Mississippi River Headwaters

This is Cuzzin Gus and I have just set up my new blog. For those of you who have not met me, I am the "cousin" of Jim and Pat Goetzinger. They often refer to me as "Cussin' Cuzzin Gus." I stand in for them in their travel pictures. I had hoped to post some of the pictures today, but I am having trouble getting them uploaded.

I have been traveling in MN for the last two months and having a great time. In early June we picked up Jim's mother in Iowa and brought her Rosemount,MN, for the high school graduation of her oldest great grandson (Blake Schwartz). On the way, we stopped in Bancroft, Iowa, to see Jim's cousin, Bill Dudding. Bill's mother and Jim's grandmother were sisters.

While in Rosemount I also met Jim's sister (Fran) and her family and one of Jim & Pat's friends from Los Alamos (Dave Hughes and his wife Jill). We stayed at a nice county campground near the MN Zoo. From Rosemount Jim drove us to St. Cloud and spent a few days over the 4th of July. We attened the Sauk Rapids parade and saw many of the local high school marching bands.

From St. Cloud we drove to Wilmar to attend the Monaco Pre-Rally meeting. This was a get-together of about 300 Monaco motor coach owners. There were many educational sessions and lots of food and good times. Just as we were about to eat dinner on the final night, we all had to go to the restrooms and lockerrooms (the dinner was in the hockey arena) and wait for a tornado to pass. It actually hit the ground about a mile from us and destroyed several houses and a turkey barn. About 6,000 turkeys were left homeless. I think the insurance people were vey happy the tornado did not hit the almost 400 motor coaches on site.

From Wilmar we drove to St. Paul for the Family Motor Coach Association rally. There were about 2,500 motor coach owners attending with vendors to sell just anything a person needs for a motor coach. The best part of attending the rallies is to meet "old" friends and make new ones. This year was no exception. There are so many nice people traveling either full-time or part-time. I sure had my picture taken with many of them.

Recently I visited with Bill and Linnea Hopp (I met them last winter in Mercedes, TX, and they took my friend Betty and me to Itasca State Park where we walked across the Mississippi River at its headwaters. I have also visited Bemidji, MN. Here we met Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox and visited the sites where the Mississippi River flows into and out of Lake Bemidji before traveling to the gulf of Mexico.

Now I am in International Falls, MN. Jim and Pat are planning to take me to Red Lake, Ontario, Canada in a few days. They have told me about Red Lake and how much they enjoyed the area when they worked at a fishing camp there in the 1960s.

Cousins Jim and Pat are doing well and send their best to you.