Sewing – TooBusyForWork

Finally – San Diego with some of the grandkids then FMCA Convention

When I last posted, we were on the way to San Diego to visit with my oldest son, his lovely wife, and my three oldest grandkids. We stayed at the Mission Bay RV Resort. It is a pretty nice place for an urban RV park. It is right next to Mission Bay, and there is a public beach that adjoins the park. Of course the sites are narrow, but that goes with being in an expensive area.

The grandkids and their parents (twin girls 14, boy 10) arrived with their parents on Sunday late afternoon. We had a lovely dinner, then the kids went with us to the motorhome. It was the first time we have had five sleeping in the motorhome, but it worked well. The girls slept on the air mattress in the sofa, and the boy slept on an air mattress on the floor. They were up late to their bodies (central time zone to Pacific time zone) so everyone slept late the next morning. We met their parents for lunch, then we went on a whale watching tour. We actually saw a lot of various whales plus two types of dolphins. I, of course, got zero pictures! I get a bit seasick, so I stayed outside on the deck and ate my candied ginger. I got by, but I didn’t feel well enough to run around the boat for pictures. Turns out my grandson also gets seasick! Poor kid.

We said goodbye to my son and DIL, and we went back to the motorhome. The next few days were just and the grandkids. We went to the San Diego Zoo of course. I had so much fun looking at the kids I didn’t get too many pictures again, but I did get some. There was the obligatory koala picture of course.

As on our first trip a few years ago, I was as impressed with the plants as I was with the animals!

here are the three famous kids at the entrance. Sorry about the dust reflections,

We spent time wondering around the piers. The kids were quite impressed with the Disney cruise ship in for a turnaround. We also bought souvenirs there.

There was a lot of time spent at the beach watching the surfers and playing “sandpiper” – waiting until the wave came in then running away like the sandpipers do. They had a lot of energy! There was also time spent building in the sand and collecting seashells. There was a pool at the campground too, and they also spent time there. Even though the girls are 14, they still had fun on a “12 and under” playground. There were a lot of them around. We met the adults on Friday before they flew out. I hope they had enough fun to go with us again.

After San Diego we went to the FMCA convention in Tucson at the Pima County Fairgrounds. It is always a fun time. We came in a bit earlier than most because Kevin was volunteering with the security team. Here is what the Fairgrounds looks like empty. Then think of it full of over 1000 motorhomes and trailers! The blue spot is where we were parked.

I felt a bit bad for the speakers at the opening ceremonies because the sky gave them some heavy competition! What a glorious Arizona sunset.

I taught a class at the convention – sewing oven mitts. What a great group of students! Two were using borrowed machines, one person had never used her brand new machine, and three were experienced sewists. Luckily I had a few helpers who hadn’t brought their machines but wanted to see what the class was. They helped the folks who were having trouble with their machines. At the end everybody finished at least one mitt and was almost finished with the second. The experienced folks finished both. See the mitts they finished, and looked at those fabulous smiles! That was the best part of the whole thing!

After all the excitement of San Diego and the Convention, Minnie was not alone in wanting to rest a bit. I will write about the other locations we have visited tomorrow.

Leaving Quartzsite tomorrow

I just looked at my last post, and it was three weeks ago! Time flies when you are having fun I guess. We spent the day just generally sorting and organizing gear that has been spread around inside and outside. When we stop for a night or two some place, we keep things nicely organized. But when we stay someplace for long periods, things just have a tendency to explode! We actually have never stayed this long in a single place, and things were scattered everywhere! Got that pretty much done, so we are just relaxing in the peace and quiet of a mostly empty boondock location.

As I packed I realized I haven’t posted much about our travel companions. Luna is the black one, 10.6 pounds, friendly, and outgoing. Her sister Minnie (short for Minerva) is a petite 7.4 pounds, shy and anxious. They both love motorhome life.

