A DAY TRIP TO MANKATO, MINNESOTA

Listen-up you cousins!!  Get your Price History books out and see if you can find the Price that I found from Minnesota's history.
Tuesday, June 27th, our excursion was a trip to Mankato to find the Hubbard House (1871) and learn about the flour mills that made Mr Hubbard well known to that area in the late 1800's and early 1900's.
Upon arriving there we found that the house was only open Thursday through Sunday.  Sounds like another excursion gone bad!!  We did take pictures of the exterior and the Carriage House next door with it's flower gardens.

Hubbard House which houses the Historical Society

Hubbard Carriage House 

Then we went back a few blocks to check out a used book store and an Antiques shop. Interesting but nothing earth shaking.  We then stopped in the Wagon Wheel Cafe' for lunch. The food was good and the prices were even better.  I wondered if that was because this appears to be a college town.

Driving around, a bit later we found their History Center and Museum.

And amazing enough, one of the first things that I ran across was this Bible.

I took notice of this about the Welsh
settling in Minnesota.

I am not into genealogy research or this would probably be the area for some in depth research. I miss my brother, Wayne.  He was the Price History enthusiast.

As history began in this area, travel sources were many and progressed as time moved on. 

Interesting, but much the same as other towns emerging across the country with the most common, the "Five and Dimes", the most interesting for the youngsters. The Department stores and business offices expanded the town.

A local artist's work was on display also and she has since donated her works to the museum giving them the profits.

Marian Anderson's work

This cabin reconstructed in the museum
was another point of interest.

After returning home and looking over the literature that we picked up, I realized that I missed out on the Betsy-Tacy House which was the childhood home of children's book author, Maud Hart Lovelace (1892 - 1980).  I did see some of her books in the Antique Shop but did not know the local connection. So now that I know of it, I wish that I had looked closer at the books..
We know from the literature that there is much more history in Mankato to go back and look for. I am sure that we will be here again and probably for a month each time, since Ben lives near here.  It just leaves more for us to do.  We shouldn't get bored.
One more day under our belts.
Today began with rain from most of the night and all morning.  Then the sun came out. But when we returned from a run to Hastings for Walmart and Gary's meds, the thunder began again.  The sun is still out so it has appeared to have bypassed us, though the weather warnings have been on all afternoon for thunderstorms, hail and tornadoes in southern MN (all around us), and also in southwestern Wisconsin.  Hope that it continues to pass us by!!

PADDLEBOAT TRIP ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER

We planned a trip on the Mississippi for Saturday with Ben. He does have a day off occasionally so we took advantage of it. We had to wait for them to open for boarding, so I took some pictures of St. Paul across the river while waiting.

Our boat.

St. Paul, MN

After getting on board, we found that we were to be bombarded with a lot of children.

Just a sampling. There was another school group also.

However, they were not the problem for listening to the narration over the speaker.  It was their parents - - -. The narrator definitely could not compete with the noise. I think that it was a family reunion and they were all trying to outdo each other in conversation!!  So the trip turned out to be rather boring for us. We won't do it again from this area!!  There was not much to see along the way, but I will share the pictures that I did take.  It was a breezy day so many had jackets on.

I got a kick out of this couple!!
I wonder if they spent the night?

The police passed us just before our turn around.

The narrator told us about this section of bridge
that spanned the river and the reason for it's
removal. But we couldn't hear so did not
hear the reason.

The marina that we left from.

Barges along the river.

By time we disembarked, we were hungry so all three of us came back to the motorhome to cook out.
About five minutes after we returned the sky opened up!!  Thus, we sat inside and I cooked there instead.  We do have a nice tree on our lot, but that was not our day to enjoy it.
So much for one day!
I just finished an hour phone call with my friend back home, so I need to finish this up.
Our neighbors just stopped by to get us to sit out and visit. Gary can not seem to do that because of the smoke or some kind of pollen. We don't need him coughing all evening and in to the night. But maybe I will go and visit for a while.
Check back and I will do today's outing in a day or two.  Tomorrow is another trip to Hastings for Walmart and Apple Valley for Home Depot.  We are out far enough from the cities that we have to travel for any large stores. So tune in again.

DAY TRIP to WISCONSIN RAPIDS, WI to VISIT COUSIN

Gary has finally finished the wax job of the motorhome!! So he is out with Ben today!! Doing what?? I don't know, but good for a break and some time with Ben.
I decided to do laundry while he is gone but only had money for two loads. One more to go. While Gary is gone the neighbor was over and mowed our yard. He has done it twice. Good for us as we don't have a mower and he claims that he needs the walking exercise. We need to think of something that we can do for him!!
Wednesday we went into Red Wing again to get another script at Walmart and Gary had a book ordered at the book store near there. So I made a stop at Menards to get the two curtain panels that we missed for Ben's apartment the first time around.  Then we stopped at the Salvation Army Thrift Store to look for something to cover Ben's skylight to filter the sun and heat some.
Last Sunday afternoon Ben and I got part of the curtains hung. He was relieved!!

