Happy 35th Anniversay, Nancy and Gary!

We planned to leave our motorhome in Tennesse at Jackie and Jerry's while we went to Minnesota to deer hunt. Nancy had called and wanted Mitch to cook dinner for all their Tennessee relatives as a surprise anniversary party. The meal began with Red Pepper on Herbed Goat Cheese on Toasted Bagettes and Stuffed Mushrooms, then Mitch fixed a wonderful beef tenderloin with twice baked truffle buttered potatoes and grilled asparagus. To end the meal I had made Chocolate Cheesecake. We all had a great time!

Natchez Trace Wilderness Preserve--Thousand Trails

We have enjoyed the TT parks because the locations offer variety, both in the scenery and the people you meet. And it's a ball to find someone you met in one park and there they are in another park. So here's Mark and Chris from Canada who we met in Florida, staying one night in Tennessee. We had a good game of pickleball and off they went. We'll see them somewhere down the road!





Speaking of road, this preserve is on (or just off) the Natchez Trace Parkway, a 440 mile scenic two lane highway from New Orleans to Nashville -- at 50 mph max. There are no billboards or commercial transports.

This part of the parkway is loaded with Civil War history, local lore, and fall colors. We did a dinner theater in Nashville the other night and the drive home introduced us to the local inhabitants--deer (many), skunk, opossum, raccoon, and armadillo.

Catching up with the boys

Thought it was time to catch up a little with the boys down south.

Rylan is now six months old and jabbers all the time. He now has two teeth and is learning to sit up by himself and will be crawling any time soon.















Brayden is busy at school and loves to go swimming in their swimming pool. He has gained over two pounds since he had his tonsils out two months ago. He likes to draw and make models of airplanes and helicopters.

Western Tennessee

We left Branson and had an interesting drive across the top of the mountains from Branson to Memphis. Needless to say it was a long trip.

However, we are here in at Thousand Trails Preserve Cherokee Landing and have spent some time checking out the Civil War lore. We spent a day at the Shiloh National Military Park and another at the Corinth Interpretive Center. Both were fascinating. We also discovered from a visit to a local museum a vintage tamale shop, so we went there to pick up lunch. Amazing--a dozen skinny little hot tamales for $3 at this ancient tamale stand and the gal gave us the tamales free and said if we liked them we could come back. They were really good, the best Mitch had ever tasted. Next time we're here we'll go back!

This part of Tennessee is cotton country. We don't see this in Minnesota! Click on the picture for a close up.

Branson Rally with Monaco North Central

We left MN and headed south to Branson to spend a week with our Monaco North Central group. We caravaned with ten other coaches and arrived to join another 15 coaches at Treasure Lake RV Resort. What a good time we had: plenty of shows (this is Yakov Shmirnoff--a Russian comedian), a lot of food, and good company.

Leaving Minnesota

The end of September meant that we had to leave northern Minnesota behind. I'll miss the serenity of the weekdays, the quiet walks in the woods, the peacefulness of the lake, and I'll miss the busyness of the weekends, friends and family, too much food, and two little girls romping and playing with Gramma and Grampa,

Brothers!

Caryn sent us this pix of Rylan at the beach and we thought is was cute, and then we realized he looks just like Brayden!