I have been cooking of course. I tried to make pizzas on the Blackstone grill. I made the dough in my breadmaker. A 1 pound dough makes four personal pizzas. While I was trying for “round” I got “artisanal shaped” instead! The hardest part was shaping the dough.

We had an absolutely fabulous Valentine Day dinner. Kevin sous vide’d two steaks, and I made Parmesan and garlic asparagus. I also made light as air rolls from dough made in the bread maker, it was fabulous. The only issue with the bread maker is the power used to bake, whether in the machine or in the convection oven (the rolls). The convection oven is a real power hog!

Steaks, asparagus with Parmesan and garlic, home made roll

As expected we took more rides on the RZR, some with the SunRiders club and some on our own. I was impressed with the KOFA cabin built by the CCC. I think it is available for rent through the BLM. The stone work was lovely, and it was in great shape.

I wish I could remember the name of this fabulous site! Two arches, maybe 30’ high with a number of windows on either side. You might have to blow up the picture to see the windows though.

Double arches plus windows on either side

I took a “Ladies Only” ride with the SunRiders too. We went to Dead Horse Canyon which was rather uninspiring. Lots of sand, few rocks, and I love rocks. This was one of the sights on the way there though.

And the flowers have really stated coming out in the last few days.

Cholla and 2-3” wide Desert Gold flowers

The hills east of us have really turned green, or at least as green as the desert gets.

I have also done quite a bit of sewing. I finished up all but the binding of the donation quilt I am making for the FMCA convention in March. I am quite happy with it, though the final result was quite different than the initial plan. I thought I had carefully calculated that I could get four cuts from each fat quarter I had, but it turns out I could only get four cuts on the fat quarters without selvedges! Oops! I bought some more yardage and found the fabulous print to tie everything together. And yet more serendipity happened when the variegated thread my daughter got me for Christmas as a perfect match! It just got a simple all over meander. I might do some more quilting in the border, but I will decide later. It will only be if I get time.

I also finished my class samples for the sewing class I am doing at the FMCA convention. All of the project kits are completed including the binding all cut. I have 10 spots open, and I cut 12 sets so the students have some choices. And since I like them all, any leftovers will be fine with me! I also finished 100 triangle in a square blocks out of the remnants from the quilt. I will put them together for another baby sized quilt which will be fine when I add some borders.

I will end with this morning’s fabulous Arizona sunrise.

Various parts of Bighorns then Lake DeSmet

We got tired of no internet in Tie Flume Campground, so we headed to Lake DeSmet, a county park 8 miles north of Buffalo. There is one section that has electricity, but it is crowded and closed in, so we opted to dry camp in a lovely pull through site right next to the lake. This is the view from my front door.

We just decided to take the pickup and RZR to some more trails in the northern Boghorns. I will just post lots of pictures with a few comments. Hope nobody is tired of scenery yet, because this area is FULL of it! I am being very lazy about the texts.

Lots of big bluffs. See our trail in the middle?

I finally got a decent picture of a mule deer! We saw lots but they took off quickly.

And we saw cowboys! See the two dots to the right?

One trip along FSR 178 got us up to snow line.

We went well above this larger snow pile

Three layers of switch backs along US 14

Fish hatchery house

Toilets in a dispersed area along old US14! Uncommon site.

It also rained on us hard one day – over an inch! We generally just relaxed, read, and I sewed some. I finished the little rag doll I was working on except for her hair. The kit supplied yellow yarn for the hair, but I am going to find some brown since the granddaughter that gets it has brown hair. I sure won’t do that doll again! Such skinny little arms and legs to turn and stuff! I didn’t get a picture before I put it up in the cabinet – sorry.

We left DeSmet today to head to Gillette. We have a Diesel RV Club rally starting Sunday, and as an officer I have to be there early. It is a bit of an adjustment to get used to traffic and people parked a few feet away. We are getting some laundry done though, something sorely needed. It might be a while until I post again due to the rallies.

Maybe getting my blogging mojo back?

