A friendly game of horse shoes. No, its not that tame. Ahh, kids and horses. Well, yes that would make city parents abit skittish. Should we have a closer look at just what these kids are doing?

Alrighty then, but you were warned!

We went looking around. Look what we found! Since we are still at the fair grounds and they are having activities this weekend, there is lots to photo. Got to go looking! More later!

I warned ya!

Dont look!

Is she trying to run him down!






























What in the world is going on? It would appear that the rider is trying to run the guy over with the horse. Could this be happening under the watchfull eye of the parents? Is somebody crazy?

NAAAAAA! Its called Rescue and it is a timed event. In the most of the pics above the rider, a girl, is trying to "rescue" her boyfriend from danger by riding up to him and picking him up. Yea, she is "picking him up". He grabs her and the saddle and attempts to get on the horse behind the rider. We say only one couple make it happen. Ths was a pre-qualifing event and it was timed.

While we were out walking around, along comes a mule drawn wagon from the parade downtown.
They are having a Giant Days Celebration this weekend here in Blue Earth.

But what do the kids and teenagers do here?
Am I glad that you asked. It seems that they have lots of chores to do and all that but they also get in on someof the fun.

In fact, I would bet that it would scare the pants of you city folk if you could see what they do here. Would you really like to see some pics of the kids and teens in action. Ok, but I warned ya!!

The building on the left in this pic houses old farm machinery that the men have completely re-furbushed into running condition. Farm equipment that would have been used in my grandfathers and his dads farm days. Ie, late 1800's.
The middle building was moved here and is a blacksmiths shop complete with hand tools and a working forge.
The right building is the old one room school house moved rom rural MN. It is complete less a teacher. It has the old desks with the ink well, which I used in my much younger days.
All of the buildings are in excellent condition. They have been well taken care of. The building has the bell and rope in place.

This is a Luthern Church that was moved from rural MN. It was dis-assembled for the move. The stepple was mostly rebuilt off site and put in place at this site. The inside is complete including the bell. The outside and inside have been completely re-furbushed.
The pews, elevated pasters perch and bell are included. it like the other buidings are immaculate.

Its going to be a busy day here in Blue Earth. We are going to go to the area towns and sightsee.
We already have over 60 pics here and more to come.















This is the log cabin here. No history noted. This is a rear, front and inside views. A rear view of the jolly green giant which got lost, will retake to answer all those questions of what he looks like from the back side.
This is a really interesting place.

This is round three. The station wagon won round two and three for a $500.00 prize each round. Plus he got a trophy.
Its been a few years since I saw this, EL Paso in the 40's, and Shirley had never seen a demolition derby before. Was worth thetime and money. Shhhh, we got in free!!!! Shhhhh.

Its called Demolition Derby!

Round two of three. We missed the first round.

This is our neighbor. Its a converted transit bus. It had two doors and seats prior to its conversation. Now it has one door. The rear door opening has been closed up. Do you see the dog and cat at the front door? Arent they cute.

We moved today. We are now in Blue Earth, MN at the county fairgrounds. Cost is free for 48 hrs and then $5.00/day. we have e/w/s. There is going to be a demolation derby tonight. Dont think we will get pics. The attration here is the 60 ft tall "Jolly Green Giant" which we will get pics of! Tomorrow we will tour the town.

Our plans to go by the infomation center for MN went astray as the state legislator has not passed a new budget. The effects are no open rest stops, open info centers, etc. For us, no state road map, etc. We will have to rely on the internet for sights to see and places to go and camping locations. Bummer!

I will get pics uploaded shortly. Still got to take a few yet. It poured down on our way here. and we had to stop and get gas. I didnt want to pay $2.14.9/gal in Iowa so we drove to MN to gas up. And I thought Iowa was expensive. Gas was 2.24.9/gal here. It cost us $126.00 to fill the tank. But, remember, this was our 2nd gas stop for all of July. We went 488 miles, 54.805 gallons, and got 8.9 mpg. Cooler weather means less generator use which equals better mpg. I had read where this V10 engine got 10 mpg.

Shirley did some research on our solar panels and found we have plenty of battery amps buy e are short onsolarpanels to charge the batteries. We need atleast one more 120 watt but two would be better. I doubt if we have enough roof for them. they are Large and cost about $4 per watt plus install. We have to run the genset atleaast 2 hours on a sunny day to get the batteries fully charged. When its hot, ac has to run, or cloudy/rainy we have to find a campground and hook up. its cheaper than running the genset at the current price of gas.

Ill post some pics of the panels on the roof for all to see. These panels are in addition to the small panel that charges our chassis 12volt battery. Its new too, got rid of the other as I had no idea of its age or condition. Less problems on the rode.

This is our stop for the night. Its SpiritLake IA. We are at a park, no name, with a dump station and water. Since we had not dumped our tanks in 4 days, it was time.
We found this by pure luck. We drove around looking for a place to stay and came into this site. Not on any data base we have. This is our side yard with feathered friends.

The last of the foot suspension bridge at Estherville, IA. A sight to see. It has been there for many years.

The foot suspension bridge at Estherville, IA

We drove to the little town of Estherville, IA to their city park. it is listed on the internet as a place you can stay for 3 days for free with electricity, water and a dump station. What we found was pad locked electrical boxes, water turned off and pad locked dump cover.
It seems that the city choose to not have rv's stop here. From what we could see, and shown in the pics, this site has not been used in several years as a camping area.
But the next set of photos are of the bridge here. Someting to see and walk on. And its not the train bridge. I just thought it was interesting.

This is the site of the fireworks launching point, the lake jetty. We are a good 1/3 to 1/2 mile away. Watch the crowd gather!

The last of the 4th of July photos. The crowd really did gather as you can see. There are some really nice people along our way. The further north we go the more we see them "play".
They have more car races, figure 8, and alot of boats. when you think about the winter here being so long and not a thing to do, they seem to get into getting ready for the warmer days to come. Hence boating and car racing.
We travel today, the 5th.

The pics uploaded! This is the light house that is at the intersection of IA 7 and US 71. This is the invitation to come to Storm Lake. Photo of an old log cabin and school and one of the many homes here.
Tomorrow is the fire works and we hopefully have a spot staked out for the rv where we can see the show. We picked a spot where we will be out of traffic and parking yet close enough to walk and see. We will see if this all works.
We are looking for generator oil filter here. Storm Lake is not listed as a source for onan parts. But maybe...! Otherwise its on to Humbolt, a 50 mile trip. We are over on gen hours x 30.
We will have the coach serviced at Spirit Lake. Get it all done so we can go on. Not much else to say. Watched golf as we sat by the lake today. We will spend our last night here at super center. We will park some where else tomorrow night and tues go on toward Spirit Lake.
As you can see, we got a spot and the crowd is gathering. We did get a filter for the generator and got the oil changed. Yea.
Off out across the water is where the fire works will be shot. we should have a good seat as this is where the crowd seems to be gathering.
Happy 4th of July to everybody and Happy Birthday to the USA.