of course, tried their long island ice tea!

Had to make a stop at the liquor store and Judy found these!

We did spend a few days in Minneapolis (actually Minnetonka) with Judy's sister and family.  It happened to be a grandson's birthday (Mathias) so they had a pool party.

It was a great day for a party - sunny, warm, and a lot of people got in the pool.

Judy took pictures of the families:

Pam and Steve...

Stephanie, Jesse, Mathias, and Crawford (Meehan)...

Lauren, Ben, Violet, and Alice (Styba)...

Unfortunately, they were not there, but this is Matt, Jenelle, Marcus, and Graydon (Pivec)...

Pam found a bunch of cousins (Linds - on the Sorensen side) that she and Judy had never met.  Had a nice luncheon with them.

We had a great time there but had to leave and get back on the road because we had a schedule to follow!!

Next stop was Belding, MI where my cousin, Karen and husband, Bob Ware, live.  

We hadn't seen them since 2019 so it was nice to catch up.  I guess we always have food on the mind because the evening we got there, we went out to dinner with friends of theirs.  The next day we went for brunch at a neat, local restaurant.  This was part of their menu:

Judy had the lemon poppy cakes that were delicious;  I had the normal pancakes (not at adventuresome as Judy!!).

We did find a local farmer selling fresh fruits and vegetables.  We opted for peaches which were really good.

We also made it back to the restaurant the evening before we left.

Next stop on our itinerary was Waterloo, NE (Omaha) but it was about 700 miles away, we had to make one stop and because it was Friday before the Monday Labor Day, we had to find a campground about half way.

We did end up in the Sunset Campground in Hillsdale, IL which was about half way.  We got an end spot so had this view.

Our spot backed up to a bean field.  Nice beans - look at how Judy compares:

On Monday we left and drove to Waterloo.  Got our usual spot at a state park campground.  (Sorry, didn't have a current picture).

But the next pictures show how deserted the campground was.

We picked up Aliza (my sister, Judeen's granddaughter) from school and brought her out to the campground (because she wanted to come out there!).

She went through our toy chest and played with just about everything.  We finally played Sorry and she won.

Went out to supper with Katie, Tim, Aliza and Judeen the evening before we left.  Enjoyed catching up with them too.  Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to see Jim or Alison and Eric.  Maybe next time...

The campground does have several cabooses that can be rented.  They sleep 6 and are quite nice inside.  

Judy likes to take pictures of old barns.  Here's one that didn't make it!

And, FINALLY, our trip home consisted of stopping about half way which was Carthage, MO (near Joplin).  Nice campground.  We got this premium end site that already had chairs around a fire pit. 

And, now we are home for awhile...