Year end review 2020-Part 7-Sept. RV trip day 10-16

Sept. Part 2

The next place we stayed was called Sheyenne Oaks Horse Camp and RV Park. We were in the town of Leonard, North Dakota. This place was well off the beaten path and it took us awhile to find it over some pretty rough roads, but it was worth the trouble.



It had beautiful green grass and trees as well as a smattering of leaves that were beginning to turn to their fall colors. The campsites were wide and spacious and there were only two rows of them down the middle of the grounds, with horse corrals on the outer sides. Many of the campers were there with their horses and I enjoyed walking the dogs along the road past the majestic animals. I have always been fascinated by horses. I’ve never been able to own one and I haven’t even had many chances to ride them, but I think they are in a tie with dogs as the most beautiful creatures on the planet.

The combination of the aroma of horses (their breath, their hide, their feed-yes, even their manure) and campfires was an intoxicating combination. I found myself inhaling it deeply and being filled with a sense of contentment. The camp was clean and well-maintained and we thoroughly enjoyed our one night stay there.


Roscoe and Zuli liked it too.

From there we headed for our visit with my nieces in Chanhassen, Minnesota. When we crossed the state line, we were not on a major roadway so there was no “welcome to Minnesota” sign, but Siri let us know we were there. We drove many hours that Friday and a lot of the scenery looked like this: dirt roads and dry cornfields. . .

We reached our campground and made arrangements to rent a car for our stay so we didn’t see Jessica until the following day.





After the peace and serenity of the Horse Camp, there was a distinct difference in the atmosphere we encountered on our first night here. As you can see in this picture, the campsites to the left of ours (on the side where our bedroom slide-out is) were occupied by a very large group of people. What you can’t see is the noise they made that night and well into the wee hours of the morning. I mean, we knew they were having a good time, talking and laughing and carrying on, but they had no consciousness of how much they were disturbing anyone around them. Vladi and I thought about calling someone to report on them because all campgrounds have restrictions on noise between certain hours, but we kept hoping that someone else would make the call or hoping that we could fall asleep despite the noise. I think they finally quieted down around 2 a.m. I took this next picture in the morning to show what their campsite looked like in the aftermath of their party.



We had made plans with Jessica and her family to do an Urban Adventure Quest in Minneapolis that day so we met them in the city, near the starting point of the Quest.

The first thing we needed to do was admire the recently built Viking stadium with it’s menacing replica of a Viking Ship. We weren’t able to go inside but a couple of pieces of my sister Samantha’s artwork reside there. The day was cloudy and cool, which were perfect conditions to see how the glowing red eyes on the dragon head at the bow of the ship would have looked on a stormy sea.




John got some really cool shots.

From there we moved on to the start of the Quest. I was really excited to see how engaged Rylee was with figuring out the clues and finding the answers to the questions. John was enjoying it, too, but his primary focus was on getting great photos as we explored. Vladi and I had our usual level of interest but because we had the dogs, Vladi had to spare some of his attention for them. Jack was excited to be out with all of us, but he didn’t care one whit about the Quest (which was understandable since he’s only 7.) But that meant that Jessica couldn’t really participate fully because she had to keep an eye on her very energetic little boy.

A little aside about Jessica and her kids. . . She calls them Smylee Rylee and Happy Jack, perhaps projecting her hope of infusing their lives with joy. Jessica herself is one of the most joyful people I know, although it was not hard to see the stress that the pandemic has imposed on her. She has been working from home and maintaining the schooling of her kids at the same time. It is not an easy task for anyone and I know she can’t wait for in-person school to resume. As we did the quest that day, Jess tried to divide her attention between solving the puzzles and keeping an eye on Jack, who was bouncing between things that caught his attention like a marble in a pinball machine. He is keenly aware of his dad’s camera and loves to clown around in an attempt to entertain both his mom and his dad. I think he gets a great deal of validation when he can make his mom laugh. In the following pictures, you can see how intent Rylee and I were on figuring out the clues in the Quest, while Jessica tried to keep track of Jack.












