Friday, May 20, 2011

What a gorgeous day. Sun shining, the lake is calm and it’s 70 degrees. We are sitting here waiting for the telephone man to arrive. Did I tell you...we have no phone, cell, internet or TV. We’re pretty isolated. It’s been a good day to get those little chores around the house taken care of. I’ve done a load of wash, dusted, made potato salad and coconut cream tarts. Whatever happened to that idea we were going to eat smart and exercise and lose weight. We’ve been doing a lot of walking. I think we’ve just been eating too good. One of the things we notice is that it stays light longer. It doesn’t get dark until around 8:45....and the sun comes up by 5am.   In Missouri it didn’t stay light that late until mid June.
I would like to make mention that anyone that is even thinking about doing the full time RV lifestyle should have handyman skills. If Dale hadn’t been so inclined I don’t know what we would have done. Living in a RV is just like living in a traditional stick built home.....there is still maintenance. We might not have to mow the lawn but there are plenty of other things.
Since May 4^th...Dale has fixed a leaky washer/dryer, a leaky shower, a leaky air conditioner, a kitchen sink that wouldn’t drain..... and a leaky toilet. The toilet was our fault. We decided we wanted to raise the height of the stool a little instead of "sitting on the floor". It’s amazing what a difference a 2 ½ riser can do. It is so much more comfortable. However what was suppose to be a very simple task ended up taking poor Dale half the day. The water supply had to be extended 3" to accommodate the additional height....it was too short, too tall, leaking then finally 5 hrs later it all came together. Thank goodness it was one of his Duluth jobs and there was a Menards very handy. The internet has been very handy with several of our little issues. That’s my job...Google "how to" fix it. I’ve been quite successful at it too. I found out how to fix the leaky air conditioner and how to drain the kitchen sink. He also has installed a shelf in our entry closet to get things more organized.

We arrived in Grand Portage, MN around 3pm on Monday 5/16. We were the first RV volunteers to arrive. Our "boss" made us feel very welcome and took us to our campsite. There were two friendly neighbors that greeted us (Bear a Golden Retriever and Brutus a black lab) We got settled in and felt quite comfortable for the evening. Tuesday 5/17 (Dale’s birthday) we drove back to Grand Maras. Dale got a haircut and we had lunch at a little restaurant by the lake...The Blue Water Café. We checked out the Ben Franklin and the Lake Superior Traders stores....oh and the grocery store. Stocked up on milk and eggs and bought a cake mix to make Dale his favorite...Cherry Chip Cake with Cherry Frosting. A guy’s gotta have a birthday cake when he turns 65. Groceries are a little more expense here. The cake mix was $2.42 and the frosting was $2.47. Milk was $3.99 and eggs $0.99. So not so bad. I did notice that a box of raisin bran was $4.77.  Diesel, by the way, is $3.90.  Dale's pretty happy about that, don't you know.   We’ve met our new neighbors...our co-workers Sharon & Kerry. They arrived Wednesday. They are very nice and have been full timers for 7 years. They’ve already provided us with a wealth of information. They arrived while we were gone hiking up to High Falls...my gosh it’s awesome. It is located just out from Grand Portage State Park. Not to be confused with Grand Portage National Monument, where we work. We’re going to go up to the falls again and I’m going to video the whole thing and put it on YouTube. Yesterday (Thursday) we walked through the grounds of the monument. The buildings are wonderful. There was an interpreter in the canoe building and he shared all sorts of information about the different canoes with us. Then we went into the Great Hall and the kitchen