Holidays 2012

What a great holiday season.  Christmas Day we had a wonderful potluck supper with all the other volunteers.  New Years Eve we had a bonfire, drinks and snacks with several of our "neighbors" in our campground.  What a great time we had.  There was certainly alot of activity around here during the holidays.  There were a BBQ sponsored by the Friends of Kartchner Caverns for the volunteers in appreciation of what we do.  Then there was the all office potluck in addition to our Christmas Day potluck supper.  Plenty of food to eat around here in December....that's for sure.  We've had some really cold days in December.  We actually had some mornings that were 21.  We had to go out and buy some heat tape to keep our water from freezing.  Christmas Day was pretty cold...but this week has been nice...in the high 60's & low 70's.  We have loved it here.  We'll be heading to Texas in a few weeks.  I'll keep you posted on that.  

Tucson - our first visit 11/2/11

We finally made it to Tucson after being here for a month.  It's only 50 miles away and I'm sure we'll be going again.  We went to old downtown with the idea of going to a Farmers Market.  It wasn't so great but the downtown area was wonderful.  After that we went to the Saguaro National Park.  Huge cacti everywhere.  It was quite impressive.  It takes 35 years to grow 6ft.

Sightseeing in Southeastern Arizona, Oct 2011

On October 17th we took a trip over to Chirachua Natl Monument...it was very interesting.  Watched a movie about the settling of that area and interacton with the Chirachua Apache. 

Then we continued on to Ft Bowie National Historic Park.....now that was an experience. In reality it was only 15 miles from Chirachua, however, it was 8 miles on a gravel road.  A rough road, at that. As we're working our way toward Ft Bowie, we got stopped by a Border Patrolman, he told us there was alot of smuggling on that road. Once he determined we were just old retired folks he let us go on.  We finally arrived at "the spot" and low and behold it was just a porta potty and a map. There was a sign that said Fort Ruins 1 1/2 miles on a hiking path.  We were lucky - a Ranger drove up about the time we were going to leave.  He said there was a handicap access road about 1 mile ahead.  We took that road (another 3 miles on a gravel road) once we arrived at Ft Bowie we parked at a maintenance building and hiked up 500 ft to the visitor center.  It was awful.  I don't see that as being handicap accessible. Anyway we were able to get our National Park book stamped and learned about the Apache skirmish that took place there.  What was really interesting was that Captain Leonard Wood was a participant. Now we know how Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri got it's name.   Ft Bowie is no longer there...just some stones to mark the locations of some of the buildings.  All in all, very interesting considering what it took to get there.

10/25/11 - we took out for Coronado National Memorial.  Quite interesting.   Just a few months ago the place was on fire.  They were able to save the Visitor Center structures....but the fire came right up to their back door.  They actually started a backfire about 3 ft from the window that looks out onto their nature trail.  A fire started in June 2011 and started working it's was northeast.  All in all it ended up burning 29,000 acres.   The grass has all grown back, but you can see burnt trees standing next to green ones. Make you wonder how some trees got burnt and others got skipped.  We watched a movie about
how Coronado, from Spain, came and explored this area and discovered Pueblo's occuppied by Zuni.
After our visit there we continued on to Bisbee.  It reminded us of Eureka Springs, AR.  Narrow, winding roads, with shops on both sides of the street.  They also have a open pit mining operation

Tombstone - 10/4/11

What a great day we had today.  We drove to Tombstone after that we went to Sierra Vista.  We had alot of fun in Tombstone and Sierra Vista is a great place.  Tons of shopping there.  On the way home we had some great clouds and even a rainbow.

We're getting acquainted with Benson

Benson is the closest town to the caverns.  It's about 10 miles away.  There is a Wal Mart there and and a Safeway and ACE Hardware.  Dale has already found a barber.  I'm trying to let my hair grow.

The Visitor Center is an old Train Depot.  We got some information there today.  Looks like we'll have some interesting places to visit.  Tombstone for one.   I'll continue to share our adventures once we start visiting some of these great places

Gunflint Trail - Grand Marais, MN

We had heard about the Gunflint Trail so decided to check it out.  It was so much more then what I expected.  I just figured it would be a dusty little hiking trail.  It was beautiful...wildflowers all over and such a wonderful view of Lake Superior.  Truely awesome.

Middle Falls, Canada Sun 6/26/11

We had a wonderful day yesterday.  We went to Middle Falls.....about 8 miles up the road from us....just a couple of miles north of the Canadian border.  It was absolutely beautiful.  Not as big as High Falls...I guess that's why it's called Middle Falls (hehe)

Summer Soltace Festival - 6/18/11

Grand Marais had their Summer Soltace Festival 6-17 to 6/19/11.  It was a little chilly and windy....but it was a wonderful festival.   There was a Wooden Boat Show plus demonstrations from the North House Folk School.  Dale watched a guy carve a Noggin out of a birch log in 30 minutes.  He was quite empressed. Everything has been going well at Grand Portage. No wildlife sightings to date.

Mt Rose - Sun, 6/12/11

We decided to take the walk up Mt Rose.  1/2 mile at a 300ft incline.  I thought I was going to die but actually felt the joy of reaching the top.  It was well worth the photos.  What a beautiful view....and what a feeling of accomplishment.  This morning when I woke up I hurt all over. Ankles, wrists, ribs....vertually, I hurt all over.  However a couple of Excedrin and I was good to go.  Dale didn't seem to suffer to much...but you can see that grin on his face when we reached the top.

