July 4-6

We left Syracuse the morning of the 3rd for the trip over to Painesville, Ohio for a visit with Liz's family. We had seen Liz's two sisters when we in Ohio for my Dad's funeral in June. We wanted to see her Mom, ,brother and her nephews. Only her Mom, and Judy her sister was available. We had a great diner, and Liz caught up with her Mom. We spent the night in a Sam's club.

We had at least a 12-13 hour drive ahead of us on the 4th and the 5th to get out to Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota. There were a couple of things that  can add time to that, the traffic on the 4th, (especially around Chicago) and the temptation to stop by Elkhart, the home of most RV manufacturers. The 4th, being a holiday, the trailer places were closed, and the traffic was light. We breezed through, and made it to Madison Wisconsin by early evening. The time change helped a little, and we had a nice site in Cracker Barrels back lot. The temperature was heating up, and the Honda generators were perking along keeping our AC running. 

Bruce, having just sample some cranberries

An early mechanical cranberry harvester

The next day we were headed up to Shakopee MN. Around lunchtime we noticed a sign for Warrens WI. the Cranberry capital of the world. Wondering how our sister state, Mass. would take this insult, we decided to stop at their Cranberry Discovery Center, and defend Mass honor. 

We found out that about 7 years ago Wisconsin surpassed Mass in production. They had great display of cranberry history, including machinery such as the harvester in the picture. 

All cranberry growers can participate in the Ocean Spray co-op,no matter what state they are in. One of the nations largest and well managed processing and marketing organizations, Ocean Spray does more than just sell the farmers fruit. They are the force behind all the new cran whatever fruit juices you see in stores and many other new products that really grow the ultimate market for relatively obscure berry. The center was in the basement of an old cranberry warehouse. Upstairs was a store selling cranberry goodies, and a ice cream shop where I had my lunch, a double scoop cone of cranberry truffle. We continued on and arrived at our park in Shakopee a small town to the south of Minneapolis/ St. Paul. The temperatures have been beastly, climbing to 100F on both days of travel. 

Friday was just as hot, and we opted for a planning/laundry day. We also went to the Burnsville MN  Northern store, a giant toolbox for everything that a guy needs. Friday night thunderstorms went thru, cleared out all the hot humid air, and Saturday dawned beautiful.