I want to share a bit about our trip to Aberdeen. It was such a relaxing fun time and it was a close drive. As soon as we got home from Sodbuster Days Sunday afternoon we started getting ready and were on the road by 6:00. We wanted to make it to Wylie Park campground before the office closed at 9:00 and felt we had plenty time to do that. We got a few miles south of Edgeley when we had a blowout on the right rear inside tire. Our motor home is a 1977 model that has not had new tires on it for awhile. The tires have good tread left but they are old. It took Tim over a couple hours to change the tire as the tires had not be taken off for a long time. But we made it safely to the campground after 10:00 and found plenty of open spots to park on. The pads were paved and level so we didn't have to go about leveling the camper before we bedded down for the night.
Monday morning brought sunshine and warm temperatures. After a walk to the duck pond with Elly we had a lazy day. We decided to visit the lake in the afternoon which was delightful. The children swam a bit. Tim and I soaked up the sun. Except for a man with a metal detector seeking buried treasure we were the only people at the beach.
We found out that Ellyana can swim. As she is half Boxer and half Lab we weren't sure. Labs can swim well but a Boxer will drown if it falls into water deep enough that it can't touch bottom. Boxer's have a big barrel chest that prevents them from swimming. She was splashing and running in the water. I walked out a bit and called her. As she came and couldn't touch the bottom she started to swim. She had a scared look on her face, turned around in the water, and swam to where she could once again touch bottom. After that she wouldn't come back into the water. But she can swim! Yay!! She enjoyed digging in the sand and drying off in the sun.
Daniel was trying to dig to China.
Leah was filling her hole with water. I forgot to bring buckets and shovels. But bowls and spoons worked almost as well.
Later that afternoon we drove into town and purchased a new tire. Tim wanted to get new tires all around but they only had two and we needed seven. They assured Tim that we could order the same tire at our local Firestone dealer which he plans to do before we use the camper again.
The next day, Tuesday, we lazed the morning away again, had another bike ride on the sweet paved bike paths so Elly could get a good run, and visited Storybook Land and the Land of Oz. We found a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
We visited "Auntie Em, Auntie Em" and all the other characters there.
We really enjoyed this mother duck and her ducklings.
We made sure we had a good supply of quarters.
There were some half grown goslings that I didn't get a picture of.
The warm sun felt good and we stayed here awhile.
And came back often as it was only a short walk from our camper. In fact we could let the children walk or ride over there by themselves and still see them as we sat by our fire.
There was a space under the fence where the ducklings could squeeze through.
You can see the path they wore trying to find their way back inside.
This is our spot with one of the playgrounds right behind the camper.
Elly was a good camper and behaved herself well.
The little train only runs on weekends now until the park closes in mid October. But we enjoyed riding our bikes through the zoo on the north side of the park. We rode through Tuesday afternoon. From our campsite we could hear the elk bull bellow. Tuesday evening I asked if anyone wanted to ride through the zoo one more time. They all did. We went in the east gate and planned to ride out the west gate. There are no gate keepers or charge to go through the zoo. When we got to the west gate it was closed and locked for the night. That worried us a bit as we didn't want to spend the night in the zoo. So we quickly peddled back to the east gate and were relieved to find it still open.
In the night I heard the thunder and heard the rain hitting our camper. It was a pleasing sound which didn't interfere with our sleep at all. It was wet Wednesday morning. But we had packed most things away the night before. Tim just had to load the bikes and I had a few things to put away inside before we could take off. We had breakfast at IHOP and did a little shopping before heading back home. It was a fun trip but home looked good as we sighted it. As Dorothy said, "There's no place like home."