This has been a long dry spell. I have been doing things, but I just haven’t been posting them. Oops! I think I will provide just a short (hah!) month by month summary.

January\February:

We continued hanging around in Quartzsite through January. We went on a few more side by side rides with the Quartzsite club. We learned a lot, and had a great time. I ended up not going to the quilt group there this year. We just had too much going on. We always meet a group of people from RVForum.net for a rally during the RV show, so that took some time.

We finished up at Quartzsite on Feb 5 when we headed to Death Valley for their Dark Skies Festival. We stopped off at the Needles KOA for a night to store the RZR across the road. Can’t ride them in National Parks, and we were getting ready for a lot of other activities. The festival was great fun, as usual. This one had a big astrophysics theme which I found fascinating. Leaving Death Valley on 13 Feb, we again stayed at the Needles KOA, just because it was a reasonable distance. We were attending an Escapees Hangout in Lake Havasu for the Western Pyrotechnics Association from 14 Feb to 23 Feb. Quite a difference from the very organized FMCA events we had attended, but fun. The fireworks each night were fabulous! If you haven’t ever gone, you should try to make it. It is dry camping in the rodeo ground parking lot. We picked up the RZR in Needles on the way back to Quartzsite.

We stayed at Holiday Palms for 3 nights (full hook ups!) drove the SxS a bit, then headed out to the Diesel RV Club rally in Perry, GA, dropping off the SxS in Needles again along the way. We spent on night in Willcox at the Escapees park there.

March:

1 March found us at the Tired Traveler RV Park, quite nice for the price. We headed through the DFW metroplex on I-20, and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was as compared to I-30. We made it the next day to the Ameristar Casino in Vicksburg, MS. If you are there, make sure you visit the National Battlefield! It was very interesting. We had to stay two nights due to a big storm coming through. We then got to Americus, GA and the KOA there. I did a lot of frantic sewing to get ready for donations for the FMCA convention.

Result of an appliqué class at the FMCA convention

The DRVC rally was interesting as usual, and it preceded the big FMCA Convention in nearby Perry, GA. It was great fun, as usual. After all that commotion, I needed some peace and quiet, and we found it on Eufaula Lake on the Chattahoochee River at the White Oak Campground. We stayed on the Alabama side, and we enjoyed a few days of quiet. We then headed to Red Bay, AL again for somemore work on our problematic slide. Sigh. We have an appointment for September to get the mechanism replaced with a Vroom mechanism. We left Red Bay on 27 March to head home, spending the night at Hinton RV Park in Sikeston, MO and Crossroads RV Park in Mt. Pleasant, IA. On 29 March we made it home! We left the rig a few days at a local campground (George Wyth State Park) until we could get it winterized and ready for bed. It was COLD in Iowa.

April:

Now that we are home, it is time for exciting things like choir rehearsal, doctors appointments, and haircuts! Easter season is always big for church musicians, and this was not an exception. We did a Palm Sunday service, Good Friday service, and an Easter service, all of which were very satisfying. I even was part of a trio that sang at the end of the Good Friday service – “Were You There (when they crucified my Lord)”. We had a big family gathering at our place on Sunday evening where the entree was one of the fabulous Amana smoked hams. My, but that is lovely!

We also picked up a new truck that will hold the RZR and tow four-down behind the motorhome. F-150 Ecoboost four door, four wheel drive. We ended up taking it to RV One in Des Moines to get the braking system (an Air Force 1] installed. Ouch, that’s expensive! I finished one big quilt this month that was part of a Mystery Quilt class by Inspired to Sew. They run their Monday evening Mystery Quilt classes on Zoom, and I got most of the blocks done before we left for Arizona. I did a few in AZ, and I finished the remaining few in early April before putting it all together.

May to today:

I went to an RV Quilter’s retreat from 4-7 May. I finished one quilt, and got a few blocks completed on a second.