I think I'm in 1797

I've been working in the kitchen the past 2 days.  For a person that doesn't normally cook....I've been cooking up a storm.  Don't get me wrong...I'm still "on the job training"  but yesterday we made shortbread in a dutch oven and we cook Galette's (flat bread) in a skillet in the open hearth.  Today we made chocolate cake w/maple frosting. Oh yummy!!!!   I made the cake in the dutch oven in the fireplace.  It cooked too fast and got burnt...but we cut the burned part off and frosted er up and it was to die for.  Then we fired up the baking oven outside.  That was  a 4 hour process....but by 2:30 we had 4 very nice loaves of whole wheat bread.  Very pretty.  Cooking in the 1790's is not a light weight job.  You start the fire in the hearth right off the bat, then you have to haul water several times a day and haul in more wood.  After using the cast iron cookware you have to rub it down with beeswax. No microwaves or dishwashers...those cooks had to work really hard.  I felt quite proud of my baked goods.  Dale gets his turn in the kitchen tomorrow.  We'll just have to see how he holds up:)

Back to School 5/31/11

Well we were back to school today.  We learned fingerweaving and where all the fire extinguishers are.

We will have to be giving a 15 minute program so we got information on that and spent most of the afternoon in the Park Library.  I think those college kids have a big advantage over us.  I can't remember the last time we had to do an outline for something like this.  Poor Dale is sitting at the kitchen table, as I write....he's doing his homework.  Once we got home, this afternoon, we took a walk to the Marina. The lake is gorgeous.

Thunder Bay, Canada

We made the 40 mile trip to Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.  It was sort of confusing. Gas is sold by the liter. Food is packaged by the metric system. So a box of cereal isn't 18oz but 900g.  Now what in the heck is that.   I doubt if we got to Thunder Bay very often.  The groceries were more expensive then what we can get at the trading post. Our DVD player broke so we thought we'd get one at the Wal Mart in Thunder Bay. It was $30 more then what we can get online.   So we decided to pay the $58 online plus $0.97 shipping instead of $88 there in Canada.  We did have some wonderful pizza there though.  The best we've EVER had.  Boston's Family Pizza.  I'd say we'll go back to Canada just for the pizza.  Getting out of the country wasn't too much trouble.  Coming back, though we got the 3rd degree.  We gave them our passport and our receipt for our groceries so they could see what we got.  It's a good thing we didn't get any oranges but he said we would have been OK with the bananas (which we left there)  Oh well.  Definately a learning experience.

Friday, May 27, 2011....The Spirit Tree

Well we finished one week of our training today. What a fabulous week. These Ojibwe people are truly awesome. To think I never heard of them untill we decided to come up here for the summer. Warm, friendly and truly industrious and those voyageurs....I can’t even image working that hard. Paddling non-stop for 15 hours a day, then taking that 450 pound canoe and toss it over your shoulder and haul it over 8 ½ miles of land to get around waterfalls or rapids...but the 4 tons of merchandise. Granted this was accomplished by 16 men....but even so.
Besides learning the history of these people, we are learning to make fire from flint and steel, we have made cording, sewn birch bark panels to make wigwams. Besides hiking up to High Falls, we have actually hiked on "The Grand Portage" and today we hiked out to "The Spirit Tree" What a precious thing. That little tree has seen alot.....it’s been hear for at least 400 years.
Today we learned about the Ojibwe (Chippewa) people. Carl Gawboy, a well known artist of Native American historical water color paintings and murals came and talked to us for 2 hrs. He used his life, here in the north woods, has his inspiration. Then later we had a potluck with everyone bringing a dish that represented their cultural background. What fun....and so yummy.
After that the tribal secretary/treasure came by and talked to us. What a smart young woman. 24 yrs old and elected to this tribal position. They are so warm and welcoming. This is a wonderful experience. I was sitting there today in our class and thought, who would have ever thought we would have experienced such a wonderful thing. We have received our costumes and promise to take photos of us fully decked out. Wait til you see Dale in his "Gentleman’s Outfit".

Saturday, May 21, 2011

 Today is my dad’s 84^th birthday. Since the phone man never showed up Friday we drove to the trading post and I used the pay phone to call and wish him a Happy Birthday. That was rather frustrating since dad can’t hear very well and I’m yelling at him inside the trading post. I guess everyone in Grand Portage now knows it’s my dad’s birthday. I also called the phone company while we were there and they said the phone installation had been changed to Monday. Hope that works out alright....since we start our schooling that day and no one is going to be here. Then I called John to wish him a happy birthday. He’s going to be 40 tomorrow. Brings a tear to my eye to think my baby is going to be 40. We were going to introduce ourselves to the post office lady, Mary. The post office is at the trading post. We hear she knows we’re here...even knew our names. When Sharon, our neighbor stopped in there when they first arrived....Mary informed her we were already here. So we thought we better go say howdy to the lady. However, the post office closed at 10:30 today so we’ll try again Monday during lunch time. It’s gray and 60ish today...it seems pretty chilly because there is no sun. It has just started raining. No walk this afternoon, I guess. Maybe tomorrow. Monday we start our classes. 8 hours a day Mon - Fri .Dale’s already worried. He’s afraid he’s not going to be able to remember all the facts. So far we’ve learned a lot just by reading the mass of books they sent us and just by talking to people. It’s hard to imagine they transported goods and fur in a canoe. A very big Montreal Canoe. 36 ft long. It carried between 3 and 4 tons of merchandise. Those canoes were a lot bigger then those little things that people float down the Jack’s Fork River. The English would transport goods like yard goods, blankets, flour, sugar, tobacco, cookware, firearms, wine & hard liquor to trade for furs. I’ll be sure to include photos of us in our costumes, once they have been assigned to us.

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