Tuesday, July 19, 2022

Dan and Kelsey Visit / Glamping at The Grove at Battle Lake Minnesota - Part I





Wednesday, June 29th


Tomorrow Dan and Kelsey arrive for a short visit. On Saturday we’re all going to Battle Lake Minnesota with Sarah and crew to go glamping. We’re bringing the RV because we’re old and its cheaper and that way we have aircon and a stove and fridge and a sink and a toilet etc etc. Although the  shower facilities are supposed to be very nice, and since they only have water and electricity we’ll probably use them and only use our toilet at night. 


I’m looking forward to seeing D and K. I’m chronically tired right now from marathon training but that’s the way it is when you do Hanson’s Marathon Method and you’re in week 15! 3 more weeks and we’ll be in San Francisco and I’ll run the SF marathon for my 70th birthday. I’ve really been working on elevation, yet even my hilliest routes have nothing on the SF marathon. So we’ll see. I’m definitely feeling strong, if tired, but the chances of blowing up if I don’t manage thing properly are pretty high. Either that or I’m too conservative and give up before I really get started. No point worrying but that’s easier said than done.


Our yard just looks so beautiful this year. This is our third summer here and the work (and $$) we’ve put in are really starting to pay off. Yesterday Chris, our landscaper, came by, and gave me a lesson on fertilizing. I finally got the evergreens straight in my head, which ones are pines, which spruces, which junipers and which are arborvitae! And now I know which ones get acidic fertilizer and which ones don’t. I can do it myself this year and save a lot of money.


I just really love our combination of natives and non-native plants. Natives are interesting. The first year you plant a lot of them they don’t bloom because they are busy developing root systems. But the second year, watch out! and sometimes they end up not being happy where I initially put them and I have to move them around. I put some lance leaf coreopsis down by the rain garden and initially I didn’t think it survived. But I was patient where it was planted and only pulled things that I was absolutely sure were weeds, and now, here and there they are blooming! Sometimes gardening is exciting!


Friday, July 1st





Yesterday Dan and Kelsey arrived around noon. I ran my 8 miles in the morning. That afternoon we just hung out. They were going out with Sarah and Erik that night so Suzanne babysit Kirby and we took Leo for an overnight because we have him this Friday anyway. He was VERY excited! He wanted to put his pjs on right away, even though it was only 5 pm!


We had a salad and spaghetti for dinner, and watched a movie. We watched Encanto, the new Disney flick. I was busy so I didn’t get to just sit down and watch it but it looked pretty good. I’m going to watch it on my iPad sometime.


I had to go to bed early because I had to get up and run my last 16 miler this morning. I got it done but I was pretty tired by the end. And my stomach was upset this morning so I couldn’t take in all my nutrition. 


We went to the playground and then to Adele’s for lunch. Leo fell asleep in the car after lunch so I don’t know how good of a nap he had. He fell asleep in the car again on the way home. Poor kid! He was ready for the camping trip to start and was disappointed that he had to go home for the night before it would get started. Tomorrow!


We had carry out Korean for dinner and ate out on the porch. It’s nice out!


Sunday July 3


Yesterday we finished packing up the RV and drove to Battle Lake, MN. This place is called The Grove. It’s in a grove of oak trees. It’s small, only 4 glamping tents and a space for an RV which is where we are. Water and electricity but no sewer for the RV, but that’s fine. There are nice bathrooms. 


We put up the screen tent and the dog fence for the dogs. No dogs are allowed in the tents. It was a beautiful night, sunny and a perfect temp. The bugs weren’t bad either. Dan and Kelsey made tacos and we ate in the screen tent. It was fun, but the sun shone right into the tent so it got a little warm.





The little boys had taken good naps in the car and were FULL OF ENERGY. They ran all over the glamping area, from the chairs we had set up in front of the RV, to the hammocks down by glamping tents and back, again and again. They wore me out just looking at them. We let them play in the RV for awhile but they wouldn’t stop playing with the screen door so we kicked them out.


After dinner we all sat in the hammocks for awhile. The boys put on a fireworks “show”, and pretended to be ninja turtles and then transformers. As usual by 8 I was ready for bed.


Because no dogs in tents Mika slept with us so 2 adults and 4 Westies in a queen "short" bed. Off in the distance someone was setting off real fireworks; Mika was the only dog that was a little upset.


Earlier I had put out some treats for the dogs for later on the table while we were down at the hammocks and the dogs were inside the RV. When I came back to the RV they were gone. “Oh yeah,” Lee said, “Heather was on the table”. That little dog ate 4 little mother Hubbard dog bones and 3 Milk Bones! No more treats for her!


This morning I slept til 6. Yay! Got up and was on my 2nd cup of coffee when the little boys showed up. They are hanging out with us while their parents get to sleep a little bit more. Kind of nice all around.


I was just getting ready to run when it started to thunder, lightning, and pour down rain. Not unexpected so I’m waiting til it eases up. What can you do? No treadmill in the RV!


Sunday evening.


It was a nice day. The rain was soon over and I went for a run. My gps went a little crazy and thought I ran an 8 minute mile for the first mile. No. So I went by time. There is a very nice paved trail in the state park that goes around the lakes and is only a tenth of a mile from the glamping resort. I went all the way around, which was a little over 5 miles, and then went a little farther to get to what was probably 6 miles or close enough. Daniel was running too, he is training for the SF half, but of course much faster than me. We saw each other briefly on the trail however.


After running I took a shower and then ate some waffles that Lee had made. Then we basically hung out for the rest of the day. We were looking at the weather. There were more T storms coming, but when? Would we be able to have dinner or would we get rained out? 


By 1 I was ready for a short nap. Leo was hanging out with us because Kirby was napping in their tent. When I said I was going to lay down he decided that he would too. We both slept for about 45 minutes. It felt very good, and then I needed coffee. I went into Battle Lake to get some coffee and some more chips. It seems like a nice little town, maybe we will explore it tomorrow.


We sat around in the sunshine.


Erik and Daniel decided to try to make a fire. It took awhile, but once they used some toilet paper as kindling they got it going.





 Lee got out the fishing tackle he had bought the boys, and they decided they needed to put on their new life jackets too. He taught them to cast. It was too much for Kirby but Leo kept trying and he eventually got it. I was impressed; I didn’t think he’d be able to do it yet. He practiced for a good hour, maybe more.





The weather held off, so Lee went ahead and bbq’d pork chops and we had them plus watermelon and potato salad for dinner. It was delicious! As we finished dinner it started rumbling, and rumbling, and rumbling. “Thunder!” Said Kirby, “I go home!” We could see a small T storm heading our way on the radar, but it waited until we were finished and even until the dishes were washed and put away. Then it poured hard for 20 minutes. Now at 7:30 the rain is gone and the sun is shining.


But the rain put out the fire, so no s’mores tonight.





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