Red Wing, MN Discovery Rally (July 8 - 11)

We are here at the Hay Creek Valley Campground in Red Wing, MN for a Discovery rally hosted by Vie and Chuck Brock.

Colorful Campground Roosters

Guess who thought he was on Candid Camera when he pulled into a gas station and tried to fill up the Vue in Red Wing and the pump wouldn't work. As he investigated why he wasn't getting any gas, he found out that the hose wasn't connected to the gas pump!! He quickly cancelled that credit card buy!

We experienced Tornado Warnings!!! a couple of times while we were camped in Red Wing. We had high winds, heavy rain and HAIL! One of the ladies in our club, Ev, is a trained tornado spotter so we looked to her for guidance in spotting a wall cloud till it got too dark to see. We did get a couple of indentations on the coach and on the Vue from the hail, but only one that is really noticeable! Others got A/C coil damage.

Ominous Sky!

Perkin's Restaurant

We had dinner at Perkin's one evening and enjoyed the terraced gardens along the hill behind the restaurant. The wind even cooperated so I could capture this shot below.

Red Wing Shoe Factory Tour

The Red Wing Shoe Company celebrated 100 yrs of operation in 2005. We really enjoyed the tour thru the factory and got to walk past the workers cutting, sewing, etc.

Cutting the Leather for Boots

Here's our very informative tour guide explaining how they cut the leather. She just retired after 30+ yrs of working there.

Red Wing Pottery Tour

Here again, this was a very interesting tour of how their pottery is made and we even got to see the Lead Potter making bean pots. Their pottery has a red wing on it.

Lead Potter Making a Bean Pot

Chickadee Cottage Cafe, Lake City

What a great place to have a gourmet lunch and a glass of wine! I even left with a loaf of banana and apricot bread to have for breakfast. If you are ever in the Red Wing, MN part of the country, I'd highly recommend driving over to Lake City and stopping here for lunch!!

Jim and Chuck Heading in for Lunch

The Historic Anderson House, Wabasha

After lunch in Lake City, Jim & Lois and Chuck & I drove over to Wabasha to tour the town. Plans were to have dinner here at the Anderson House, but with more storms expected for this evening, they decided to cancel it so that we would be at our motor homes when the storm came thru. We walked thru the House and saw the rooms that were for rent and also saw the room housing the cats that you could pick from to spend the night with you. A true cat house!

Anderson House Built in 1856

Pick Your Cat!

National Eagle Center, Wabasha

What a great place to see an eagle up close. We got there just in time to sit in on a very informative presentation and feeding of an eagle. After his presentation, the handler had children come up front and get their picture taken with the eagle behind them. Here's one of them:

Wind Whisper West, Wabasha--Here are some pictures of some of the beautiful used kimonos that they had for sale to be used as $600+ wall art:

New Beers for Us

We tried these two, new for us, beers while we were in Red Wing. Both were very good, especially the Honey Weiss!

Redwing and Mississippi River from Bluff Overlooking Town

Walnut Ridge Farm, Woodstock, IL Discovery Rally (July 5 - 7)

Today we left Warren, IN with the Campbells and traveled about 250 west to Woodstock, IL. Our friends, Bob and LaVerne Foerster hosted this Discovery rally on their farm. One evening a friend of theirs came by and went up in his parasail plane and took pictures of the farm with all of our coaches in the old feed lot. At one time the Foersters had milk cows there on their farm. Now it makes a nice place for parking Discovery Motorhomes!

Getting Ready to Fly!

Here he is high up in the air!

Overhead Shot of Coaches

Wally, Lois, Jim, Harry and Linda contemplating what to eat for dinner

The ladies went shopping one day and had lunch at a Tea House. We shared yummy tea sandwiches and different types of tea. I wished I'd had my camera to take a picture of the beautiful sandwiches, but I needed my hands free to be able to SHOP! This was a new experience for me.

All 24 of us went to Joey T’s Italian Restaurant on the Fox River for dinner one evening. What a great meal—we chose either Chicken Parmesan or Chicken Marcela and we had Spumoni ice cream for dessert.

Wally, Bob & LaVerne Foerster and Harry & Mary Condrey waiting for dinner at Joey T's

Rally Group on the bridge over the Fox River after dinner.

One morning, LaVerne took some of us to see the Old Woodstock Opera House where we got an in depth tour including backstage. Woodstock is where the movie “Ground Hog Day” was filmed and the bell tower of this Opera House was featured in the movie.

Woodstock Opera House

After this rally was over, most of us headed to Red Wing, MN for the next Discovery rally. This was a long days drive--but we got there in time for 5:00 Happy Hour!