We are now about 8 days out until our tenure ends at Beaver Creek Valley SP. It truly is a hidden and forgotten gem of the MN State Park system.  It is a beautiful narrow valley with clear streams, shady campsites, and hardly any mosquitoes to even get some practice in slapping. The large expanse of my bald head hardly attracts a single mosquito. We are told that this park has so few mosquitoes because it does not have any standing water. All the water is moving. I guess it makes sense…

This past weekend  the campground should have been full but was barely half full. Even the electric sites were not all taken. We did have a family reunion taking 4 electric sites; without them, it would have been almost like a weekday. Not that I’m complaining. We kind of like the quietness and solitude of a Tuesday night, but visiting with campers is fun also. We have finally felt as though we are making a difference hosting in this park. The office is not open every day and on weekends the office hours are not as long as the other 2 parks where we have hosted. So, we are getting more questions and traffic to our campsite. We had one knock on our door at about 10:15 Thursday night asking how to get into the camper cabin. That question was solved with a harder push on the door than the force the intended occupant had tried to apply.

The timing of that question was unusual. Most all other questions have come before my bedtime begins. However, when that knock came late at night I was still up and getting frustrated playing free cell solitaire. So the interruption was welcomed.

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We have now truly joined the official ranks of the hard core RVers by constructing a flag pole out of PVC pipe. Now I feel as though I’m truly into this life style. We had also collected all the MN State Park patches in our visits to the parks and have finally found a way to exhibit them. Actually the SP patch display has caused significantly more attention to our campsite.

When we are not answering questions, visiting with campers, or replacing toilet paper, we try to keep ourselves busy. By the time we leave we will have hiked all the trails that are open. We spend a lot of time in Caledonia at the library getting caught up. We make at least biweekly trips into LaCrosse, WI shopping, eating, taking in a movie, and going to the Gundersen Medical Clinic. The down times around the motor home include reading, playing electronic games, napping (Alan, only – obviously the smart one) and lately getting Shannon’s fingers back in shape. She has yet to find the perfect spot for the keyboard set up and any semblance of a flat spot where she can sit close to has been tried. As always we are still working out all the kinks in living in a motor home. But life in a park? Who’s complaining?