Minneapolis, MN (41st state) was our hub for catching up with our eldest and PBA friend and now Attorney Amy. Before we got some quality time, we parked the R.V. and flew back to Fruitland Park, FL for an interview! Not familiar with Fruitland Park 🤔 It’s about 50miles NW of Orlando and just minutes from the southern edge of The Villages.

The interview went well and we are excited to share that we will be joining the staff at Camp Geneva as their new Co-Directors of Educational Programs! Camp Geneva is a camp for groups ranging from 30-600. With dormitories, cabins and tons of amenities there is plenty to do and the boys are excited to have a really big backyard to play in! As the title implies we will be developing educational programming focused on outdoor and experiential learning and exploring a few new initiatives for the camp. It’s creative and fun professional work that we didn’t expect to find at the end of our tour but we are thankful God had bigger plans than we did 🙏😎 We will remain in the R.V. on the camp property for the foreseeable future but will look forward to not moving every few days 😅 If you’re in the Central FL area and have a group that needs a great spot for a retreat or overnight school field trip, let us know!

The trip to FL was also a chance for Grandma to spoil us with a stay at the Sheraton Vistana Resort for some play and some fun. We even took in a hibachi diner at Kobe Steakhouse, which the boys loved! Our first flight as a family goes down as a success… with no TSA involvement :)

We are through security and ready to board our first plane as a family! I said through Security so prayers answered :)

Robert is nervous-excited but he gets what’s coming!

Won’t go into details but Sun Country is a discount airline based out of Minneapolis. They have the best priced fairs and Vince used them to get to Seattle after moving Casper from North Carolina to Minneapolis early this summer; however, the airline has a few NOT SO FAMILY FRIENDLY policies. While a few airlines have piled on with all the upcharges and added fees, Sun Country charged for everything from snacks on the plane to seat selection. But here is the sticky point, you don’t have to pay but then the computer “randomly” seats your party and their stated policy is that anyone over 6 yrs old can be sat on their own. Also, disabilities do not qualify for an exemption to paying for your seat selection for parent and child. Vince was not pleased with their policies and he’s cheap so he discussed the policies with management…

Great thing about Orlando Airport… tram rides!

Vince missed the signage but this is us at Chuy’s, our favorite restaurant that we have been missing since we left Texas… that’s a long time!

Many more pictures to come, but this will be our new home and place of work!

Let the spoiling begin! Robert went to the Sheraton Vistana years ago with Grandma. He requested a return trip to the “slide and Pirate ship” and Grandma obliged. This is ride 1 of 1237 for the weekend :) and that is with a few time-outs from the LIfeguards for riding down backwards…

Always love our FL Egrets but this guy was stalking our lunch!

At least these cuties stuck to the leftovers.

Kobe Steakhouse is a hibachi restaurant in Orlando and other cities. We took the kids back when they were little but they didn’t remember it. They were impressed and will remember this time!

A great time with Grandma, Uncle Richard and Aunt Amie… you could say it was FIRE!

The Chef invited Robert up to try the fancy spatula flipping… Robert did toss them… we all made it out!

While not as fancy as Kobe, Robert was living his fancy life and took breakfast on the patio!

Bingo by the pool and Dad, Mom and Robert all hit on the same draw!

We also caught up with family and 2nd Cousins got to have a little lunch together.

Cleared the exit and back to our RV and picking up the Dogs from the sitter!

Back in Minneapolis for some quality time with our friend Amy, some Mall of America exploration and a pre-21st birthday visit with our eldest before heading to the northern boundary waters and Voyagers National Park.

Russell wasn’t pictured but he and Charlie were very happy to see Mommy and get back to the family too!

With the pups back on the DillerTime Bus and laundry trying to get caught up its off to the Mall of America to hang with AMY! It’s been a few years but Amy was part of our PBA Team that meant so much to Michele and Vince. It good to catch up and get some updates. Miss you Amy and thanks for hanging out with us for a bit!

Next day on a short schedule in Minneapolis, we get to catch up and celebrate our oldest, Caseper’s 21st birthday. He lives in Minneapolis now and joined the brothers for a picture… everyone is crazy older and taller!

Happy Birthday Casper and we’re proud of you tackling life in the north and will be send warm socks soon :)

Voyagers National Park was nice but a touch disappointing. We hoped to explore the lakes and take in some dart-sky nights, but our entire stay was cloud covered and mostly rainy. Guess we can’t hit every park in perfect weather, so we made the best of it and got in a hike and some early fall color hiking into the woods! Can definitely recommend taking the time to get to Voyagers, it is a remote beauty for sure but make sure you stay long enough to get good weather to enjoy it.

Lake Kabetogama is part of the northern Minnesota Boundary Waters. These lakes interconnect and were part of the Voyagers (French-Canadian Fur Traders) path through southern Canada and northern US. Some hearty souls to navigate all those miles in canoes with some heavy portages in a vast wilderness. Beautiful though!

While there were mouse reported in the area we didn’t see any so Vince tried to impersonate!

Voyagers has entry points on land and water!

A traditional canoe caught Robert’s attention.

The fall color is just starting but it was nice to get a hike in between/during the rains.

Most of the area is elevated around the lakes with some 40-50 ft cliffs emerging from the woods. Some great views despite the rainy weather.

Heading south from Voyagers we passed through Virginia, MN and learned that the Masabi Iron Range has numerous open pit and underground mines in northern Minnesota. This is the US’s primary source of iron and has produced the ore for decades. Amazing to learn this rich mining history.

The view of Duluth, MN port city on the tip of Lake Superior.

Treated to a sailing regatta on the lake while we passed over the bridge into Wisconsin.

Through Duluth and off to Wisconsin’s Apostle Islands National Lakeshore! This is our first National Lakeshore. We have done National Seashores and Rivers so adding the Lakeshore, despite the seasonal closure of the Ranger Stations, was a chilly delight. Lake Superior is HUGE and Cold 🥶. Not the coldest we got into (Oregon still has that record) but high 50s is cold water so we got some leg cryo at Little Sand Bay Visitor Center and saw a Bald Eagle fishing in the bog behind the beach. Interestingly, the Apostle Islands Lakeshore is much like Florida in how there are barrier beaches protecting in-land swamps and lakes. While FL is brackish and salt, here it’s all fresh and nothing that will kill/eat you 😜 The red sand beaches did impress though, the lake must generate some significant waves to push those dunes up and create the inland bogs 🤔 To give credit where credit is due, we did find black bear prints in the sandy shore and were told wolf were in the area. Most of the peninsula here is Ojibwe tribal land so access to the beaches and/or majority sandstone cliffs is boat only due to the dense forest.

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan is next, where we hope to get out on Lake Superior!

Minnesota-Florida✈️-Wisconsin

North Dakota: The Heartland Finale