The exciting part of the trip was the night after the retreat ended when we got blasted by a massive hailstorm. The pretty new pickup on which I have not made even one payment, got a bunch of tiny dents and one big one. The motorhome lost two solar panels with huge broken areas on them, and one fist sized hole punched in the fiberglass. Ouch! There are a few scratches too, but those weren’t significant. Thank goodness for fiberglass! A metal rig would have likely been totaled. It turns out the solar panels protected us a lot, and replacing them is much less expensive than patching holes in an upscale motorhome roof. Much of the last two weeks have been taken up with getting estimates and temporary repairs.

Not the biggest hail stones, but you get the idea!

Fist sized hole in the back fiberglass cap of the motorhome

An even bigger hail stone made this damage

My newest toy is a small bread maker by Zojirushi. I love it so far, and we intend on taking it with us on our trips. I also will post pictures of the other two quilts I finished when I have them completed. I think I am mostly caught up, and I am telling myself I have to keep this more up to date. I do it mostly for myself to keep track of what we have done and where we stay, but I will forget it I don’t post.

Been a long time …

I never seem to post much when we are just hanging around the house. We haven’t taken any fun trips, and we have mostly been consumed with medical “stuff.” Kevin had a knee replacement four weeks ago, and before that we had the series of miscellaneous appointments that go with having surgery. It didn’t help that the surgeon and facility was 1 1/2 hours away! But the results have been fabulous. He used a walker for just one week, and he tossed the cane four days ago. He still gets sore of course, and the strengthening exercises have a painful aftermath, but he is powering through it. His motivation is to get in good enough shape to drive south after Christmas. Good motivation as a snowstorm heads our way tonight and tomorrow!

We have made a change in the storage facility for the motorhome. The price for our indoor storage has increased from $220 a month to $379 over four years. We moved to outdoor storage for $45 a month. Of course there was a lot to clean out of the enclosed storage first, and the garage at the house had to be re-arranged to hold it all! Kevin managed to fit everything in plus the trailer with the RZR and two cars in the 3 stall garage. I was impressed. Keeping the batteries in good shape while stored without electricity has been a learning experience. We have a lot of solar, but there are parasitic draws even with the 12v and 110v systems turned off. The LiFePO4 batteries need to be kept about 50-70% in storage, so we had to play with some of the charger setting. I think we have it now.

We also hired our son in law to do install some landscape blocks to even out the slope in our lawn some. We had gravel that went down a hill, and every big rain would wash some of it in the grass. Now I will have a nice flower/shrub bed next spring. Oh, and it really is level even though I can’t seem to take a decent picture!

I have done some sewing, but not enough! I finally finished piecing the king sized quilt for our motorhome. I don’t have a picture though since it still needs a good pressing. It is a lovely Jewel Box design with rich colors on a charcoal background. I haven’t really quilted anything because I sent my Handi Quilter Sweet 16 display and c-pod to get updated. I am considering upgrading my S16 to use a stitch regulator table, and this was needed. The update is relatively inexpensive, but the table is not! Still thinking about that, but the update has some advantages just by itself.

I also am working on a “Mystery Quilt” Zoom class that uses my AccuQuilt cutting system. We get new “clues” every week, and we make the blocks called for. We don’t know what the final design will be until the last session on 26 December. The class is well run and the technology actually works! Here are my first two big blocks. There are also lots of little blocks that go with them that will be used in the final assembly. I only showed a few of those. The little blocks are of all types – tiny four patch (shown), bigger four patch, hour glass, kite, and others. The instructor is telling us to only finger press our blocks as we go, and that is so hard for me! But I am giving it the old college try, and I hope it works well. Pressing is a very power hungry task, and it would be nice to not do much of it while we boondock.

First block of the second week – 18” square

I still have the second block of the second week to do, plus a bunch more of the little blocks. I really messed up on the color contrast with this one, but oh well. Lesson learned.

