Like the Song- On The Road Again!

Finally, after 3 trips to Pleasureland and nearly eight weeks after the first trip, our slides are working!  Thanks to the guys at the Service Department for sticking with it and going through the slide system with the experts at the manufacturer and finding a leaky ram.

Before we left, though, we hit the Minnesota State Fair.  As usual, there were tons of people,

tons of food, beautiful gardens,

and, BUTTERHEADS!

Since we knew we were going to have to be back in the Twin Cities for our duties as Ringmasters for Fall Festival in early October, we decided to make a loop "up Nort".  Our first stop was Cambridge, where we got to meet the newest addition to the Drassal Clan - Hadley Mae - daughter of Josh & Monica Lilienthal.

What a doll!  and look at all of that hair!

We stayed at the Isanti County Fairgrounds, right next to the wine Barn - appropriate?

 

Next stop - Duluth.  Neither Ron or I had been to Duluth since our marathon days.  We stayed in a great campground just outside of Hermantown.  The weather was great, so we explored the city.

Grandmas Restaurant - believe it or not, the first time Ron ran the marathon, I sat in the restaurant until the finishers started coming in, then walked out to the finish line - no crowds!

Canal Park is always fun to walk around - we finished off our outing with a couple of brews from the Canal Park Brewery.  They were great!

Next day - the Aquarium.  Hard to take photos here, but it was really fun to see.

Loved this little albino painted turtle.

Awesome tree house.

Even Seahorses!

 

 But my favorite was the River Otters.  They were hilarious to watch, running, wrestling, looking at us.  I was captivated, but I wasn't the only one...

 

 There was an exhibit of wonderful paintings of otters - loved the action she captured and the colors.

 

Of course, we had to go see Glensheen.  I had been there many years ago, but Ron has never seen it.  Glensheen was built on 7.6 acres on Lake Superior by Chester Congdon in 1905-08.  It has 39 rooms.

The front of the mansion

Chester's bedroom.  Chester was a lawyer who made some very lucrative investments in the mining business.  He was also the U.S. Attorney for Minnesota, so had to make trips to St. Paul - 16 hours by buggy!  Poor Chester only got to live at Glensheen for 6 years before he died of pleuressy

This was his shower - it had 16 shower heads!

 This was a guest bedroom.  In their day, guests would travel many hours and stay months.

Loved this photo of Chester & Clara's daughter Helen.  The mansion was willed to the University of Minnesota along with much of the furniture.

This was the chair in the photo.

The stairway from the first to the second floor - beautiful glass.

As was in the breakfast room - it was designed to look like it was under an oak tree.

I was astounded by the" modern conviences" - the boiler room plus a laundry with a dryer, an intercom system, alarm system and kitchen designed with a sink that wouldn't chip the china.

The grounds are beautiful - this is the boat house,

a stone bridge,

the back of the mansion has beautiful gardens, fountains, and a walk to the lake

The carriage house - wow!

and the tack room.  We loved the tour - the guides don't talk about the murder that happened in 1977, but there are books in the gift shop about it & there is a tour now that goes to the third floor (where it happened).  It is a pretty freaky story about the daughter, Marjorie (adopted), and sad that she was such a nut.  I remember my mom being fascinated with this story.

 

Our last stop was the Depot & lakewalk.

The Depot is beautifully restored.  I was taken by the beautiful stained glass windows created by a Tiffany artist for the city.

We didn't go through the museum at the Depot, but followed this route-

then down Lakewalk to Fitzger's - brew house, shops, great deck

The view of the lake was great.

made a new friend

Had a great time in Duluth.  Loved my walks through the fields and woods around the campground, so I will just finish this blog with a bunch of photos I took of the fall flowers and beautiful scenery on my walks.

 

 

Hinckley - More Than Just a Casino!

So, I have been on hiatus with this blog because (unfortunately) we haven't been able to travel because of the issue with our slides (they come out when we drive - Scary).  We have (fortunately) been able to stay with Brooke & Johnny, so have had a good time visiting and helping out when we can.  It's been great to see Alycia when she has time & to catch up with a lot of friends and family.

We did spend 2 weeks in Hinckley when we did some farm sitting for our friend, Noah Falconer.  Noah has spent the last two years working (slaving!) at cleaning and rehabbing a show arena just south of the Hinckley casino. The hard work shows.  The arena has been renamed Double F Arena and has hosted a number of barrel races and breed shows.

Kind of a dorky photo of Noah (sorry, Noah) but I wanted to show the logo for the arena (I've been sporting my t-shirt, Noah!)

Brooke & Noah are good friends and she tries to get up and help whenever she can.  She also moved her horses up so they can ride together.  Besides running the arena, Noah also has a small, select group of broodmares and young stock with the bloodlines of the best barrel horses in the country.  His first foal crop is just getting started under saddle and looks very promising.

 

One of the things I remembered hearing about regarding Hinckley was the great fire, so when I saw that there was a museum in town, off we went.

In 1894, Hinckley was a thriving logging community of over 1,400 people.  There had been a two month drought, and on September 1st the firestorm began.  Because loggers left behind debris, there was a lot of fuel for the fire.  The fire burned over 200,000 acres and killed at least 413 people.  Inside the museum is a great collection of memorabilia including items that survived the fire.

There were also lots of personal stories from survivors.  One popular one is about a train engineer, John Root, who was headed south from Duluth.  He couldn't make it through the fire, but he picked up over 300 people and backed the train to Skunk Lake, where they ran into the lake.  They had to duck under the water while the firestorm passed over and said they could feel the heat from under the water. 

This mural was painted to try to capture some of the stories of the day.

There was also an area that explained what a firestorm is.  How the high surface temperatures held down by cooler air above caused a temperature inversion that trapped the gasses from the fire.  This created a fire tornado, complete with thunder and lightening.  The ground temps of over 2,000 degrees melted barrels of nails & fused the wheels of trains to tracks.

 

After the fire, Hinckley residents were determined to rebuild, but winter was coming.  The governor of MN, Knute Nelson, was able to raise $90,000.00 in relief.  By November 21, they had built over 300 houses and helped 450 families. 

This is a replica of a house that would house a family of 4!

Just looking at how devastating a fire like this can be, and in light of what is happening in California today, you have to feel humbled by the power of nature.