She was really good about giving him her full attention at times, when he discovered something that really interested him. But I don’t think she ever really felt relaxed that day.

We roamed around a historic area of Minneapolis and saw the old buildings where both Gold Medal and Pillsbury Flour were milled.








It’s kind of hard to see us in this picture that Jessica took from across the street, but we wanted to get the “Gold Medal Park” in. Vladi is between the words “Gold” and Medal”, I’m between the E and D of “Medal”, John is by the P in “Park”, Jack is in the A, and Rylee is behind the R.
Across from the park at one end were these gorgeous trees aflame in their fall finery.



There was one area where we had to work on clues without getting too close to the many people who were out and about. Rylee spotted this table where a guy was set up spray painting posters of Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who had died the previous week (9/18/20). He was giving the posters away as they dried and Rylee really wanted one, but the line was really long so we just couldn’t wait, but I was really impressed that Rylee not only knew who she was but considered her a hero.



John set up the timer on his camera to get this shot of all of us. Zuli is laying on the ground in front of Roscoe but you can barely see her because she’s so dark.



Jess took this selfie of me and her. Look at those earrings she has on. Bacon and eggs. I love that girl so much!

Vladi took this picture. We called it our “self-portrait”. We thought it looked a lot like him and me.

The area where we got this picture was another part of the quest. There were the cutest little whimsical creatures all around. And the green grass was luscious.






At the end of the Quest, Vladi got this picture of me and the kids. We all had a lot of fun together that day.

We headed back to Jessica’s house to have some dinner. We had talked about going to a new restaurant that she wanted to try and she called to check that they had outdoor seating. But when we got there, we discovered that the patio was way too small to accommodate our group and our 2 big dogs. There was already a family with a baby stroller and there were not very many tables. So we decided to go back to the house and have pizza.

We set up a table in the driveway in accordance with the rules of the pandemic. The CDC guidelines stated that it was safer to stay outside if you were with people that were not members of your own household. The pizza guy delivered our boxes at the end of the driveway and Jess offered us drinks from what she had in stock. That was when I was introduced to Grain Belt Blu Blueberry Lager. It’s a beer that’s brewed in Minnesota and wow, was I impressed! For me, it ranked right up there with my favorite Bud Light Platinum.

After dinner, Vladi and I headed back to our campground with plans to return the next day when Jocelyn and Dan would drive up from Mason City to join us. The campground was much quieter that night, even though the group was still there and we were relieved to get a good night’s sleep.

Nobody really wanted to get up early that Sunday and the drive for Jocelyn and Dan was 2 or 3 hours, so we got together in the early afternoon. I brought the girls the items from Rand’s house that I wanted to deliver as well as Jessica’s special request of Cactus Cooler, which she can’t obtain in Minnesota. I also gave them each copies of some letters that my mom had written on a trip she took to Hawaii before she married my dad. Jessica is very interested in family history and Jocelyn loves to read so I thought that both of them might enjoy the letters.

Jessica wanted to take me and Jocelyn for a ride in a convertible VW she had on loan from a neighbor, to show us the beautiful colors of the trees around her neighborhood. I think Jess also just wanted to get out of the house for a few minutes. 

By the time we got back, it was time to organize the things we were making for dinner. Dan ended up doing almost all of the cooking. Fortunately, he enjoys it and he’s good at it. None of the rest of us really wanted to cook but we were all looking forward to the Mexican feast we had planned. We set up a table in the garage (with the door open for good ventilation) and all helped ourselves to the array of choices of food.

After dinner we took pictures.








I love these girls so much.

We got done with dinner early enough for Jocelyn and Dan to head home before dark and Vladi and I didn’t stay too much longer.

The next morning, our campground was pretty much deserted.



After returning our rental car, we headed for Newton, Iowa.







Our drive that day and the next as we traversed Iowa and then a small part of Nebraska was beautiful and again, the wide-openness was fascinating. Nebraska was another state that we wanted to check off of our sticker map, since we had visited all the states around it, but never ventured over it’s border, so instead of heading straight down to Missouri, we made a short side trip to Omaha.











We had a restful couple of days before heading into October and on to our next visit.