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20050809 Menomonie WI 68/91 Cloudy, Variable.
We had thunder, lightning, and rain in the early morning as a cold front went past. We got up and out of St Cloud fairly easily and crossed the rest of Minnesota to Taylor's Falls on the St Croix River. Only a little difficulty with construction zones, of which there were plenty. Then on to Turtle Lake, WI, on US-8 and down "K" and WI-79 through the territory I spent my summers in as a teenager, and on into Menomonie and the Twin Springs campground.
During the drive, we got back ahead of the cold front and arrived in another warm day.
Twin Springs is its usual erratic place. The site given us was under a large maple with low-hanging limbs. When we first set up, the limbs dangled onto the trailer. So we moved out away from the tree but that didn't look right. So we found another part of the tree and angled into it; perfect.
I took the truck and got a few items at Walmart, then went on to get the truck washed. I rode around past the homes my maternal grandparents had lived in and other places I remembered. I stopped at the old John Dale house "Oaklawn", now a B&B, to look at it. The owner chatted with me about the place, saying that Elvira Dale was one of the first people she met when she came to town. I told her of our family's friendship with the Dales. It would be fun to come up here and stay a night there.
Then I went to John Dale, Jr's house. He was there, with Richard (up from Florida). I told them both of mom's passing, which John had heard but Richard had not. We chatted for a while, then I went on.
Then back to the trailer, as I could see the storm front closing in. Once again, we had rain and thunder and lightning, but it didn't last long. It sure cooled down in a hurry, though.
Bob Utphall called and invited us for dinner. We scurried over to the Marketplace, picked up a twelve-pack, and went there. Judi was chattering as she fixed dinner, so Dolores listened and watched. Bob & my brother John were talking about this and that, so I listened to them. John told me what he'd been up to on this trip.
We ate and then talked about families and kids, and who is where and how things are going. Bob's son Robert came along to discuss a couple of bids with his dad (they do small-scale contracting, especially asphalt and concrete work), then stayed when the talk shifted to deer hunting, trucks, and so forth.
Dolores & I left around 10:15 to find a thick fog. We drove through that almost all the way to the campground, seeing only one deer enroute - in front of the old Drake place. I couldn't move the truck's heater control (hot....cold) lever, so the defroster wasn't doing much - gotta fix that in the morning, if I can.
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20050810 Menomonie WI 63/84? Partly cloudy, warm (not Hot) Picture Link
We got to bed late last night and slept late this morning.
I decided to take a look at the truck; the heater control lever that wouldn't budge last night worked freely this morning. Not a problem. I don't understand that one. I looked up the type of light bulb that illuminates the license plate so I could get a couple - they're both burned out.
We then wandered (literally) out to Hoffman Hills, a state recreation area with many trails through it. We took the prarie trail so Dolores could take more flower pictures. When it started to get warm about noon, we left there to go to the Eau Galle Cheese Factory, well south of Menomonie. We saw two separate deer running into cornfields. They won't be so open in another couple months.
The Eau Galle is a nice operation, very well furnished in a new brick building. It sells all the Boyd Bears and other cutesy things (made in China lables) one can imagine. They have a good selection of cheese, though, and couple of interesting items.
I'd rather be able to buy cheese at the old Connersville Co-op Creamery, but it's shut down now with all sorts of allegations concerning money that came up missing. Granddad was on the first board of directors of that creamery. Of course, the place was too small to make a go of it in this era of super-big, super-efficient, machines. It hadn't handled a can of milk in years. But the co-op still existed and sold cheese and other things they bought.
We bought our cheese and some novelty items, then went north through Menomonie to the Walmart to get vitamins and a few grocery items. Then back to the trailer to put it all away.
I tried to call brother John as previously arranged, but he had left Bob Utphall's farm saying only that he was going to visit Tom Larson, a cousin by marriage visiting his sister here from Maryland. So we took it easy and did some computer chores until we finally reached him later in the afternoon.
Then we went to Jim & Jo Utphall's farm to invite them to dinner tomorrow night with their daughter Julie and her new husband of a couple of weeks, Matt Swenson. Jo called Julie and arranged how they could handle that (they commute together to Eau Claire, where they both work). The dinner was arranged for an early hour so Jo could get to a meeting she wants to attend. We chatted for a bit and left to go to Bob & Judi's.
We invited them as well, but Judi will be working late and can't make it. So we'll be eight for dinner.
We left and returned to the little house, seeing two deer on the way home.
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20050811 Menomonie WI 50/69 Cloudy, occasional rain. Picture Link
We went out for breakfast so we could last until the early dinner today. Went to the Kernal, the place where we last took grandpa Owen for a meal; the kids were very young (4-5?). Good breakfast.
Then we called Frank Handorf's sister Gert Nelson (they live together in Ridgeland) to see if we could come to visit this afternoon. Yes, of course.
We returned to the trailer for a bit, then drove up 25 to Ridgeland. Frank is the baby of the family at 83, Gert just turned 90. Their older sister is in a nursing home in Prairie Farm at age 102. They're not up to running races, but Frank put in the morning doing woodworking in his shop.
Frank recently finished some heavy-duty tables for a local bar. Made them out of 2x4's on edge, glued and screwed together. One was 14' long and 30" wide, to fit along a wall. Once he has them together, he takes them to Barron to run them through a lumber yard's planer. Then he takes them back for sanding and finishing, rounding the corners, etc. He needs help moving the assembled item around.
Gert uses a walker to get around since a broken-hip incident last year. But she's mobile and cheerful and laughs a lot.
We had a nice chat, except Frank is hard of hearing; I thought I'd get a sore throat from yelling so much. We left their place just in time to race back to Menomonie to host the early dinner for the Utphall's, especially Julie and Matt - the newlyweds.
Dolores & I did get there first and got the manager to arrange things. Then everyone else showed up all at once from three different directions - they couldn't have planned it better. We sat, talked, ate, talked, drank coffee, talked. Finally, Jo had to go to her meeting so things just sort of naturally broke up. Brother John is traveling tomorrow to see friends on the other side of the state, so we said a temporary goodbye to him (we'll see him again in 10 days or so).
Dolores & I headed to Walmart to get an album to hold her finished pictures. We found the folder, then split to look at other things. When I found her again, she and Judi Utphall (the one who couldn't attend the dinner) were chatting about photography. As the chat went on, Julie Utphall also came through looking for something. I started to think the whole darn group and the cat would come through and say hi.
Then Dolores needed to change out of sandals to go to the fair. We got to the trailer and then it rained for a while, so we abandoned our plan to go to the fair (we'll go next year).
So we wound up in the trailer doing computer chores and listening to light rain. Very relaxing.
Tomorrow, we're off to Baraboo to tour the Mid-Continent Railway Museum.
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