Minnesota in June

Seems like I just left Minnesota and I guess I did but this trip was necessary. There were new family members to meet and fish to catch so off I went again.

Emaleigh and Dereck are just darling at two months. They do all the normal two month things like eating and filling their diapers. A great niece and nephew are special folks to this old guy.

Mom Carrie and Claranna are doing just great. Claranna is a darling little girl. Guess she takes after her Mom..... sorry about that Mark!

We drove to the lake ( big Winnie) ... about a 6 hour drive and Tuesday morning we were treated to this view from the cabin. Here the Mississippi empties into the lake. It's a beautiful area especially in the spring.

Fishing is always good and sometimes catching is as well. Here Kevin shows off his "big" Walleye. It was over the 17 inch maximum so it was released back into the lake. What a pretty fish! We came home with our limit of Walleye and Northern and stuffed out faces with three big meals of fish while we were there.

We headed back to Pine Island just in time for the Cheese Festival. the "cheesefest", as the locals call it, stems from the fact that there once was a cheese factory in town. As in Germany, most of the small towns in Southeastern Minnesota have a festival of some kind in the summer. Part of the festivities was a "mud bog". Here the ground is prepared so that it's pretty much a muddy mess. Then the folks take turns driving through the pit. It's a competitive thing where time and distance is measured to determine the winner in each class.

Here Kevin is getting ready to try his hand and the pit using his cousins truck.

At the end of the day they have a muddy truck and, for Kevin, a 6th place finish in his class. Not bad for a rookie! A little dirty but you couldn't see the dirt because of the big smile on his face.

Thanks to friends and family for making this another great visit. Guess I'll just have to dream about the fish till next year.