"My Crazy Kids"

Our traditional photo by the sign of the campground we stayed at. This park was once the land of homes and businesses until the flood of 1997 wiped them out. For as busy and open as the park was, it was remarkably quiet. We never know what we might stumble across while geocaching across this great country of ours. By Allan Olson Oh, what a fun weekend to be away from home (and work)! The last two weeks have been crazy, and this week will also be extremely busy. Knowing that, I really wanted to get away. I briefly contemplated participating in a fishing tournament, but in the end I knew that would be more work-related than fun-related for me. I also knew that if I stayed home I would end up working, and I really wanted to escape.  For the last two years or so I’ve really wanted to visit Gilby, ND with the family. Now you might ask what’s in Gilby? Absolutely nothing – not even a gas station. Of course, there is a bar; it is North Dakota, after all. However...

Cut: Alivia started getting the lawn mowed this week, but the battery didn’t hold its charge, so I will have to remember to bring home a new battery before the lawn needs mowing again.   By Allan Olson This weekend was a good one to stay at home. So much so that I only left the home base once – to watch some of the dancers and drummers at the State Drum and Dance Competition held at CL-B High School on Saturday. That resulted in a rather boring weekend.  On Friday evening I told the kids we wanted to sleep in the next morning, so do not enter our room prior to 9 a.m. They almost made it. Marcus and Alivia came in at 8:45, looking for something and letting us know that it was almost 9:00. Since it was that close, I didn’t get crabby at them. I got up and found something for breakfast, did some reading, and assigned some chores. Aside from that, I did little until I left the house to go to the school. I was back home a few hours later, armed with sna...

By Allan Olson Nikolai, manning the boat motor. For the first time in I’m not sure how many years, I was on the lake on Saturday for opening of the Minnesota fishing season, trying my best to lure something in. The last time I can remember going out on an opener, I recall that it was a lot colder. My older brother and my dad and I went out on the Rainy River and tried to catch something. If memory serves me correctly, I did about the same this Saturday as I did then – catching absolutely nothing. I picked up my outboard from Reimer’s Marine this week after they finished a tune-up on the old motor and fixed a couple of other things that I wasn’t aware of that also needed fixing. I grabbed some bait and a license on Friday, with the intent of fishing on Saturday. I knew that because of work it would be late before I got home on Friday night, so I wouldn’t be getting the boat ready then.  I informed Nikolai and the other kids that I wasn’t planning on bein...

Pic: My youngest niece didn’t want much to do with me, but she did want to play games at the birthday party we attended on Friday. By Allan Olson I’m not sure about anyone else, but I know I am sure happy to see open water and feel warm sunshine and temperatures climbing above 50. At the start of last week, I stood out in the wind and cold and mostly damp weather, taking photos in a sweatshirt with a winter jacket on at a baseball game. The next day a sweatshirt was too much, and thankfully the rest of the week largely followed that pattern – lots of sunshine and temps mostly in the 60s. We kicked off the weekend on Friday with a road trip to International Falls and back, all in the span of about six hours. We headed north for a surprise birthday party for my wife’s brother, leaving the kids at home with a friend. We left at about 5:30 p.m. and  just took our time to get up there so we weren’t too early (or late) for the party. We came right back home la...

Three of my four crazy kids at our second-to-the-last geocache of the day on Saturday, April 29. By Allan Olson Eight miles, 13 hours and 35 geocaches later, the kids and I completed a very long day on the Paul Bunyan Trail – geocaching with about 15 others on Saturday, April 29. We started the day along Highway 71 between Park Rapids and Menahga, conducting our bi-annual ditch-picking event with a large group. This spring’s group was the largest turnout we’ve had of all the previous such events that I’ve attended over the last five years, and as a result, we had the full two miles of ditches cleaned in just over an hour. We re-grouped back at the parking spot, visited a bit longer, and then some parted ways. This year it was decided that for those who wanted to participate in a group caching event, the destination would be the bike trail between Pine River and Jenkins a length of 5.7 miles from where we started to where we ended. We headed for Pine River. T...