April 2026

We left Yuma on Tuesday March 24 just after 9:00 in the morning. We said Good-bye to Grover and his owners, a neighbor and waived to the campers that had gathered to play shuffleboard by the club house. We drove on Highway 95 through Arizona, California, and arrived in Beatty NV for the night. The highway had lots of dips in the road that warned you to avoid going into the dips when they were flooded.

We stopped for gas at a station that listed the price as $5.99 9/10.  What? I knew the prices had gone up but that seemed ridiculous. Luckily the pump didn’t work properly and Brian only got about one gallon of gas. We drove a little bit further north and found gas was much cheaper.

Along the way, we passed what must have been Area 51. The exit off the freeway was marked as Mercury and the exit sign indicated that only “Authorized Vehicles” were allowed to use the road.

We arrived at the RV park, hooked up the electricity, got the inside of the motorhome cleaned so that we could sleep in the bed, and had our salads for dinner.  I think we both slept good that night.

We left Beatty after packing things up again and headed towards Reno. We passed Lake Walker in Hamilton along Highway 95. I saw a lone horse standing on the shore of the lake. There were several signs indicating “Major Sheep Crossing”.  Never saw any sheep!

Here's a picture of some mountains along the way.

We pulled into the RV park just before 3:00 and got assigned our parking spot. The spot had a concrete pad to park on. It was nice to have someplace level for a change. We got all the utilities hooked up, unhooked the truck, reset the inside of the motorhome and decided to go to the casino next door for supper. It was nice to not have to cook. The park is just steps from the California border.

Reno, NV-CallerLab Convention

We did laundry on Saturday morning so that we had enough clean clothes for the
Callerlab convention. We got packed and headed for the hotel. There were only two
people in line at the check-in counter, but it would cost $30 to check in at 11:00. We
turned it down but then had second thoughts since there wasn’t anyone else in line at
the time. We thought there might be lots of people in line at 1:00. We went back and
checked in. We had a bellhop bring our suitcases to the room. We went to the Callerlab
room to pick up Brian’s packet. Then we went back to the room for a quick nap before
dinner. We ate at Johnny Rocket’s at the hotel. We went to bed after emptying our
suitcases.

Brian attended the convention activities while I took it easy. I went to a couple of quilt
shops with two other wives. I didn’t get any fabric but they each did. But mostly I spent
the time by myself in the room or in the open area where I could talk with others not
attending the seminars. Brian was working at the Genius Bar where he helped others
with their computers. He also presided over the meeting of the Marketing Committee.
Here’s a picture of the four couples from Minnesota that attended the meeting.

We returned to the motorhome on Wednesday April 4 th in the afternoon and unpacked,
did laundry, and got ready to hit the road in the morning. Brian couldn’t find the power
cord for his laptop, so he had to go back to Reno to get another one. We had supper at
the restaurant and got our $10 credit at the casino. Brian won $75, I lost all but a dime.
The wind had kicked up, and the motorhome rocked all night. But we survived.

The Way Back Home

Brian had mapped out our route back home and we headed to a KOA campground in
West Wendover, NV on Thursday morning. Along the way we went up and down the
mountains and saw quite a bit of snow. It even snowed while we were putting gas in the motorhome before getting to the campground. The motorhome got parked, water and
electricity hooked up and supper of French bread pizza. Brian booked our next stop on
the way home and we chilled out for the rest of the evening. Lost an hour going East but
got to the campground before dark.

Friday morning, we unhooked everything and headed East towards Lander WY for the
night. Along the way we saw several herds of deer, a sign advertising Wall Drug, a
helicopter flying very low (might have been practicing piloting the helicopter?), a herd of
sheep, some working and non-working oil rigs, and it snowed just a bit while we were
driving. While we were getting the motorhome to hit the road, I was stepping out of the
motorhome onto a collapsible stepstool, and you guessed it, it collapsed. I reinjured my
right knee. I was in a lot of pain and could hardly walk.

But we made it to Rapid City, SD for the night. We had decided to spend the night in a
hotel so that we could have “real” showers. We decided to stay an extra night in Rapid
City to give my knee time to begin to heal and for a rest from the windy conditions that
Brian was driving in. Luckily, the hotel had plenty of room. Sunday was much quieter as
all the spring break kids had checked out of the hotel that morning. I really was nice to
stay in one place for a change.

We left the hotel on Monday morning and headed for a hotel in Brookings, SD. It was
very windy again, so driving was hard on Brian. We decided to have lunch at a rest stop
along the way. I saw several pheasants along the roadside. We saw half of a house
being moved. I wondered which party in the divorce got that half of the house.