I am also starting Christmas presents, though I am way behind. This year everyone is getting oven mitts, cut (of course) with the AccuQuilt. Here is the sample I am keeping for myself. I am pretty happy with the construction and the final appearance. I used my binding attachment, and it went together pretty well.

I also bought myself a bit of a present (shush, don’t tell!). I ordered a Handi Quilter “Mystery Ruler Box.” It had six long arm quilting rulers in it, and it only cost $50. Pretty good deal! I am not sure what I will do with the hexi, but I feel I will use the others.

I will probably think of something else I have forgotten in the last two months, but I can catch that later.

Quartzsite, visit #7

We arrived at our campsite in Quartzsite, AZ after a 4 hour drive from Organ Pipe. We stay with a group of friends from an online forum, RVForum.net. As our seventh trip here with them, we don’t go running around as much as we did the first few years. There is a lot more just relaxing, talking by the fire, and doing hobbies. I have the sewing machine out, and I am trying to work on a Drunkard’s Path quilt made with 4” blocks. I am finding it much, much harder than the 7” block version I did a few months back! I also go my sewing machine adjusted so the needle bar was exactly in the hole of the needle plate, but the tiny adjustment has thrown off some of my measurements. I will get used to it, but it is a bit of a struggle. I did cut a bunch of triangles, and I sewed those without a problem. It is always nice to have “mindless sewing” available, something I can just enjoy instead of fussing around.

Kevin discovered why our generator wasn’t charging the new LiFePO4 batteries very quickly. Turns out there was a switch that limited it to 30 amps, and once that was updated we started getting 90 amps charging. That makes the entire process so much faster. We have had quite a few cloudy days here, and the solar just can’t keep up between the clouds, low sun angle, and shorter days. Our 900 watts of panels are flat mounted, and they don’t get more than 300 watts some of the time, and mostly less than that this time of year. That only gets us 18-20 amps from the solar.

Kevin put up our weather station, and I just love knowing the outside temp and humidity. We will eventually get the wind sensor working, but right now the mounting pole moves in the bracket. Kevin is 3D printing a clamp for it now. Hopefully that will correct the pole rotation.

I don’t have many pictures right now, but here is the last picture from Organ Pipe showing the motorhome and our campsite.

Note the generator access panel open on the front. We heard rumors of pack rats, so we kept all the hoods open to discourage them.

I also have a beautiful sunset picture from Quartzsite.

This shows not only the pretty colors, but also how people spread out here in the BLM area. We are in the southwestern Long Term Visitor Area (LTVA) at La Posa Tyson Wash. It is the least crowded of the four LTVAs, being about 3 miles from town. It is still an easy bike ride though, and I prefer the space. Kevin went to town twice, searching for bolts and a new sunscreen for the awning since he somehow managed to crush the zipper pull on the old one. I am staying at the camper, away from the crowds. He is good about wearing a KN95 mask, so he is as safe as a triple vaxed person can be.

And we are settled!

For at least the next week at least. We are staying on BLM land just outside the KOFA National Wildlife Refuge on King Road. It is a gorgeous place with the mountains very close. Prettier than Quartzsite, and a lot fewer people too! It is free camping, but with a 14 day limit.

And how did we get here? Let’s start with Albuquerque. Nice enough place for an overnight, but it was certainly handy for shopping. Kevin got the water softener bought, initialized, and set up nicely. I found the fabric I needed at a great little shop, Ann Silva’s Bernina and Babylock store. Interestingly New Mexico takes their virus precautions very seriously. We saw masks on everyone, and stores had stringent capacity limits. We intended on going to Trader Joe’s, but the line to get in was 20-30 people. Nope on that one. Then we tried an Albertson’s. Nope there too, with just as long a line. Our only serious need was orange juice, so I just picked some up at the Love’s Truck Stop near the campground. We did take a short car trip on the east side of the mountain up to Madrid. Lovely with snow that started showing up about 7000’. I wish I had taken pictures!

