Don't forget, you can double click the pictures to make them larger
We returned from the Dominican Republic the beginning of April. We stuck around IL for a couple of weeks, getting in some DR appointments. Also, Collins wanted to help daughter Paula with a couple of projects around her house, since she was planning a graduation Party for Becca at the end of May.
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| Getting the prom dress fitted |
It also gave me a chance to go with Becca to pick up her Prom Dress. Wow, I can't believe the dresses these girls wear today. To say she looked beautiful was an understatement.
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| Becca & her Prom Date |
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| So grown up |
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| Becca thinks she's a cheerleader |
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| Becca, Karen & Katie |
Becca & I went to watch one of Katie's cheer competitions. Becca dressed like a cheer leader so she could get in for free. She made a cute one. The girls are cousins but act like sisters when they get together.
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Katie
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| Becca & Katie |
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| Tyler goes over the pole |
I also had a chance to go to one of Tyler's Track Games. He was doing Pole Vaulting that day. That's not something I could ever do.
By mid April we returned to Memphis to pick up the RV from
winter storage. With all the rain &
storms that had passed thru while we were gone, we were a little worried as to
what we would find. Luckily, our home was
sitting right where we left it, with no problems.
We kicked around in this area for a few
weeks, went to the Botanical Gardens, had just missed the blooming of the
Rhododendrons, but some of the azaleas were still pretty.
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| Beale Street |
We also made a trip to downtown Memphis. Had to check out Beale street & a few
other iconic places. As the old saying
goes, nice place to visit but…. . If you
aren’t into blues music, & have already seen Elvis’ Graceland, which we did a few years
ago, Memphis offered us little of interest. .
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| Unique souvenirs on Beale St (Toilet Seats) |
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| Sun Studios |
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| Sun Studio |
We also went to the Lorraine Motel, which was the site of the Martin Luther King shooting. Kind of made you stop & think. And you realize the violence continues in one way or another.
We also had to make a stop at Gus' Famous Fried Chicken restaurant. We were told that some days people are waiting out the door. Luckily for us, it was kind of between lunch & dinner & we didn't have to wait at all. It was good, but nothing I'd wait a long time for.
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| Inside Gus'. Collins & our waitress |
After leaving there, we decided to stop
outside Nashville for a few days.
We
made a trip to Hermitage, home of Andrew Jackson.
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| Andrew & Racheal Jackson's wedding clothes |
They had a great museum, which lots of information on the life of Andrew Jackson & plenty of displays
We also took a day to finally visit downtown
Nashville. This was our 3rd
trip thru there & for one reason or another had never made it
downtown.
We decided to take a tour of
the Grand Ole Opry house. We found it pretty interesting & also got
to go onto the stage itself.
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| Opry Member Mailboxes |
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| Wood floor from original Grand Ole Opry |
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| Dressing Room |
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| Dressing Room |
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| Us on the Grand Ole Opry Stage |
We also took a Hop On Hop Off Bus tour, but didn’t
really find Nashville all that interesting.
I supposed if we had checked out all the bars in the area, it might have
been more so.
During that visit, we met up with old
friends, Betty & Nick from IL, who now live near Nashville. It was really nice to spend a few hours
catching up on things. After leaving
Nashville, we were on our way to
Gatlinburg, another place we tried to go a couple times. We found out that Gatlinburg is a huge
tourist place, which is definitely not us.
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Red Throated Salamander
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One day while lying at the pool, I did see this red throated salamander.
However, we did take 2 drives into the Smokey Mts, & the views were
beautiful. One day we drove around Cades
Cove & saw a mama bear & 3 cubs.
We also saw another bear & a wild turkey that day. If you like to hike, there are plenty of
trails, but we aren’t into that either, so we just enjoyed the views.
We were working our way to Lexington to
pickup my mother, so we also made a stop not too far from the Cumberland Gap
National Park & Cumberland Falls State Park.
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Cumberland Falls
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The falls were ok, but I think after seeing
so many beautiful ones in Alaska, we’ve become a bit jaded on waterfalls.
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| Us at Cumberland Falls |
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| Collins at Cumberland Gap |
Cumberland Gap is located at the borders of Virginia, Tennessee & Kentucky. It was famous in American colonial history for its role as a key passageway through the lower central Appalachians. In addition to a passageway for Native Americans, it was explored by Daniel Boone & later, Dr. Thomas Walker. The
State & Federal Parks have great vista’s, & if you’re into Civil War history, it’s interesting to
visualize what those folks went thru trying to get from here to there. Other than that, they were fine places to kill some time.
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Karen admires the pretty flowers at Cumberland Gap
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We returned to Illinois in the last week of May for one of
our Granddaughter’s (Becca) High School graduation &, on the way, picked up
Karen’s mother in Lexinton, KY.
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| 4 Generations |
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| Becca & her 90 yr old grandmother (my mom) |
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| Becca & her proud grandparents |
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| Dave, Tyler, Becca & Paula |
This
also afforded us an opportunity to see Becca sign a letter of
intent for her College Basketball scholarship to Elmhurst, where she will be majoring in Nursing.
