Year 2 Days 243 to 245 Glen Hills County Park  

We arrived here at Glens Hills Country Park a few days ago.  This campground is located only about 25 miles east of St. Paul, Minnesota, but still in rural western Wisconsin.

It is a lovely little park, nestled amongst tall oak trees with lots of acorns.  One of the things we learned while here is that acorns, when they start falling in the late summer, make a really loud noise as they crash down onto of our RV.  Every now and again we are jolted by a loud “bang!” as another acorn falls on our roof.  I would hate to be hit on the top of my head by one of these acorns.  It would really hurt…  I will need to climb up on the roof before we go and sweep them off because it would be disastrous if one of them would fly off our roof and smack someone’s windshield as we drive down the road.

Because this is Labor Day weekend, the park is full with families from the surrounding countryside and there are a lot of kids enjoying their camping experience.  It brings back such fond memories of camping with our kids when they were so young, and also of camping with my parents and siblings when I was a little tyke.  Such good times.

The park has an added benefit to it as there is a lovely 9-hole golf course located near the park’s entrance.  This allowed me to continue my never-ending search to rediscover my game yesterday.  I played two rounds of 9 holes to get 18 holes of golf in.  With a cart, it was only $37.

The course was exceptionally well maintained and a gem to play.  It was very well laid out and would be a challenge to most golfers.  The pictures I took while playing gives you an idea of how lovely the course is.

My driver continued to behave itself, as did my 3-wood.  I had a number of nice, long drives from the tee and long second shots using the 3-wood.  However, my irons are still an embarrassment as I continue to struggle with shots using these clubs.  I shot a 97, not much to brag about but that is where my game is at.  Despite the high score and the frustration caused by my irons, I really enjoyed this little course.

Tomorrow we have a very short trip to our next campground.  Willow River State Park is just this side of the Minnesota border, before you cross the St. Croix River and enter Minnesota.   We will be spending a bit of time there since we will be getting together with my cousin Steve, who I have not seen in decades.  While we do stay in touch through emails and being friends on Facebook, I am not exactly sure when the last time we actually got together.  I do remember staying at his house as a child of 10 or so.  My family was taking one of our many summer vacation trips to the Pacific Northwest and stopped for a few days to visit.  Steve’s mom, my Aunt Corky, was my mom’s youngest sister.  My Uncle Leroy was an opera singer for the Minneapolis Opera.  While my Aunt Corky died over 20 years ago, Uncle Leroy is still alive and is now living in Albuquerque, NM.  During his career, he cut a number of albums and created quite a reputation as an opera singer.

I have my fingers crossed that Steve’s little sister, my cousin Kelly, will also be able to join us for dinner. However, since this will be during the work week and with two youngsters returning to school, this many not be possible.

We will also be parking LeuC at this state park over this coming weekend.  At that time, Mary Margaret and I will be flying back to Ann Arbor to take in a Michigan football game.  The last time we took in a game together was way back in the late 90’s when we visited Heather at the Big U.  It was great fun sharing a game with her!