We left Albuquerque early, headed to Willcox, AZ. We stayed at a KOA there that was much nicer than the one in Benson where we stayed last year. Knowing we were headed for dry camping, we did laundry and stocked up on groceries. The freezer is again was full, and the refrigerator was pretty full too. We want to minimize shipping trips due to the high virus infection numbers in California and Yuma county.

We again took off fairly early. The road through southern Arizona is lovely. Sadly I didn’t take any pictures of the higher desert, 4000-6000’. It is full of plant variety with saguaros, ocotillo, palo verde trees, and others. I did get some of the lower desert. The vegetation is less dense, and it doesn’t have the variety found in the higher elevations.

The view from the big windshield is one of the big pluses for a Class A.

Since it was a holiday weekend, we really didn’t see much traffic. The roads were pretty good, little construction, and we just cruised along.

We made it to KOFA about 3:00. Ahh! It was sunny and warm, and I sat outside just soaking up the heat. It cooled off quickly in the evening though so the heater gets a workout still.

We didn’t do much on Saturday evening, just relaxed. We have some acquaintances staying at the next site over, so we chatted with them a while. Today we woke up late (6:30 mountain time is late to me!) and generally goofed off quite a bit. Kevin made a needle holder to attach to my seeing machine, and he is at work on a 12v power supply to get rid of a bunch of cords and cables around the dash. I did quite a bit of sewing, and I pretty much have all the rows put together for a scrap quilt made of tumbler blocks.

Scrap quilts are very challenging to my OCD, but I promised myself I will get some of my multitude of scraps used up. This is a decent start – 12 rows of 15 blocks. I will press them later tonight, and tomorrow try seeing the blocks together. I am using the (new to me) 830 sitting outside. Pretty nice way to sew!

Looking back three months

Yup, it has been three months since I last posted. I am not really depressed, but it seems like the things I am doing just aren’t the things I normally write about. Today I looked back and realized that I probably should document some, so here is a very top level summary.

First is sewing. I have been doing more sewing than I have in the past. Of course I have been doing masks, probably another 150 since September. Most of them went to local schools. I have also semi-joined a local quilt guild that does a lot of donation quilting. I say “semi-joined” in that I went to one meeting, but I haven’t paid dues yet. They aren’t meeting right now, even virtually, so I will wait until they do to officially join. I have enjoyed quilting 6 quilts for them on my Sweet 16 though. It gives me a lot of practice, and it gets them done. Like most quilt groups, they have a lot more people who piece tops than those who quilt the completed quilts. The ones they gave to me, someone unknown to them, have mostly been among the ugliest quilts I have seen. Totally random patches of various sizes of old fabric, but they will keep someone nice and warm. These are twin bed sized quilts, and for 4 of them I just did a simple meander. One I practiced doing pebbles on, and another one got some ruler work. I didn’t take any pictures though.

I also did some non-quilting work too: three Hogwarts robes for some of the grandkids. I used a lovely poly/cotton gabardine, and they turned out wonderfully.

For quilting of my own, there have been a bunch of baby and children’s quilts. The first two were cut completely with my Accuquilt system. I got the alphabet dies for my birthday, and I think they do a great job on children’s quilts.

For a young girl getting a surprise cancer diagnosis

I made one for me – a Riley Blake National Parks panel with a wool batting. I will keep this in the motorhome.

Another for my daughter to give as a shower gift. I am quite proud of this one. All those triangles were cut with an Accuquilt 4 1/4” equilateral triangle die. I could not have done it without the die! Trying to keep the bias and non-bias edges straight would have been impossible, but the die cuts notches on the bias edges to use for matching to the next piece. Very nice!

“Fox and Friends” or, as I prefer it, “Foxy Friends”

Daughter and I like this one so much we bought the fabric to do another one in the spring.

Of course all sewists need to do something for Christmas presents, so I did microwave bowl cozies. I made a few, then decided a new cutting die would make it much easier. I ordered from Blue Wren, an Australian company who has dies that fit my Accuquilt. It took just over 3 weeks to get it from Australia, and I went to town. Thirty total cozies. This is most of them. A few had already been packed up.