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| Tyler, Becca & cousin Katie |
Beccs & four other girls played
Basketball together since middle school, were designated as starters in their
freshman year of high school & won 56 consecutive games, completing all
four years undefeated.
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| Us with Becca |
They also won
multiple Division & State titles. By
the way, Becca stands 5’11” and can hit a jump shot like you wouldn’t believe,
hence the numerous schools trying to recruit her.
Having completed our short stay with the Illinois tribe,
& annual doctor check-ups, we headed to northern Wisconsin &
Minnesota. If the latter is known as the
state with a thousand lakes, the former should be the state with 800. One would think that having lived close to
the Illinois-Wisconsin border for over 35 years we’d have visited northern
Wisconsin at least once. Regrettably,
much to our loss, we did not.
Our first stop, for 30 days, was in an RV Park with 250
spaces facing a 10 mile plus lake. Unlike many locations that feel the need to
cram in the RV spaces, this park spreads them out throughout an old wood
forest.
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| View from our spot |
Ironically, with all the fishing
(muskie, walleye, etc) around, you can get fish or prime rib dinners somewhere
every night of the week.
Between the
cooler northern temperatures (50’s to 80’s) & forest shade, our June
weather was great.
Really don’t know
where the time went.
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| You can see the Apostle Is in the background |
We took 3 day trips
while we were there.
One to the northern
most border, where you could see the Apostle Islands. They were having an old car show at one of the hotels. There were some beauties there.
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| Copper Falls |
| Another to a couple of waterfalls (again nice, but no big deal) & one day over to a huge greenhouse that had some nice gardens. If we still had a house with a yard, we’d spend a fortune there. Luckily we don’t, so we bought a couple plants for the kids. |
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| Us at Copper Falls |
Since our son Doug was celebrating his 40
th
birthday via a surprise party July 9th, we left the rig in Wisc. & returned
to Illinois for 2 weeks. He wasn't really surprised.
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| Brittany, Blake, Lexi & Collina |
It was also a chance to see our daughter, Collina & granddaughters, Lexi & Brittany. We also saw our 6 yr old great grandson, Blake. Unfortunately, they were only there a short time, so we didn't have much time together.
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| Doug, Collins & Collina |
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| Collina & Doug |
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| Brittany & Blake |
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| Doug & Kerry |
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Collina, Lexi & Brittany
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A good part of the family, including "steps & exs"
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We returned to our "home" after our 2 weeks in IL. Thankfully all was well. We had left it in a campground, hooked up to electric so we didn't have to empty the refrigerator. We didn't leave the air on, so it was really hot. Luckily, it doesn't take too long to get cool. We stuck around a couple of days, doing a few chores & a little grocery shopping. I wasn't sure what would be available at our next stop, which was Two Harbors, MN, just north of Duluth. We had wanted to go further North, but didn't try to make reservations early enough.
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| Light House, Two Harbors, MN |
We stayed in a small campground & did a little sight seeing around the area. One day, we went to the town of Two Harbors.
It has a light house & a breakwall, so we did a little walking around, then made a stop at Dairy Queen. No pics because I left my phone & camera in the car, but Collins got Snuggles a kid's size dish of ice cream (She goes crazy when we stop at McDonalds or Burger King because that's where we often get ice cream). Anyway, she was in her glory having her own dish. We only let her have about a third of it, but she was a happy dog!
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| Shipping Dock at Two Harbors |
We drove along the shore line to Silver Bay. There is a big company there that processes Taconite, a form of iron ore, then ships it all over the world. It was a beautiful day & we enjoyed our outing.
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| Karen at the front of Glensheen |
One sort of rainy day we decided to visit Glensheen Mansion, right on Lake Suerior. It was built as the family home of a wealthy lawyer & capitalist, Robert Congdon (he made his original money in Iron Ore stock).
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| Entry Hall |
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| Check out the wood work |
It's 27000 sq ft, & 39 rooms. At the time, it had a hefty price tag of $854,000 (estimated $21 million in today's dollars).
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| Master Bedroom |
Most of the original furnishings & décor are still in the house. It was interesting to walk around & they had an hour long film on the family that we enjoyed.
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| Master bathroom (It has a sitz bath) |
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| Check out all the shower heads |
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| Upper Hall |
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| Who wouldn't want a Butler's Pantry like this |
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Breakfast Room, overlooking the gardens & Lake Superior
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Back View of House
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| Back Gardens |
The rest of our time in Two Harbors was spent reading & being lazy.
One evening we went to an outdoor concert in the town of Two Harbors. It was no biggie, but it gave us something to do for the evening.
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| Our spot in the pine trees |
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| Our View |
We left Two Lakes today (Aug 31) for a couple weeks on a small lake not too far from Bemidji, MN. We have a nice view of the small lake we're located on.
We're slowly making our way toward Teddy Roosevelt National Park, then on to Mt. Rushmore. We'll keep you posted as we travel along.
