Landfall, East Saint Paul

We've set up housekeeping in Landfall, Minnesota. It's on the east side of Tanner Lake, which is in East Saint Paul just a couple of miles from where we lived for over ten years. It's a great location - two or three miles from daughters Melanie and Lori, and close to just about anything in the Twin Cities you'd ever want to see. Today, Saturday, we went to the old car show (Back to the 50's) at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. It is a huge show, covering almost the entire fairgrounds. I've never seen so much "old iron" in one place at one time in my life. Kind of a double nostalgia trip for me, it was a reminder of the type of old cars that were around during my teen years and beyond, and the fairgrounds are located right across the street from the former Bethel College where I spent my first two college years back in the late 50's. The college is no longer there having moved a few miles north to Arden Hills, but the campus is still there and is now the Hubert Humphrey Job Corps Center.

Tomorrow, Sunday, we plan to visit the Minnesota Arboretum just west of Minneapolis. I've been there before, many years ago, but Pat has never been there. It's a world-class arboretum.

The weather has taken a turn for the better, in fact it's been downright tolerable - not too hot and not too cold and with only a few sprinkles. Hopefully, all the bad weather is behind us.

Photos are a view of Tanner Lake from the RV park and granddaughter Isabel, Melanie's youngest, at t-ball practice.

Moving, again - Raining, again

It's early Sunday morning as I write this, and it's raining again. A fairly stout thunderstorm began about 6 am and although the strong winds, thunder and lightning have moved on with the front of the storm we are left with a steady rainfall. Normally, this would not be a major concern as we would just enjoy the sound of falling rain and the delightful scent it leaves in the air. Today, in fact right now, we should be putting things away and tearing down our temporary home here in Blackhawk Valley so we can be on the road back to Minnesota. We have reservations in Woodbury beginning tonight and have grandparent chores to fulfill beginning Monday, tomorrow. It's hard to believe we've been back in Rockford for a week.

As we began to pack for the move from Scott AFB last week, we were honored to have a pair of pileated woodpeckers visit us for a few hours just before we left. I've seen pw's before, but never had a pair of them at one time and hang around for as long as they did. These are large and magnificent birds and just a delight to watch.

During this week in Rockford, we managed to fit in a visit to the Burpee Museum. Their primary exhibit is Jane, an immature T-Rex dinosaur that they discovered in Montana just a couple of years ago. It's an impressive display, and something of importance that you would not necessarily expect to find in a relatively small museum in a city of only 150,000 population. Of course, we also spent lots of time with Angel and her family. The merry go round is right here in Blackhawk Valley RV Park.

Well, I think the rain has almost come to an end so we can get on with hooking up to pull out of here and head for Minnesota.

Dave & Pat

Boeing fighters

Staying on Scott AFB has been an enlightening experience. Son, Steve, has shown us some of the high points, including the building where he works. The things that are done in his workplace involve USAF shipments all over the world. Ever see any of the Hollywood movies (such as War Games) where they show a large room with huge tv screens on all the walls? On these screens you can view any number of military operations all over the world. There is one of those rooms in the building where Steve works. It's a high-security building and one of the signs you can't miss as you enter is that the use of "deadly force" is authorized to maintain security.

One day some apparently new fighter jets appeared on the flight line. They were F18 hornets. At first there were only 4 of them, but over the next 24 hours the number climbed to 9. They took off and landed a few times, flew overhead, and then all were suddenly gone. Learned while they were yet here that the F18 is built by Boeing in St. Louis. Very impressive aircraft. St. Louis is only about 30 miles from the AFB. In September this year there will be an air show at Scott AFB. We have already made reservations to be back here in time for the show. That will most likely be the last time of visitation here in the midwest before we point our truck toward a warmer area for the winter. We'll let you know more about that as soon as we know more about our fall schedule.

Be well.

Dave & Pat

Gardening - on the road

You can take the gardeners away from their dirt, but you can't stop some of the dirt from going with the gardeners.

Here we are set up in the "woods", barely 1/2 mile from the flight line at Scott AFB, Mascoutah, Illinois. We have been blessed with a full spectum of bird colors: Red - Cardinal, Orange - Oriole, Yellow - Gold Finch, Green - Calliope Hummingbird, Blue - Blue Jay, Indigo - Indigo Bunting, and Violet - Purple Martin. What an arrray!

In the photo please notice three hanging baskets and one lonely tomato. All are doing well, and we think this might be as much gardening as we are willing to attempt while on-the-road. We'll be planting some other things at the homes of our kids in Illinois and Minnesota that we'll be around to collect at harvest time in the fall before heading somewhere else (warmer) to spend the winter.

Hope your garden is doing well, if you have one. If you don't, it's not too late to get started!

Dave and Pat