Ben at work!

This week I did luck out and even found him a pair of king-size pillow cases. They looked new and were even the right color!! Love the Thrift stores.  They even steered us to the best Mexican Restaurant for dinner. It was a good choice!!
Thursday was our day planned to go into Wisconsin on a three hour one-way drive to visit with one of Gary's first cousin's, Carol. She grew up on the old Belden family homestead in South Dakota, but has lived in Wisconsin for years.

We did have a wonderful visit!!  She did not remember having met us before, about twenty years ago.
She took us out to Grace's local restaurant for lunch and it was very good. We owe her for that one!! We look forward to seeing her again sometime on another trip west. A lot of family information shared. Gary loves the genealogy especially.
We were gone for twelve hours. So it was a long day!! It started out beautiful, but ended with a lot of rain!! It sure is farm country and looks a lot like Ohio.

One of the few buildings that I captured on camera.

We plan on a paddle boat ride on the Mississippi River tomorrow with Ben.  We are looking forward to that and hope that it is sunny!! We don't really have anything planned for next week, but I am sure that we can find something, even a museum. Gary is talking of driving more north in Minnesota to check out the scenery.
Talk with you again soon.

RED WING, MN and TREASURE ISLAND

I spent a day last week sorting scrapbook materials and getting my case out of the car since I don't have anywhere to go near here to work with others. Now I just need to get busy and do some embellishing or order photos to crop. But I really don't have many photos of people yet to work with. Hopefully, it will come along. I am ready to begin my third album of people in travels.
We will be going to Wisconsin Rapids on Thursday to visit with a first cousin of Gary's. Hopefully, I remember to take pictures then! I sure did not remember to take pictures of Victor while he was here, but the boys get tired of that from Mom! Yesterday Gary was taking pictures of Ben putting up his curtain rods. I haven't looked at those yet to see if there are any usable.
Ben goes back to sleeping today and work tonight so we are on our own until Saturday. Follow to see if we get into anything new. And Victor is back in Ohio. Sounds like he had a good time in Columbus on his way home.
While Victor was here we drove into Red Wing and went though the Red Wing Pottery Museum. The pottery factory was open from 1847 through 1967.

Drain tiles and chimney inserts.
I had no idea they made those.

So many different jugs, even chicken feeders!

And the dishes were many and different styles and patterns.

Their many dish patterns.

After the pottery museum we stopped at a Salvation Thrift Store where I found "affordable" Red Wing pieces to buy! I got a little crock and a candle wax holder with a Christmas design on it. I will get a lot of use out of these and they were a fraction of the cost from the museum store.

My new Red Wing pieces!

We also took Victor up on the ridge to see the one look-out over the Mississippi River. We think that this park was at one time a quarry.

Victor headed to look over the Bluff.

While Victor and I went through the store and Antique Shop, Gary went to the ELKS to pick up a pin for Esther. Then we made our usual stop at Walmart.  Have to do it when opportunity arises as it is twenty miles away from us and that is where I get my scripts. The grocery stores out near us are few and far between also. And the worst thing about those is the prices!!!
After Victor left and Ben went back to work, to have a break from the motorhome washing and waxing. So we went to Treasure Island Casino near the River.  It's good for a little entertainment. I think that the Indians do well!!

The Casino has a campground with neat pull though sites where we were going to stay over the 4th. But the campground where we are now located came through with a site. They had a cancellation so we lucked out and only have to move across this park next Friday for the holiday week before we move on. We don't want to travel over the holidays!!!
The day we went to the casino, we also went into Hastings to look around. We found another Walmart and another Salvation Army Thrift Store.  I have to go back to a Thrift store where they have a lot of curtains and draperies. I need to find something to use to partially filter the sun from Ben's sky light. Not much else on the agenda, just day to day things that we think to do.We are planning on taking a boat on the Mississippi next Saturday when Ben can go with us. And we may go back into Minneapolis and St. Paul to do more looking around.
Hope you all are enjoying your summer. We have had a lot of storms and hail here. An insurance adjuster just moved in next to us, coming from Kentucky. We have been fortunate so far that all we have had to deal with is rain and wind. We are at the right angle and have a tree next to us, so that we do not have to use our awning. I do sit out quite a bit to read.
Gary had just come in from his waxing on the outside. So not sure what we will do for the rest of the day. You all take care and stay tuned.