And what else have I sewn? I actually did some machine embroidery too! Lake Volney is where one son has his cabin, so he wanted two beach towels with the name on them.

I also bought a new (old) sewing machine! I have been wanting a vintage Bernina for a long time. I could use it as my travel machine for the motorhome and as a backup for my beloved Bernina 440. I finally found this 830 Record, built in 1974, in great shape with loads of accessories. She is sooo pretty, though she smelled of cigarettes and mustiness. The repair guy who cleaned up her insides and get her oiled up got rid of the vast majority of smoke, and I figure I can eventually cure her of mustiness. I sold the Viking I had been using. I guess I am just a Bernina girl!

A classic mechanical Bernina. The knee lift goes in the bottom right but isn’t shown.

All the standard accessories plus lots of extra feet plus lots and lots of bobbins.

I am probably forgetting something, but this is long enough already. We are planning our trip to Arizona now; more one that later.

Medora and Theodore Roosevelt National Park

We spent the nights of 21-23 August (Wednesday through Friday) at Medora Campground in Medora, ND. It gave us two full days to see the sights. The campground itself is fair to good. Sites were decently sized, and there was some grass plus lots of trees. In facet there were so many trees we couldn’t get the satellite antenna to track. It was ok since I had a few seasons of “Endeavor” to catch up on. It is the prequel to the Morse series that I originally saw on PBS.

We didn’t do much on Wednesday, but we wandered around the town a bit. There is a state historic site in town, the Chateau de Mores. It was the summer hunting “cabin” of a French Marquis and his wife Medora, the town’s namesake. The Marquis tried raising beef and cold shipping the meat to the east, but lost a huge amount of money doing it. The house is quite fancy for the time period, and it contains a veritable goldmine of original furnishings, both the mundane (utensils and cooking supplies) and the ornate (beds with mosquito netting hangings and a huge piano). The family owned the 22 room house from the 1880s when they built it until they sold it to the state in the 1930s. I didn’t remember to take a picture of the outside, but it was a tall, two story house with big verandas on the very top of the hill.

Mundane items like the grinder are orignals

The parlor is also almost all original with the exception of the wall paper, a copy of the original

Another fun thing was seeing the Colorado Model A club in town!

My second favorite. I think that is a water container in front of the rear wheel.

There were lots to choose from, at least 14

Thursday evening we really played tourist and went to the Pitchfork Steak Fondue. Their claim to fame is spearing the steaks on pitch forks then cooking them. They also had the normal “fixins” at a cowboy-style event.

Steak (notice the pitchfork holes), coleslaw, great beans, potatoe, Texas toast, fruit and brownies. They had some fresh veggies too, but I didn’t get any.

We then went to the “Medora Musical.” I was expecting a play with music, but it was a musical variety show. I was surprised, but not disappointed. Two MCs, one who sang and the other was more a comedian, a nice band, 12 college aged singers, horse riders, and even fireworks at the end. There was also a nationally known comedian just after intermission. He was good, but the spectacle was the musical acts. Lots of costume changes.

Note the horses to the right of the stage

Lots of flag-waving patriotism with a mixture of country, rock, and gospel songs.

Friday we headed to the National Park. We went to the south unit this time (we did the north unit when we were at Lewis and Clark State Park). The scenery was more “badlands” in the north unit, but the south had some great views too.

There were also animals. The bison was walking at the edge of the road, away from the nursery herd. The main attraction of the south unit are the wild horses, and we did see this one band. I also got a hilarious video of a territorial prairie dog. Click on the link to see it. He or she is really getting after a territorial rival!

Rather ratty looking fellow at this time of uear

Umm. Video doesn’t work, so I will work on it later.

