Summer is almost over, wow was that fast!

Well, I made it through my first summer of retirement. It sure went fast. I kept very busy with lots of little projects. Nothing major. I managed to ride my bike more miles than the past several summers. I did some jogging with Buck. I spent a week at my parent's lake home. A couple of road trips in the camper. One of my summer highlights was a four day, three night, camping trip to Lake Bylseby campground down near Cannon Falls, MN. Buck and I had a great time. Beautiful campground right on the lake. Great trail running. Buck loves to run with me but he much prefers to not have his leash clipped on. I did a couple of hard bike rides. Got to chat with a bunch of very nice people. Got a lot of reading on my Nook. But I sure did miss Paula, and Jeff. I'm liking this retirement stuff. I'm a bit apprehensive about what will happen when the weather turns sour and I can't go out biking. I might have to see about a part time job. I've got an idea for what I think would be a good one. Not going to publish it here yet though.

Jeff started school for Electrical Technology at St. Paul College. He's going to be an electrician!! Whoopie. I sure hope this works out for him. I always wanted to be an electrician so if he makes it I can live vicariously through him. I like to pick his brains when he comes home to try to pick up some of the stuff. This is going to be a great adventure for us.

Eric finished school in May and has been applying for police jobs all over the state. He's taking tests and filling out all kinds of paperwork. It's a very hard process. I think he's doing well holding up and hopefully a department will hire him.

We took a road trip to Michigan to see where the wedding will be next summer. Eric and Caitlin found a great ranch resort type place to have it. They have cabins, hotel rooms, suites, and campgrounds. Should be great. It was also very nice to spend time with her parents, Kim and Mike. They have a beautiful home on a lake. I was humbled by not being able to get up skiing. I'm going to blame it on the huge waves.

We won't be travelling to Kansas for the www.hdtrally.com this year. I've been there the last five years and it's a great get together. I'm on the board for our condominium association and have to be here for the annual meeting. So, Paula and I are planning on going camping somewhere around the middle of October here in MN, or maybe Wisconsin.

Better get going now. I'm nearing the end of "Helter Skelter, the Charles Manson Story." Gotta read a bit and go to sleep. Big day tomorrow. Don't know exactly what I'll be doing yet, but it's going to be a big day.

Thanks for reading.

Oh ya, I finally figured out how to add another link over there on the upper right. I wanted to provide an easy way to get to the camper pictures. I also added that contact form for the heck of it.

Long overdue update.

I guess I haven't been very good about updating this thing. Figured I better get some things out. Last summer we had a great time with the RV. put pretty many miles on. Went to Washington, DC, for the Police Week event. Stayed at cousins Ted & Lori's house in Vienna, VA. Spent some time at the Law Enforcement Memorial. Cried a lot. Went to the Vietnam and WWII memorials. Cried some more. Did some more camping. Due to my old age I don't remember all the details. So, let's skip to something more recent I guess.


We went back to Washington for Police Week. St. Paul lost an officer in the line of duty in 2013. Josh Lynaugh passed away while battling a suspect during an arrest. So his name was dedicated on the Wall this May. We had a large group of fellow St. Paul officers attending. It made me proud to see our group. I cried some more.


We had a great RV trip though. Stopped in Elkhart, IN, and got a new toilet for the RV. I never much cared for the old one and it was acting up so time to get rid of it. Got to see Katie, Denny, Nick, and Abbie in Cleveland. Then on to PA where we stopped at the Flight 93 Memorial. I cried. (are we seeing a theme here?) Then we spent a couple of nice days visiting with Jeff and Cindy Brett. We met them at our first HDT (Heavy Duty Truck) Rally in 2010. They're great people. I wish we could have stayed longer. On to Vienna to see Ted and Lori, and Police Week. After leaving VA to head to MN we hit a terrible traffic jam. That put us a bit behind. So, Friday I had to make some miles. Drove 700 miles that day from Maryland to Beloit, WI. The drive went very well. Paula is a great co-pilot.


Now for the biggest news. I'm retiring. 53 years old with 29.5 years of service. We went to our financial advisor and crunched the numbers and he said I could retire. So, May 27th will be my last day on the job. I'm pretty sure I'm going to cry. I still enjoy going to work. I have a great time and I think I still can do an okay job of it. But, everybody has to retire sometime. So I might as well go now while it's still fun and I can have  time to do something else. I'm planning on riding my bike a lot and spending time at my folk's lake place by Detroit Lakes.


So, that's it for now. Maybe I'll keep this thing updated a bit more now that I might have more time. Maybe not. Thanks for reading!