Armageddon On The Prairie

Went for a 50 mile evening ride and got a little scare with the weather, so much that a farmer doubled back to check on me to see if I wanted a ride or shelter.  Nice folks round these parts;)  Got stomped on by rain and wind, again, but then it cleared off for a spectacular evening.

Boating Through Time

After living in the hustle and bustle of California, rural Minnesota feels like a big step back in time, in a good way.  We have country doctors, patients call ahead before coming to the ER, few paved roads, and a lot of silence and general quiet.

The theme remains the same.  Wake, coffee, ride the bike on dirt roads.  Lunch, ride again with family, boat ride, dinner, sunset.  Rest, repeat.  No more night shift for the rest of summer.

Swampaneering

The new Minnesota daily routine.  Wake up, drink coffee, eat breakfast, go for a 90 minute boat ride looking for pelican nests/eggs, return.  Eat lunch, ride into town, get some groceries on the bike, get a carmel, ride home, relax (or stay up all night on night shift tonight, ughh.....).  Last weekend of nights, hopefully forever.

Pelican nest

Swampaneering, a secret passage through the marsh.

Pelicans in formation

Pelican Eggs

After going for a two hour ride in 30+mph winds and rain, the weather cleared a bit and we got to go for a boat ride, discovering two pelican nests/eggs along the way.

Storm on the horizon

Slow going on muddy gravel

Endless rows of soggy beans

Snapping turtle on the bike path

Secret passage to the first pelican nest.

One of two pelican nests

"Can't reach"

Stellar back window sunset.

Boat Ride

The 1960's era two stroke motor that my grandfather owned was sputtering and dying when we took it out yesterday.  Spent a little time this morning cleaning the carb and getting presumably 40+ years of gunk out of the float bowl and main jet.  Runs like a charm now.  Went 5 miles upstream into a headwind, then cruised back home at a fun 10mph.  Good times on the little boat.

Look at that mank in the main jet!

Float bowl mank.

Back in action.

Cows on the hill.

Steffi and Karni Visit

Grandma came and spent the night, then Steffi brought her Vistabule Camper up for the weekend.

Fathers Day visit from Alex at work.

Alex playing in Steff's Vistabule teardrop trailer.

We've driven our truck less than four miles in 9 days, and keeping with the theme, we road into town for lunch with Grandma.  Really no need for a car here.  Grocery shopping is easily accomplished with the bike trailer, as long as you don't mind doing it a few times a week.  A bike path from the campground goes right into town.

Timelapse of Steffs' trailer.

Connectify Wifi Repeater

We have our laptop hooked up to an Alpha wireless USB adapter and a high gain, omni directional antenna to strengthen the wifi connection at RV parks, and currently to hit public wifi across a lake in a city park we are in.  The limitation is no repeater in the RV to send it out to the iPad and iPhones.  Today I found a program called Connectify that turns our PC into a wifi repeater, and it works really well.  I installed it for $12 for a lifetime license.  You can set it up with a security password, and rename your network.  So it's nice to have wifi in the camper, and it will be really nice to use this high gain antenna in typical RV parks that have weak signals.  Up next is a 24dbi high gain parabolic antenna that will pick up 2.4ghz signals from miles away, given line of site.

And another time lapse from last night. Click the "Youtube" icon to open it in Youtube, then click on the resolution tab in the lower right and change it to 1080p for full resolution.

"Karni" sleep over

Grandma came out to spend the night.  We have to be used to train noises at her house, and she needs to get used to the sounds of wind and rain when storms are cranking outside a fifth wheel.

Slowly learning to sit down on the balance bike and learning to ride.  

Hasn't fully committed to the splash pad yet, maybe by the end of summer for our shy youngster.

A lot more room and counter space in this RV, which makes rainy evenings like this a lot more tolerable.

Settling in, finally.

We have been here three weeks and we are finally settling in and enjoying the new fifth wheel and local area.

Flat on the way home, so lessons learned last year, four new tires purchased.  The damage was already done, and a new fender is on the way.

Turtle highway

View out the back window, and a huge factor in why we love this trailer.

Haven't driven the truck for almost a week.  No need to.  We can ride our bikes to the grocery store, and work.

Yesterday's gravel ride.

Country cemetery.

More beautiful, quiet country riding.

That's about all we can fit in the bike trailer.

The daily routine.  Ride two loops, with one of them to the caramel candies.

Baby snapping turtle

A local kid caught the turtle and this frog.  Alex is getting "home schooled".

More morning gravel riding, endless in every direction.

Hay or alfalfa trucks, not sure which.

Alex loves his new couch.