July 6th, 2011

Monday was the 4th. And it was a great day. We just sat around and relaxed for most of the day then late afternoon we headed into Plainfield to see the kids. We made a couple of stops on our way in....but I did not purchase anything. After a quick dinner we followed Greg and Lynn into Naperville to a parking lot to stake out an area to watch the fireworks.

The whole Woeltje clan was there along with Nasmans and a few of the Woeltge girls old friends.

It was like a party in the parking lot. It seems like a lot of the same people show up at the same spots every year.

The girls jumped rope, played with hula hoops had some fireworks and much more. It was spectular and the

fireworks were great.

Tuesday was a move day for us. We left our Joliet campground early. We drove about an hour and a half and a light on the dash goes off along with a red light and terrible dinging noise. I was driving since we were real close to an exit that is just what I did....... EXIT! We called Freightliner, told them what was going on and they told us they did not put that light on the dash we should call Tiffin. After about twenty minutes on hold ( at least we were in the cue) we got to talk with a real live person. They said it was our Jack's! Oh no, here we go again. But rest assured what had happened was one jack had sliddown ever so slightly, tripped the safety alarm and caused the light and commotion going off. After spending about an hour on thephone things were back to normal and we were on the road again. Just had to cycle the jacks computer control to restore it's memory. Darn, we had a long drive ahead of us and we lost about an hour and a half of driving time.

But, we just kept heading north and west, across the Mississippi River into Iowa and finally made it to our destination about 5:00 p.m. We arrived in Minnesota just north of Iowa in the town of Austin. I called my niece, Lynn to see if we could visit. The whole Keenan family came out to see the motorhome and then we headed into town for a really good Mexican dinner. After our dinner we headed to their home and enjoyed small talk and entertainment from their two young boys, Andrew(6) and Lance(3).

Wednesday finds us up early enjoying a cup of coffee under the trees just outside our door. We are going to meet Lynn and the boys about 1:00. After "Uncle Tom" helps Andrew put together a Star Wars Legos fighter. We head out to the "Spam" museum. I mean have you ever thought about a museum for Spam?

Well George Hormel actually started the company in Austin and it is a big employer there in Austin. Also Mayo Clinic has a hugh presence in town. That is where hubby Aaron works. We toured the museum and then had a wonderful summer meal at their home, then on to DQ for blizzards.

The two little boys, Andrew and Lance are great entertainers. We surely enjoyed our visit in Austin. But like all our visiting, it's time to move on so tomorrow we leave this town. We surely don't want the grass to grow under our feet.