We passed the exit to Emery, SD where we have our mail delivered. It almost felt like
old home week. We topped off the tank of the motorhome with gas and arrived at the
hotel in Brookings. My knee was feeling a little bit better at this point but still was very
painful to walk on.

Back In Minnesota-April 7, 2026

We arrived at the mobile home park in Bloomington on Tuesday the 7th and dropped
the truck. Brian took the motorhome to refill the gas and the propane for our stay up
north. He got the motorhome situated and we hooked up all the hoses and cords. But alas, there is no water yet there either. We did spend the night in Bloomington as we were tired from the trip.

Then on Wednesday morning, we went to the laundromat on West 7th Street in Saint
Paul to wash clothes. There was a brake light burned out on the truck, so we had that
fixed. At least the blinker light works properly now. We had lunch at the motorhome and
packed some clothes. We will be staying with our friends, Bob and Jeanine, for the time
being until the water gets turned on.

Thursday morning Brian went to his old office to see “the girls” and get a snow cone,
They have a snow cone machine and would have one during their meetings. That
evening was the editing meeting for the square dancing magazine that I work on. It was
good to see everyone again after being gone for so long.

Friday morning, we drove back to Richfield to pick up our tax returns. Scary, I know. But
this year it was good news; we are getting refunds from both the state and the federal
returns. We went to the motorhome and gathered up Brian’s calling equipment and
loaded it into the pickup bed. He will need it for Saturday night. After supper, we drove
up to Isanti to attend the square dance hosted by the Cambridge Corners club. Again,
we saw many old friends at the dance.

On Saturday, April 11, 2026 , Jeanine and I made an Egg Bake for breakfast. Brian and I did a
little shopping at Cub and picked up some chicken and sides for supper that night. After
supper, we headed up to Coon Rapids to the Hotfoot Stompers dance. Brian was calling
the dance and the theme for the dance was “Royalty”. It was the night they crowned
their new queen. Brian had ordered a king’s outfit and wore it during the dance. There
were over 13 squares in attendance that night.

Sunday, we went to our antique car club meeting in the afternoon. We stopped for
supper at Rubio’s in White Bear Lake on the way to Wyoming to attend the Jolly
Promenaders lessons. Again, saw some friends that we hadn’t seen yet. Brian was
needed to dance the right hand dancer (ladies) part. He was a little rusty at it and it was
fun to watch.

Monday, we returned to the motorhome to unpack Brian’s calling equipment from the
motorhome and got them back in their places in the motorhome. We also did some
straightening up inside the motorhome. Bob and Jeanine cancelled their lessons for
Monday night due to the weather forecast. We stayed home and played a dice game
called Qwixx. It was a relaxing evening at home after all the running around over the
weekend.

On Tuesday, April 14th we both got our haircuts before heading to Five Guys for lunch.
After lunch, we drove to Hampton, MN to Greg’s Meats to get some meals for the week.
We have been going to Greg’s Meats since 2020, and we are supporting a small
business. Bob and Jeanine took us out for supper to celebrate Brian’s birthday. His
birthday was on April 5 , but we celebrated in any case. There is a new restaurant in the
area of Larpenter and Rice, so we tried it. It’s a Mexican restaurant that serves GIANT
burritos. It was very tasty and we all had leftovers.

On Saturday, April 18th, Jeanine, Pat E. and I went to the Ladies Luncheon at Sandy's church. We brought our favorite breakfast food to share. Jeanine and I had made Blueberry Muffins on Friday morning with some fresh blueberries. The muffins tasted superb, if you ask me. I had a hard time staying away from them until the luncheon. We also had supper with my stepsister and her husband. It was nice to see them after all these months away.

On Wednesday, April 22nd, we attended the annual Bingo luncheon with members of the senior group from our church. I won one of the games and got to pick a prize from the prize table. There were some tense moments as people got close to getting a Bingo. The person who won the Coverall game won a quilt sewn by the ladies of the church. We stopped by the motorhome after the event and discovered that the water had been turned on at the park. We returned to Bob/Jeanine's home so that we could travel to the Swingmasters banquet together.

It's now Thursday, April 23rd and we packed up all our things and moved back to the motorhome. It was a lot of work moving everything back. We sincerely thank Bob/Jeanine for allowing us to move in with them until the water was back on at the park.

On Friday, April 24th, we went to dinner and a play with Mike and Sandy. We intended to go to supper at a restaurant called Tavern Grill in Prior Lake. However, the restaurant was closed, permanently. So, we went to Ze's Diner in Prior Lake, just up the road. It's a 50's style diner with great food. After supper, we went to Twin Oaks Middle School to see the community theater performance of Shrek. We had not seen the movie, so we didn't know what to expect. But we have been very pleased with past performances, so we knew that we were in for a treat. It was very well done, and I feel sorry for the poor guy that had do the whole play on his knees.