In the middle of all of this “touristing”, I also finished a sewing project. It is a washable throw rug made with quilt batting and a jelly roll of fabric (2 1/2” strips). I was quite pleased with it, and it fits fairly well in front of my sink. Hopefully it will keep the carpet there cleaner! It is actually isn’t as oddly shaped as it seems in the picture! I must admit I really like my new sewing machine and the sewing table I bought for it.

Tonight we are staying in a Cabela’s parking lot in Billings, MT. We have decided to head toward Yellowstone instead of Great Falls, so we are hoping to get a Fish and Game campsite north of Gardiner tomorrow. I will let you know how it goes.

Ely, MN – Canoe capitol of the world

We arrived in Ely after a short 3 hour trip from Askov. Roads were good without much traffic. We were set up in the Forest Service campground at Fall Lake by 1:00. The site is very deep, but the entry road is narrow. Luckily Kevin got us tucked in just right with room for the Jeep up front. The site has 30 amp electric. Water is available at random spigots or when you check in (we came in full), but the dump is in town at the visitor center for a $5 fee.

Lighting was bad, but the shade is lovely

We headed to town for the Blueberry Festival. This is one of Ely’s big activities, and parking was crowded. There are vendors for food (we had a great gyro) and artisans of all types. I ended up buying a lovely silver necklace and matching earrings with a dragonfly design.

We also stopped by Piragis, a local outfitter, to buy a new daypack. Turns out we left mine at home. I won’t complain if that is the only thing we ended up forgetting.

Saturday evening we met friends at a party. Some of these folks I met online 20 plus years ago, so it was nice to catch up. Sunday we had breakfast at Britton’s, an institution. We also went to the local Presbyterian Church, nice! We then went back to the Blueberry Festival. This time the food was Indian fry bread, another yummy. We also saw Pat Surface do two sets. He is a local standout singer/songwriter even though the sets were mostly covers of other artists. Monday we had lunch at Boathouse Brewpub. In keeping with the Blueberry Festival theme, we had nice burgers and blueberry beer which was quite good. we hung around the campground. I also sewed much of the day – a cute little bubble for the new grand baby. The sewing that day went fine, but I am ready to tear my hair out today! I am learning to make buttonholes on the new Viking, and I am fairly frustrated. We will see what I feel like tomorrow! Either I will finish the bubble, or I will throw it in the trash. The odds favor the trash right now.

Tuesday we went to Duluth. Lovely trip, but I didn’t take many pictures. We have been there so many times that it just doesn’t seem necessary.

Wednesday day we had breakfast and chai teas at The Front Porch, a local coffee place. We had a lovely lunch at the new Insulated restaurant. Definitely a nice upscale option. I also did some cooking for friends who came over in the evening – Dutch Oven cobbler with fresh gala apples, flan in the Instant Pot, and two types of dip along with store bought chips. As usual, I made too much! I also had some very interested fauna.

Thursday we got out by 8:00 am and headed to Grand Portage National Monument, a long 150 miles away. The drive was nice though, either through a mixed deciduous forest or along the shore of Lake Superior.

I wish the pictures showed the hillsides better. Besides the green of the forest there were riots of wild flowers – yellow, white, shades of pink.

One of the highlights of the trip was lunch at the historic Naniboujou Lodge. It started out as an exclusive hunting and fishing resort, but now is a public facility. Oh my the colors! They advertise the fireplace as weighing over 200 tons, and it is huge! Oh, and the food was very good, much like it would be in an upscale eatery at a national park – lots of locally sourced items.

The National Monument was pretty good too, and well worth the drive. Native history interspersed with European history, primarily about the fur trade that drove the Grand Portage. I thought I had taken a number of pictures, but I was sadly quite wrong. I would like to spend a lot more time both at the monument and the towns we went through along the shore. Oh well, there is always time for another trip!

Today we again had breakfast and a chai at The Front Porch before I came back to sew. Ugh. I decided to quit for a while and update the blog while deciding to not cut everything up! Hope for a better mood tomorrow.