Late June Update

Rainy Lake as seen from the deck of Island View Resort.  You're looking due east.

Been here for a little over of a month now.  Electronics in the trailer seem to have settled down.  We've gotten out to Island View Resort for lunch this week.   Not at all crowded when we were there.  Great burger, too!

No new trips into the park by boat.  Our primary boat ranger had a swimming accident and is out for a few weeks while he recovers.  Diving into Rainy Lake is a little more dangerous than most people think - even for those who've lived here all their lives.

We've noticed a new fawn in the area.  It's older and most of its spots are gone.  "Our" local male deer is beginning to show a nice rack on its head, too.  It doesn't seem to be too skiddish around me, but it does know and keep a respectful "COVID-19" social distancing when I'm out and about.

We've been able to obtain our third month winter reservation at Gulf Shores.  We've made reservations for Fredericksburg, Stone Mountain & Pelham.  We've also arranged our doc appointments for Fredericksburg.  We figure the various governors will have closed the campgrounds and locked us out of the doc & dentist offices by the time we get there, so we're remaining flexible.

Over all, we're doing great.  Just fighting the normal bugs.  Thanks for dropping by and checking up on us.  Until next week, David

On the Lake

Kettle Falls hotel

Rainy Lake below the Kettle Falls dam

We've had an uneventful week.  Finally got one propane tank re-certified.  Ate breakfast out on Wednesday.  And today we got out on the lake.

Today's job was to travel down from the Rainy Lake Visitor Center to Kettle Falls Hotel area to replenish brochures and take pictures of some campsites.

Nice trip down and back.  Posted some of our better pictures here. 

Namakan Lake dock at Kettle Falls (above the dam)

The visitor centers in the park remain closed.  Consequently, we're either roving the Rainy lake Visitor Center, working on projects or responding to questions & requests that came via the internet.

That pretty much catches you up to date.  We're fine.  Thanks for dropping by and checking up on us.  Until next week, David

Three Sisters Campsite

Three Sisters Campsite

Rainy Lake Visitor Center

Rainy Lake Visitor Center 

Blogger pretty much a struggle this evening.  Nothing is currently functioning the way it normally does on the website.  I put this small note here to let everyone know we're doing fine.  For four days a week, one of us is sitting at a table outside the visitor center for about four hours each day.  The remaining time we're either roving the visitor center area, working on projects or trying to answer questions (via emails from the park's website).  Looks like we've got a great group of people to work with this year (though it's a small group).

No electric issues with the trailer this week.  We get to deal with a propane tank that needs to be re-certified.  Hopefully, get that done on Wednesday.  Shouldn't be a problem, but this is a small town!  You just never know.

Everyone be safe.  Until next week, David

Black Bay, Rainy Lake

Quarantine Over

We're fine.  Quarantine is over (completed Wednesday).  We've continued to have transfer switch issues.  It appears Minnesota has opened a little as there's more traffic in International Falls.  We ate out for breakfast Thursday morning.  We caught our first mouse of the season.  Orientation begins Monday.  Now to the week that was.

Within hours of posting last week's update Sunday, we lost power for several hours. (Seems like this happens a lot on weekends!)  Unusual this time was that we couldn't get power from the generator, either.  Another phone call and the tech arrived a couple of hours later.  It seems that one of the wires we needed to move power past the transfer switch worked loose inside the transfer switch.  A good re-tightening, and we were back in business.

Quarantine completed on Wednesday.  Even though we're in a high risk area of mice in the trailer, we'd seen no evidence of mice in the trailer until Wednesday night when a furry little animal decided to jump on me.  I figure it was a teenager that didn't know any better that was just checking things out.  One trap out a little later, and we had him in "custody" by Thursday morning.  Donna's now put out numerous cotton balls soaked with peppermint spray around the trailer and in the storage area.

With quarantine over, we're finally "free" to go into town and did so on Thursday.  We ate breakfast at the Coffee Landing Cafe (eating outside), checked out the other supermarket in town, and made a trip to Menard's loading up on several things to include mouse traps.

So that pretty much wraps up our week.  We anxious to get started and finding out just what we're going to be doing during our stay here.  Thanks for dropping by and checking up on us.  Everyone on the gulf coast be safe.  Until next week, David