August is the beginning of our fourth year of our full-time RV living and traveling. The last three years have been fun, and we are ready for another year of it.

We have spent most of the summer in our former home town of Hutchinson, Minnesota, taking care of business and catching up with so many of the friends and relatives who live in southern Minnesota. There were also a few side trips around the state while we were here. Here are some pictures from our summer:

Crow River, Hutchinson, MN

Fish Ladder on Crow River at Hutchinson, MN

We had some damage on the back of our RV that had been there for a while and we thought it was about time we had it repaired.We took it to CMS Auto Body in St. Joseph, Minnesota, which is about an hour north of where we are. Since they wanted to keep it for a couple of days to get this done we took the car and continued on up north a few more hours drive and spent a few days in Duluth and drove up the north shore of Lake Superior.

Canal Park in Duluth is a good place to watch the ships arrive, a favorite thing for Minnesotan’s to do since this is the farthest inland freshwater seaport and one of the leading bulk cargo ports in all of North America as well as the largest and busiest on the Great Lakes. It is only 2,342 miles to the Atlantic Ocean from here.

Paul R Tregurtha. 1,1013.5 feet long. Arriving in Duluth for a load of coal.

Lift Bridge at Canal Park in Duluth.

Gooseberry Falls

Split Rock Lighthouse

It was only 171 steps down to the water to get the good view of Split Rock Lighthouse and, ya, 171 going back up.

After a few days up north we returned to CMS Auto Body to pick up the RV. They did a super job and we were very pleased.

BEFORE

AFTER

The Mall of America is one of my favorite stops.

Amusement Park at Mall of America

Mall of America

Mall of America

Hutchinson holds a yearly Allis-Chalmers “Orange Spectacular” event. It’s free; we like free. It was fun, lots of tractors.

Orange Spectacular 2015

Little tractors too:

Orange Spectacular 2015

Human Foosball

Red Wing, Minnesota

Lake Pepin on the Mississippi River in Minnesota

The Great River Road in Minnesota

2015 Relay for Life

The Last Happy Chef, Mankato, MN

We are leaving Minnesota next week and returning to New Hampshire and Connecticut to see our kids again. Our plans are to spend time with them and do some exploring in the NorthEast before heading south along the East Coast when the weather starts turning cold. There are no specific plans and no reservations, that’s just how we roll. Our winter will be spent traveling in and around Florida and the Gulf Coast. And I will be blogging all the way.